-it is for all these reasons well worthy of particular Religion, notice. Like the Jewish religion, it is not barely a system of religious doctrines and general moral precepts; it forms both the civil legislature and the religious sytem of those nations among whom it is professed; and, like it too, it would appear to be calculated rather for one particular period in the progress of mankind from rudeness to refinement, than for all ages and all states of society.

The history of its origin is pretty well known, ard we have had occasion to enlarge upon it under a former article (see MAHOMET and MAHOMETANISM). We are not here to trace the impostures of the prophet, or to consider the arts by which he so successfully accomplished his designs; but merely to consider the morality of his religion, and its influence ou civil order and the happiness of society.

Religion, many happy effects on the circumstances and the characters of Pagans and infidels, who have had opportunities of beholding the virtues of Christians, and learning the excellence of the morality of the gospel. Those virtues which distinguished the character of the apostate Julian were surely owing in no inconsiderable degree to his acquaintance with Christianity; and it is an undeniable fact, that after the propagation of Christianity through the Roman empire, even while the purity of that holy religion was gradually debased, the manners of those Pagans who remained unconverted became more pure, and their religious doctrine and worship less immoral and absurd.-We might here adduce a tedious series of facts to the same purpose. Whenever Christians have had any intercourse with Pagan idolaters, and have not concealed the laws of the gospel, nor shewn by their conduct that they disregarded them, even those who have not been converted to Christianity have, however, been improved in their dispositions and manners by its influence. The emperor, whose virtues we have mentioned as arising, in a certain degree, from his acquaintance with Christianity, in a letter to an Heathen pontiff, desires him to turn his eyes to the means by which the superstition of Christians was propagated; by kindness to strangers, by sanctity of life, and by the attention which they paid to the burial of the dead. He recommends an imitation of their virtues, exhorts him to cause the priests of Galatia to be attentive to the worship of their gods, and authorises him to strip them of the sacerdotal fiction, unless they obliged their wives, children, and servants, to pay attention to the same duties. He likewise enjoins works of beneficence, desires the priest to relieve the distressed, and to build houses for the accommodation of strangers of whatever religion and says it is a disgrace for Pagans to disregard those of their own religion, while Christians do kind offices to strangers and enemies. This is indeed an eminent instance of the happy influence of Christianity even on the sentiments and manners of those who regarded the Christian name with abhorrence.

52 Chris iani

ferred to all

Upon the whole, then, may we not, from the particuty to be pre- lars here exhibited concerning the influence of this reother reli- ligion on the manners and happiness of men in society, gions. conclude that Christianity is infinitely superior to the superstitions of Paganism? as being in its tendency uniformly favourable to the virtue and the happiness of mankind, and even to the system of religion and laws delivered by Moses to the children of Israel. because, while the religion of the Jews was calculated only for one particular nation, and it may almost be said for one particular stage in the progress of society, Christianity is an universal religion, formed to exert its happy influence in all ages and among all nations; and has a tendency to dispel the shades of barbarism and ignorance, to promote the cultivation of the powers of the human understanding, and to encourage every virtuous refinement of manners.

53 View of

Mahometanism.

V. Another religion, which has made and still makes a conspicuous figure in the world, remains yet to be examined. The religion of Mahomet is that which we here allude to. Whether we consider through what an extensive part of the globe that religion prevails, the political importance of the nations among whom it is professed, or the striking peculiarity of character by which it is distinguished from all other religious systems

I

rance, des potism, and

If we view the state of the nations among whom it It is theat is established, we cannot hesitate a moment to declare y to it friendly to ignorance, to despotism, and to impurity of manners. The Turks, the Persians, and the Malays, impenty are all Mahometans; and in reviewing their history and considering their present state, we might find a sufficient number of facts to justify the above assertion: and we must not neglect to observe, that, as those nations are not known to have ever been since their conversion to Mahometanism under a much happier government, or in a much more civilized state than at present, it cannot be, with any degree of fairness, argued, with respect to Mahometanism as with respect to Christianity, that it is only when its influence is so opposed by other causes as to prevent it from producing its full effects, that it does not conduct those societies among which it is established to a high state of civilization and refinement.

