The followers of Macarius, an Egyptian monk, who was distinguished towards the close of the fourth 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 human race.
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 SEMI-ARIANS.
The doctrine or principles of Machiavel, as laid down in his treatise entitled The Prince, and which consists 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 religion. This work has been translated into many languages, and wrote 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.
Religious of St. a denomination given to divers communities of nuns, consisting generally of penitent courtezans; sometimes also called Magdalanettes. They were established at Mentz in 1542; at Paris in 1492; at Naples in 1324; at Rouen and Bordeaux 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 vows, 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 as 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 all public prostitutes dying interstate 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.
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 private 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.
The chief reformation this pretended prophet made
in the Magian religion was in the first principle of it; for he introduced a
god superior both to Ommasdes and Arimanius. Dr. Prideaux is of opinion that
Zoroaster took the hint of this 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, ch. 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 everlasting darkness; and the angel of
light and his disciples shall also go into a world of their own, where they
shall be rewarded in everlasting light.
Zoroaster was the first who built fire-temples;
the Magians before his time performing their devotion on the tops of hills and
in the open air, by which means they were exposed to the inconvenience of rain
and tempests, which often extinguished their sacred fires. To procure the
greater 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 the 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 skilled
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 superintendents, 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.
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.
Or MASTER OF DISCIPLINE, the appellation of a certain ecclesiastical officer in the ancient Christian church. It was a custom in some places, particularly in Spain, in the time of the Gothic kings, about the end of the fifth century, for parents to dedicate their children very young to the service of the church. For this purpose they were taken into the bishop's family, and educated under him by some grave and discreet person whom the bishop deputed for that purpose, and set over them, by the name of Presbyter or Magister Disciplinae, whose chief business it was to inspect their behaviour, and instruct them in the rules and discipline of the church.
Greatness of soul; a disposition of mind exerted in contemning dangers and difficulties, in scorning temptations, and despising earthly pomp and splendour. Cu de offic. lec. i. ch. 20; Grove's Moral Phil. p. 268, vol. ii. See articles COURAGE, FORTITUDE, in this work; Steel's Christian Hero; Watts on Self-Murder.
The system of religion formed and propagated by
Mahomet, and still 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 Abd'almotalleb, and dying very young, and in his father's
life-time, left his widow and an infant son in very mean circumstances, his
whole subsistence consisting but of five camels and one Ethiopian she slave.
Abd'almotalleb was therefore obliged to take care of his grandchild Mahomet;
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 mother, 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. Having, 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
to his wife Khadijah; and acquainted her, that the angel Gabriel had just
before appeared to him, and told him that he was appointed the apostle of God:
he also repeated to her a passage which he pretended had been revealed to him
by the ministry of the angel, with those other circumstances of this first
appearance which are related by the Mahometan writers. Khadijah received the
news with great joy, swearing by Him in whose hands her soul was, that she
trusted he would be the prophet of his nation; and immediately communicated
what she had heard to her cousin Warakah Ebn Nawfal, who, being a Christian,
could write in the Hebrew character, and was tolerably well versed in the
Scriptures; and he readily came into her opinion, assuring her that the same angel
who had formerly appeared unto Moses was now sent to Mahomet. The first
overture the prophet made was in the month of Ramadan, in the fortieth year of
his age, which is therefore usually called the year of his mission.
Encouraged by so goof a beginning, he resolved to
proceed, and try for some time what he could do by private persuasion, not
daring to hazard the whole affair by exposing it too suddenly to the public. He
soon made proselytes of those under his own roof, viz. his wife Khadijah, his servant
Zeid Ebn Haretha, to whom he gave his freedom on that occasion (which
afterwards became a rule to his followers,) and his cousin and pupil Ali, the
son of Abu Taleb, though then very young: but this last, making no account of
the other two, used to style himself the first of believers. The next person
Mahomet applied to was Abd'allah Ebn Abi Kohafa, surnamed Abu Beer, a man of
great authority among the Koreish, and one whose interest he well knew would be
of great service to him; as it soon appeared; for Abu Beer, being gained over,
prevailed also on Othman Ebn Affan. Abd'alraham Ebn Awf. Saad Ebn Abbi Wakkus,
AtZobeir al Awam, and Telha Ebn Obeid'allah, all principal men of Mecca, to
follow his example. These men were six chief companions, who, with a few more,
were converted in the space of three years: at the end of which Mahomet having
as he hoped, a sufficient interest to support him, made his mission no longer a
secret, but gave out that God had commanded him to admonish his near relations;
and in order to do it with more convenience and prospect of success, he
directed Ali to prepare an entertainment and invited the sons and descendants
of Abd'almotalleb, intending then to open his mind to them.--This was done, and
about forty of them came; but Abu Leheb, one of his uncles, making the company
break up before Mahomet had an opportunity of speaking, obliged him to give
them a second invitation the next day; and when they were come, he made them
the following speech: "I know no man in all Arabia who can offer his
kindred a more excellent thing than I now do to you; I offer you happiness both
in this life, and in that which is to come: God Almighty hath commanded me to
call you unto him. Who, therefore, among you will be assistant to me herein,
and become my brother and my vicegerent?" All of them hesitating and
declining the matter, Ali at length rose up, and declared that he would be his
assistant, and vehemently threatened those who should oppose him. Mahomet upon
this embraced Ali with great demonstrations of Affection, and desired all who
were present to hearken to and obey him as his deputy; at which the company
broke out into a great laughter, telling Abu Taleb that he must now pay
obedience to his son.
This repulse, however, was so far from discouraging
Mahomet, that he began to preach in public to the people, who heard him with
some patience, till he came to upbraid them with the idolatry, obstinacy, and
perverseness of themselves and their fathers; which so highly provoked them,
that they declared themselves his enemies; and would soon have procured his
ruin, had he not been protected by Abu Taleb. The chief of the Koreish warmly
solicited this person to desert his nephew, making frequent remonstrances
against the innovations he was attempting: which proving ineffectual, they at
length threatened him with an open rupture if he did not prevail on Mahomet to
desist. At this Abu Taleb was so far moved, that he earnestly dissuaded his
nephew from pursuing the affair any farther, representing the great danger that
he and his friends must otherwise run. But Mahomet was not to be intimidated;
telling his uncle plainly, that if they set the sun against him on his right
hand, and the moon on his left, he would not leave his enterprise: and Abu
Taleb, seeing him so firmly resolved to proceed, used no farther arguments, but
promised to stand by him against all his enemies.
The Koreish, finding they could prevail neither
by fair words nor menaces, tried what they could do by force and ill treatment;
using Mahomet's followers so very injuriously, that it was not safe for them to
continue at Mecca any longer; whereupon Mahomet gave leave to such of them as
had no friends to protect them to seek for refuge elsewhere. And accordingly,
in the fifth year of the prophet's mission, sixteen of them, four of whom were
women, fled into Ethiopia; and among them Othman Ebn Affan, and his wife
Rakiah, Mahomet's daughter. This was the first flight; but afterwards several
others followed them, retiring one after another, to the number of eighty-three
men, and eighteen women, besides children. These refugees were kindly received
by the Najashi, or king of Ethiopia, who refused to deliver them up to those
whom the Koreish sent to demand them, and, as the Arab writers unanimously
attest, even professed the Mahometan religion.
In the sixth year of his mission, Mahomet had the
pleasure of seeing his party strengthened by the conversion of his uncle Hamza,
a man of great valour and merit; and of Omar Ebn al Kattab, a person highly
esteemed, and once a violent opposer of the prophet. As persecution generally
advances rather than obstructs the spreading of a religion, Islamism made so
great a progress among the Arab tribes, that the Koreish, to suppress it
effectually if possible, in the seventh year of Mahomet's mission, made a
solemn league or covenant against the Hashemites, and the family of
Abd'slmotalleb, engaging themselves to contract no marriages with any of them,
and to have no communication with them; and to give it the greater sanction,
reduced it into writing, and laid it up in the Caaba. Upon this the tribe
became divided into two factions; and the family of Hasham all repaired to Abu
Taleb, as their head; except only Abd'al Uzza, surnamed Abu Laheb, who, out of inveterate
hatred to his nephew and his doctrine, went over to the opposite party, whose
chief was Abu Sosian Ebn Harb, of the family of Omneya.
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 acquitesced; 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.
On the death of these two persons, the Koreish
began to be more troublesome than ever to their prophet, and especially some
who had formerly been his intimate friends; insomuch that he found himself
obliged to seek for shelter elsewhere, and first pitched upon Tayef, about
sixty miles east from Mecca, for the place of his retreat. Thither, therefore,
he went, accompanied by his servant Zeid, and applied himself to two of the
chief of the tribe of Thakif, who were the inhabitants of that place; but they
received him very coldly. However, he staid there a month; and some of the more
considerate and better sort of men treated him with little respect; but the
slaves and inferior people at length rose against him; and bringing 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.
In the twelfth year of his mission it was that
Mahomet gave out that he had made his night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem,
and thence to heaven, so much spoken of by all that write of him. Dr. Prideaux
thinks he invented it either to answer the expectations of those who demanded
some miracles 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 as the oral law of the Jews. But it does not appear that Mahomet
himself ever expected so great a regard should be paid to his sayings as his
followers have since done; and, seeing he all along disclaimed any power of
performing miracles, it 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
persuading them that he had all by the ministry of Gabriel.
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 Beer vouched for his veracity, and
declared, that, if Mahomet affirmed it to be true, he verily believed the
whole. Which happy incident 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 if afterwards arrived.
In the 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 the 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 was called the women's oath; not that any omen were present at this time,
but because a man was not thereby obliged to take up arms in defence of Mahomet
or his religion; it being the same oath that was afterwards exacted of the
women, the form of which we have in the Koran, and is to this effect, viz. That
they should renounce all idolatry; and that they should not steal, nor commit
fornication, nor kill their children (as the pagan Arabs used to do when they
apprehended they should not be able to maintain them,) nor forge calumnies; and
that they should obey the prophet in all things that were reasonable. When they
had solemnly engaged to all this, Mahomet sent one of his disciples named Masab
Ebn Omair 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 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, accompanied by seventy-three men and two
women of Medina who had professed Islamism, besides some others who were as yet
unbelievers. On their arrival they immediately sent to Mahomet and offered him
their assistance, of which he was now in great need; for his adversaries were
by 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
uncle Al Abbas; who, though he was not then a believer, wished his nephew well,
and made a speech to those of Medina; wherein he told them, that, as Mahomet
was obliged to quit his native city, and seek an asylum elsewhere, and they had
offered him their protection, they would do well not to deceive him: that if
they were not firmly resolved to defend, and not betray him, they had better
declare their minds, and let him provide for his safety in some other manner.
Upon their protesting their sincerity, Mahomet swore to be faithful to them, on
condition that they should protect him against all insults as heartily as they
would their own wives and families. They then asked him, what recompence they
were to expect, if they should happen to be killed in his quarrel? he answered,
Paradise. Whereupon they pledged their faith to him, and so returned home,
after Mahomet had chosen twelve out of their number, who were to have the same
authority among them as the twelve apostles of Christ had among his disciples.
Hitherto Mahomet had propagated his religion by
fair means; so that the whole success of his enterprise, before his flight to
Medina, must be attributed to persuasion only, and not to compulsion. For
before this second oath of fealty or inauguration at Al Akaba, he had no
permission to use any force at all; and in several places of the Koran, which
he pretended were revealed during his stay at Mecca, he declares his business
was only to preach and admonish; that he had no authority to compel any person
to embrace his religion; and that, whether people believe or not, was none of
his concern, but belonged solely unto God. And he was so far from allowing his
followers to use force, that he exhorted them to bear patiently those injuries
which were offered them on account of their faith; and, when persecuted
himself, chose rather to quit the place of his birth, and retire to Medina,
than to make any resistance. But this great passiveness and moderation seem
entirely owing to his want of power, and the great superiority of his opposers,
for the first twelve years of his mission; for no sooner was he enabled, by the
assistance of those of Medina, to make head against his enemies, than he gave
out, that God had allowed him and his followers to defend themselves against
the infidels: and at length, as his forces increased, he pretended to have the
divine leave even to attack them, and destroy idolatry, and set up the true
faith by the sword; finding by experience, that his designs would otherwise
proceed very slowly, if they were not utterly overthrown; and knowing, on the
other hand, that innovators, when they depend solely on their own strength, and
can compel, seldom run any risk; from whence, says Machiavel, it follows, that
all the armed prophets have succeeded, and the unarmed ones have failed. Moses,
Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus, would not have been able to establish the
observance of their institutions for any length of time, had they not been
armed. The first passage of the Koran which gave Mahomet the permission of
defending himself by arms is said to have been that in the twenty-second
chapter; after which, a great number to the same purpose were revealed.
