28 ABR 
ftatues in his abfence ; and that a man, who pretended to 
be a purchafer, afked him how old he was: Abraham an- 
fwered, “Fifty.” -“Wretch that thou art (faidthe other), 
for adoring at fuch an age a being which is but a day old !” 
Thefe words greatly confounded Abraham. Some time 
afterwards, a woman brought him fome flour, that he might 
give it as an offering to the idols; but Abraham, inftead of 
doing fo, took up a hatchet and broke them all to pieces, 
excepting the larged, into the hand of which he put the 
weapon. Terah, at his return, afked whence came all 
this havock? Abraham made anfwer, that the ftatues had 
had a great conteft which fhould eat fir ft of the oblation ; 
“ Upon which (laid he) the god you fee there, being the 
flouted, hewed the others to pieces, with that hatchet.” 
Terah told him this was bantering ; for thofe idols had not 
the fenfe to aft in this manner. Abraham retorted thefe 
words upon his father againft the worfhipping ot fuch gods. 
Terah, flung with this raillery, delivered up his fon to the 
cognizance of Nimrod, the fovereign of the country: who 
exhorted Abraham to vvorfliip the fire ; and, upon his re- 
fufal, commanded him to be thrown into the midfl of the 
flames • “ Now let your God (laid he) come and deliver 
you.’ But (adds the tradition) Abraham came fafe and 
found out of the flames.—This tradition is not of modern 
date, fince it is told by St. Jerome; who feemsto credit it 
in general, but dilbelieves that part of it which makes Te¬ 
rah fo cruel as to be the informer againft his own fon. 
Perhaps the word Ur might have given rife to the fiction 
altogether. Such as lay ftrefs on the following words 
which God fays to Abraham (Gen. xv. 7.), I am the Lord 
that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, imagine that lie 
faved him from a great perfecution, fince he employed the 
very fame words in the beginning of the decalogue to de¬ 
note the deliverance from Egypt. 
Abraham is faid to have been well Jkilled in many fei- 
ences, and to have written leveral books. Jofephus tells us 
that he taught the Egyptians arithmetic and geometry; 
and, according to Eupolemus and Artapan, he inftrufted 
the Phoenicians, as well as the Egyptians, in aftronomy. A 
work which treats of the creation has been long aferibed 
to him: it is mentioned in the Talmud, and the Rabbis 
Chanina and Hofchia ufed to read it on the eve before the 
fabbath. In the firft ages of Chriftianity, according to St. 
Epiphanius, an heretical feft, called Sethmians, difperfed a 
piece which had the title of Abraham's Revelation. Origen 
mentions alfo a treatife fuppofedto be wrote by this patri¬ 
arch. All the feveral works which Abraham compofed 
in the plains of Mamre, are faid to be contained in the li¬ 
brary of the monaftery of the Holy Crofson Mount Ama- 
ria in Ethiopia. The book on the creation was printed at 
Paris in 1552, and tranflated into Latin by Poftel: Rittan- 
gel, a converted Jew', and profeffor at Konigfberg, gave al¬ 
fo a Latin tranflation of it, with remarks, in 1642. 
Abraham Usq«ue, a Portuguefe Jew, who tranflated 
the Bible out of Hebrew into Spanifh. It was printed at 
Ferrara in 1,553, and reprinted in Holland in 1630. This 
Bible, efpecially the firft edition, which is mofi valuable, 
marked with ftars at certain words, which are defigned 
o (hew that thefe words are difficult to be underftood in tire 
Hebrew, and that they may be ufed in a different fenfe. 
Abraham (Nicholas), a learned Jefuit, born in the dio- 
cefe of Toul, in Lorrain, in 1589. He obtained the rank 
of divinity profeffor in the univerfity of Pont-a-Moufon, 
which he enjoyed feventeen years, and died September 7, 
1655. He wrote Notes on Virgil and on Nonnius; A 
Commentary on fome of Cicero’s Orations, in two vols. 
folio; an excellent colleftion of theological pieces in folio, 
Entitled Pharus Veterus Tef amend-, and fome other works. 
ABR AHAMITES, an order of monks exterminated for 
idolatry by Theophilus in the ninth century. Alfo the 
name of another feft of heretics who had adopted the er¬ 
rors of Paulus. 
ABRAHAM’s BALM. The name of an herb. 
