Benezet, Anthony, an eminent philanthropist and opponent of slavery, was born at St. Quentin, Picardy, France, January 31, 1713. His parents, driv- en from France by Popish persecution, removed to London in February, 1715, and during their residence there became Quakers. The family came to Philadel- phia in November, 1731. Anthony began a mercantile career early; but soon after his marriage, in 1740, when his affairs were in a prosperous situation, he left the mercantile business, and in 1742 he accept- ed the appointment of head of the Friends' English school of Philadelphia, which he held till 1782, when he resigned it to devote himself to teaching a school of colored children. "So great was his sympathy with every being capable of feeling pain, that he resolved toward the close of his life to eat no animal food. This change in his mode of living is supposed to have been the occasion of his death. His active mind did not yield to the debility of his body. He persevered in his attendance upon his school till within a few days of his decease, Ma}' 3, 1784." Men of all classes of society, and of all churches, as well as many hun- dred negroes, followed his remains to the grave. An officer who had served in the army during the war with Britain observed at this time, "I would rather be Anthony Benezet in that coffin than George Wash- ington, with all his fame." " Few men since the days of the apostles ever lived a more disinterested life; yet upon his death-bed he expressed a desire to live a little longer, 'that he might bring down self.' The last time he ever walked across his room was to take from his desk six dollars, which he gave to a poor widow whom he had long assisted to maintain. By his will he devised his estate, after the decease of his wife, to certain trustees, for the use of the African school." The chief object of Benezet's life, for many years, was to excite public opinion against slavery and the slave-trade. On the return of peace in 1783, he addressed a letter to the queen of Great Britain to so- licit her influence on the side of humanity. At the close of this letter he says, " I hope thou wilt kindly excuse the freedom used on this occasion by an ancient man, whose mind, for more than forty years past, has been much separated from the common course of the world, and long painfully exercised in the considera- tion of the miseries under which so large a part of mankind, equally with us the subjects of redeeming love, are suffering the most unjust and grievous op- pression, and who sincerely desires the temporal and eternal felicity of the queen and her royal consort." He published many tracts on the subject, and also an Account of that Part of Africa inhabited by Negroes (17G2) ; a Cautiem to Great Britain and her Colonies, in a shirt Representation of the Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions (17G7) ; His- torical Account of Guinea, with an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave-trade (1771) ; Short Account of the Religii.us Society of Friends (1780) ; Disss rtation on the Plainness and Simplicity of the Christian Religion (1782) ; Observations on the Indian Natives of this Con- tinent (1784). It is said that Benezet's writings first awakened Thomas Clarkson's attention to the question of slavery. — Allen's Biographical Dictionary: Alli- bone, Dictionary of Authors, i, 1G9; Le Bas, Diet. En- cyc. de la France.
Ben-Geber. See Ben-.
Bengel, John Albert, a German theologian of profound critical judgment, extensive learning, and
solid piety. He was born June 24, 1687, at Winnen- den, Wurtemberg, where his father was pastor; and from him the boy received his earl}' education. After the death of his father he was received into his tutor's house ; and from 1699 to 1703 he studied at the Gym- nasium of Stuttgardt, then admirably kept. Thor- oughly prepared in philological elements, he entered the University of Tubingen in 1703, and devoted him- self especially to the study of the sacred text. From his childhood he had been earnestly pious ; and his fa- vorite reading, while at the university, apart from his severer studies, consisted of the pietist writers, Arndt, Spener, and Franke. At the same time, lie did not neglect philosophy. According to his own account, he studied Spinoza thoroughly, and it was not without mental struggles that he arrived at clearness of view on the relations of philosophy to faith. In 1705 he was brought very low by a severe illness at Maul- bronn; but he was strengthened against the fear of death by Psa. cxviii, 17, " I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord." He returned to his studies with greater zeal, and with a deeper religious life. After a year spent in the ministry as vicar at Metzingen, he became theological repetent at Tubin- gen ; and in 1713 he was appointed professor at the cloister-school of Denkendorf, a seminary for the early training of candidates for the ministry. During this year he made a literary journey, visiting several of the schools of Germany, and among them those of the Jesuits. His theological culture, by all these means, became many-sided. An illustration of the spirit, both of his studies and of his teaching, is afforded by the theme chosen for his inaugural at Denkendorf, viz. "True godliness the surest road to true science." He remained in this post for twenty-eight years — years of labor, zeal, and success as teacher, preacher, stu- dent, and writer. Here he published, for the use of his pupils, an edition of Ciceronis Epist. ad Familiares, with notes (Stuttgardt, 1719) ; also, Gregorii Thauma- tuigi Panegyrlcus ad Origenem, Gr. et Lat. (1722) ; and Chrysostomi libr. vi. de Sacerdotio (1725). Put his chief toil was given to the New Testament; for the results of which, see below. In 1749 he was appoint- ed councillor and prelate of Alpirsbach, witli a resi- dence in Stuttgardt, where he died, Nov. 2, 1751.