One, and that by no means an inconsiderable, part of Remarks the Koran, was occasionally invented to solve some dif-on the ficulty with which the prophet found himself at the ra, c time perplexed, or to help him to the gratification of his ruling passions, lust and ambition. When he and his followers were, at any time, unsuccessful in those wars by which he sought to propagate his religion, to prevent them from falling away into unbelief, or sinking into despondency, he took care to inform them that God suffered such misfortunes to befal believers, as a punishment for their sins, and to try their faith. The doctrine of predestination, which he assiduously inculcated, had a happy effect to persuade his followers to rush boldly into the midst of death and danger, at his command. He prevailed with Zeyd to put away his wife, married her himself, and pretended that his crime had the approbation of heaven; and, in the Koran, he introduces the Deity approving of this marriage. Being repulsed from the siege of Mecca, be made a league with the inhabitants; but on the very next year, finding it convenient to surprise the city, by violating this treaty, he justified his perfidy by teaching his followers to disregard promises or leagues made with infidels. Ia some instances again, we find absurd prohibitions enjoined for similar reasons his officers, having on some occason drunk to excess, excited much riot and confusion in the camp, he prohibited the use of wine and other inebriating liquors among his followers in future. Now, though it must be acknowledged that many evils arise from the use of these liquors, yet we cannot but think

that,

56

Mahome

mixture of

Mahomet is allowed to have copied from the Christian tanism a and the Jewish religions, as well as from the idolatrous Christia- superstitions which prevailed through Arabia, and thus nity, Ju- to have formed a motley mixture of reason and absurdidaisin, and ty, of pure theism and wild superstition. He considered the super- also the circumstances of his country, and the prejudices stitions of of his countrymen. When he attended to the former,

Arabia.

57

Notion of heaven and, hell.

he was generally judicious enough to suit his doctrines and decisions to them with sufficient skill; the latter he also managed with the greatest art: but he entered into accommodation with them in instances when a true prophet or a wise and upright legislator would surely have opposed them with decisive vigour. Where the prophet indulges his own fancy, or borrows from the superstitions of his countrymen, nothing can be more ridiculous than that rhapsody of lies, contradictions, and extravagant fables, which he delivers to his followers. Amazing are the absurdities which he relates concerning the patriarchs, concerning Solomon, and concerning the animals that were assembled in Noah's ark.

But in the whole tissue of absurdities of which his system consists, there is nothing more absurd, or more happily calculated to promote impurity of manners, than his descriptions of heaven and hell; the ideas of future rewards and punishments which he sought to impress on the minds of his followers. Paradise was to abound with rivers, trees, fruits, and shady groves; wine which would not intoxicate was to be there plentifully served up to believers; the inhabitants of that happy region were all to enjoy perpetual youth; and their powers of enjoyment were to be enlarged and invigorated, in order that so many fine things might not be thrown away upon them. "Instead of inspiring the blessed inhabitants of paradise with a liberal taste for harmony and science, conversation and friendship (says Mr Gibbon), Mahomet idly celebrates the pearls and diamonds, the robes of silk, palaces of marble, dishes of gold, rich wines, artificial dainties, numerous attendants, and the whole train of sensual luxury.-Seventy two houris, or black-eyed girls of resplendent beauty, blooming youth, virgin purity, and exquisite sensibility, will be created for the use of the meanest believer; a moment of pleasure will be prolonged for 1000 years, and his faculties will be increased 100 fold, to render him worthy of his felicity." It must be acknowledged that he allows believers other more refined enjoyments than these; thus they are to see the face of God morning and evening; a pleasure which is far to exceed all the other pleasures of paradise. The following is his description of the punishments of hell: The wicked are there to drink nothing but boiling stinking water; breathe nothing but hot winds; dwell for ever in continual burning fire and smoke; eat nothing but briars and thorns, and the fruit of a tree that riseth out of the bottom of hell, whose branches resemble the heads of devils, and whose fruits shall be in their bellies like burning pitch.

All that we can conclude from a general view of the religion of Mahomet, from considering the character of the prophet, or from reviewing the history of the nations among whom it has been established, is, that it is one tissue of absurdities, with a few truths, however, and VOL. XVII. Part II.