Mahomet having provided for the security of his
companions, as well as his own, by the league offensive and defensive which he
had now concluded with those of Medina, directed them to repair thither, which
they accordingly did; but himself, with Abu Beer and Ali, staid behind, having
not yet received the divine permission as he pretended, to leave Mecca. The
Koreish, fearing the consequence of this new alliance, began to think it
absolutely necessary to prevent Mahomet's escape to Medina; and having held a
council thereon, after several milder expedients had been rejected, they came
to a resolution that he should be killed; and agreed that a man should be
chosen out of every tribe for the execution of this design; and that each man
should have a blow at him with his sword, that the guilt of his blood might
fall equally on all the tribes, to whose united power the Hashemites were much
inferior, and therefore durst not attempt to revenge their kinsman's death.
This conspiracy was scarce formed, when, by some
means or other, it came to Mahomet's knowledge; and he gave out that it was
revealed to him by the angel Gabriel, who had now ordered him to retire to
Medina. Whereupon, to amuse his enemies, he directed Ali to lie down in his
place, and wrap himself up in his green cloak, which he did; and Mahomet
escaped miraculously, as they pretend, to Abu Beer's house, unperceived by the
conspirators, who had already assembled at the prophet's door. They, in the
mean time, looking through the crevice and seeing Ali, whom they took to be
Mahomet himself, asleep, continued watching there till morning, when Ali arose,
and they found themselves deceived.
From Abu Beer's house Mahomet and he went to a
cave in mount Thur, to the south-east of Mecca, accompanied only by Amor Ebn
Foheirah, Abu Beer's servant, and Abd'allah Ebn Oreitah, an idolater whom they
had hired for a guide. In this cave they lay hid three days, to avoid the
search of their enemies, which they very narrowly escaped, and not without the
assistance of more miracles than one; for some say that the Koreish were struck
with blindness, so that they could not find the cave; others, that, after
Mahomet and his companions were got in, two pigeons laid their eggs at the
entrance, and a spider covered the mouth of the cave with her web, which made
them look no farther. Abu Beer seeing the prophet in such imminent danger,
became very sorrowful; whereupon Mahomet comforted him with these words,
recorded in the Koran; Be not grieved, for God is with us. Their enemies being
retired, they left the cave, and set out for Medina by a bye-road; and having
fortunately, or, as the Mahometans tell us, miraculously, escaped some who were
sent to pursue them, arrived safely at that city; whither Ali followed them in
three days, after he had settled some affairs at Mecca.
Mahomet being securely settled at Medina, and
able not only to defend himself against the insults of his enemies, but to
attack them, began to send out small parties to make reprisals on the Koreish;
the first party consisting of no more than nine men, who intercepted and
plundered a caravan belonging to that tribe, and in the action took two
prisoners. But what established his affairs very much, and was the foundation
on which he built all his succeeding greatness, was the gaining of the battle
of Bedr. which was fought in the second year of the Hegira, and is so famous in
the Mahometan history. Some reckon no less than twenty-seven expeditions,
wherein Mahomet was personally present, in nine of which he gave battle,
besides several other expeditions in which he was not present. His forces he
maintained partly by the contributions of his followers for this purpose, which
he called by the name of zacat, or alms, and the paying of which he very
artfully made one main article of his religion; and partly by ordering a fifth
part of the plunder to be brought into the public treasury for that purpose, in
which matter he likewise pretended to act by the divine direction.
In a few years, by the success of his arms,
notwithstanding he sometimes came off with the worst, he considerably raised
his credit and power. In the sixth year of the Hegira he set out with 1400 men
to visit the temple of Mecca, not with any intent of committing hostilities,
but in a peaceable manner. However, when he came to Al Hodeibiya, which is
situated partly within and partly without the sacred territory, the Koreish
sent to let him know that they would not permit him to enter Mecca, unless he
forced his way: whereupon, he called his troops about him, and they all took a
solemn oath of fealty or homage to him, and he resolved to attack the city: but
those of Mecca sending Arwa Ebn Masun, prince of the tribe of Thakif, as their
ambassador, to desire peace, a truce was concluded between them for ten years,
by which any person was allowed to enter into league either with Mahomet, or
with the Koreish as he thought fit.
In the seventh year of the Hegira, Mahomet began
to think of propagating his religion, beyond the bounds of Arabia, and sent
messengers to the neighbouring princes, with letters to invite them to
Mahometanism. Nor was this project without some success; Khosru Parviz, then
king of Persia, received his letter with great disdain, and tore it in a
passion, sending away the messenger very abruptly; which, when Mahomet heard,
he said, God shall tear his kingdom. And soon after a messenger came to Mahomet
from Badhan, king of Yaman, who was a dependent on the Persians, to acquaint
him that he had received orders to sent him to Khosru. Mahomet put off his
answer till the next morning, and then told the messenger it had been revealed
to him that night that Khosru was slain by his son Shiruyeh; adding, that he
was well assured his new religion and empire should rise to as great a height
as that as Khosru; and therefore bid him advise his master to embrace
Mahometanism. The messenger being returned, Badhan in a few days received a
letter from Shiruyeh, informing him of his father's death, and ordering him to
give the prophet no further disturbance. Whereupon Bashan, and the Persians with
him, turned Mahometans.
The emperor Heraclius, as the Arabian historians
assure us, received Mahomet's letter with great respect, laying it on his
pillow, and dismissed the bearer honourably. And some pretend that he would
have professed this new faith, had he not been afraid of losing his crown.
Mahhomet wrote to the same effect to the king of
Ethiopia, though he had been converted before, according to the Arab writers;
and to Molawkas, governor of Egypt, who gave the messenger a very favourable
reception, and sent several valuable presents to Mahomet, and among the rest
two girls, one of which, named Mary, became a great favourite with him. He also
sent letters of the like purport to several Arab princes; particularly one to
Al Hareth Ebn Abi Shamer, king of Ghassan, who returning for answer that he
would go to Mahomet himself, the prophet said, May his kingdom perish; another
to Hawdha Ebn Ali, king of Yamama, who was a Christian, and, having sometime
before professed Islamism, had lately returned to his former faith: this prince
sent back a very rough answer, upon which Mahomet cursing him, he died soon
after; and a third to Al Mondar Ebn Sawa, king of Bahrein, who embraced
Mahometanism, and all the Arabs of that country followed his example.
The eighth year of the Hegira was a very
fortunate year to Mahomet. In the beginning of it Khaled Ebn al Walid and Amru
Ebn al As, both excellent soldiers, the first of whom afterwards conquered
Syria and other countries, and the latter Egypt, became proselytes to
Mahometanism. And soon after the prophet sent 3000 men against the Grecian
forces, to revenge the death of one of his ambassadors who, being sent to the
governor of Bosra on the same errand as those who went to the above-mentioned
princes, was slain by an Arab of the tribe of Ghassan, at Muta, a town in the
territory of Balka, in Syria, about three days journey eastward from Jerusalem,
near which town they encountered. The Grecians being vastly superior in number
(for, including the auxillary Arabs, they had an army of 100,000 men,) the
Mahometans were repulsed in the first attack, and lost successively three of
their generals, viz. Zeib Ebn Haretha, Mahomet's freedman; Jaasar, the son of
Abu Taleb; and Abdaliah Ebn Rawalia: but Khalid Ebn al Walid, succeeding to the
command, overthrew the Greeks with great slaughter, and brought away abundance
of rich spoil; on occasion, of which action Mahomet gave him the title of Seif
min soyuf Allah, "one of the swords of God."
In this year also Mahomet took the city of Mecca,
the inhabitants whereof had broken the truce concluded on two years before; for
the tribe of Beer, who were confederates with the Koreish, attacking those of
Kozah, who were allies of Mahomet, killed several of them, being supported in
the action by a party of the Koreish themselves. The consequence of this
violation was soon apprehended, and Abu Sosian himself made a journey to Medina
on purpose to heal the breach and renew the truce but in vain; for Mahomet,
glad of this opportunity, refused to see him: whereupon he applied to Abu Beer
and Ali; but they giving him no answer, he was obliged to return to Mecca as he
came.
Mahomet immediately gave orders for preparations
to be made that he might surprise the Meccans while they were unprovided to
receive him; in a little time he began his march thither; and by the time he
came near the city, his forces were increased to ten thousand men. Those of
Mecca not being in a condition to defend themselves against so formidable an
array, surrendered at discretion, and Abu Sosian saved his life by turning
Mahometan . About twenty-eight of the idolaters were killed by a party under
the command of Khaled; but this happened contrary to Mahomet's orders, who,
when he entered the town, pardoned all the Koreish on their submission, except
only six men and four women, who were more obnoxious than ordinary, (some of
them having apostatized,) and were solemnly prescribed by the prophet himself:
but of these no more than one man and one woman were put to death, the rest
obtaining pardon on their embracing Mahometanism, and one of the women making
her escape.
The remainder of this year Mahomet employed in
destroying the idols in and round Mecca, sending several of the generals on
expeditions for that purpose, and to invite the Arabs to Islamism; wherein it
is no wonder if they now met with success.
The next year being the ninth of the Hegira, the
Mahometans call the year of embassies; for the Arabs had been hitherto
expecting the issue of the war between Mahomet and the Koreish: but, so soon as
that tribe, the principal of the whole nation, and the genuine descendants of
Ishmael, whose prerogatives none offered to dispute, had submitted, they were
satisfied that it was not in their power to oppose Mahomet; and therefore began
to come in to him in great numbers, and to send embassies to make their
submission to him, both to Mecca, while he staid there, and also to Medina,
whither he returned this year. Among the rest, five kings of the tribe of Hamyar
professed Mahometanism, and sent ambassadors to notify the same.
In the tenth year Ali was sent into Yaman to
propagate the Mahometan faith there; and, as it is said, converted the whole
tribe of Hamdan in one day. Their example was quickly followed by all the
inhabitants of that province, except only those of Najran, who, being
Christians, chose rather to pay tribute.
Thus was Mahometanism established, and idolatry
rooted out, even in Mahomet's life-time, (for he died the next year,) throughout
all Arabia, except only Yamama, where Moseilama, who set up also as a prophet
as Mahomet's competitor, had a great party, and was not reduced till the
kalifat of Abu Beer: and the Arabs being then united in one faith, and under
one prince, found themselves in a condition of making those conquests which
extended the Mahometan faith over so great a part of the world.
1. Mahometans, tenets of the. The Mahometans
divide their religion into two general parts, faith and practice, of which the
first is divided into six distinct branches: Belief in God, in his angels, in
his Scriptures, in his prophets, in the resurrection and final judgment, and in
God's absolute Decrees. The points relating to practice are, prayer, with
washings, &c. alms, fasting, pilgrimage to Mecca, and circumcision.
Of the Mahometan faith. 1. That both Mahomet, and
those among his followers who are reckoned orthodox, had and continued to have
just and true notions of God and his attributes, appears so plain from the
Koran itself, and all the Mahometan divines, that it would be loss of time to
refute those who suppose the God of Mahomet to be different from the true God,
and only a fictitious deity or idol of his own creation.
2. The existence of angels and their purity, are
absolutely required to be believed in the Koran; and he is reckoned an infidel
who denies there are such beings, or hates any of them, or asserts any
distinction of sexes among them. They believe them to have pure and subtle
bodies, created of fire; that they neither eat nor drink, nor propagate their
species; that they have various forms and offices, some adoring God in
different postures, others singing praises to him, or interceding for mankind.
They hold, that some of them are employed in writing down the actions of men;
others in carrying the throne of God, and other services.
3. As to the Scriptures, the Mahometans are
taught by the Koran, that God, in divers ages of the world, gave revelations of
his will in writing to several prophets, the whole and every one of which it is
absolutely necessary for a good Moslem to believe. The number of these sacred
books were, according to them, one hundred and four; of which ten were given to
Adam, fifty to Seth, thirty to Edris or Enoch, ten to Abraham; and the other
four, being the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Koran, were
successively delivered to Moses, David, Jesus, and Mahomet: which last being
the seal of the prophets, those revelations are now closed, and no more are to
be expected. All these divine books, except the four last, they agree now to be
entirely lost, and their contents unknown; though the Sabians have several
books which they attribute to some of the antedilavian prophets. And, of those
four, they say, have undergone so many alterations and corruptions, that,
though there may possibly be some part of the true word of God therein, yet no
credit is to be given to the present copies in the hands of the Jews and
Christians.
