, parent ly with the mire general sense ol low land, or rather tlai hind, in which chariots ild be ma- noeuvred as opposed to uneven mountainous ground. There i- some reason to believe that the scene of the battle in question was on the east side of the Sea of the plain of .laulan : bui ild- i- no ex- planation of the difficulty, because we are nol warranted ling : lie mishdr Ian her than the mountains which bounded it on the north, and where tin, districts began which bore, like it, their own distinctive names . Golan, llauran. etc. Perhaps the most feasible explanation i- that the won! was used - rians of Damascus without any knowledge of it- -irici signification, in the Bame manner indeed a- it
loyed in the later Syro-Cbaldee dialect, in which meshru i- the favorite term to express several natural
ivhich in the older and stricter language were de- nominated each b\ it- own -peeial name. See Mishor. 6. ~ 1~l'. arabdh, pi. T"Z~" (from the root 3^iS, to be dry), signifies an arid region. In poetry it is applied to any dry pa-t un-land, like Midbar; but with the ar- ticle ii mean- '/<• valley oftfo Jordan, ami ha- the force ofa proper name, [n the A. V. it is commonly rendered
is still known throughout Syria by its old name a- >'■- Bekda, or Ard el-Beka'a. -A long valley, though broad." -ays Dr. I'usey {Comment, on Amos i, 5), "if seen from a height look- like a deft :" and this is I mi- nently the case w ill) the " valley of Lebanon" w hen ap- proached by the ordinary loads from north or south. It is of great extent, more than sixty mile- long by about five in average breadth, and the two greal ranges Shut it in on cither hand. Lebanon especially, with a very wall-like appearance. See Ccgle-Si ria.
2. The plain (called -•;;• of Jezreel or Esdraelon, which runs from the bay of I'tolcmais Io the Jordan, dividing the mountains of Galilee from those of Eph- raim. It is well watered and grassy. See Jezei el.
:;. flu flat along the Mediterranean from Carmel to the brook of Egypt (whose northern pari near Joppa i- call- ed Sharon, "{VW, the southern part Shephelah, ITUBII3). The plain of the tribe of .litilah stood in connection with
thelatter(l Mace. iii. 21. 1": xiii, 13). See Sharon.
1. The meadow of .Ionian, or the plain on both sides ,,t that river, from the Sea of Gennesareth to the Dead Sea. usually called -imply Tht Plain ("-rrO. In the neighborhood of Jericho this valley widen- oul into a -real plain, thence called in r-: .", The Plains of Jerieho (Josh. iv. 13; \. 10; 2 Kings xx\. ."■; Jer. xxxix. :>), as the Dead Sea is called the ">'<" of the
Dent. iii. 17 : iv, 19). SeeJoRDAH.
5. The ( levated plain (Tid^Bn) in the tribe of Reu- ben, in wbhh lay Bezer and Medeba (Josh, xiii, 16; kx,8; Deut. iv, 43). It belongs to the large but rather drj (Burckhardt, ii. 626) plateau of modern Belka (Rit-
i. r. n. 368 I. See Mum:. b. Lor -the plains of Jericho," set Ji bi< ho.
PLAIN SONG
267
PLANE
Plain Song (canto fermo, rant us planus) is one of the terras applied to the monotonia recitative melody in ancient chants of the liturgy. In later times it be- came one of the parts in elaborate pieces, services, and anthems, originally the tenor, but afterwards assigned to the treble. The Cantus Prophetarum Epistolarum et Evangelii admitted certain inflections; the Cantus Psalmorum adopted inflections in the middle and end of the verse. An unrestricted melody was used in pref- aces, anthems, and hymns, and the plain song is this cantus collectarum. — Staunton, Eccles. Diet. p. 536.
Plaister. See Plastkr.
Plaiting. See Hair.
Plan of Salvation. See Salvation.
Plancius, Pieter, a Dutch preacher of renown, was born at Drenoutre, Flanders, in 1552. Having im- bibed the principles of the Calvinistic faith in the schools of Germany and England, he embraced the evangelical ministry in 1577, and discharged its duties in Brabant and Flanders, in the midst of the persecutions of the Spanish government. After the taking of Brussels (1585), where he was pastor, he fled to Holland, and was soon attached to the Church of Amsterdam. Being a zealous defender of orthodoxy, he displayed great ani- mosity against the Lutherans and Arminians. He was in 1619 a member of the Synod of Dort, and was then one of the revisers of the version of the Old Testament. He is entitled to the gratitude of the Dutch people for the services which he rendered them by his geograph- ical and nautical acquirements. He counselled the first expeditions sent by the Dutch to both Indies, and traced even the itineraries of those expeditions. He is much spoken of in Jeannin's negotiations, where he is called "a great cosmographer." He died May 25, 1622, at Amsterdam. — Hoefer, Nam. Biog. Generate, xl. 403.
Planck, Gottlieb Jacob, a noted Protestant divine, was born at Nurtingcn, in the kingdom of W'ur- temberg, Nov. 15, 1751. He was educated at the uni- versity in Tubingen, and in 1784 was made ordinary professor of theology in the University of Gottingen. In t his capacity he exerted a remarkable influence throughout Germany, as he wielded a powerful pen, and wrote many essays upon the history of the Church and its doctrines. He is a leading representative of " pragmatic" historiography. His principal work is his Geschichte des protestantischen Systems in seinem Ur- spr ung, seiner Veranderung,u. seiner Fortbildung (Leips. 1-781-1800,6 vols. 8vo), which was continued in a work published after a long interval under the title of Ge- schickte des protestantischen Lehrbegrijfes von der Con- cordienformel bis zur Mitte des \Sten Jahrhunderts (Gott, 1831). Another great work of his is Gesch. der christl.-kirchl. Gesellschaftsrerfassung (Hann. 1803-9, 5 vols. 8vo). Planck, though widely read and followed, does not deserve the great renown he has secured. He exhibits too much indifference to doctrine to be trusted implicitly in his judgments, and yet no one can with- hold from him the tribute for application. But, like a too obtrusive cicerone, Planck, in these works, requires great judgment in the reader. He everywhere dis- covers purpose, preconcerted design, ambition, hatred, and other passions, as having been the motive forces in the process of doctrinal history. Thus the progressive and independent development of dogma is resolved into psychological dispositions and tendencies, while, at the same time, the author's own doctrinal indifference is unconsciously transferred to the agents of the dogma- forming process, by the axiomatic assumption that doc- trine alone would have been incapable of exciting so much interest or contention. In his eyes doctrine is an antiquated matter, which is properly destined to ob- livion. In this method, the view being restricted to efficient causes, and the inherent activity of final causes lost sight of, even the efficient causes are not compre- hended in their entirety. Planck died in 1833. -With