Believers. In the early Church this term (tthtt-oi, ; • applied strictly to the believing or baptized buiy, in contradistinction to the clergy or the catechu- mens. Thej had many titles, honors, and privileges, which raised them above the catechumens. They were called "the illuminated," "the initiated," "the per- fect, ' "the favorites of heaven." They alone could partake of the Lord's Supper, the catechumens being previously dismissed; theyjoinedin all the praversof the Church; thej alone used the Lord's Prayer, for the catechumens were not allowed to Bay "Our Father;" and they were auditors of all discourses made in the church.— Bingham, Orig. Eccles. bk. i, ch. 3 and 4.
Belknap, Jeremy, D.D., was born at Boston, June 4, 1, II, and graduated at Harvard in 17G2. In
1767 he was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church at Dover, N.H., where he labored for over 20 years. In 1787 he became pastor at Boston, where he died, June 20, 1799. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and devoted much of his time to the promotion of its objects. Among his writings are the History of New Hampshire (1784-1792, 3 vols.) ; American Biography (1794-1798, 2 vols.}; and a number of political and religious tracts, besides occa- sional sermons. — Allen, Blog. Diet. s. v.
Bell CpOSS, paamon', something struck; Sept. po'ivKoc. ; Vulg. tintinnabuhim ; Exod. xxviii, 33, 34 ; xxxix, 25, 2G ; also ■"teX'S, metsillali ', tinkling; Sept. XaAiVoc; Zech. xiv, 20).
I. The first bells known in history are those small golden bells which were attached to the lower part of the blue robe (the robe of the ephod) which formed part of the dress of the high-priest in his sacerdotal minis- trations (Exod. xxviii, 33, 34; comp. Ecclus. xlv, 11). They were there placed alternately with the pomegran- ate-shaped knobs, one of these being between every two of the bells. The number of these bells is not mentioned in Scripture ; but tradition states that there were sixt\-six (Clem. Alex. Stromaia, p. 563), or, ac- cording to the Jews, seventy-two (Jarchi, in loc.) We need not seek any other reason for this rather singular use of bells than that which is assigned : " His sound shall be heard when he goeth into the holy place be- fore the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not" (Exod. xxviii, 35); by which we may under- stand that the sound of the bells manifested that he was properly arrayed in the robes of ceremony which he was required to wear when he entered the presence- chamber of the Great King; and that as no minister can enter the presence of an earthly potentate abrupt- ly and unannounced, so he (whom no human being could introduce) was to have his entrance harbingered by the sound of the bells he wore. This sound, heard outside, also notified to the people the time in which he was engaged in his sacred ministrations, and during which they remained in prayer (Luke i, 9, 10). No doubt they answered the same purpose as the bells used by the Brahmins in the Hindoo ceremonies, and by the Roman Catholics during the celebration of mass (comp. Luke i, 21). To this day bells are frequently attached, for the sake of their pleasant sound, to the anklets of women. See Anklet. The little girls of Cairo wear strings of them round their feet (Lane, Mod. Egypt, ii, 370), and at Koojar Mungo Park saw a dance " in which many performers assisted, all of whom were provided with little bells fastened to their legs and arms."
"Bells of the Horses" arc mentioned in Zech. xiv, 20, and ma}- have been such as were attached to the bridles or foreheads, or to belts around the necks of horses trained for war, that they might thereby be accustomed to noise and tumult, and not by their alarm expose the riders to danger in actual warfare. Hence a person who had not been tried or trained up to any thing was by the Greeks called aKbiSwviaroQ, "one not used to the noise of a bell," by a metaphor taken from horses. The mules employed in the funeral pomp of Alexander had at each jaw a golden bell. It does not appear, however, that this was a use of horse-bells with which the Jews were familiar. The Hcbr. woid is almost the same as C^03^"3, mtisi'tayhn, "a pair of cymbals ;" and as they are supposed to be inscribed with the words "Holiness unto the Lord," it is more probable that they are not bells, but "concave or ilat pieces of brass, which were sometimes attached to horses for the sake of ornament" (Jahn, Bib/. Arch. § 96). Indeed, they were probably the same as the d^jHftltf, sakarmim', "ornaments;" Sept. fnjviaicot (Isa. iii, 18; Judg. viii, 21), lunuhv of gold, silver, or brass used as ornaments, and hung b}r the Arabians
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round the necks of their camels, as we still see them in England on the harness of horses. They were not only ornamental, but useful, as their tinkling tended'to en- liven the animals ; and in the caravans they thus served the purpose of our modern sheep-bells. '1 he laden an- imals, being without riders, have bells hung from their necks, that they may be kept together in traversing by night the open plains and deserts, by paths and roads unconfined by fences and boundaries, that they may be cheered by the sound of the bells, and that, if any horse strays, its place may be known by the sound of its bell, while the general sound from the caravan enables the traveller who has strayed or lingered to find and regain his party, even in the night (Rosen- miiller, Morgenl. iv, 441). That the same motto, Holi- ness to the Lord, which was upon the mitre of the hi.Lih- priest, should, in the happy days foretold by the proph- et, be inscribed even upon the Liells of tho horses, man- ifestly signifies that all things, from the highest to the lowest, should in those days be sanctified to God (Hack- ett's Illustra. of Script, p. 77) — Kitto. See Bridle.