4. The number of the prophets which have been
from time to time sent by God into the world, amounts to no less than 224,000,
according to one Mahometan tradition; or to 124,000, according to another;
among whom 313 were apostles, sent with special commissions to reclaim mankind
from infidelity and superstition; and six of them brought new laws or
dispensations, which successively abrogated the preceding: these were Adam,
Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet. All the prophets in general, the
Mahometans believe to have been freed from great sins and errors of
consequence, and professors of one and the same religion, that is, Islamism,
notwithstanding the different laws and institutions which they observed. They
allow of degrees among them, and hold some of them to be more excellent and
honourable than others. The first place they give to the revealers and
establishers of new dispensations, and the next to the apostles.
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 Shoab: but several others whose very names do not
appear in Scripture (though they endeavor to find some persons there to fix
them on,) as Selah, Khedr, Dhu'lkefi, &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 of God's dealing with mankind. As to brutes, after they shall
have likewise taken vengeance of one another, he will command them to be
changed into dust; wicked men being reserved to 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.
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 the 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 Hotama, 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 Hawyat, to the hypocrites, or those who outwardly professed some
religion, but in their hearts were of none. Over each of these apartments they
believe there will be set a guard of angels, nineteen in number: to whom the
damned will confess the just judgment of God, and beg them to intercede with
him for some alleviation of their pain, or that they may be delivered by being
annihilated.
Mahomet has, in his Koran and traditions, been
very exact in describing the various torments of hell, which, according to him,
the wicked will suffer both from intense heat and excessive cold. We shall,
however, enter into no detail of them here; but only observe, that the degrees
of these pains will also vary in proportion to the crimes of the sufferer, and
the apartment he is condemned to; and that he 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 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.
The righteous, as the Mahometans are taught to
believe, having surmounted the difficulties, and passed the sharp bridge
above-mentioned, before they enter Paradise, will be refreshed by drinking at
the pond of their prophet, who describes it to be an exact square, of a month's
journey in compass; its water, which is supplied by two pipes from al Cawthay,
one of the rivers of Paradise, being whiter than milk or silver, and more
odoriferous than musk, with as many cups set around it as there are stars in
the firmament; of which water whoever drinks will thirst no more for ever. This
is the first taste which the blessed will have of their future and now near
approaching felicity.
Though Paradise be so very frequently mentioned
in the Koran, yet it is a dispute among the Mahometans, whether it be already
created or to be created 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 righteous 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:
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 suprising 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 who would gather of its fruits, and that it will supply
the blessed not only with food, but also with silken garments, and beasts to
ride on ready saddled and bridled, and adorned with rich trappings, which will
burst forth from its fruits; and that this tree is so large, that a person
mounted on the fleetest horse, would not be able to gallop from one end of its
shade to the other in one hundred years.
As plenty of water is one of the greatest
additions to the pleasantness of any place, the Koran often speaks of the
rivers of Paradise as a principal ornament thereof: some of these rivers, they
say, flow with water, some with milk, some 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 pavillions 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) long, and as many broad.
The name which the Mahometans usually give to
this happy mansion is al Jannat, or, "the Garden;" and sometimes they
call it, with an addition, Jannat al Ferdaws, "the Garden of
Paradise;" Jannat Adan, "the Garden of Eden," (though they
generally interpret the word Eden not according to its acceptation in Hebrew,
but according to its meaning in their own tongue, wherein it signifies "a
settled or perpetual habitation;") Jannat al Mawa, "the Garden of
Abode; Jannat al Maim, "the Garden of Pleasure;" and the like: by
which several appellations some understand so many different gardens, 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 predestination both
of good and evil. The orthodox doctrine is, that whatever hath or shall come to
pass in this world, whether it be good, or whether it be bad, proceedeth
entirely from the divine will, and is irrevocably fixed and recorded from all
eternity in the preserved table; God having secretly predetermined not only the
adverse and prosperous fortune of every person in this world, in the most
minute particulars, but also his faith or infidelity, his obedience or
disobedience, and consequently his everlasting happiness or misery after death;
which fate or predestination it is not possible by any foresight or wisdom to
avoid.
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 niche, 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 voluntary.
The legal alms are of indispensable obligation, being commanded by the law,
which directs and determines both the portion which is to be given, and of what
things it ought to consist; but the voluntary alms are left to every one's
liberty, to give more or less as he shall see fit. The former kind of alms some
think to be properly called zacat, and the latter sadacat, though this name be
also frequently given to the legal alms. They are called zacat, either because
they increase a man's store by drawing down a blessing thereon, and produce in
his soul the virtue of liberality; or because they purify 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 of a Christian; and the same is
expressly commanded in the Koran. See PILGRIMAGE.
III. Mahometanism, causes of the success of. The
rapid success which attended the propagation of this new religion was owing to
causes that are plain and evident, and must remove, or rather prevent our
surprise, when they are attentively considered. The terror of Mahomet's arms,
and the repeated victories which were gained by him and his successors, were,
no doubt, the irresistible arguments that persuaded such multitudes to embrace
his religion, and submit to his dominion. Besides, his law was artfully and
marvellously adapted to the corrupt nature of man; and, in a most particular
manner, to the manners and opinions of the Eastern nations, and the vices to
which they were naturally addicted: for the articles of faith which it proposed
were few in number, and extremely simple; and the duties it required were
neither many nor difficult, nor such as were incompatible with the 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 part 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 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 Revelations seems to refer wholly to this
imposture: "The four angels were loosed," says the prediction, 15th
verse, "which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a
year, for to slay the third part of men." This period, in the language of
prophecy, makes 391 years, which being added to the year when the four angels
were loosed, will bring us down to 1844, or thereabouts, for the final
destruction of the Mahometan empire. It must be confessed, however, that though
the event is certain, the exact time cannot be easily ascertained. Prideaux's
Life of Mahomet; Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. cent. vii. ch. 2. Sale's Preliminary
Discourse, prefixed to his English Translation of the Koran; Simpson's Key to
Proph. sect. 19. Bishop Newton, Mede, and Gill, on Rev. ix. Miller's Propag. of
Christianity, vol. i. ch. 1. White's Ser. at Bampton Lect. Enc. Brit.
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.
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.
A disposition abstinately bad or malicious. Malignancy and malignity are words nearly synonymous. In some connections, malignity seems rather more pertinently applied to a radical depravity of nature; and malignancy to indications of this depravity in temper and conduct in particular instances.
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, reflects, 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 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 language, man has his name from turning and looking upwards. The soul is
the other part of man, which is a substance of subsistence: it is not an
accident, or quality, inherent in a subject: but capable of subsisting without
the body. It is a spiritual substance, immaterial,immortal. See SOUL.
2. Man, different species of. According to
Linnxus and Buffon, there are six different species among mankind. The first
are those under the Polar regions, and comprehend the Laplanders, the Esquimaux
Indians, the Samoied tartars, the inhabitants of Nova Zembla, Borandians, the
Greenlanders, and the people of Kamtschatka. The visage of men in these
countries is large and broad; the nose flat and short; the eyes of a yellowish
brown, inclining to blackness; the cheek-bones extremely high; the mouth large;
the lips thick, 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 high, and the tallest not more than five. 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.--3. The third are the southern
Asiastics, or inhabitants of India. These are of a slender shape, long straight
black hair, and generally Roman 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.
3. Man, different states of. The state of man has
been divided into fourfold: his primitive state; fallen state; gracious state;
and future state. 1. His state of innocence. God, it is said, made man upright,
Eccl. vii. 29. without any imperfection, corruption, or principle of corruption
in his body or soul; with 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 very glorious creature, the
favourite of heaven, the lord of the world, possessing perfect tranquillity in
his own breast, and immortal. Yet he was not without law; for to the law of
nature, which was impressed on his heart, God super-added a positive law, not
to eat of the forbidden fruit, Gen. ii. 17. under the penalty of death natural
, spiritual, and eternal. Had he obeyed this law, he might have had reason to
expect that he would not only have had the continuance of his natural and
spiritual life, but have been transported to the upper paradise.--2. His fall.
Man's righteousness, however, though universal, was not immutable, as the event
has proved. How long he lived in a state of innocence cannot easily be
ascertained, yet most suppose it was but a short time. The positive law which
God gave him he broke, by eating the forbidden fruit. The consequence of this
evil act was, that man lost the chief good: his nature was corrupted; his
powers depraved, his body subject to corruption, his soul exposed to misery,
his posterity all involved in ruin, subject to eternal condemnation, and for
ever incapable to restore themselves to the favour of God, to obey his commands
perfectly, and to satisfy his justice, Gal. iii. Rom. v. Gen. iii. Eph ii. Rom
iii. passim. See FALL.--3. His recovery. Although man has fallen by his
iniquity, yet he is not left finally to perish. The divine Being, foreseeing
the fall, in infinite love and mercy made provision for his relief. Jesus
Christ, according to the divine purpose, came in the fulness of time to be his
Saviour, and by virtue of his sufferings, all who believe are justified from
the curse of the law. By the influences of the Holy Spirit he is regenerated,
united to Christ by faith, and sanctified. True believers, therefore, live a
life of dependence on the promises; of regularity and obedience to God's word;
of holy joy and peace; and have a hope full of immortality.--4. His future
state. As it respects the impenitent, it is a state of separation from God, and
eternal punishment, Matt. xxv. 46. But the righteous shall rise to glory,
honour, and everlasting joy. To the former, death will be the introduction to
misery; to the latter, it will be the admission to felicity. All will be tried
in the judgment-day, and sentence pronounced accordingly. The wicked will be
driven away in his wickedness, and the righteous be saved with an everlasting
salvation. But as these subjects are treated on elsewhere, we refer the reader
to the articles, GRACE, HEAVEN, HELL, SIN. Hartley's Observations on Man;
Boston's Fourfold State; Kaimes's Sketches of the History of Man; Locke on Und.
Reid on the Active and Intellectual Powers of Man; Wollaston's Religion of
Nature; Harris's Philosophical Arrangements.
Or MANICHEANS, (Manichaei,) a sect of ancient
heretics, who asserted two principles; so called from their author Manes, or
Manichaeus, a Persian by nations, and educated among the Magi, being himself
one of that number before he embraced Christianity.
This heresy had its first rise about the year
277, and spread itself principally in Arabia, Egypt and Africa. St. Epiphanius,
who treats of it at large, observes that the true name of this heresiarch was
Cubricus; and that he changed it for Manes, which in the Persian or Babylonish
language signifies vessel. A rich widow, whose servant he had been, dying
without issue, left him stores of wealth; after which he assumed the title of
the apostle or envoy of Jesus Christ.
Manes was not contented with the quality of
apostle of Jesus Christ, but he also assumed that of the paraclete, whom Christ
had promised to send; which Augustine explains, by saying, that Manes
endeavoured to persuade men that the Holy Ghost did personally dwell in him
with full authority. He left several disciples; and among others, Addas,
Thomas, and Hermas. These he sent in his life time into several provinces to
preach his doctrine. Manes having undertaken to cure the king of Persia's son,
and not succeeding, was put in prison upon the young prince's death, whence he
made his escape; but he was apprehended soon after, and flayed alive.
However, the oriental writers cited by D'Herbelot
and Hyde, tell us that Manes, after having been protected in a singular manner
by Hormizdas, who succeeded Sapor in the Persian throne, but who was not able
to defend him, at length, against the united hatred of the Christians, the
Magi, the Jews, and the Pagans, was shut up in a strong castle, to serve him as
a refuge against those who persecuted him on account of his doctrine. They add,
that after the death of Hormizdas, Varanes I. his successor, first protected
Manes, but afterwards gave him up to the fury of the Magi, whose resentment
against him was due to his having adopted the Sadduccan principles, as some
say; while others attribute it to his having mingled the tenets of the Mage
with the doctrines of Christianity. However, it is certain that the Manicheans
celebrated the day of their master's death. It has been a subject of much
controversy whether Manes was an impostor. The learned Dr. Lardner has examined
the arguments on both sides; and though he does not choose to deny that he was
an impostor, he does not discern evident proofs of it. He acknowledges that he
was an arrogant philosopher, and a great schemist; but whether he was an
impostor he cannot certainly say. He was much too fond of philosophical
notions, which he endeavoured to bring into religion, for which he is to be
blamed: nevertheless he observes that, every bold dogmatizer is not an
impostor.