Surely, therefore, even the deist, who rejects all but Mahomenatural religion, would not hesitate to prefer Christiani- tanism to be preferty, and even Judaism, to the religion of Mahomet. Ju-red to padaism, calculated for a peculiar people, was undoubted-ganism. ly much more sublime and much more happily framed to render that people virtuous and happy in the circumstances in which they were placed; and Christianity we find to be an universal religion, suited to all circumstances and to all the stages of society, and acting, whereever it is received, with more or less force to the support of civil order, virtuous manners, improvement of arts, and the advancement of science. However, as Mahometanism forms in some measure a regular system, as it has borrowed many of the precepts and doctrines of Judaism and Christianity, not indeed without corrupting and degrading them; and as it has contributed considerably to the support of civil government, although in a very imperfect form, in those countries in which it has obtained an establishment; for all these reasons we cannot but give it the preference to the superstitions of Paganism.

59

THE whole result of our inquiries under this article, Conclusion. therefore, is, 1. That as man, by the constitution of his mind, is naturally fitted for acquiring certain notions concerning the existence of invisible superior beings, and their influence on human life; so the religious ideas which we find to have in all ages of the world, and in all the different stages of the progress of society, prevailed among mankind, appear to have originated partly from the natural exertions of the human imagination, understanding, and passions, in various circumstances, and partly from supernatural revelation.

2. That though religious opinions, together with the moral precepts, and the rites of worship connected with them, may appear to have been in numerous instances injurious to the virtue and happiness of society; yet, as they have often contributed to lead the mind to form moral distinctions, when it would otherwise in all probability have been an entire stranger to such distinctions; and as they have always contributed in an essential manner to the establishment and the support of civil government-it must therefore be acknowledged that they have always, even in their humblest state, been more beneficial than hurtful to mankind.

3. That when the different systems of religion that have prevailed in the world are comparatively viewed with respect to their influence on the welfare of society, we find reason to prefer the polytheism of the Greeks and Romans to the ruder, wilder, religious ideas and ceremonies that have prevailed among savages; Maho. metanism, perhaps in some respects, to the polytheism of the Greeks and Romans; Judaism, however, to Mahometanism; and Christianity to all of them.

RELIGIOUS, in a general sense semething that relates to religion.We say, a religious life, religious + 4X society,

Religious, society, &c.-Churches and churchyards are religious Rembrandt. places.-A religious war is also called a croisade. See CROISADE.

RELIGIOUS, is also used substantially for a person engaged by solemn vows to the monastic life; or a person shut up in a monastery to lead a life of devotion and austerity, under some rule or institution. The male religious we popularly call monks and friars; the female,

nuns and canonesses.

REMBRANDT VAN RHIN, a Flemish painter and engraver of great eminence, was born in 1606, in a mill upon the banks of the Rhine, from whence he derived his name of Van Rhin. This master was born with a creative genius, which never attained perfection. It was said of him, that he would have invented painting, if he had not found it already discovered. Without study, without the assistance of any master, but by his own instinct, he formed rules, and a certain practical method for colouring; and the mixture produced the designed effect. Nature is not set off to the greatest advantage in his pictures; but there is such a striking truth and simplicity in them, that his heads, particularly his portraits, seem animated, and rising from the canvas. He was fond of strong contrasts of light and shade. The light entered in his working-room only by a hole, in the manner of a camera obscura, by which he judged with greater certainty of his productions. This artist considered painting like the stage, where the characters do not strike unless they are exaggerated. He did not pursue the method of the Flemish painters, of finishing his pieces. He sometimes gave his light such thick touches, that it seemed more like modelling than painting. A head of his has been shown, the nose of which was as thick of paint, as that which he copied from nature. He was told one day, that by his peculiar method of employing colours, his pieces appeared rugged and uneven-he replied, he was a painter, and not a dyer. He took a pleasure in dressing his figures in an extraordinary manner: with this view he had collected a great number of eastern caps, ancient armour, and drapery long since out of fashion. When he was advised to consult antiquity to attain a better taste in drawing, as his was usually heavy and uneven, he took his counsellor to the closet where these old vestments were deposited, saying, by way of derision, those were his antiques.

Rembrandt, like most men of genius, had many caprices. Being one day at work, painting a whole family in a single picture, word being brought him that his monkey was dead, he was so affected at the loss of this animal, that, without paying any attention to the persons who were sitting for their pictures, he painted the monkey upon the same canvas. This whim could not fail of displeasing those for whom the piece was designed; but he would not efface it, choosing rather to lose the sale of his picture.

