1. Gerard, professor of divinity, was born at Am- sterdam in 1626. After a thorough theological educa- tion, he became pastor of the Remonstrant church in Nienkoop ; in 1660 he removed to Doom, and to Am- sterdam 1667. Here he continued in pastoral and lit- erary labors till his death, Dec. 11, 1685. His great work is the Hist, der Reformatio in en Ontrt nt <l< Nit <l< r- landen (Rott. 1 vols. 4to, 1671-1704), of which the last two volumes were edited by J. Brandt. It was trans- lated into English by Chamberlayne, History of the Ref- ormation in ih' Low Countries iboinl.17-.Mi 23,4 vols. fol.) ; abridged in French (Amst. 1730, 3 vols. 12mo).
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TTe published also a Life of Barneveldt, a Life of De Ruyter, etc. His Reformation is a magazine of facts; and tin- candor and truthfulness of the book, as well as its value arc now generally acknowledged. — Winer, J% ol. Lik niter, i, 824 ; Haes, Life of Brandt (in Dutch, 1740, 4to) ; Cattenburgh, Biblioiheca Remonstrant mm. 2.' Caspar, son of Gerard, was born in Rotterdam June 25, 1653. After a careful training under his fa- ther and at the university, he became pastor of the Remonstrant church at Amsterdam, where he died Oct. Be wrote Hist. Vital Jac. Arrnmii (Amst. 1724, 8vo), enlarged and corrected by Mosheim (Brunsw. 1725, 8vo), translated by Guthrie, Life of Arminius (Lond. 1854, 18mo); Hist v. h. Leven d. Hug. Ik Groot (Gro- Hus), (Dort, 1732, 2d ed., 2 vols. 8vo).— Winer, Theol. /.it. i, 765, 862.
3. John, youngest son of Gerard, was born at Nien- koop 1660, and was successively minister at Hoorn, the Hague, and Amsterdam, and died 1708. He wrote Vita £T Pauli (4to), and edited the Epistohe Prcestan tium Virorum (Amst. 1684), which throws great light on the history of Arminianism.
4. Gerard, son of Caspar, minister at Amsterdam, edited the Vita Arminii written by his father and pub- lished in 1724.
Brantly, William Theophilus, D.D., a distin- guished Baptist minister, was born in Chatham Co., N. C, Jan. 23, 1787, and graduated with honor at South Carolina College in 1808. After some time spent in teaching at Augusta, Ga., he became in 1811 pastor of the Baptist Church at Beaufort, S. C. In 1819 he returned to Augusta, and established a Baptist Church there. In 1826 he was called to the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia, where he labored till his health compelled him to remove to the South in 1838, when he settled as pastor at Charleston, S. C, also accepting ths presidency of the college at that place. In 1844 he was attacked by paralysis, but lingered till March 28, 1845, when he died, after having been removed to Augusta. Mr. Brantly received the degree of D.D. from Brown University in 1831. He was the author of a volume of sermons published in 1837. — Sprague, Annals, vi, 497 ; Funeral Sermon by Dr. Fuller, Chris- tian Review, x, 591.
Brass occurs in the Auth. Vers, of the 0. T. as the rendering of t"ul3M3, neclw'sheth (i. e. the shining), and other kindred forms, but doubtless inaccurately, as hrass is a factitious metal, and the Hebrews were not acquainted with the compound of copper and zinc known by that name. In most places of the O. T. the correct translation would be copper, although it may sometimes possibly mean bronze (\a\Kug tceicpafikvoQ), a compound of copper and tin, as in the Chaldee form (~~3, nechashf) used by Daniel. Indeed, a simple metal was obviously intended, as we see from Dent, viii, 9, "out of whose hills thou mayst dig brass:" and .lul) xxviii, 2, " lirass is molten out of the stone ;" and Dent, xxxiii, 25, "Thy shoes shall be iron and brass," which seems to be a promise that Asher should have a district rich in mines, which we know to have been the case, since Eusebius (viii, 15, 17) speaks of the Christians being condemned to work in them (roic, Kara <baivo) n)r WakaiarivtiQ x«X^ou fii-aWoic, Lightfoot, Cent. Chorogr. c. 99). Some such alloy as bronze is probably also the metal denoted in the N. T. by \o,\/,-.'.r. as this was used for coin, the ces of the Romans. The •• line brass" of Rev. i, 15 ; ii, 18, how- ever, is xa\Ko\ifiavov, the chashtnal' ("?'~<j) of the Hebrews, a brilliant compound, probably of gold and Bilver, like the famous " Corinthian brass." Sec Am-
BKR.
Copper was known at a very early period, and the invention of working it is attributed to Tubal-Cain (Gen. iv. •-!; comp. Wilkinson, Ane. Egypt, iii, 243; corop. '• Prius ceria erat quam ferri cognitus usus,"
3 BRAY
Lucr. v. 1292). Its extreme ductility (vaX^-dc, from XaXacj) made its application almost universal among the ancients (see Smith, Diet, of Class. Aid. s. v. ^Es). See Copper.
The same word is used for money in both Testa- ments (Ezek. xvi, 36; Matt, x, 9, etc.). See Coin.
Brass (to retain the word) is in Scripture the sym- bol of insensibility, baseness, and presumption or ob- stinacy in sin (Isa. xlviii, 4 ; Jer. vi, 28; Ezek. xxii, 18). It is often used in metaphors, e. g. Lev. xxvi, 9, "I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass," i. e. dead and hard. This expression is re- versed in Dent, xxviii, 23 (comp. Coleridge's "All in a hot and copper sky," etc., Anc. Mar.). "Is my flesh of brass," i. e. invulnerable, Job vi, 12. Brass is also a symbol of strength (Psa. cvii, 16 ; Isa. xlviii, 4 ; Mic. iv, 13 ; Zech. vi, 1, etc.). So in Jer. i, 18, and xv, 20, brazen walls signify a strong and lasting adversary or opponent. The description of the Mace- donian empire as a kingdom of brass (Dan. ii, 39) will be better understood when we recollect that the arms of ancient times were mostly of bronze; hence the fig- ure forcibly indicates the warlike character of that kingdom. Hence the "brazen thighs" of the mystic image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream were a fit symbol of the "brazen-coated Greeks" ("Axaioi yaAKOYi'rwrir, as Homer usually styles them). The mountains of brass, in Zech. vi, 1, are understood by Vitringa to de- note those firm and immutable decrees by which God governs the world, and it is difficult to affix an}' other meaning to the phrase (comp. Psa. xxxvi, 6). — Kit- to, s. v. ; Smith, s. v. See Metal ; Brazen.