15AUT0N
G78
BARUCH
and was stationed .it Monrovia until his death, which occurred March 19, 1839. He was much loved and honored by the people among whom he labored.— Min- utes qfCi nferences, iii, 61.
Barton, Thomas, M.A., an early Episcopal min- ister in America, was horn in Ireland 17.-'0, and edu- cati d at Trinity College, Dublin. Soon after he came to America, and after teaching two years in the Acad- emy of Philadelphia, he went to England for ordina- tion, and in 1755 was appointed missionary to Hunt- ingdon. He extended his held of labor to Carlisle, Shippensburgh, and York, and was specially interested in the Indians. Me served the Church in Lancaster twenty years, travelling largely to preach at destitute points. When the Revolution broke out he refused the oath of allegiance, and had to pass to the British lines at New York, lie died 1780. — Spraguc, Annals, v. 169.
Ba'ruch (Ileb. Baruk', 7^*3, Messed; Sept. Ba- i.p<'\. Josephus Bfmot'Yuc), the name of three men.
1. The faithful friend of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. xxxii, 12 : xxxvi, 4 sq.) was of a noble family of the tribe of Judah (Jer. li, 59; Bar. i, ] ; Joseph. Ant. x, 6, 2 ; 9, 1), and generally considered to be the brother of the prophet Seraiah, both being represented as sons of Neriah ; and to Baruch the prophet Jeremiah dic- t .!■ d all his oracles. Sec Jeremiah. In the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiachim, king of Judah (B.C. 605), Baruch was directed to write all the prophecies delivered by Jeremiah up to that period, and to read them to the people, which he did from a window in the Temple upon two solemn occasions (Jer. xxxvi). He afterward read them before the counsellors of the king at a private interview, when Baruch, being asked to give an account of the manner in which the prophecy had been composed, gave an exact description of the mode in which he had taken it down from the prophet's dictation. Upon this they ordered him to leave the roll, advising that he and Jeremiah should conceal themselves. They then informed the king of what had taken place, upon which he had the roll read to him ; but, after hearing a part of it, he cut it with a penknife, and, notwithstanding the remonstrances of his counsellors, threw it into the fire of his winter par- lor, where he was sitting. He then ordered Jeremiah and Baruch to be seized, but they could not be found. The Jews to this day commemorate the burning of this roll by an annual fast. See Calendar (Jewish). Another roll was now written by Baruch from the prophet's dictation, containing all that was in the for- mer, with some additions, the most remarkable of which is the prophecy respecting the ruin of Jehoia- chim and his house as the punishment of his impious act. This roll is the prophecy of Jeremiah which we now possess. Baruch, being himself terrified at the threats contained in the prophetic roll, received the comforting assurance that he would himself be deliv- ered from the calamities which should befall Judah and Jerusalem (Jer. xlv). During the siege of Jerusalem Baruch was selected as the depositary of the deed of purchase which Jeremiah had made of the territory of Hanamecl, to which deed he had been a witnes's >'- L2 m .. B.C. 589. His enemies accused him of influencing Jeremiah in favor of the Chaldaans (Jer. xliii, .",; comp. xxxvii, 13); and he was thrown Into prison with that prophet, where he remained till ure of Jerusalem, B.C. 588 (Joseph. Ant. x, 9, 1 I. !'• the permission of Nebuchadnezzar he remain- ed with Jeremiah at Masphatha (Joseph. I.e.); but in the fourth yearofZedekiah (B.C. 595) Baruch is sup- posed by some to have accompanied Seraiah to Baby- lon, when the latter attended Zedekiah with the proph- 11 'i'"''1 in Jeremiah, ch. 1 and li, which he was commanded by Jeremiah to read on the banks of the Euphrates, and then to east the prophetic roll into the river, with a stone attached to it, to signify the ever-
lasting ruin of Babylon (Jer. li, 01). At least Ba- ruch, in the book which bears his name (in the Apoc- rypha), is said to have read these prophecies at Baby- lon, in the hearing of King Jehoiachim and the cap- tive Jews, in the fifth year of the taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans (see below), which must have been the same taking of it in which Jehoiachim was madi prisoner ; for after the other taking of Jerusalem, in
' the eleventh year of the reign of King Zedekiah, w hen the Jews, after their return from Babylon, obstinately
; persisted in their determination to migrate to Egypt against the remonstrances of the prophet, both Baruch and Jeremiah accompanied them to that country (Jer. xliii, 6; Joseph. Ant. x, 9, 6), from whence there is no account in Scripture of Baruch's return. The rab- bins, however, allege that he died in Babylon in the twelfth year of the exile (see Calmet's Pre fur). Je-
I rome, on the other hand, states, "en the authority of
! the Jews" (Hebrcti tradunt), that Jeremiah and Ba-
, ruch died in Egypt " before the desolation of the eoun-