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when an author wilfully omits what ought to be related; and may we not add-7. That all equirocation and mental reservation come under the guilt of lying. The evil and injustice of lying appear, I. From its being a breach of the natural and universal right of mankind to truth in the intercourse of speech.-2. From its being a violation of God's sacred law, Phil. iv. 8; Lev. xix. 11; Col. ii. 9.-3. The faculty of speech was bestowed as an instrument of knowledge, not of deceit; to communicate our thoughts, not to hide them.-4. It is esteemed a reproach of so heinous and hateful a nature for a man to be called a liar,

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that sometimes the life and blood of the slanderer have paid for it.-5. It has a tendency to dissolve all society, and to indispose the mind to religious impressions.-6. The punishment of it is considerable: the loss of credit, the hatred of those whom we have deceived, and an eternal separation from God in the world to come, Rev. xxi. 8; xxii. 15; Psalm ci. 7. See EQUIVOCATION. Grove's Mor. Phil. vol. i. ch. 11; Paley's Mor. Phil. vol. i. ch. 15; Doddridge's Lect. lect. 68; Watts's Ser. vol. i. ser. 22; Evans's Ser. vol. ii. ser. 13; South's Ser. vol. i. ser. 12; Dr. Lamont's Serm. vol. i. ser. 11 and 12.

M.

MACARIANS, the followers of Macarius, an Egyptian monk, who was distinguished towards the close of the fourteenth century for his sanctity and virtue. In his writings there are some superstitious tenets, and also certain opinions that seem tainted with Origenism. The name has been also applied to those who adopted the sentiments of Macarius, a native of Ireland, who, about the close of the ninth century, propagated in France the tenet afterwards maintained by Averrhoes, that one individual intelligence or soul performed the spiritual and rational functions in all the hu

man race.

MACEDONIANS, the followers of Macedonius, bishop of Constantinople, who, through the influence of the Eunomians, was deposed by the council of Constantinople in 360, and sent into exile. He considered the Holy Ghost as a divine energy diffused throughout the universe, and not as a person distinct from the Father and the Son. The sect of the Macedonians was crushed before it had arrived at its full maturity by the council assembled by Theodosius in 381, at Constantinople. See SEMIARIANS.

MACHIAVELIANISM, the doctrine or principles of Machiavel, as laid down in his treatise entitled The Prince, and which consist in doing any thing to compass a design, without any regard to the peace or welfare of subjects, the dictates of honesty and honour, or the precepts of region. This work has been translated into any languages, and written against by many authors, though the world is not agreed as to the motives of the writer; some thinking he meant to recommend tyrannical maxims; others, that he only delineated them to excite abhorrence.

all public prostitutes dying intestate should fall to them; and that the testaments of the rest should be invalid, unless they bequeathed a portion of their effects, which was to be at least a fifth part of them.

MAGI, or MAGIANS, an ancient religious sect of Persia, and other eastern countries, who, abominating the adoration of images, worshipped God only by fire, in which they were directly opposite to the Sabians. See SABIANS. The Magi believed that there were two principles, one the cause of all good, and the other the cause of all evil; in which opinion they were followed by the sect of the Manichees. See MANICHEES. They called the good principle Jazden, and Ormuzd, and the evil principle Ahraman, or Aherman. The former was by the Greeks called Oromasdes, and the latter Arimanius. The reason of their worshipping fire was, because they looked upon it as the truest symbol of Oromasdes, or the good god; as darkness was of Arimanius, or the evil god. In all their temples they had fire continually burning upon their altars, and in their own pri

vate houses.

The religion of the Magi fell into disgrace on the death of those ringleaders of that sect who had usurped the sovereignty after the death of Cambyses; and the slaughter that was made of the chief men among them sunk it so low, that Sabianism every where prevailed against it; Darius and most of his followers on that occasion going over to it. But the affection which the people had for the religion of their forefathers not being easily to be rooted out, the famous impostor Zoroaster, some ages after, undertook to revive and reform it.