The doctrine of Manes was a motley mixture of the
tenets of Christianity with the ancient philosophy of the Persians, in which he
had been instructed during his youth. He combined these two systems, and
applied and accommodated to Jesus Christ the characters and actions which the
Persians attributed to the god Mithras.
He established two principles, viz. a good and an
evil one: the first a most pure and subtle matter, which he called light, did
nothing but good; and the second a gross and corrupt substance, which he called
darkness, nothing but evil. This philosophy is very ancient; and Plutarch
treats of it at large in his Iris and Osiris. Our soul, according to Manes,
were made by the good principle, and our bodies by the evil one; these two
principles being, according to him, co-eternal and independent of each other.
Each of these is subject to the dominion of a superintendent Being, whose
existence is from all eternity. The Being who presides over the light is called
God; he that rules the land of darkness bears the title of hyle or demon. The
ruler of the light is supremely happy, and in consequence thereof benevolent
and good; the prince of darkness is unhappy in himself and desirous of
rendering others partakers of his misery; and is evil and malignant. These two
beings have produced an immense multitude of creatures resembling themselves,
and distributed them through their respective provinces. After a contest
between the ruler of light and the prince of darkness, in which the latter was
defeated, this prince of darkness produced the first parents of the human race.
The beings engendered from this original stock consist of a body formed out of
the corrupt matter of the kingdom of darkness, and of two souls; one of which
is sensitive and lustful, and owes its existence to the evil principle; the
other rational and immortal, a particle of that divine light which had been
carried away in that contest by the army of darkness, and immersed into the
mass of malignant matter. The earth was created by God out of this corrupt mass
of matter, in order to be a dwelling for the human race, that their captive
souls might by degrees be delivered from their corpreal prisons, and the
celestial elements extricated from the gross substance in which they were
involved. With this view God produced two beings from his own substance, viz.
Christ and the Holy Ghost; for the Manicheans held a consubstantial Trinity.
Christ, or the glorious intelligence, called by the Persians Mithras,
subsisting in and by himself, and residing in the sun, appeared in the time
among the Jews, clothed with the shadowy form of a human body, to disengage the
rational soul from the corrupt body, and to conquer the violence of malignant
matter. The Jews, incited by the prince of darkness, put him to an ignominious
death, which, he suffered not in reality, but only in appearance, and according
to the opinion of men. When the purposes of Christ were accomplished, he
returned to his throne in the sun, appointing apostles to propagate his
religion, and leaving his followers the promise of the paraclete or comforter,
who is Manes the Persian. Those souls who believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of
God, renounce the worship of the god of the Jews, who is the prince of
darkness, and obey the laws delivered by Christ, and illustrated by Manes the
comforter, are gradually purified from the contagion of matter; and their
purification being completed, after having passed through two states of trial,
by water and fire, first in the moon and then in the sun, their bodies return
to the original mass (for the Manicheans derided the resurrection of bodies,)
and their souls ascend to the regions of light. But the souls of those who have
neglected the salutary work of purification, pass after death into the bodies
of other animals and natures, where they remain till they have accomplished
their probation. Some, however, more perverse and obstinate, are consigned to a
severer course of trial, being delivered over for a time to the power of
malignant aerial spirits, who torment them in various ways. After this, a fire
shall break forth and consume the frame of the world; and the prince and powers
of darkness shall return to their primitive seats of anguish and misery, in
which they shall dwell for ever. These mansions shall be surrounded by an
invincible guard, to prevent their ever renewing a war in the regions of light.
Manes borrowed many things from the ancient
Gnostics; on which account many authors consider the Manicheans as a branch of
the Gnostics.
In truth, the Manichean doctrine was a system of
philosophy rather than of religion. They made use of amulets, in imitation of
the Basilidians; and are said to have made profession of astronomy and
astrology. They denied that Jesus Christ, who was only God, assumed a true
human body, and maintained it was only imaginary; and therefore they denied his
incarnation, death, &c. They pretended that the law of Moses did not come
from God, or the good principle, but from the evil one; and that for this reason
it was abrogated. They rejected almost all the sacred books in which Christians
look for the sublime truths of their holy religion. They affirmed that the Old
Testament was not the work of God, but of the prince of darkness, who was
substituted by the Jews in the place of the true God. They abstained entirely
from eating the flesh of any animal, following herein the doctrine of the
ancient Pythagoreans: they also condemned marriage. The rest of their errors
may be seen in St. Epiphanius and St. Augustine; which last, having been of
their sect, may be presumed to have been thoroughly acquainted with them.
Though the Manichees professed to receive the
books of the New Testament, yet in effect they only took so much of them as
suited with their own opinions. They first formed to themselves a certain idea
or scheme of Christianity, and to this adjusted the writings of the apostles,
pretending that whatever was inconsistent with this had been foisted into the
New Testament by the later writers, who were half Jews. On the other hand, they
made fables and apocryphal books pass for apostolical writings; and even are
suspected to have forged several others, the better to maintain their errors.
St Epiphanius gives a catalogue of several pieces published by Manes, and adds
extracts out of some of them. These are the Mysteries, Chapters, Gospel, and
Treasury.
The rule of life and manners which Manes
prescribed to his followers was most extravangantly rigorous and severe.
However, he divided his disciples into two classes; one of which comprehended
the perfect Christian, under the name of the elect; and the other the imperfect
and feeble, under the title of auditors or hearers. The elect were obliged to
rigorous and entire abstinence from flesh, eggs, milk, fish, wine, all
intoxicating drink, wedlock, and all amorous gratifications; and to live in a
state of the severest penury, nourishing their emaciated bodies with bread,
herbs, pulse and melons, and depriving themselves of all the comforts that
arise from the moderate indulgence of natural passions, and also from a variety
of innocent and agreeable pursuits. The auditors were allowed to possess
houses, lands, and wealth; to feed on flesh, to enter into the bonds of
conjugal tenderness; but this liberty was granted them with many limitations,
and under the strictest conditions of moderation and temperance. The general
assembly of Manicheans was headed by a president, who represented Jesus Christ.
There were joined to him twelve rulers or masters, who were designed to
represent the twelve apostles, and these were followed by seventy-two bishops;
the images of the seventy-two disciples of our Lord. These bishops had
presbyters or deacons under them, and all the members of these religious orders
were chosen out of the class of the elect. Their worship was simple and plain,
and consisted of prayers, reading the Scriptures, and hearing public
discourses, at which both the auditors and elect were allowed to be present.
They also observed the Christian appointment of baptism, and the eucharist.
They kept the Lord's day, observing it as a fast: and they likewise kept Easter
and the Pentecost.
Towards the fourth century the Manicheans
concealed themselves under various names, which they successively adopted, and
changed in proportion as they were discovered by them. Thus they assumed the
names of Encratites, Apotactics, Saccophori, Hydroparastates, Solitaries, and
several others, under which they lay concealed for a certain time, but could
not, however, long escape the vigilance of their enemies. About the close of
the sixth century, this sect gained a very considerable influence, particularly
among the Persians.
Towards the middle of the twelfth century, the
sect of Manichees took a new face, on account of one Constantine, an Armenian,
and an adherer to it; who took upon him to suppress the reading of all other
books besides the evangelists and the epistles of St. Paul, which he explained
in such a manner as to make them contain a new system of Manicheaism. He entirely
discarded all the writings of his predecessors; rejecting the chimeras of the
Valentinians and their thirty xons: the fable of Manes, with regard to the
origin of rain, and other dreams; but still retained the impurities of
Basilides. In this manner he reformed Manicheism, insomuch that his followers
made no scruple of anathematizing Schythian, Buddas, called also Addas and
Terehinth, the contemporaries and disciples, as some say, and, according to
others, the predecessors and masters of Manes, and even Manes himself;
Constantine being now their great apostle. After he had seduced an infinite
number of people, he was at last stoned by order of the emperor.
This sect prevailed in Bosnia and the adjacent
provinces about the close of the fifteenth century propagated their doctrine
with confidence, and held their religious assemblies with impunity.
The plural noun has various significations; as the general way of life, the morals or the habits of any person; also ceremonial behaviour or studied civility. Good manners, according to Swift, is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Pride, ill-nature, and want of sense, are the three great sources of ill-manners. Without some one of these defects no man will behave himself ill for want of experience; or of what, in the language of some, is called knowing the world. For the effect that Christianity has on the manners of men, see article CHRISTIANITY.
A sect of ancient heretics towards the close of the second century; so called from Marcellus of Ancyra, their leader, who was accused of reviving the errors of Sabellius. Some, however, are of opinion that Marcellus was orthodox, and that they were his enemies the Arians, who fathered their errors upon him. St. Epiphanius observes, that there was a great deal of dispute with regard to the real tenets of Marcellus; but as to his followers, it is evident that they did not own the three hypostases; for Marcellus considered the Son and Holy Ghost as two emanations from the divine nature, which, after performing their respective offices, were to return again into the substance of the Father; and this opinion is altogether incompatible with the belief of three distinct persons of the Godhead.
Or MARCIONISTS, Marconistae, a very ancient and
popular sect of heretics, who, in the time of Epiphanius, were spread over
Italy, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Arabia, Persia, and other countries: they were
thus denominated from their author Marcion. Marcion was of Pontus, the son of a
bishop, and at first made profession of the monastical life; but he was
excommunicated by his own father, who would never admit him again into
communion with the church, not even on his repentance. On this he abandoned his
own country, and retired to Rome, where he began to broach his doctrines.
He laid down two principles, the one good, the
other evil; between these he imagined an intermediate kind of Deity, of a mixed
nature, who was the Creator of this inferior world, and the god and legislator
of the Jewish nation: the other nations who worshipped a variety of gods, were
supposed to be under the empire of the evil principle. These two conflicting
powers exercised oppressions upon rational and immortal souls; and therefore
the supreme God, to deliver them from bondage, sent to the Jews a Being more
like unto himself, even his Son Jesus Christ, clothed with a certain shadowy
resemblance of a body: this celestial messenger was attacked by the prince of
darkness, and by the god of the Jews, but without effect. Those who followed
the directions of this celestial conductor, mortify the body by fastings and austerities,
and renounce the precepts of the god of the Jews and of the prince of darkness,
shall after death ascend to the mansions of felicity and perfection. The rule
of manners which Marcion prescribed to his followers was excessively austere,
containing an express prohibition of wedlock, wine, flesh, and all the external
comforts of life.
Marcion denied the real birth, incarnation, and passion
of Jesus Christ, and held them to be apparent only. He denied the resurrection
of the body, and allowed none to be baptized but those who preserved their
continence; but these he granted might be baptized three times. In many things
he followed the sentiments of the heretic Cerdon, and rejected the law and the
prophets. He pretended the Gospel had been corrupted by false prophets, and
allowed none of the evangelists but St. Luke, whom also he altered in many
places, as well as the epistles of St. Paul, a great many things in which he
threw out. In his own copy of St. Luke he threw out the first two chapters entire.
MARCITAE, a sect of heretics in the second century, who also called themselves the perfecti, and made profession of doing every thing with a great deal of liberty and without fear. This doctrine they borrowed from Simon Magus, who however was not their chief; for they were called Marcites from one Marcus, who conferred the priesthood, and the administration of the sacraments, on women.
or COLOBARSIANS, an ancient sect in the church,
making a branch of the Valentinians.
St. Irenxus speaks at large of the leader of this
sect, Marcus, who it seems was reputed a great magician. The Marcosians had a
great number of apocryphal books which they held for canonical, and of the same
authority with ours. Out of these they picked several idle fables touching the
infancy of Jesus Christ, which they put off for true histories. Many of these
fables are still in use and credit among the Greek monks.
In ecclesiastical history, a sect of eastern
Christians who follow the Syrian rite, and are subject to the pope; their
principal habitation being on Mount Libanus.
