among them, and hold some of them to of God's dealing with mankind. As to be more excellent and honourable than || brutes, after they shall have likewise others. The first place they give to taken vengeance of one another, he the revealers and establishers of new will command them to be changed into dispensations, and the next to the dust; wicked men being reserved to apostles. more grievous punishment, so that they shall cry out, on hearing this sentence passed on the brutes, Would to God that we were dust also! As to the genii, many Mahometans are of opinion that such of them as are true believers, will undergo the same fate as the irrational animals, and have no other reward than the favour of being converted into dust; and for this they quote the authority of their prophet. In this great number of prophets they not only reckon divers patriarchs and persons named in Scripture, but not recorded to have been prophets (wherein the Jewish and Christian writers have sometimes led the way,) as Adam, Seth, Lot, Ishmael, Nun, Joshua, &c. and introduced some of them under different names, as Enoch, Heber, and Jethro, who are called in the Koran, Edris, Hud, and Shoaib but several others whose very names do not appear in Scripture (though they endeavour to find some persons there to fix them on,) as Selah, Khedr, Dhu'lkefl, &c. 5. The belief of a general resurrection and a future judgment. The time of the resurrection the Mahometans allow to be a perfect secret to all but God alone; the angel Gabriel himself aknowledging his ignorance in this point, when Mahomet asked him about it. However, they say, the approach of that day may be known from certain signs which are to precede it. After examination is past, (the account of which is too long and tedious for this place,) and every one's work weighed in a just balance, they say, that mutual retaliation will follow, according to which every creature will take vengeance one of another, or have satisfaction made them for the injuries which they have suffered. And, since there will then be no other way of returning like for like, the manner of giving this satisfaction will be by taking away a proportional part of the good works of him who offered the injury, and adding it to those of him who suffered it. Which being done, if the angels (by whose ministry this is to be performed) say, Lord, we have given to every one his due, and there remaineth of this person's good works so much as equalleth the weight of an ant, God will of his mercy, cause it to be doubled unto him, that he may be admitted into Paradise; but if, on the contrary, his good works be exhausted, and there remain evil works only, and there be any who have not yet received satisfaction from him, God will order that an equal weight of their sins be added unto his, that he may be punished for them in their stead, and he will be sent to hell laden with both. This will be the method The trials being over, and the assembly dissolved, the Mahometans hold, that those who are to be admitted into Paradise will take the right hand way, and those who are destined into hell-fire will take the left: but both of them must first pass the bridge called in Arabic Al Sirat, which, they say, is laid over the midst of hell, and describe to be finer than a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword; so that it seems very difficult to conceive how any one shall be able to stand upon it; for which reason most of the sect of the Motazalites reject it as a fable; though the orthodox think it a sufficient proof of the truth of this article, that it was seriously affirmed by him who never asserted a falsehood, meaning their prophet; who, to add to the difficulty of the passage, has likewise declared, that this bridge is beset on each side with briers and hooked thorns, which will, however, be no impediment to the good; for they shall pass with wonderful ease and swiftness, like lightning, or the wind, Mahomet and his Moslems leading the way; whereas the wicked, what with the slipperiness and extreme narrowness of the path, the entangling of the thorns, and the extinction of the light which directed the former to Paradise, will soon miss their footing, and fall down headlong into hell, which is gaping beneath them. As to the punishment of the wicked, the Mahometans are taught, that hell is divided into seven stories or apartments, one below another, designed for the reception of as many distinct classes of the damned. The first, which they call Jehenan, they say, will be the receptacle of those who acknowledged one God, that is, the wicked Mahometans; who, after having been punished according to their demerits, will at length be released; the second, named Ladha, they assign to the Jews; the third, named al Hota sootiness or filth from the flames and smoke of hell, will be immersed