This freak will appear still more extraordinary in Rembrandt, when it is considered that he was extremely avaricious; which vice daily grew upon him. He practised various stratagems to sell his prints at a high price. The public were very desirous of purchasing them, and not without reason. In his prints the same taste prevails as in his pictures; they are rough and irregular, but picturesque. In order to heighten the value of his prints, and increase their price, he made his son sell them

as if he had purloined them from his father; others he Rembrandt exposed at public sales, and went thither himself in disguise to bid for them; sometimes he gave out that he Rem.cs was going to leave Holland, and settle in another country. These stratagems were successful, and he got his own price for his prints. At other times he would print his plates half finished, and expose them to sale; he afterwards finished them, and they became fresh plates. When they wanted retouching, he made some alterations in them, which promoted the sale of his prints a third time, though they differed but little from the first impressions.

His pupils, who were not ignorant of his avarice, one day painted some pieces of money upon cards; and Rembrandt no sooner saw them, than he was going to take them up. He was not angry at the pleasantry; but it had no effect in checking his avarice. He died in 1674.

REMEMBRANCE, is when the idea of something formerly known recurs again to the mind without the operation of a like object on the external sensory. See MEMORY and REMINISCENCE.

REMEMBRANCERS, anciently called clerks of the remembrance, certain officers in the exchequer, whereof three are distinguished by the names of the king's remembrancer, the lord treasurer's remembrancer, and the remembrancer of the first fruits. The king's remembrancer enters in his office all recognizances taken before the barons for any of the king's debts, for appearances or observing of orders; he also takes all bonds for the king's debts, &c. and makes out processes thereon. He likewise issues processes against the collectors of the customs, excise, and others, for their accounts; and informations upon penal statutes are entered and sued in his office, where all proceedings in matters upon English bills in the exchequer-chamber remain. His duty farther is to make out the bills of compositions upon penal laws, to take the statement of debts; and into his office are delivered all kinds of indentures and other evidences which concern the assuring any lands to the crown. He every year in crastino animarum, reads in open court the statute for election of sheriffs; and likewise openly reads in court the oaths of all the officers, when they are admitted.

The lord treasurer's remembrancer is charged to make out process against all sheriffs, escheators, receivers, and bailiffs for their accounts. He also makes out writs of fieri facias, and extent for debts due to the king, either in the pipe or with the auditors: and process for all such revenue as is due to the king on account of his tenures. He takes the account of sheriffs; and also keeps a record, by which it appears whether the sheriffs or other accountants pay their proffers due at Easter and Michaelmas; and at the same time he makes a record, whereby the sheriffs or other accountants keep their prefixed days: there are likewise brought into his office all the accounts of customers, comptrollers, and accountants, in order to make entry thereof on record; also all estreats and amercements are certified here, &c.

The remembrancer of the first-fruits takes all compositions and bonds for the payments of first-fruits and tenths; and makes out process against such as do not pay the same.

REMINISCENCE, that power of the human mind, whereby it recollects itself, or calls again into its remem

baance,

min's- brance, such ideas or notions as it had really forgot: in which it differs from memory, which is a treasuring up of things in the mind, and keeping them there, without aphan. forgetting them.

ence

REMISSION, in Physics, the abatement of the power or efficacy of any quality; in opposition to the increase of the same, which is called intension. REMISSION, in Law, &c. denotes the pardon of a crime, or giving up the punishment due thereto. REMISSION, in Medicine, is when a distemper abates for a time, but does not go quite off.

REMITTANCE, in Commerce, the traffic or return of money from one place to another, by bills of exchange, orders, or the like.

REMONSTRANCE, an expostulation or humble supplication, addressed to a king, or other superior, beseeching him to reflect on the inconveniences or ill consequences of some order, edict, or the like. This word is also used for an expostulatory counsel, or advice; or a gentle and handsome reproof, made either in general, or particular, to apprize of or correct some fault, &c.

REMONSTRANTS, in church history, a title which was given to the Arminians in consequence of the remonstrance made by them in the year 1610 to the states of Holland, against the sentence of the synod of Dort, which pronounced them to be heretics. The chief leaders of the Remonstrants were Episcopius and Grotius; and their principles were first openly countenanced in England by Archbishop Laud. In opposition to the representation or remonstrance of the Arminians, the Dutch Calvinists presented an address, which was called a counter-remonstrance; and hence they obtained the denomination of Counter-remonstrants. A great deal of keen controversy was agitated in this affair, by these rival sects. See ARMINIANS.