Mosheim informs us that the doctrine of the
Monothelites, condemned and exploded by the council of Constantinople, found a
place of refuge among the Mardaites, a people who inhabited the Mounts Libanus
and Atilibanus, and who about the conclusion of the seventh century, were called
Maronites, after Maro, their first bishop; a name which they still retain. None
(he says) of the ancient writers give any account of the first person who
instructed these mountaineers in the doctrine of the Monothelites: it is
probable, however, from several circumstances, that it was John Maro, whose
name they adopted; and that this ecclesiastic received the name of Maro from
his having lived in the character of a monk in the famous convent of St. Maro,
upon the borders of the Orontes, before his settlement among the Mardaites of
Mount Libanus. One thing is certain, from the testimony of Tyrius and other
unexceptionable witnesses, as also from the most authentic records, viz. that
the Maronites retained the opinions of the Monothelites until the twelfth century
when abandoning and renouncing the doctrine of one will in Christ, they were
re-admitted in the year 1182 to the communion of the Roman church. The most
learned of the modern Maronites have left no method unemployed to defend their
church against this accusation; they have laboured to prove, by a variety of
testimonies, that their ancestors always persevered in the Catholic faith, in
their attachment to the Roman pontiff, without ever adopting the doctrine of
the Monophysites, or Monothelites. But all their efforts are insufficient to
prove the truth of these assertions to such as have any acquaintance with the
history of the church, and the records of ancient times; for to all such, the
testimonies they allege will appear absolutely fictitious, and destitute of
authority.
Faustus Noiron, a Maronite settled at Rome, has
published an apology for Maro and the rest of his nation. His tenet is, that
they really took their name from the Maro, who lived about the year 400, and of
whom mention is made in Chrysostom, Theodoret, and the Menologium of the
Greeks. He adds, that the disciples of this Maro spread themselves throughout
all Syria; that they built several monasteries, and among others one that bore
the name of their leader; that all the Syrians who were not tainted with heresy
took refuge among them; and that for this reason the heretics of those times
called them Maronites.
Mosheim observes, that the subjection of the
Maronites to the spiritual jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff was agreed to with
this express condition; that neither the popes nor their emissaries should
pretend to change or abolish any thing that related to the ancient rites, moral
precepts, or religious opinions of this people: so that in reality there is
nothing to be found among the Maronites that savours of popery, if we except
their attachment to the Roman pontiff, who is obliged to pay very dear for
their friendship. For as the Maronites live in the utmost distress of poverty,
under the tyrannical yoke of the Mahometans, the bishop of Rome is under the
necessity of furnishing them with subsidies as may appease their oppressors
procure a subsistence for the bishop and clergy, provide all things requisite
for the support of their church and the uninterrupted exercise of public
worship, and contribute in general to lessen their miseries. It is certain that
there are Maronites in Syria who still behold the church of Rome with the
greatest aversion and abhorrence; nay, what is still more remarkable, great
numbers of that nation residing in Italy, even under the eye of the pontiff,
opposed his authority during the last century, and threw the court of Rome into
great perplexity. One body of these non-conforming Maronites retired into the
valleys of Piedmont, where they joined the Waldenses; another, above six
hundred in number, with a bishop and several ecclesiastics at their head, fled
into Corsica, and implored the protection of the Republic of Genoa against the
violence of the inquisitors.
The Maronites have a patriarch who resides in the
monastery of Cannubin, on Mount Libanus, and assumes the title of patriarch of
Antioch, and the name of Peter, as if he seemed desirous of being considered as
the successor of that apostle. He is elected by the clergy and the people,
according to the ancient custom; but, since their re-union with the church of
Rome, he is obliged to have a bull of confirmation from the pope. He keeps a
perpetual celibacy, as well as the rest of the bishops, his suffragans: as to
the rest of the ecclesiastics, they are allowed to marry before ordination; and
yet the monastic life is in great esteem among them. Their monks are of the
order of St. Anthony, and live in the most obscure places in the mountains, far
from the commerce of the world.
As to their faith, they agree in the main with
the rest of the Eastern church. Their priests do not say mass singly, but all
say it together, standing round the altar. They communicate in unleavened
bread: and the laity have hitherto partaken in both kinds, though the practice
of communicating in one has of late been getting footing, having been
introduced by little and little. In Lent they eat nothing, unless it be two or
three hours before sun-rising: their other fastings are very numerous.
A convenant between a man and a woman, in which
they mutually promise cohabitation, and a continual care to promote the comfort
and happiness of each other. By Grove thus: "A society formed between two
persons of different sexes, chiefly for the procreation and education of
children." this union is very near and strict, and indeed indissoluble but
by death, excepting in one case; unfaithfulness in the one or the other by
adultery or fornication, Rom. vii. 2. Matt. v. 32. It is to be entered into
with deliberation at a proper age, and with mutual consent, as well as with the
consent of parents and guardians, under whose care single persons may be. It is
a very honourable state, Heb. xiii. 4. being an institution of God, and that in
Paradise, Gen. ii. Christ honoured marriage by his presence, and at such a
solemnity wrought his first miracle, John ii. Moreover, it is honourable, as
families are formed and built up, the world peopled with inhabitants; it
prevents incontinence and fornication, and, where the various duties of it are
attended to, renders life a blessing.
The laws of revelation, as well as most civilized
countries, have made several exceptions of persons marrying who are nearly
related by blood. The marriage of parents and children appears, at first view,
contrary to nature, not merely on account of the disparity of age, but of the
confusion which it introduces into natural relations, and its obliging to
inconsistent duties; such as reverence to a son, and the daughter to be equal
with the father. Nor can the son or daughter acquit themselves of such
inconsistent duties as would arise from this unnatural union. The marriage of
brothers and sisters, and of some other near relations, is likewise disapproved
by reason on various accounts. It frustrates one design of marriage, which is
to enlarge benevolence and friendship, by cementing various families in a close
alliance. And, farther, were it allowed, young persons instead of entering into
marriage upon mature consideration, with a settled esteem and friendship, and a
proper concern and provision for the support and education of children, would
be in danger (through the intimacy and affection produced by their near
relation, and being bred together) of sliding in their inconsiderate years into
those criminal familiarities which are most destructive of the great ends of
marriage. Most nations have agreed to brand such marriages as highly criminal,
who cannot be supposed to have derived their judgment from Moses and the Israelites.
It is probable God expressly prohibited these marriages in the beginning of
mankind, and from the first heads of families the prohibition might be
transmitted as a most sacred law to their descendants. See INCEST.
Some have supposed from those passages, 1 Tim.
iii. 2. Tit. i. 6. that bishops or pastors ought never to marry a second wife.
But such a prohibition would be contrary to natural right, and the design of
the law itself; neither of which was ever intended to be set aside by the Gospel
dispensation. It is more probably designed to guard against polygamy, and
against divorce on frivolous occasions; both of which were frequent among the
Jews, but condemned by our Lord, Matt. xix. 3-9.
The duties of this state are on the part of the
husband, love, superior to any shown to any other person; a love of complacency
and delight, Prov. v. 18,19. Chaste and single. Provision for the temporal good
of the wife and family, 1 Tim. v. 3. Protection from abuse and injuries, Ruth
iii. 9. 1 Sam. xxxv. 5, 18. Doing every thing that may contribute to the
pleasure, peace, and comfort of the wife, 1 Cor. vii. 33. Seeking her spiritual
welfare, and every thing that shall promote her edification and felicity. the
duties on the part of the wife are, reverence, subjection, obedience,
assistance, sympathy, assuming no authority, and continuance with him, Eph. v.
32,33. Tit. ii. 5. 1 Tim. v. 11, 12. Ruth i. 16. See articles DIVORCE, PARENT.
Grove's Mor. Phil. vol. ii. p. 470; Paley's Mor. Phil. ch. viii. vol. i. p.
339; Bean's Christian Minister's Advice to a New-married Couple; Guide to
Domestic Happiness; Advantages and Disadvantages of the Marriage State;
Stennett on Domestic Duties; Jay's Essay on Marriage; Doddridge's Lect. 225,
234, 265,. vol. i. oct. ed.
Is one who lays down his life or suffers death
for the sake of his religion. The word is Greek, and properly signifies a
"witness." It is applied by way of eminence to those who suffer in
witness of the truth of the Gospel.
The Christian church has abounded with martyrs,
and history is filled with surprising accounts of their singular constancy and
fortitude under the cruelest torments human nature was capable of suffering.
The primitive Christians were accused by their enemies of paying a sort of
divine worship to martyrs. Of this we have an instance in the answer of the
church of Smyrna to the suggestion of the Jews, who, at the martyrdom of
Polycarp, desired the heathen judge not to suffer the Christians to carry off
his body, lest they should leave their crucified master, and worship him in his
stead. To which they answered, "We can neither forsake Christ, nor worship
any other; for we worship him as the Son of God; but love the martyrs as the
disciples and followers of the Lord, for the great affection they have shown to
their King and Master." A like answer was given at the martyrdom of
Fructuosus in Spain; for when the judge asked Eulogius, his deacon, whether he
would not worship Fructuosus, as thinking, that, though he refused to worship
the heathen idols, he might yet be inclined to worship a Christian martyr,
Eulogius replied, "I do not worship Fructuosus, but him whom Fructuosus
worships." The primitive Christians believed that the martyrs enjoyed
every singular privileges; that upon their death they were immediately admitted
to the beatific vision, while other souls waited for the completion of their
happiness till the day of judgment; and that God would grant to their prayers
the hastening of his kingdom, and shortening the times of persecution. Perhaps
this consideration might excite many to court martyrdom, as we believe many
did. It must be recollected, however, that martyrdom in itself is no proof of
the goodness of our cause, only that we ourselves are persuaded that it is so.
"It is not the blood, but the cause that makes the martyr." (Mead.)
Yet we may consider the number and fortitude of those who have suffered for
Christianity as a collateral proof at least of its excellency; for the thing
for which they suffered was not a point of speculation, but a plain matter of
fact, in which (had it been false) they could not have been mistaken. The
martyrdom, therefore, of so many wise and good men, taken with a view of the
whole system of Christianity, will certainly afford something considerable in
its favour.
The churches built over the graves of the
martyrs, and called by their names, in order to preserve the memory of their
sufferings, were distinguished by the title martyrium confessio, or memoria.
The festivals of the martyrs are of very ancient
date in the Christian church, and may be carried back at least from the time of
Polycarp, who suffered martyrdom about the year of Christ 168. On these days
the Christians met at the graves of the martyrs, and offered prayers and
thanksgivings to God for the example they had afforded them: they celebrated
the eucharist, and gave alms to the poor; which, together with a panegyrical
oration or sermon, and reading the acts of the martyrs, were the spiritual
exercises of these anniversaries.
Of the sayings, sufferings, and deaths of the
martyrs, though preserved with great care for the above purpose, and to serve
as models to future ages, we have but very little left, the greatest part of
them having been destroyed during that dreadful persecution which Dioclesian
carried on for ten years with fresh fury against the Christians; for a most
diligent search was then made after all their books and papers; and all of them
that were found were committed to the flames. Eusebius, indeed, composed a
martyrology, but it never reached down to us; and those since compiled are
extremely suspected. From the eighth century downwards, several Greek and Latin
authors endeavoured to make up the loss, by compiling, with vast labour,
accounts of the lives and actions of the ancient martyrs, but which consist of
the little else than a series of fables: nor are those records that pass under
the name of martyrology worthy of superior credit, since they bear the most
evident marks both of ignorance and falsehood.
A catalogue or list of martyrs, including the
history of their lives and sufferings for the sake of religion. The term comes
from "witness," and dico, or colligo.
The martyrologies draw their material from the
calendars of particular churches, in which the several festivals dedicated to
them are marked; and which seem to be derived from the practice of the ancient
Romans, who inserted the names of heroes and great men in their fasti, or
public registers.
The martyrologies are very numerous and contain
many ridiculous and even contradictory narratives; which is easily accounted
for, if we consider how many forged and spurious accounts of the lives of
saints and martyrs appeared in the first ages of the church, which the
legendary writers afterwards adopted without examining into the truth of them.
However, some good critics, of late years, have gone a great way towards
clearing the lives of the saints and martyrs from the monstrous heap of fiction
they laboured under. See article LEGEND.
The martyrology of Eusebius of Caesarea was the
most celebrated in the ancient church. It was translated into Latin by St.
