The largest body 0f Protestants is the Protestant Union, which is recognised and supported by the Mate, and in 1854 embraced fourteen congregations, two of uliiel, i Mary Hoorbecke, near Ghent, and Dour, in Hen- late from the time of the Reformation. The number of preachers in 1859 was sixteen. The annual synod consists of all the preachers and two or three lay - of every congregation. I he Evangelical So- ciety (SocitU Evangelique Belg, ., whirl, formed itself in Brussels in 1885, after the model of the evangelical societies of Paris and Geneva, has established a con- siderable number of congregations, which increases
annually. It had, in 1864, 20 churches and stations, 18 pastors and evangelists, 12 schools attended by 075 children, and a membership of from G000 to 7000. * The Episcopal Church of England has four congregations, the Lutherans one, at Brussels, in which city there are also two independent rcdigious associations." The Bi- ble Society had distributed (up to 1850) about two hundred thousand copies of the Bible.
III. Literature. — Dufau, La Belg. Ckretienne (Liege, 1847, incomplete, reaching as far as the time of the Car- lovingians) ; Helfferich, Belgien in p ilitischer, k'rchlich- er, p id igogischer und artistiscker Beziehung (Pforzheim, 1848 ) ; Horn, Statist. Gemalda cles Kbnigr. Belgien (Des- sau, 1853) ; Schem, Keel. Year-book for 1859, p. 130, 197.
Be'lial stands often, in the Auth. Vers, (after the Vulg.), as a proper name for the Heb. word ~^''-2 {Belitja'dl, Sept. usually translates Xotftoc, irapavo- pia, etc.), in accordance with 2 Cor. vi, 15. This is particularly the case where it is connected with the expressions b^N, man of, or "3, son of; in other in- stances it is translated by " wicked," or some equivalent term (Deut. xv, 9; Psa. xli, 8; ci, 3; Prov. vi, 12; xvi, 27 ; xix, 28 ; Nah. i, 11, 15). There can be no question, however, that the word is not to be regarded as a prop- er name in the O. T. ; its meaning is icorthlessness, and hence recklessness, lawlessness. Its etymology is uncer- tain : the first part, ^?2, = without ; the second part has been variously connected with ?i", yoke, as in the Vulg. (Judg. xix, 22), in the sense of unbridled, rebel- lious; with FOV, to ascend, as = without ascent, that is, of the loicest condition; and lastly with is*1, to be useful, as = without usefulness, that is, good for noth'ng (Gese- nius, Thesaur. p. 209). The latter appears to lie the most probable, not only in regard to sense, but also as ex- plaining the unusual fusion of the two words, the "> at the end of the one and at the beginning of the other leading to a crasis, originally in the pronunciation, and afterward in the writing. The expression son or man of Belial must be understood as meaning simply a worthless, lawless fellow (Sept. 7rapeh>opoc). It oc- curs frequently in this sense in the historical books (Judg. xix, 22; xx, 13; 1 Sam, i, 16; ii, 12; x, 27; xxv, 17, 25; xxx, 22; 2 Sam. xvi, 7; xx, 1; 1 Kings xxi, 10 ; 2 Chr. xiii, 7), and only ence in the earlier books (Deut. xiii, 13). The adjunct OX is occasion- ally omitted, as in 2 Sam. xxiii, 6, and Job xxxiv, 18, where ~V*52 stands In' itself, as a term of reproach. The later Hebrews used paKc'i and pups in a similar manner (Matt, v, 22) ; the latter is perhaps the most analogous ; in 1 Sam. xxv, 25, Nabal (b~3 = fiwpocj is described as a man of Belial, as though the terms were equivalent.
In the N. T. the term appears (in the best MSS.) in the form BtXiap, and not BtXi'oX, as given in the Auth. Vers. (So in the T< st. XII Pair. p. 539, 587, G19, etc.) The change of X into p was common ; we have an instance even in Biblical Hebrew, Mazzaroth (Job xxxviii, 32) for mazzaloth (2 Kings xxiii, 5); in Chal- dee we meet with N^"n for L'S-n, and various other instances: the same change occurred in the Doric dia- lect {ijiavpoQ for ipavXoc), with which the Alexandrine writers were most familiar. The term, as used in 2 Cor. vi, 15, is generally understood as an appellative of Satan, as the personification of all that was bad; Ben- gel {[Gnomon, in loc.) explains it of Antichrist, as more strictly the opposite of Christ. By some it is here ex- plained as referring to a daemon (Castell, Lex. s. v. Beliar), or Satan himself (com p. Ephes. ii, 2); but in the i ». T. it never has this meaning (Michaelis, Sup- plem. p. 1119) — Smith, s. v.
Belief, in its general acceptation, denotes a persua- sion or an assent of the mind to the truth of any prop- osition. " In this sense belief does not relate to any
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particular kind of means or arguments, but may be produced by any means whatever : thus we are said to believe our senses, to believe our reason, to believe a witness. Belief, in a more restricted sense, denotes that kind of assent which is grounded only on the au- thority or testimony of some person. In this sense belief stands opposed to knowledge and science. "VVe do not say that wc believe snow to be white, but that we know it is white.