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them was theology and politics; they being always 
efteemed as the interpreters of all law, both divine and 
human ; on which account they were wonderfully revered 
by the people. Hence, Cicero obferves, that none were 
admitted to the crown of Perfia, but fuch as were well in- 
ftrufted in the difcipline of the Magi ; who taught 
fixo-fanx, and (bowed princes how to govern. 
Plato, Apuleius, Laertius, and others, agree, that the 
philofophy of the Magi related principally, however, to 
the w or (hip of the gods; they were the perlons who were 
to offer prayers, fupplications, and facrifices, as if the gods 
would be heard by them alone. “ They teach their doc¬ 
trine concerning the nature and origin of the gods,” fays 
Laertius, “whom they think to be fire, earth, and water; 
they rejeft the life of pictures and images, and reprobate 
the opinion that the gods are male and female ; they dif- 
courfe to the people concerning juftice ; they think it im¬ 
pious to confume dead bodies with fire ; they allow' of 
marriage between mother and fon ; they praeftife divina¬ 
tion and prophecy, pretending that the gods appear to 
them ; they forbid the ufe of ornaments in drefs ; they 
clothe themfelves in a white robe ; they make ufe of the 
ground as their bed, of herbs, cheefe, and bread, for food, 
and of a reed for their ftaff. Strabo alfo relates, that there 
were in Cappadocia a great number of Magi, who were 
called Pyrethi, or worlhippers of fire, and many temples of 
the Perfian gods, in the midft of which were altars at¬ 
tended by priefts, who daily renewed the facred fire, ac¬ 
companying the ceremony wijh miific.” Thefe people 
■were held in fuch veneration among the Perfians, that 
Darius, the fon of Hyftafpes, among other things, had it 
engraven on his monument, that he was the Malter of the 
Magi. 
The Magi, or Magians, formed one of the two grand 
feifts into which the idolatry of the world was divided be¬ 
tween five and fix hundred years before Chrift. Thefe 
abominated all thofe images which were worftiipped by 
the other febf, denominated Sabians, and paid their wor- 
fliip to the Deity under the emblem of fire. Their chief 
dodlrine was, that there were two principles, one of which 
was the caufe of all good, and the other the caufe of all 
evil. The former w as reprefented by light, and the latter 
by darknefs, as their trued fymbols ; and of the coni- 
pofition of thefe two they fuppofed that all things in 
the world were made. The good god they called Yazdan, 
denominated by the Greeks Oroma/des ; and the evil god 
Ahraman, whom the Greeks called Arimanius. Concern¬ 
ing thefe two gods, there was this difference of opinion 
among them ; that whereas fome held both of them to 
have been from all eternity, there were others who con¬ 
tended, that the good god only was eternal, and that the 
other was created. But they both agreed in this, that 
there will be a continual oppolition between thefe two, 
till the end of the world ; when the format’ (hall over¬ 
come the latter ; and that from thenceforth each of them 
fhall have his world to himfelf; that is, the good god (hall 
have his world, with all good men with him ; and the evil 
god his world, with all evil men with him. The good 
god they always worfhipped before fire, as being the caufe 
of light; and efpecially before the fun, as being, in their 
opinion, the molt perfect fire, and caufing the moft perfect 
light; and for this reafon they had in all their temples 
fire continually burning on altars, erefted in them for that 
purpofe. Before thefe iacred fires they performed all their 
public a£ts of devotion, as they likewife praCtifed their 
private devotions before their private fires in their own 
houfes. Such were the tenets of this fetft, when Smerdis, 
who was the principal leader of it, having ufurped the 
crown after the death of Cambyfes, was (lain by feven 
princes of Perfia ; and many of the Magians, who adhered 
to him, fhared likewife the fame fate. In confequence of 
this event, thofe who adopted the fentiments of this febt, 
were called, by way of derifion, Magians, from mige-gujk, 
which fignified, in the language of the country then in 
ufe, “ one that had his ear3 cropped.” The whole feft of 
VOL. XIV. No. 959, 
G I. 
m. 
the Magians would foon have funk into utter extinftion, 
if it had not, in a few years after this period, been revived 
and reformed by Zoroafter. 
