BALTHASAR, a distinguished Dutch divine, born at Metselawier, in Friesland, in the year 1634, was the author of a work entitled Die Betoverde Wereld, or The World Bewitched, in which he attacked with equal boldness and ingenuity the received opinions in demonology, and exposed with irresistible force of reason the errors, absurdities, and impostures, which had been propagated. respecting spiritual agency. Bekker's work raised a terrible clamour against the author, who was at length deposed from the office of the ministry for the freedom and boldness of his attacks on the supposed prerogatives of the powers of darkness. He died in 1698. For an account of this remarkable man, who so far outstripped the age, see the article APPARITIONS.