MAGDALEN, RELIGIOUS OF ST. a The chief reformation this pretended prophet name given to divers communities of nuns, con- made in the Magian religion was in the first sisting generally of penitent courtezans, sometimes principle of it; for he introduced a god superior also called Magdalanettes. They were establish- both to Oromasdes and Arimanius. Dr. Prideaux ed at Mentz in 1542; at Paris in 1492; at Na-is of opinion that Zoroaster took the hint of this ples in 1324; at Rouen and Bourdeaux in 1618. In each of these monasteries there were three kinds of persons and congregations: the first consisted of those who were admitted to make Tows, and those bear the name of St. Magdalen; the congregation of St. Martha was the second, and was composed of those whom it was not thought proper to admit to vows finally; the congregation of St. Lazarus was composed of such were detained by force. The religious of St. Magdalen at Rome were established by Pope Leo X. Clement VIII. settled a revenue on them; and farther appointed, that the effects of

alteration in their theology from the prophet Isaiah, who brings in God, saying to Cyrus king of Persia, I am the Lord, and there is none else; I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil, chap. xlv. 7. In short, Zoroaster held that there was one supreme independent Being, and under him two principles, or angels; one the angel of light or good, and the other the angel of evil or darkness; that there is a perpetual struggle between them, which shall last to the end of the world; that then the angel of darkness and his disciples shall go into a world of their own, where they shall be punished in

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by some grave and discreet person whom the bishop deputed for that purpose, and set over them, by the name of Presbyter, or Magister Disciplina, whose chief business it was to inspect their behaviour, and instruct them in the rules and discipline of the church.

MAHOMETANISM everlasting darkness; and the angel of light and | MAGISTER DISCIPLINE, or MASTER his disciples shall also go into a world of their own, OF DISCIPLINE, the appellation of a certain where they shall be rewarded in everlasting light. ecclesiastical officer in the ancient Christian" Zoroaster was the first who built fire-temples; church. It was a custom in some places, pertithe Magians before his time performing their de-cularly in Spain, in the time of the Gothic kings, votion on the tops of hills and in the open air, by about the end of the fifth century, for parents to which means they were exposed to the inconve-dedicate their children very young to the service nience of rain and tempests, which often extin-of the church. For this purpose they were taken guished their sacred fires. To procure the greater into the bishop's family, and educated under him veneration for these sacred fires, he pretended to have received fire from heaven, which he placed on the altar of the first fire-temple he erected, which was that of Xis, in Media, from whence they say it was propagated to all the rest. The Magian priests kept their sacred fire with the greatest diligence, watching it day and night, and never suffering it to be extinguished. They fed it only with wood stript of the bark, and they never blowed it with their breath or with bellows, for fear of polluting it: to do either of these was death by their law. The Magian religion, as reformed by Zoroaster, seems in many things to be built upon the plan of the Jewish. The Jews had their sacred fire which came down from heaven upon the altar of burnt-offerings, which they never suffered to go out, and with which all their sacrifices and oblations were made. Zoroaster, in like manner, pretended to have brought his holy fire from heaven; and as the Jews had a Shekinah of the divine presence among them, resting over the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies, Zoroaster likewise told his Magians to look upon the sacred fire in their temples as a Shekinah, in which God especially dwelt.-From these and some other instances of analogy between the Jewish and Magian religion, Prideaux infers that Zoroaster had been first educated and brought up in the Jewish religion.

The priests of the Magi were the most skilful mathematicians and philosophers of the age in which they lived, insomuch that a learned man and a Magian became equivalent terms. This proceeded so far, that the vulgar, looking on their knowledge to be more than natural, imagined they were inspired by some supernatural power. And hence those who practised wicked and diabolical arts, taking upon themselves the name of Magians, drew on it that ill signification which the word Magician now bears among us.

The Magian priests were all of one tribe, as among the Jews, none but the son of a priest was capable of bearing that office among them. The royal family among the Persians, as long as this sect subsisted, was always of the sacerdotal tribe. They were divided into three orders: the inferior clergy; the superintendants, or bishops, and the archimagus, or arch-priest.

