BALTHAZAR, a distinguished Dutch divine, born in Friesland in 1634, was the author of a work entitled Die Betoverde Wereld, or The World Bewitched, in which he exposed with irresistible force of reason the errors, absurdities, and impostures which had been propagated respecting spiritual agency; and which occasioned his deposition from the office of the ministry. He died in 1698. For an account of this remarkable man, who so far outstripped the age, see APPARITIONS. (Vol. III. p. 313.)