in one of the rivers of Paradise, called the River of life, which will wash them whiter than pearls. ma, to the Christians; the fourth, named al Sair, to the Sabians; the fifth, named Sakar, to the Magians; the sixth, named al Jahin, to the idolaters; and the seventh, which is the lowest and worst of all, and is called al Harvyat, to the The righteous, as the Mahometans hypocrites, or those who outwardly are taught to believe, having surmountprofessed some religion, but in their ed the difficulties, and passed the sharp hearts were of none. Over each of these bridge above-mentioned, before they apartments they believe there will be enter Paradise, will be refreshed by set a guard of angels, nineteen in num- drinking at the pond of their prophet, ber: to whom the damned will confess who describes it to be an exact square, the just judgment of God, and beg them of a month's journey in compass; its to intercede with him for some allevia-water, which is supplied by two pipes tion of their pain, or that they may be delivered by being annihilated. hereafter; the Motazalites and some other sectaries asserting, that there is not at present any such place in nature, and that the Paradise which the rightecus will inhabit in the next life will be different from that from which Adam was expelled. However, the orthodox profess the contrary, maintaining that it was created even before the world, and describe it from their prophet's traditions in the following manner: from al Cawthay, one of the rivers of Paradise, being whiter than milk or Mahomet has, in his Koran and tra- silver, and more odoriferous than musk, ditions, been very exact in describing with as many cups set around it as there the various torments of hell, which, ac- are stars in the firmament; of which cording to him, the wicked will suffer water whoever drinks will thirst no both from intense heat and excessive more for ever. This is the first taste cold. We shall, however, enter into which the blessed will have of their funo detail of them here; but only ob- ture and now near approaching felicity. serve, that the degrees of these pains Though Paradise be so very frequentwill also vary in proportion to the ly mentioned in the Koran, yet it is a discrimes of the sufferer, and the apart-pute among the Mahometans, whether ment he is condemned to; and that heit be already created or to be created who is punished the most lightly of all will be shod with shoes of fire, the fervour of which will cause his skull to boil like a cauldron. The condition of these unhappy wretches, as the same prophet teaches, cannot be properly called either life or death; and their misery will be greatly increased by their despair of being ever delivered from that place, since, according to that frequent expression in the Koran, they must remain therein for ever. It must be remarked, however, that the infidels alone will be liable to eternity of damnation; for the Moslems, or those who have embraced the true religion, and have been guilty of heinous sins, will be delivered thence after they shall have expiated their crimes by their sufferings. The time which these believers shall be detained there, according to a tradition handed down from their prophet, will not be less than nine hundred years, nor more than seven thousand. And, as to the manner of their delivery, they say that they shall be distinguished by the marks of prostration on those parts of their bodies with which they used to touch the ground in prayer, and over which the fire will therefore have no power; and that, being known by this characteristic, they will be released by the mercy of God, at the intercession of Mahomet and the blessed whereupon those who shall have been dead will be restored to life, as has been said: and those whose bodies shall have contracted any They say it is situated above the seven heavens, (or in the seventh heaven,) and next under the throne of God; and, to express the amenity of the place, tell us, that the earth of it is of the finest wheat-flour, or of the purest musk, or as others will have it, of saffron; that its stones are pearls and jacinths, the walls of its building enriched with gold and silver, and that the trunks of all its trees are of gold; among which the most remarkable is the tree called tuba, or the tree of happiness. Concerning this tree, they fable, that it stands in the palace of Mahomet, though a branch of it will reach to the house of every true believer; that it will be laden with pomegranates, grapes, dates, and other fruits, of surprising bigness, and of tastes unknown to mortals. So that, if a man desire to eat of any particular kind of fruit, it will immediately be presented him; or, if he choose flesh, birds ready dressed will be set before him, according to his wish. They add, that the boughs of this tree will spontaneously