Jerome; but the learned agree that it is not now extant. That attributed to
Beda in the eighth century, is of very doubtful authority; the names of several
saints being there found who did not live till after the time of Beda. The
ninth century was very fertile in martyrologies; then appeared that of Florus,
subdeacon of the church at Lyons; who, however, only filled up the chasms in
Beda. this was published about the year 830, and was followed by that of
Waldenburtus, monk of the diocese of Treves, written in verse about the year 848;
and this by that of Usard, a French monk, and written by the command of Charles
the Bald, in 875, which last is the martyrology now ordinarily used in the
Romish church. That of Rabanus Maurtus is an improvement on Beda and Florus,
written about the year 845; that of Noker, monk of St. Gal, was written about
the year 894. The martyrology of Ado, monk of Ferriers, in the diocese of
Treves, afterwards archbishop of Vienne, is a descendant of the Roman, if we
may so call it; for Du Sollier gives its genealogy thus:--The martyrology of
St. Jerome is the great Roman martyrology; from this was made the little Roman
one printed by Rosweyd; of this little Roman martyrology was formed that of
Beda, augmented by Florus. Ado compiled his in the year 858. the martyrology of
Nevelon monk of Corbie, written about the year 1089, is little more than an
abridgment of that of Ado: father Kircher also makes mention of a Coptic
martyrology, preserved by the Maronites at Rome.
We have also several Protestant martyrologies,
containing the sufferings of the reformed, under the Papists, viz. an English
martyrology by J. Fox; with others by Clark, Bray, &c. See PERSECUTION.
Martyrology is also used in the Romish church for
a roll or register kept in the vestry of each church, containing the names of
all the saints and martyrs both of the universal church, and of the particular
ones of that city or monastery.
Martyrology is also supplied to the painted or
written catalogues in the Roman churches, containing the foundations, orbits,
prayers, and masses, to be said each day.
A term in the Jewish theology, signifying a work
on the Bible, performed by several learned rabbins to secure it from any
alterations which might otherwise happen.
Their work regards merely the letter of the
Hebrew text, in which they have first fixed the true reading by vowels and
accents; they have, secondly, numbered not only the chapters and sections, but
the verses, words, and letters of the text: and they find in the Pentateuch
5245 verses, and in the whole Bible 23,206. The masora is called by the Jews,
the hedge or fence of the law, because this enumeration of the verses, &c.
is a means of preserving it from being corrupted and altered. They have,
thirdly, marked whatever irregularities occur in any of the letters of the
Hebrew text; such as the different size of the letters, their various positions
and inversions, &c. and they have been fruitful in finding out reasons for
these mysteries and irregularities in them. They are, fourthly, supposed to be
the authors of the Keri and Chetibh, or the marginal corrections of the text in
our Hebrew Bibles.
The text of the sacred books, it is to be
observed, was originally written without any breaks or divisions into chapters
or verses, or even into words: so that a whole book, in the ancient manner, was
but one continued word: of this kind we have still several ancient manuscripts,
both Greek and Latin. In regard, therefore, the sacred writings had undergone
an infinite number of alterations; whence various readings had arisen, and the
original was become much mangled and disguised, the Jews had recourse to a
canon, which they judged infallible, to fix and ascertain the reading of the
Hebrew text; and this rule they call masora; "tradition," from
tradit, as if this critique were nothing but a tradition which they had
received from their forefathers. Accordingly they say, that, when God gave the
law to Moses at Mount Sinai, he taught him first the true reading of it; and,
secondly, its true interpretation; and that both these were handed down by oral
tradition from generation to generation, till at length they were committed to
writing. The former of these, viz. the true reading, is the subject of the
masora; the latter, or true interpretation, that of the mishna and gemera.
According to Elias Levita, they were the Jews of
a famous school at Tiberias, about five hundred years after Christ, who
composed, or at least began, the masora; whence they are called masorites and
masoretic doctors. Aben Ezra makes them the authors of the points and accents
in the Hebrew text, as we now find it, and which serve for vowels.
The age of the masorites has been much disputed.
Archbishop Usher places them before Jerome; Capel, at the end of the fifth
century; father Morin, in the tenth century. Basuage says, that they were not a
society, but a succession of men; and that the masora was the work of many
grammarians, who, without associating and communicating their notions, composed
this collection of criticisms on the Hebrew text. It is urged, that there were
masorites from the time of Ezra and the men of the great synagogue, to about
the year of Christ 1030: and that Ben Asher and Ben Naphtali, who were the best
of the profession, and who, according to Basnage, were the inventors of the
masora, flourished at this time. Each of these published a copy of the whole
Hebrew text, as correct, says Dr. Prideaux, as they could make it. The eastern
Jews have followed that of Ben Naphtali, and the western that of Ben Asher: and
all that has been done since is to copy after them, without making any more
corrections, or masoretical criticisms.
The Arabs have done the same thing by their Koran
that the Masorites have done by the Bible; nor do the Jews deny their having
borrowed this expedient from the Arabs, who first put it in practice in the
seventh century.
There is a great and little masora printed at
Venice and at Basil, with the Hebrew text in a different character. Buxtorf has
written a masoretic commentary which he calls Tiberias.
Missa, in the church of Rome, the office or
prayers used at the celebration of the eucharist; or, in other words,
consecrating the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, and offering
them, so transubstantiated, as an expiatory sacrifice for the quick and the
dead.
As the mass is in general believed to be a
representation of the passion of our blessed Saviour, so every action of the
priest, and every particular part of the service, is supposed to allude to the
particular circumstances of his passion and death.
Nicod, after Baronius, observes, that the word
comes from the Hebrew missach (oblatum;) or from the Latin missa missorum;
because in the former times the catechumens and excommunicated were sent out of
the church, when the deacons said, Ite, missa, est, after sermon and reading of
the epistle and Gospel; they not being allowed to assist at the consecration.
Menage derives the word from missio, "dismissing;" others from missa,
"missing, sending;" because in the mass the prayers of men on earth
are sent up to heaven.
The general division of masses consist in high
and low. The first is that sung by the choristers, and celebrated with the
assistance of a deacon and sub-deacon: low masses are those in which the
prayers are barely rehearsed without singing.
There are a great number of different or
occasional masses in the Romish church, many of which have nothing peculiar but
the name: such are the masses of the saints; that of St. Mary of the Snow,
celebrated on the fifth of August; that of St. Margaret, patroness of
lying-in-women; that of the feast of St. John the Baptist, at which are said
three masses; that of the Innocents, at which the gloria in excelsis and
hallelujah are omitted, and, it being a day of mourning, the altar is of a
violet colour. As to ordinary masses, some are said for the dead, and, as is
supposed, contribute to fetch the soul out of purgatory. At these masses the
altar is put in mourning, and the only decorations are a cross in the middle of
six yellow wax lights: the dress of the celebrant, and the very mass-book, are
black; many parts of the office are omitted, and the people are dismissed
without the benediction. If the mass be said for a person distinguished by his
rank or virtues, it is followed with a funeral oration: they erect a chapelle
ardente, that is, a representation of the deceased, with branches and tapers of
yellow wax, either in the middle of the church, or near the deceased's tomb,
where the priest pronounces a solemn absolution of the deceased. There are
likewise private masses said for stolen or strayed goods or cattle, for health,
for travellers, &c. which go under the name of votive masses. There is
still a further distinction of masses, denominated from the countries in which
they were used: thus the Gothic mass, or missa mosarabum, is that used among
the Goths when they were masters of Spain, and which is still kept up at Toledo
and Salamanca; the Ambrosian mass is that composed by St. Ambrose, and used
only at Milan, of which city he was bishop: the Gallic mass used by the ancient
Gauls; and the Roman mass, used by almost al the churches in the Romish
communion.
Mass of the presanctified (missa
praesanctificatorum) is a mass peculiar to the Greek church, in which there is
no consecration of the elements; but, after singing some hymns, they receive
the bread and wine which were before consecrated. This mass is performed all
Lent, except on Saturdays, Sundays, and the Annunciation. The priest counts
upon his fingers, the days of the ensuing week on which it is to be celebrated,
and cuts off as many pieces of bread at the altar as he is to say masses; and
after having consecrated them, steeps them in wine, and puts them in a box; out
of which, upon every occasion, he takes some of it with a spoon, and, putting
it on a dish, sets it on the altar.
A term used to signify the sudden and promiscuous butchery of a multitude. See PERSECUTION.
Or MESSALIANS, a sect which sprung up about the year 361, in the reign of the emperor Constantinus, who maintained that men have two souls, a celestial and a diabolical; and that the latter is driven out by prayer. From those words of our Lord, "Labour not for the meat that perisheth," it is said, that they concluded they ought not to do any work to bet their bread. We may suppose, says Dr. Jortin, that this sect did not last long; that these sluggards were soon starved out of the world; or, rather, that cold and hunger sharpened their wits, and taught them to be better interpreters of Scripture.
A person who has servants under him; a ruler, or instructor. The duties of masters relate to the civil concerns of the family. To arrange the several businesses required of servants; to give particular instructions for what is to be done, and how it is to be done; to take care that no more is required of servants than they are equal to; to be gentle in our deportment towards them; to reprove them when they do wrong, to commend them when they do right; to make them an adequate recompense for their services, as to protection, maintenance, wages and character.--2. As to the morals of servants. Masters must look well to their servants's characters before they hire them; instruct them in the habits of virtue; watch over their morals, and set them good examples.--3. As to their religious interests. They should instruct them in the knowledge of divine things, Gen. xiv. 14. Gen. xviii. 19. Pray with them and for them, Joshua xxiv. 15. Allow them time and leisure for religious services, &c. Eph. vi. 9. See Stennett on Domestic Duties, ser. 8; Paley's Moral Phil. vol. i. 233, 235; Beattie's Elements of Moral Science, vol. i. 150, 153; Doddridge's Lec. vol. ii. 266.
A sect in the ancient church, composed of
persons, who, being prepossessed with that maxim in philosophy, "ex nihilo
mihil fit," out of nothing nothing can arise, had recourse to an eternal
matter, on which they supposed God wrought in the creation, instead of
admitting Him alone as the sole cause of the existence of all things. Tertulian
vigoriously opposed them in his treatise against Hermogenes, who was one of
their number.
Materialists are also those who maintain that the
soul of man is material, or that the principle of perception and thought is not
a substance distinct from the body, but the result of corporeal organization.
There are others called by this name, who have maintained that there is nothing
but matter in the universe.
The followers of the late Dr. Priestley are
considered as Materialists, or philosophical Necessarians. According to the
doctor's writings, he believed,--
1. That man is no more than what we now see of
him: his being commences at the time of his conception, or perhaps at an
earlier period. The corporeal and mental faculties, inhering in the same
substance, grow, ripen, and decay together; and whenever the system is
dissolved, it continues in a state of dissolution, till it shall please that
Almighty Being who called it into existence, to restore it to life again. For
if the mental principle were, in its own nature, immaterial and immortal, all
its peculiar faculties would be so too, whereas we see that every faculty of
the mind, without exception, is liable to be impaired, and even to become
wholly extinct, before death. Since, therefore, all the faculties of the mind,
separately taken, appear to be mortal, the substance, or principle, in which
they exist, must be pronounced mortal too. Thus we might conclude that the body
was mortal, from observing that all the separate senses and limbs were liable
to decay and perish.
This system gives a real value to the doctrine of
the resurrection from the dead, which is peculiar to revelation; on which alone
the sacred writers build all our hope of future life: and it explains the
uniform language of the Scriptures, which speak of one day of judgment for all
mankind; and represent all the rewards of virtue, and all the punishments of
vice, as taking place at that awful day, and not before. In the Scriptures, the
heathens are represented as without hope, and all mankind as perishing at
death, if there be no resurrection of the dead.
The apostle Paul asserts, in 1 Cor. xv. 16. that
if the dead rise not, them is not Christ risen; and if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins: then they also who are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished. And again, ver. 32, If the dead rise not let us
eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. In the whole discourse, he does not even
mention the doctrine of happiness or misery without the body.
If we search the Scriptures for passages
expressive of the state of man at death, we shall find such declarations as
expressly exclude any trace of sense, thought, or enjoyment. See Ps. vi. 5. Job
xlv. 7, &c.
2. That there is some fixed law of nature
respecting the will as well as the other powers of the mind, and every thing
else in the constitution of nature; and consequently that it is never
determined without some real or apparent cause foreign to itself; i. e. without
some motive of choice; or that motives influence us in some definite and
invariable manner, so that every volition, or choice, is constantly regulated
and determined by what precedes it: and this constant determination of mind,
according to the motives presented to it, is what is meant by its necessary determination.