REMORA, or SUCKING-FISH, a species of ECHENEIS. See ECHENEIS, ICHTHYOLOGY Index.-Many incredible things are related of this animal by the ancients; as that it had the power of stopping the largest and swiftest vessel in its course; and even to this day it is asserted by the fishermen in the Mediterranean, that it has a power of retarding the motion of their boats by attaching itself to them; for which reason they kill it whenever they fancied this retardation took place.

REMORSE, in its worst sene, means that pain or anguish which one feels after having committed some bad action. It also means tenderness, pity, or sympathetic sorrow. It is most generally used in a bad sense, and is applied to persons who feel compunction for some great crime, as murder and such like. Murders which have been committed with the utmost circumspection and secrecy, and the authors of which could never have been discovered by any human investigation, have been frequently unfolded by the remorse and confession of the perpetrators, and that too many years afterwards. Of this there are numerous instances, which are well authenticated, and which are so generally known that it is needless to relate them here. See REPENTANCE. REMPHAN, an idol or Pagan god whom St Stephen says the Israelites worshipped in the wilderness as they passed from Egypt to the land of Promise: "Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god REMPHAN; figures which ye made to worship them." That the martyr here quotes the following

words of the prophet Amos, all commentators are a Remphan: greed: "Ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch, and CHIUN your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves." But if this coincidence between the Christian preacher and the Jewish proplet be admitted, it follows, that Chiun and Remphun are. two names of one and the same deity. This is indeed farther evident from the LXX translators having substituted in their version the word Papa, instead of Chiun, which we read in the Hebrew and English Bibles. But the question which still remains to be answered is, what god was worshipped by the name of Remphan, Raiphan, or Chiun? for about the other divinity here mentioned there is no dispute. See MOLOCH.

That Chiun or Remphan was an Egyptian divinity, cannot be questioned; for at the era of the Erodus the Hebrews must have been strangers to the idolatrous worship of all other nations; nor are they ever accused of any other than Egyptian idolatries during their 40 years wanderings in the wilderness, till towards the end of that period that they became infected by the Moabites with the worship of Baal-peor. That Moloch, Moleck, Melek, or Milcom, in its original acceptation, denotes a king or chief, is known to every oriental scholar; and therefore when it is used as the name of a god, it undoubtedly signifies the sun, and is the same divinity with the Egyptian Osiris. Reasoning in this way, many critics, and we believe Selden is in the number, have concluded that Chiun, and of course Remphan, is the planet Saturn; because Chiun is written Ciun, Cevan, Ceuan, Chevvin; all of which are modern oriental names of that planet.

But against this hypothesis insurmountable objections present themselves to our minds. It is universally allowed (see POLYTHEISM), that the first objects of idolatrous worship were the sun and moon, considered as the king and queen of heaven. The fixed stars, indeed, and the planets, were afterwards gradually admitted into the Pagan rubric; but we may be sure that those would be first associated with the two prime luminaries which most resembled them in brightness, and were supposed to be most benignant to man. But the planet Saturn appears to the naked eye with so feeble a lustre, that, in the infancy of astronomy, it could not make such an impression on the mind as to excite that admiration which we must conceive to have always preceded planetary wor-` ship. It is to be observed, too, that by the Pagan writers of antiquity Saturn is constantly represented as a star of baleful influence. He is termed the leaden planet; the planet of malevolent aspect; the dismal, the inhuman star. That the Egyptians, at so early a period as that under consideration, should have adored as one of their greatest gods a planet obscure in its appearance, distant in its situation, and baleful in its influence, is wholly incredible.

There is, however, another star which they might naturally adore, and which we know they actually did adore, as one of their most beneficent gods, at a very early period. This is the algaxvar or sigios of the Greeks, the canis or stella canicularis of the Romans, and the dog-star of modern Europe. By the Egyptians it was called Sothis or Soth, which signifies safety, bencficence, fecundity; and it received this name, because making its appearance in the heavens at the very time when the Nile overflowed the country, it was supposed 4 X 2