Zoroaster had the address to bring over Darius to his new-reformed religion, notwithstanding the strongest opposition of the Sabians; and from that time it became the national religion of all that country, and so continued for many ages after, till it was supplanted by that of Mahomet. Zoroaster composed a book containing the principles of the Magian religion. It is called Zendavesta, and by contraction Zend. See ZEND.

MAGIC, a science which teaches to produce surprising and extraordinary effects; a correspondence with bad spirits, by means of which a person is able to perform surprising things. This was strictly forbidden by the law of God, on pain of death, Lev. xix. 31.

MAGNANIMITY, greatness of soul; a disposition of mind exerted in contemning dangers and difficulties, in scorning temptations, and despising earthly pomp and splendour. Cicero de Offic. lec. i. chap. 20; Grove's Moral Phil. p. 268, vol. ii. See articles COURAGE, FORTITUDE, in this work; Steele's Christian Hero; Watts on Self-Murder.

MAHOMETANISM, the system of religion formed and propagated by Mahomet, and stil adhered to by his followers. It is professed by the Turks and Persians, by several nations among the Africans, and many among the East Indians.

Mahomet was born in the reign of Anushirwan the Just, emperor of Persia, about the end of the sixth century of the Christian era. He came into the world under some disadvantages. His father Abd'allah was a younger son of Abdalmotalleb; and dying very young, and in his father's life-time, left his widow and infant son in very mean circumstances, his whole subsistence consisting but of five camels and one Ettiopian she-slave. Abd'almotalleb was therefore obliged to take care of his grandchild Mah met; which he not only did during his life, but at his death enjoined his eldest son Abu Taleb, who was brother to Abd'allah by the same mo ther, to provide for him for the future; which he very affectionately did, and instructed him in the business of a merchant, which he followed: and to that end he took him into Syria, when he was but thirteen. He afterwards recommended him to Khadijah, a noble and rich widow, for her factor; in whose service he behaved himself so well, that, by making him her husband, she soon raised him to an equality with the richest in Mecca.

After he began by this advantageous match to live at his ease, it was, that he formed the scheme of establishing a new religion, or, as he expressed it, of replanting the only true and ancient one, professed by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and all the prophets, by destroying the gross idolatry into which the generality of his countrymen had fallen, and weeding out the corruptions and superstitions which the latter Jews and Christians had, as he thought, introduced into their religion, and reducing it to its original purity, which consisted chiefly in the worship of one God.

Before he made any attempt abroad, he rightly judged that it was necessary for him to begin with the conversion of his own household. Hav ing, therefore, retired with his family, as he had done several times before, to a cave in mount Hara, he there opened the secret of his mission

MAHOMETANISM

MAHOMETANISM

Abu Laheb, who, out of inveterate hatred to his | as the oral law of the Jews. But it does not apnephew and his doctrine, went over to the oppo- pear that Mahomet himself ever expected so grest site party, whose chief was Abu Sosian Ebn a regard should be paid to his sayings as his folHarb, of the family of Ommeya. lowers have since done; and, seeing he all along disclaimed any power of performing miracles, i seems rather to have been a fetch of policy to raise his reputation, by pretending to have actually conversed with God in heaven, as Moses had heretofore done in the mount, and to have received several institutions immediately from him, whereas, before, he contented himself with per suading them that he had all by the ministry of Gabriel.

The families continued thus at variance for three years; but in the tenth year of his mission, Mahomet told his uncle Abu Taleb, that God had manifestly showed his disapprobation of the league which the Koreish had made against them, by sending a worm to eat out every word of the instrument except the name of God. Of this accident Mahomet had probably some private notice; for Abu Taleb went immediately to the Koreish, and acquainted them with it; offering, if it proved false, to deliver his nephew up to them; but, in case it were true, he insisted that they ought to lay aside their animosity, and annul the league they had made against the Hashemites. To this they acquiesced; and going to inspect the writing, to their great astonishment found it to be as Abu Taleb had said: and the league was thereupon declared void.