This being admitted to be fact, there will be a necessary connexion between all
things past, present, and to come, in the way of proper cause and effect, as
much in the intellectual as in the natural world; so that according to the
established laws of nature, no event could have been otherwise than it has
been, or is to be, and therefore all things past, present, and to come, are
precisely what the Author of Nature really intended them to be, and has made
provision for.
To establish this conclusion, nothing is
necessary but that throughout all nature the same consequences should
invariably result from the same circumstances. For if this be admitted, it will
necessarily follow, that at the commencement of any system, since the several
parts of it and their respective situations were appointed by the Deity, the
first change would take place according to a certain rule established by
himself, the result of which would be a new situation; after which the same
laws containing another change would succeed, according to the same rules, and
so on for ever; every new situation invariably leading to another, and every
event, from the commencement to the termination of the system, being strictly
connected, so that, unless the fundamental laws of the system were changed, it
would be impossible that any event should have been otherwise than it was. In
all these cases, the circumstances preceding any change are called the causes
of that change: and since a determinate event, or effect, constantly follows
certain circumstances, or causes, the connexion between cause and effect is
concluded to be invariable, and therefore necessary.
It is universally acknowledged, that there can be
no effect without an adequate cause. This is even the foundation on which the
only proper argument for the being of a God rests. And the Necessarian asserts,
that if, in any given state of mind, with respect both to dispositions and
motives, two different determinations, or volitions, be possible, it can be on
no other principle, than that one of them should come under the description of
an effect without a cause; just as if the beam of a balance might incline
either way, though loaded with equal weights. And if any thing whatever, even a
thought in the mind of man, could arise without an adequate cause, any thing
else, the mind itself, or the whole universe, might likewise exist without an
adequate cause.
This scheme of philosophical necessity implies a
chain of causes and effects established by infinite wisdom, and terminating in
the greatest good of the whole universe; evils of all kinds, natural and moral,
being admitted, as far as they contribute to that end, or are in the nature of
things inseparable from it. Vice is productive not of good, but of evil to us,
both here and hereafter, though good may result from it to the whole system;
and, according to the fixed laws of nature, our present and future happiness
necessarity depend on our cultivating good dispositions.
This scheme of philosophical necessity is
distinguished from the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination in the following
particulars:
1. No Necessarian supposes that any of the human
race will suffer eternally: but that future punishments will answer the same
purposes as temporal ones are found to do; all of which tend to good, and are
evidently admitted for that purpose. Upon the doctrine of necessity, also, the
most indifferent actions of men are equally necessary with the most important;
since every volition, like any other effect, must have an adequate cause
depending upon the previous state of the mind, and the influence to which it is
exposed.
2. The Necessarian believes that his own
dispositions and actions are the necessary and sole means of his present and
future happiness; so that, in the most proper sense of the words, it depends
entirely on himself whether he be virtuous or vicious, happy or miserable.
3. The Calvinistic system entirely excludes the
popular notion of free-will, viz, the liberty or power of doing what we please,
virtuous or vicious, as belonging to every person, in every situation; which is
perfectly consistent with the doctrine of philosophical necessity, and indeed
results from it.
4. The Necessarian believes nothing of the
posterity of Adam's sinning in him, and of their being liable to the wrath of
God on that account; or the necessity of an infinite Being making atonement for
them by sufferings in their stead, and thus making the Deity propitious to
them. He believes nothing of all the actions of any man being necessarily
sinful; but, on the contrary, thinks that the very worst of men are capable of
benevolent intentions in many things that they do; and likewise that very good,
men are capable of falling from virtue, and consequently of sinking into final
perdition. Upon the principles of the Necessarian, also, all late repentance,
and especially after long and confirmed habits of vice, is altogether and
necessarily ineffectual; there not being sufficient time left to produce a
change of disposition and character, which can only be done by a change of
conduct of proportionably long continuance.
In short, the three doctrines of Materialism,
Philosophical Necessity, and Socinianism, are considered as equally parts of
one system. The scheme of Necessity is the immediate result of the materiality
of man; for mechanism is the undoubted consequence of materialism, and that man
is wholly material, is eminently subservient to the proper or mere humanity of
Christ. for if no man have a soul distinct from his body, Christ, who in all
other respects appeared as a man, could not have a soul which had existed
before his body: and the whole doctrine of the pre-existence of souls, of which
the opinion of the pre-existence of Christ is a branch, will be effectually
overturned. See NECESSITY, PRE-EXISTENCE, SPINOSISM, SOUL, UNITARIAN, and books
under those articles.
Denote those duties we perform for the purpose of improving out minds, affecting our hearts, and of obtaining spiritual blessings; such as hearing the Gospel, reading the Scriptures, self-examination, meditation, prayer, praise, Christian conversation, &c. The means are to be used without any reference to merit, but solely with a dependence on the Divine Being; nor can we ever expect happiness in ourselves, nor be good exemplars to others, while we live in the neglect of them. It is in vain to argue that the divine decree supercedes the necessity of them, since God has as certainly appointed the means as the end. Besides, he himself generally works by them, and the more means he thinks proper to use, the more he displays his glorious perfections. Jesus Christ, when on earth, used means: he prayed, he exhorted, and did good, by going from place to place. Indeed, the systems of nature, providence, and grace, are all carried on by means. The Scriptures abound with exhortations to them, Matt. v. Rom. xii. and none but enthusiasts or immoral characters ever refuse to use them.
A person that intervenes between two parties at variance, in order to reconcile them. Thus Jesus Christ is the Mediator between an offended God and sinful man, 1 Tim. ii. 5. Both Jews and Gentiles have a notion of a Mediator: the Jews call the Messiah the Mediator or Middle One. The Persians call their god Mithras, a Mediator; and the daemons, with the heathens, seem to be, according to them, mediators between the superior gods and men. Indeed the whole religion of Paganism was a system of mediation and intercession. The idea, therefore, of salvation by a Mediator, is not so novel or restricted as some imagine; and the Scriptures of truth inform us, that it is only by this way human beings can arrive to eternal felicity, Acts iv. 12. John xiv. 6. Man, in his state of innocence, was in friendship with God; but, by sinning against him, he exposed himself to his just displeasure; his powers became enfeebled, and his heart filled with enmity against him, Rom. viii. 6: he was driven out of his paradisaical Eden, and totally incapable of returning to God, and making satisfaction to his justice. Jesus Christ, therefore, was the appointed Mediator to bring about reconciliation, Gen. iii. 12. Col. i. 21; and in the fulness of time he came into this world, obeyed the law, satisfied justice, and brought his people into a state of grace and favour; yea, into a more exalted state of friendship with God than was lost by the fall, Eph. ii. 18. Now, in order to the accomplishing of this work, it was necessary that the Mediator should be God and man in one person. It was necessary that he should be man, 1. That he might be related to those he was a Mediator and Redeemer of.--2. That sin might be satisfied for, and reconciliation be made for it, in the same nature which sinned.--3. It was proper that the Mediator should be capable of obeying the law broken by the sin of man, as a divine person could not be subject to the law, and yield obedience to it, Gal. iv. 4. Rom. v. 19.--4. It was meet that the Mediator should be man, that he might be capable of suffering death; for, as God, he could not die, and without shedding of blood there was no remission, Heb. ii. 10, 15. vii. 3.--5. It was fit he should be man, that he might be a faithful high priest, to sympathise with his people under all their trials, temptations, &c. Heb. ii. 17,18. Heb. iv. 15.--6. It was fit that he should be a holy and righteous man, free from all sin, original and actual, that he might offer himself without spot to God, take away the sins of men, and be an advocate for them, Heb. vii. 26. ix. 14. 1 John iii. 5. But it was not enough to be truly man, and an innocent person; he must be more than a man: it was requisite that he should be God also, for, 1. No mere man could have entered into a covenant with God to dedicate between him and sinful men.--2. He must be God, to give virtue and value to his obedience and sufferings; for the sufferings of men or angels would not have been sufficient.--3. Being thus God-man, we are encouraged to hope in him. In the person of Jesus Christ the object of trust is brought nearer to ourselves; and those well-known tender affections which are only figuratively ascribed to the Deity, are in our great Mediator thoroughly realized. Farther, were he God, and not man, we should be guilty of idolatry to worship and trust him at all, Jer. xvii. 5. The plan of salvation, therefore, by such a Mediator, is the most suitable to human beings that possibly could be; for here "Mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other." Psal lxxxv. 10. The properties of Christ as Mediator are these: 1. He is the only Mediator, 1 Tim. ii. 4. Praying, therefore, to saints and angels is an error of the church of Rome, and has no countenance from the Scripture.--2. Christ is a Mediator of men only, not of angels: good angels need not any; and as for evil angels, none is provided nor admitted.--3. He is the Mediator both for Jews and Gentiles, Eph. ii. 18. 1 John ii. 2.--4. He is Mediator both for Old and New Testament saints.--5. He is a suitable, constant, willing, and prevalent Mediator; his mediation always succeeds, and is infallible. Gill's Body of Div. vol. i. oct. p. 336; Witsii OEcon. faed lib. ii. c. 4; Fuller's Gospel its own Witness, ch. 4. p. 2; Hurrion's Christ Crucified, p. 103. &c. Dr. Owen on the Person of Christ; Dr. Goodwin's Works, b. iii.
Is an act by which we consider any thing
closely, or wherein the soul is employed in the search or consideration of any
truth. In religion it is used to signify the serious exercise of the
understanding, whereby our thoughts are fixed on the observation of spiritual
things, in order to practice. Mystic divines make a great difference between
dedication and contemplation; the former consists in discursive acts of the
soul, considering methodically and with attention the mysteries of faith and
the precepts of morality; and is performed by reflections and reasonings which
leave behind them manifest impressions on the brain. The pure contemplative,
they say, have no need of meditation, as seeing all things in God at a glance,
and without any reflection. See BEGUINS and QUIETISTS.
1. Meditation is a duty which ought to be
attended to by all who wish well to their spiritual interests. It ought to be
deliberate, close, and perpetual, Psal. cxix. 97. Psal. i. 2.--2. The subjects
which ought more especially to engage the Christian mind are the works of
creation, Psal. xix. the perfections of God. Deut. xxxii. 4; the excellencies,
offices, characters, and works of Christ, Heb. xii. 2,3; the offices and
operations of the Holy Spirit, John xv. and xvi. the various dispensations of
Providence, Psal. xcvii. 1,2; the precepts, declarations, promises, &c. of
God's word, Psal. cxix; the value, powers, and immortality of the soul, Mark
viii. 36; the noble, beautiful, and benevolent plan of the Gospel, 1 Tim. i.
11; the necessity of our personal interest in and experience of its power, John
iii. 3; the depravity of our nature, and the freedom of divine grace in
choosing, adopting, justifying, and sanctifying us, 1 Cor. vi. 11; the
shortness, worth, and swiftness of time, James iv. 14; the certainty of death,
Heb. ix. 27; the resurrection and judgment to come, 1 Cor. xv. 50, &c. and
the future state of eternal rewards and punishments, Matt. xxv. These are some
of the most important subjects on which we should meditate.--3. To perform this
duty aright, we should be much in prayer, Luke xviii. 1; avoid a worldly
spirit, 1 John ii. 15; beware of sloth, Heb. vi. 11; take heed of sensual
pleasures, James iv. 4; watch against the devices of Satan, 1 Pet. v. 8; be
often in retirement, Psal. iv. 4; embrace the most favourable opportunities,
the calmness of the morning, Psal. v. 1,3; the solemnity of the evening, Gen.
xxiv. 63; Sabbathdays, Psal. cxviii. 24; sacramental occasions, &c. 1 Cor.
xi. 28.--4. The advantages resulting from this are, improvement of the
faculties of the soul, Prov. xvi. 22; the affections are raised to God, Psalm xxxix.
1,4; an enjoyment of divine peace and felicity, Phil. iv. 6,7; holiness of life
is promoted, Psal. cxix. 59, 60; and we thereby experience a foretaste of
eternal glory, Psalm lxxiii. 25, 26. 2 Cor. v. 1 &c.