bend down to the hand of the person tination both of good and evil. The orwho would gather of its fruits, and that thodox doctrine is, that whatever hath it will supply the blessed not only with or shall come to pass in this world, food, but also with silken garments, and whether it be good, or whether it be beasts to ride on ready saddled and bri- || bad, proceedeth entirely from the didled, and adorned with rich trappings, vine will, and is irrevocably fixed and which will burst forth from its fruits; recorded from all eternity in the preand that this tree is so large, that a per- || served table; God having secretly preson mounted on the fleetest horse, would determined not only the adverse and not be able to gallop from one end of its prosperous fortune of every person in shade to the other in one hundred years. this world, in the most minute particuAs plenty of water is one of the great-lars, but also his faith or infidelity, his est additions to the pleasantness of any obedience or disobedience, and conseplace, the Koran often speaks of the ri- quently his everlasting happiness or vers of Paradise as a principal ornament misery after death; which fate or prethereof: some of these rivers, they say, destination it is not possible by any foreflow with water, some with milk, some sight or wisdom to avoid. with wine, and others with honey; all taking their rise from the root of the tree tuba. But all these glories will be eclipsed by the resplendent and ravishing girls of Paradise, called, from their large black eyes, Hur al oyun, the enjoyment of whose company will be a principal felicity of the faithful. These, they say, are created not of clay, as mortal women are, but of pure musk; being, as their prophet often affirms in his Koran, free from all natural impurities, defects, and inconveniences incident to the sex; of the strictest modesty, and secluded from public view in pavilions of hollow pearls, so large, that, as some traditions have it, one of them will be no less than four parasangs (or, as others say, sixty miles) fong, and as many broad. II. Religious practice. 1. The first point is prayer, under which are also comprehended those legal washings or purifications which are necessary preparations thereto. For the regular performance of the duty of prayer among the Mahometans, it is requisite, while they pray, to turn their faces towards the temple of Mecca; the quarter where the same is situated being, for that reason, pointed out within their mosques by a níche, which they call al Mehrab; and without, by the situation of the doors opening into the galleries of the steeples: there are also tables calculated for the ready finding out their Keblah, a part towards which they ought to pray, in places where they have no other direction. 2. Alms are of two sorts, legal and The name which the Mahometans voluntary. The legal alms are of indisusually give to this happy mansion is al pensable obligation, being commanded Jannat, or, "the Garden;" and some- by the law, which directs and detertimes they call it, with an addition, Jan- mines both the portion which is to be nat al Ferdaws, "the Garden of Para- given, and of what things it ought to dise;" Jannat Adan, "the Garden of consist; but the voluntary alms are left Eden," (though they generally inter- to every one's liberty, to give more or pret the word Eden not according to less as he shall see fit. The former its acceptation in Hebrew, but accord- kind of alms some think to be properly ing to its meaning in their own tongue, called zacat, and the latter sadacat, wherein it signifies "a settled or per- though this name be also frequently petual habitation") Jannat al Mawa, given to the legal alms. They are called "the Garden of Abode; Jannat al zacat, either because they increase a Maim, "the Garden of Pleasure;" and man's store by drawing down a blessing the like: by which several appellations thereon, and produce in his soul the virsome understand so many different gar-tue of liberality; or because they purify dens, or at least places of different degrees of felicity (for they reckon no less than one hundred such in all,) the very meanest whereof will afford its inhabitants so many pleasures and delights, that one would conclude they must even sink under them, had not Mahomet declared that, in order to qualify the blessed for a full enjoyment of them, God will give to every one the abilities of one hundred men. 6. God's absolute decree and predes the remaining part of one's substance from pollution, and the soul from the filth of avarice; and sadacat, because they are a proof of a man's sincerity in the worship of God. Some writers have called the legal alms tithes; but improperly, since in some cases they fall short, and in others exceed that proportion. 