This celebrated philofopher began about the thirty- 
fixth year of the reign of Darius, to reftore and reform 
the Magian fyftem of religion. See the article Law, vol. 
xii. p. 350. In (lead of admitting the exigence of two fir It 
caufes, with the Magians, he introduced a principle fu- 
perior to them both, one fupreme God, who created both 
thefe, and out of thefe two produced, according to his 
fovereign pleafure, every thing elfe. See Ifaiah xlv. 5, 6,7. 
In order to avoid making God the author of all evil, he 
taught that God originally created only light or good, and 
that darknefs or evil followed it by confequence, as the 
(hadow doth the perfon. According to his doctrine, there 
was one fupreme Being independently and felf-exiftino- 
from all eternity ; under him there were two angels, one 
the angel of light, the author and director of all good ; 
and the other the angel of darknefs, who is the author 
and director of all evil ; thefe two, out of the mixture o-f 
light and darknefs, made all things that are; and they are 
in a’(fate of perpetual confiift; fo that, where the angel 
of light prevails, there the mod is good ; and where die 
angel of darknefs prevails, there the moft is evil; this 
llruggle (hall continue to the end of the world ; and then 
there (hall be a general refurreftion, and a day of judg¬ 
ment; after which, the angel of darknefs and his difcl- 
ples (hall go into a world of their own, where they (hall 
fuffer in everlafting darknefs the punifliment of their evil 
deeds; and the angel of light and his difciples (hall <h> 
into a world of their own, where they (hall receive in 
everlafting light the reward due unto their good deeds- 
and henceforward they (hall for ever remain feparate! 
Plutarch, after relating feverai fabulous tales concerning 
the contefts between the goodand'evil daemons, proceeds^ 
“The fated time is approaching, in which Arimanius 
himfelf (hall be utterly deftroyed ; in which the furfaceof 
the earth (hall become a perfebl plain, and all men (hall 
fpeak one language, and live happily together in one fo- 
ciety.” He adds, on the authority of Theopompus, “ It 
is the opinion of the Magi, that each of thefe gods' (hail 
fubdue and be fubdued by turns for 6000 years, but that 
at la It, the evil principle (hall perilh, and men (hall live 
in happinefs; neither needing food nor yielding a (hadow - 
the God who directs thefe things taking his repofe for 
a time, which, though it may feetn long to man, is but 
Ihort.” 
Thofe who remain of this feel in Perfia and India, in 
the prefent day, retain the fame doftrines. Zoroafter alfo 
caufed fire-temples to be erefted wherever he came; for 
having feigned that he was taken up Into heaven, and 
there inftrufted in the doftrines he taught, by GodVim- 
felf, out of the midft of a great and moft bright flame of 
fire, he taught his followers that fire was the truelt (he- 
chinah of the divine prefence ; that, the fun being the moft 
perfeft fire, God bad there the throne of his glory, and 
the refidence of his divine prefence in a peculiar manner • 
and next to this in our elementary fire ; and, therefore 5 
he ordered them to direfl all their worftiip to God firft 
towards the fun, which they called Mithra, and next to¬ 
wards their facred fires; and, when they came before thefe 
fires to worftiip, they always approached them on the weft 
fide, that having their faces towards them, and alfo to¬ 
wards the rifing fun at the fame time, they might direfl 
their worfliip -towards both. And in this polture they 
always performed every afl of their worfliip. Zoroafter 
alfo pretended, that he brought fome of the heavenly fire 
with him on his return, and placed it on the altar of the 
firlt fire-temple, which he erected at Xiz, in Media, whence 
it was propagated to all the reft. 
No images or ftatues were permitted in the Perfian 
worfliip. Hence, when Xerxes found idols in the Gre¬ 
cian temples, he, by the advice of the Magi, fet them on 
fire, faying, that the gods, to whom all things are op.eji, 
are not to be confined within the walls of a temple* 
c c This 