ABRANTES, a town of Portugal, in Eftremadura, 
feated on the river Tajo, belongs to a marquis of the fame 
ABR 
name. It (lands high, is furrounded with gardens and 
olive-trees, and contains thirty-five thoufand inhabitants. 
It has four convents, an alms-houfe, and an hofpital. Lat. 
39. 13. W. Ion. 7.18. 
ABRASION, y. The aft of abrading or rubbing off. 
In medicine, the wearing away of the natural mucus, which 
covers the membranes, particularly thofe of the ftomach 
and bow'els, by corrofive or (harp medicines, or humours. 
The matter worn off by the attrition of bodies. 
ABRAUM,/. in natural hiftory, a name given by fome 
writers to a fpecies of red clay, ufed in England by the ca¬ 
binet-makers, &c. to give a red colour to new mahogany 
v'ood. We have it from the Ille of Wight; but it is alfo 
found in Germany and Italy. 
ABRAXAS,/.or ABRASAX,thefupreme god of the Ba- 
filidian heretics. It is a myftical word, compofed of the 
Greek numerals a, (•?, ^ a, a, r, which together make up 
the number CCCLXV. For Bafllides taught, that there 
were 365 heavens between the earth and the empyrean ; 
each of which heavens had its angel or intelligence, which 
created it ; each of which angels likewife was created by 
the angel next above it; thus afeending by a fcale to the 
Supreme Being, or firft Creator. The Balilidians ufed the 
word Abraxas by way of charm or amulet. 
Abraxas, yi an antique ftone with the word abraxas en¬ 
graven on it. They are of various fizes, and moll of them 
as old as the third century. They are frequent in the cabi¬ 
nets of the curious ; and a colleftion of them, as complete 
as poffible, has been defired by feveral. There is a fine one 
in the abbey of St. Genevieve, which has occafioned much 
fpeculation. Moftof themfeem to have come from Egypt; 
whence they are of fome ufe for explaining the antiquities 
of that country. Sometimes they have no other infeription 
befides the word : but others have the names of faints, an¬ 
gels, or Jehovah himfelf, annexed ; though mod ufually 
the name of the Bafilidian god. Sometimes there is a re- 
prefentation of Ifis fitting on a lobe, or apis, furrounded 
with ftars ; fometimes monftrous compofitions of animals, 
obfeene images, Phalli, and Ithyfalli. 'I he gravingis rare¬ 
ly good, but the W'ordon thereverfe is fometimes (aid to be 
in a more modern tafte than the other. The charafters are 
ufually Greek, Hebrew, Coptic, orHetnerian, and fome¬ 
times of a mongrel kind, invented, as it would feem, to 
render their meaning the more infcrutable. It is difputed 
whether the Veronica of Montreuil, or the granite obelilk 
mentioned by Gori, be Abraxes. 
ABREAST, adv. Side by fide; in fuch a pofition that 
the breads may bear againft the fame line. In fea language 
it denotes a fituation in which two or more (hips lie, with 
their (ides parallel to each other, and tlaeir heads equally 
advanced. This term more particularly regards the line of 
battle at fea, where, on the different occafions of attack, re¬ 
treat, or purfuit, the feveral fqtiadrons or divifions of a fleet 
are obliged to vary their difpofitions, and yet maintain a 
proper regularity by failing in right or curved lines. 
When the line is formed abreaft, the whole fquadron ad¬ 
vances uniformly, the (hips being equally diftant from and 
parallel to each other, fo that the length of each (hip forms 
a right angle with the extent of the fquadron or line abreaft. 
The commander in chief is always ftationed in the centre, 
and the fecond and third in command in the centres of 
their refpeftive fqtiadrons.— Abreaft, within the (hip, im- 
plies on a line with the beam, or by the fide of any object 
aboard; as, the frigate fprung a leak abreaft of the main 
hatch-way, i. e. on the fame line with the main hatch-way, 
eroding the (hip’s length at right angles, in oppofition to 
afore or abaft the hatch-way.—We difcovered a fleet 
abreaft of Beachy-head; i. c. oft', direftly oppofite to it. 
To ABPTDGE, v.a. \_abreger, Fr. abbrevio , Lat.] To 
make fhorter in words, keeping (till the fame fubftance. 
To contraft, to diminifti, to cut (hort. To deprive of; to 
cut off from. In which fenfe it is followed by the particle 
from, or of, preceding the thing taken away. 
ABRIDGED OF, Jtart. Deprived of, debarred from, 
cut IhorL 
ABRIDGES, 