3. Fasting is a duty of so great moment, that Mahomet used to say it was the gate of religion; and that the odour of the mouth of him who fasteth is more grateful to God than that of musk; and Al Ghazali reckons fasting one fourth part of the faith. According to the Mahometan divines, there are three degrees of fasting: 1. The restraining the belly and other parts of the body from satisfying their lusts.-2. The restraining the ears, eyes, tongue, hands, feet, and other members, from sin.-3. The fasting of the heart from worldly cares, and restraining the thought from every thing besides God. 4. The pilgrimage to Mecca is so necessary a point of practice, that, according to a tradition of Mahomet, he who dies without performing it, may as well die a Jew or a Christian; and the same is expressly commanded in the Koran. See PILGRIMAGE. the Arabians in the conquest of several provinces, into which, of consequence, the religion of Mahomet was afterwards introduced. Other causes of the sudden progress of that religion will naturally occur to such as consider attentively its spirit and genius, and the state of the world at this time. IV. Mahometanism, subversion of Of things yet to come it is difficult to say any thing with precision. We have, however, some reason to believe, from the aspect of Scripture prophecy, that, triumphant as this sect has been, it shall at last come to nought. As it arose as a scourge to Christendom about the time that Antichrist obtained a temporal dominion, so it is not improbable but they will have their downfall nearly at the same period. The ninth chapter of ReIII. Mahometanism, causes of the velations seems to refer wholly to this success of. The rapid success which imposture: "The four angels were attended the propagation of this new loosed," says the prediction, 15th verse, religion was owing to causes that are "which were prepared for an hour, and plain and evident, and must remove, or a day, and a month, and a year, for to rather prevent our surprise, when they slay the third part of men." This peare attentively considered. The terror riod, in the language of prophecy, of Mahomet's arms, and the repeated makes 391 years, which being added to victories which were gained by him and the year when the four angels were his successors, were, no doubt, the irre- loosed, will bring us down to 1844, or sistible arguments that persuaded such || thereabouts, for the final destruction of multitudes to embrace his religion, and the Mahometan empire. It must be submit to his dominion. Besides, his law confessed, however, that though the was artfully and marvellously adapted event is certain, the exact time cannot to the corrupt nature of man; and, in a be easily ascertained. Prideaux's Life most particular manner, to the manners of Mahomet; Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. and opinions of the Eastern nations, and cent. vii. ch. 2. Sale's Preliminary Disthe vices to which they were naturally course, prefixed to his English Transaddicted: for the articles of faith which lation of the Koran; Simpson's Key to it proposed were few in number, and Proph. sect. 19. Bishop Newton, Mede, extremely simple; and the duties it re- and Gill, on Rev. ix. Miller's Propag. quired were neither many nor difficult, of Christianity, vol. i. ch. 1. White's Ser. nor such as were incompatible with the at Bampton, Lect. Enc. Brit. empire of appetites and passions. It is to be observed farther, that the gross ignorance under which the Arabians, Syrians, Persians, and the greatest part of the Eastern nations, laboured at this time, rendered many an easy prey to the artifice and eloquence of this bold adventurer. To these causes of the progress of Mahometanism we may add the bitter dissensions and cruel animosities that reigned among the Christian sects, particularly the Greeks, Nestorians, Eutychians, and Monophysites; dissensions that filled a great par of the East with carnage, assassinations, and such detestable enormities, as rendered the very name of Christianity odious to many. We might add here, that the Monophysites and Nestorians, full of resentment against the Greeks, from whom they had suffered the bitterest and most injurious treatment, assisted MALEVOLENCE is that disposition of mind which inclines us to wish ill to any person. It discovers itself in frowns and a lowering countenance; in uncharitableness, in evil sentiments; hard speeches to or of its object; in cursing and reviling; and doing mischief either with open violence or secret spite, as far as there is power. MALICE is a settled or deliberate determination to revenge or do hurt to another. It more frequently denotes the disposition of inferior minds to execute every purpose of mischief within the more limited circle of their abilities. It is a most hateful temper in the sight of God, strictly forbidden in his holy word. Col. iii. 