In the same year Abu Taleb died at the age of above fourscore, and it is the general opinion that he died an infidel; though others say, that when he was at the point of death he embraced Mahometanism, and produce some passages out of his poetical compositions to confirm their assertion. About a month, or, as some write, three days after the death of this great benefactor and patron, Mahomet had the additional mortification to lose his wife Khadijah, who had so generously made his fortune. For which reason this year is called the year of mourning.

However, this story seemed so absurd and incredible, that several of his followers left him upon it; and had probably ruined the whole design, had not Abu Becr vouched for his veracity, and declared that if Mahomet affirmed it to be true, he verily believed the whole. Which happy mcident not only retrieved the prophet's credit, but increased it to such a degree, that he was secure of being able to make his disciples swallow whatever he pleased to impose on them for the future. And this fiction, notwithstanding its extravagance, was one of the most artful contrivances Mahomet ever put in practice, and what chiefly contributed to the raising of his reputation to that great height to which it afterwards arrived.

In this year, called by the Mahometans the accepted year, twelve men of Yathreb or Medina, of whom ten were of the tribe of Khazraj, and the other two of that of Aws, came to Mecca, and took an oath of fidelity to Mahomet at Al Akaba, a hill on the north of that city. This oath On the death of these two persons, the Koreish was called the woman's oath; not that any wobegan to be more troublesome than ever to their men were present at this time, but because a man prophet, and especially some who had formerly was not thereby obliged to take up arms in debeen his intimate friends; insomuch that he found fence of Mahomet or his religion; it being the himself obliged to seek for shelter elsewhere, and same oath that was afterwards exacted of the first pitched upon Tayef, about sixty miles east women, the form of which we have in the Koran, from Mecca, for the place of his retreat. Thither, and is to this effect, viz. That they should renounce therefore, he went, accompanied by his servant all idolatry; and that they should not steal, nor Zeid, and applied himself to two of the chief of commit fornication, nor kill their children (as the the tribe of Thakif, who were the inhabitants of pagan Arabs used to do when they apprehended that place; but they received him very coldly. they should not be able to maintain them), nor However, he staid there a month; and some of forge calumnies; and that they should obey the the more considerate and better sort of men treated prophet in all things that were reasonable. When him with little respect; but the slaves and infe- they had solemnly engaged to all this, Mahomet rior people at length rose against him; and bring-sent one of his disciples named Masab Ebn Omair ing him to the wall of the city, obliged him to depart, and return to Mecca, while he put himself under the protection of Al Motaam Ebn Adi. This repulse greatly discouraged his followers. However, Mahomet was not wanting to himself; but boldly continued to preach to the public assemblies at the pilgrimage, and gained several proselytes; and among them six of the inhabitants of Yathreb, of the Jewish tribe of Khazraj; who, on their return home, failed not to speak much in recommendation of their new religion, and exhorted their fellow citizens to embrace the same.

home with them, to instruct them more fully in the grounds and ceremonies of his new religion.

Masab, being arrived at Medina, by the assistance of those who had been formerly converted, gained several proselytes, particularly Osed Ebn Hodeira, a chief man of the city, and Saad Ebn Moadh, prince of the tribe of the Aws; Mahometanism spreading so fast, that there was scarce a house wherein there were not some who had embraced it.

The next year, being the thirteenth of Mahomet's mission, Masab returned to Mecca, acIn the twelfth year of his mission it was that companied by seventy-three men and two women Mahomet gave out that he had made his night of Medina who had professed Islamism, besides journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence to some others who were as yet unbelievers. On heaven, so much spoken of by all that write of their arrival they immediately sent to Mahomet, him. Dr. Prideaux thinks he invented it either and offered him their assistance, of which he was to answer the expectations of those who demand-now in great need; for his adversaries were by ed some miracle as a proof of his mission; or else, by pretending to have conversed with God, to establish the authority of whatever he should think fit to leave behind by way of oral tradition, and make his sayings to serve the same purpose

this time grown so powerful in Mecca, that he could not stay there much longer without imminent danger. Wherefore he accepted their proposal, and met them one night, by appointment, at Al Akaba above mentioned, attended by his