8-12. disgraceful to rational creatures, and every way inimical to the spirit of Christianity, Matt. v. 44. See CHARITY, LOVE. MALIGNITY, a disposition obsti nately bad or malicious. Malignancy || bla, Borandians, the Greenlanders, and and malignity are words nearly synony- the people of Kamtschatka. The visage mous. In some connections, malignity of men in these countries is large and seems rather more pertinently applied broad; the nose flat and short; the to a radical depravity of nature; and eyes of a yellowish brown, inclining to malignancy to indications of this depra- blackness; the cheek-bones extremely vity in temper and conduct in particular high; the mouth large; the lips thick, instances. and turning outwards; the voice thin, and squeaking; and the skin a dark grey colour. They are short in stature, the generality being about four feet They are ignorant, stupid and superstitious.-2. The second are the Tartar race, comprehending the Chinese and the Japanese. Their countenances are broad and wrinkled, even in youth; their noses short and flat; their eyes little, cheek-bones high, teeth large, complexions olive, and the hair black. MAN, a being, consisting of a rational soul and organical body. By some he is defined thus: "He is the head of the animal creation; a being who feels, re-high, and the tallest not more than five. flects, thinks, contrives, and acts; who has the power of changing his place upon the earth at pleasure; who possesses the faculty of communicating his thoughts by means of speech, and who has dominion over all other creatures on the face of the earth." We shall here present the reader with a brief account of his formation, species, and different-3. The third are the southern Asiatics, state. 1. His formation. Man was made last of all the creatures, being the chief and master-piece of the whole creation on earth. He is a compendium of the creation, and therefore is sometimes called a microcosm, a little world, the world in miniature; something of the vegetable, animal, and rational world meet in him; spirit and matter; yea, heaven and earth centre in him; he is the bond that connects them both together. The constituent and essential parts of man created by God are two; body and soul. The one was made out of the dust; the other was breathed into him. The body is formed with the greatest precision and exactness: every muscle, vein, artery, yea, the least fibre, in its proper place; all in just proportion and symmetry, in subserviency to the use of each other, and for the good of the whole, Ps. cxxxix. 14. It is also made erect, to distinguish it from the four-footed animals, who look downward to the earth. Man was made to look upward to the heavens, to contemplate them, and the glory of God displayed in them; to look up to God, to worship and adore him. In the Greek 3. Man, different states of. The state language, man has his name, adgwres, of man has been divided into fourfold: from turning and looking upwards. The his primitive state; fallen state; grasoul is the other part of man, which is a cious state; and future state. 1. His substance or subsistence: it is not an ac- state of innocence. God, it is said, made cident, or quality, inherent in a subject: man upright, Eccl. vii. 29. without any but capable of subsisting without the imperfection, corruption, or principle of body. It is a spiritual substance, imma-corruption in his body or scul; with terial, immortal. See SOUL. or inhabitants of India. These are of a slender shape, long straight black hair, and generally Ronian noses. They are slothful, submissive, cowardly, and effeminate.-4. The negroes of Africa constitute the fourth striking variety in the human species. They are of a black colour, having downy soft hair, short and black; their beards often turn grey, and sometimes white; their noses are flat and short; their lips thick, and their teeth of an ivory whiteness. These have been till of late the unhappy wretches who have been torn from their families, friends, and native lands, and consigned for life to misery, toil, and bondage; and that by the wise, polished, and the Christian inhabitants of Europe, and above all by the monsters of England!! -5. The natives of America are the fifth race of men: they are of a copper colour, with black thick straight hair, flat noses, high cheek-bones, and small eyes.-6. The Europeans may be considered as the sixth and last variety of the human kind, whose features we need not describe. The English are considered as the fairest. light in his understanding, holiness in his will, and purity in his affection. This constituted his original righteousness, which was universal, both with respect to the subject of it, the whole man, and the object of it, the whole law. Being thus in a state of holiness, he was necessarily in a state of happiness. He was a |