A temper of mind not easily provoked to resentment. In the Greek language it is quasi, facilis, sasiness of spirit, and thus it may be justly called; for it accommodates the soul to every occurrence, and so makes a man easy to himself, and to all about him. The Latins call a meek man mansuetus, qu. manu assuetus, used to the hand; which alludes to the taming and reclaiming of creatures wild by nature, and bringing them to be tractable and familiar, James iii. 7,8: so where the grace of meekness reigns, it subdues the impetuous disposition, and learns it submission and forgiveness. It teaches us to govern our own anger whenever we are at any time provoked, and patiently to bear the anger of others, that it may not be a provocation to us. The former is its office, especially in superiors; the latter in inferiors, and both in equals, James iii. 13. The excellency of such a spirit appears, if we consider that it enables us to gain a victory over corrupt nature, Prov. xvi. 32; that it is a beauty and an ornament to human beings, 1 Pet. iii. 4; that it is obedience to God's word, and conformity to the best patterns, Eph. v. 1,2. Phil. iv. 8. It is productive of the highest peace to the possessor, Luke xxi. 19. Matt. xi. 28,29. It fits us for any duty, instruction, relation, condition, or persecution, Phil. iv. 11,12. To obtain this spirit, consider that it is a divine injunction, Zeph. ii. 3. Col. iii. 12. 1 Tim. vi. 11. Observe the many examples of it; Jesus Christ, Matt. xi. 28; Abraham, Gen. xiii. Gen. xvi. 5,6; Moses, Numb. xii. 3; David, Zeck. xiil 8. 2 Sam. xvi. 10, 12. Ps. cxxxi. 2; Paul, 1 Cor. ix. 19. How lovely a spirit it is in itself, and how it secures us from a variety of evils. That peculiar promises are made to such, Matt. v. 5. Is. lxvi. 2. That such give evidence of their being under the influence of divine grace, and shall enjoy the divine blessing, Is. lvii. 15. See Henry on Meekness; Dunlop's Ser. vol. ii. p. 343; Evan's Ser. on the Christian Temper, ser. 29; Tillotson on 1 Pet. ii. 21; and on Matt. v. 44; Logan's Sermons. vol. i. ser. 10; and Jortin's Sermons, ser. 11, vol. iii.
A place appropriated by Dissenters for the purpose of public worship. Since the act of uniformity passed, 1662, by which so many hundreds of ministers were ejected from their livings, meeting-houses have become very numerous. For a considerable time, indeed, they were prohibited by the conventicle act; but, at last, toleration being granted to Dissenters, they enjoyed the privilege of meeting and worshipping God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and which they still possess to this day. The number of meeting-houses in London, may, perhaps, amount to about 150, though some reckon upwards of 200. In all the respectable towns, and even in many villages of England, there are meeting-houses; and, within a few years, they have greatly increased.
Sadness or gloom; arising either from the habit of body, or the state of the mind. To remove it, the following remedies may be applied, 1. Early rising. 2. Plain nourishing food. 3. Exercise in the open air. Or if it arises particularly from the mind, 1. Associate with the cheerful. 2. Study the Scriptures. 3. Consider the amiable character of God. 4. Avoid sin. 5. Be much in prayer. See Burton. Baxter, and Rogers on Melancholy.
So called from one Mileto, who taught that not the soul, but the body of man, was made after God's image.
A denomination which arose about the beginning of the third century. They affirmed that Melchizedeck was not a man, but a heavenly power superior to Jesus Christ; for Melchizedeck, they said, was the intercessor and mediator of the angels; and Jesus Christ was only so for man, and his priesthood only a copy of that of Melchizedeck.
The name given to the Syriac, Egyptian, and other Christians of the Lovant. The Melchites, excepting some few points of little or no importance,which relate only to ceremonies, and ecclesiastical discipline, are, in every respect, professed Greeks; but they are governed by a particular patriarch, who assumes the title of Patriarch of Antioch. They celebrate mass in the Arabian language. The religious among the Melchites follow the rule of St. Basil, the common rule of all the Greek monks.
The name of a considerable party who adhered to the cause of Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis, in Upper Egypt, after he was deposed, about the year 306, by Peter, bishop of Alexandria, under the charge of his having sacrificed to the gods, and having been guilty of other heinous crimes; though Epiphanius makes his only failing to have been an excessive severity against the lapsed. This dispute, which was at first a personal difference between Meletius and Peter, became a religious controversy; and the Meletian party subsisted in the fifth century, but was condemned by the first council of Nice.
A faculty of the mind, which presents to us ideas or notions of things that are past, accompanied with a persuasion that the things themselves were formerly real and present. When we remember with little or no effort it is called remembrance simply, or memory, and sometimes passive memory. When we endeavour to remember what does not immediately and of itself occur, it is called active memory, or recollection. A good memory has these several qualifications: 1. It is ready to receive and admit with great ease the various ideas, both of words and things, which are learned or taught.--2. It is large and copious to treasure up these ideas in great number and variety.--3. It is strong and durable to retain, for a considerable time, those words or thoughts which are committed to it.--4. It is faithful and active to suggest and recollect, upon every proper occasion, and those words or thoughts which it hath treasured up. As this faculty may be injured by neglect and slothfulness we will here subjoin a few of the best rules which have been given for the improvement of it. 1. We should form a clear and distinct apprehension of the things which we commit to memory.--2. Beware of every sort of intemperance, for that greatly impairs the faculties.--3. If it be weak, we must not overload it, but charge it only with the most useful and solid notions.--4. We should take every opportunity of uttering our best thoughts in conversation, as this will deeply imprint them.--5. We should join to the idea we wish to remember, some other idea that is more familiar to us, which bears some similitude to it, either in its nature, or in the sound of the word.--6. We should think of it before we go to sleep at night, and the first thing in the morning, when the faculties are fresh.--7. Method and regularity in the things we commit to the memory are necessary.--8. Often thinking, writing, or talking, on the subjects we wish to remember.--9. Fervent and frequent prayer. See Watts on the Mind, chap. 17; Grey's Memoria Technica; Rogers' Pleasures of Memory; Reid's Intell. Powers of Man, 303, 318, 338, 356.
The most ancient branch of Gnostics; thus called
from Menander their chief, said by some, without sufficient foundation, to have
been a disciple of Simon Magus, and himself a reputed magician.
He taught, that no person could be saved unless
he were baptised in his name; and he conferred a peculiar sort of baptism,
which would render those who received it immortal in the next world; exhibiting
himself to the world with the phrenzy of a lunatic more than the founder of a
sect as a promised saviour; for it appears by the testimonies of Irenxus,
Justin, and Tertullian, that he pretended to be one of the xons sent from the
pleroma, or ecclesiastical regious, to succour the souls that lay groaning
under bodily oppression and servitude; and to maintain them against the
violence and stratagems of the daemons that hold the reins of empire in this
sublunary world. As this doctrine was built upon the same foundation with that
of Simon Magus, the ancient writers looked upon him as the instructor of
Menander. See SIMONIANS.
Or BEGGING FRIARS, several orders of religious
in popish countries, who, having no settled revenues, are supported by the
charitable contributions they receive from others.
This sort of society began in the thirteenth
century, and the members of it, by the tenor of their institution, were to
remain entirely destitute of all fixed revenues and possessions; though in
process of time their number became a heavy tax upon the people. Innocent III.
was the first of the popes who perceived the necessity of instituting such an
order; and accordingly he gave such monastic societies as made a profession of
poverty, the most distinguishing marks of his protection and favour. They were
also encouraged and patronized by the succeeding pontiffs, when experience had
demonstrated their public and extensive usefulness. But when it became
generally known that they had such a peculiar place in the esteem and
protection of the rulers of the church, their number grew to such an enormous
and unwieldy multitude, and swarmed so prodigiously in all the European
provinces, that they became a burden, not only to the people, but to the church
itself. The great inconvenience that arose from the excessive multiplication of
the Mendicant orders was remedied by Gregory X., in a general council which he
assembled at Lyons in 1272; for here all the religious orders that had sprung
up after the council held at Rome in 1215, under the pontificate of Innocent
III. were suppressed; and the extravagant multitude of Mendicants, as Gregory
called them, were reduced to a smaller number, and confined to the four
following societies or denominations, viz. the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the
Carmelites, and the Augustins, or hermits of St. Augustin.
As the pontiffs allowed these four Mendicant
orders the liberty of travelling wherever they thought proper, of conversing
with persons of every rank, of instructing the youth and multitude wherever
they went; and as those monks exhibited, in their outward appearance and
manners of life, more striking marks of gravity and holiness than were
observable in the other monastic societies, they rose all at once to the very
summit of fame, and were regarded with the utmost esteem and veneration through
all the countries of Europe. The enthusiastic attachment to these sanctimonious
beggars went so far, that, as we learn from the most authentic records, several
cities were divided or cantoned out into four parts, with a view to these four
orders: the first part being assigned to the Dominicans, the second to the
Franciscans, the third to the Carmelites, and the fourth to the Augustins. The
people were unwilling to receive the sacraments from any other hands than those
of the Mendicants, to whose churches they crowded to perform their devotions
while living, and were extremely desirous to deposit there also their remains
after death. Nor did the influence and credit of the Mendicants end here; for
we find in the history of this and of the succeeding ages, that they were
employed not only in spiritual matters, but also in temporal and political
affairs of the greatest consequence, in composing the differences of princes,
concluding treaties of peace, concerting alliances, presiding in councils, governing
courts, levying taxes, and other occupations, not only remote from, but
absolutely inconsistent with the monastic character and profession. However,
the power of the Dominicans and Franciscans greatly surpassed that of the other
two orders, insomuch that these two orders were, before the reformation, what
the Jesuits have been since that happy and glorious period; the very soul of
the hierarchy, the engines of the state, the secret springs of all the motions
of the one and the other, and the authors and directors of every great and
important event, both in the religious and political world. By very quick
progression their pride and consequence arrived at such a pitch, that they had
the presumption to declare publicly, that they had a divine impulse and commission
to illustrate and maintain the religion of Jesus. They treated with the utmost
insolence and contempt all the different orders of the priesthood; they
affirmed, without a blush, that the true method of obtaining salvation was
revealed to them alone; proclaimed with ostentation the superior efficacy and
virtue of their indulgences; and vaunted beyond measure their interest at the
court of heaven, and their familiar connexions with the Supreme Being, the
Virgin Mary, and the saints in glory. By these impious wiles they so deluded
and captivated the miserable, and blinded the multitude, that they would not
intrust any other but the Mendicants with the care of their souls. They
retained their credit and influence to such a degree towards the close of the
fourteenth century, that great numbers of both sexes, some in health, others in
a state of infirmity, others at the point of death, earnestly desired to be
admitted into the Mendicant order, which they looked upon as a sure and
infallible method of rendering heaven propitious.--Many made it an essential
part of their last wills, that their bodies after death should be wrapped in
old ragged Dominican or Franciscan habits, and interred among the Mendicants.
For such was the barbarous superstition and wretched ignorance of this age,
that people universally believed they should readily obtain mercy from Christ
at the day of judgment, if they appeared before his tribunal associated with
the Mendicant friars.
About this time, however, they fell under an universal
odium; but, being resolutely protected against all opposition, whether open or
secret, by the popes, who regarded them as their best friends, and most
effectual supports, they suffered little or nothing from the efforts of their
numerous adversaries. In the fifteenth century, besides their arrogance, which
was excessive, a quarrelsome and litigious spirit prevailed among them, and
drew upon them justly the displeasure and indignation of many. By affording
refuge at this time to the Beguins in their order, they became offensive to the
bishops, and were hereby involved in difficulties and perplexities of various
kinds. They lost their credit in the sixteenth century by their rustic
impudence, their ridiculous superstitions, their ignorance, cruelty, and
brutish manners. They discovered the most barbarous aversion to the arts and
sciences, and expressed a like abhorrence of certain eminent and learned men,
who endeavoured to open the paths of science to the pursuits of the studious
youth, recommended the culture of the mind, and attacked the barbarian of the
age in their writings and discourses. Their general character, together with
other circumstances, concurred to render a reformation desirable, and to
accomplish this happy event.
Among the number of Mendicants are also ranked
the Capuchins, Recollects, Minims, and others, who are branches or derivations
from the former.
Buchanan tells us, the Mendicants in Scotland,
under an appearance of beggary, lived a very luxurious life; whence one wittily
called them not Mendicant, but Manducant friars.
A sect in the United Provinces, in most respects
the same with those in other places called Anabaptists. They had their rise in
1536, when Menno Simon, a native of Friesland, who had been a Romish priest,
and a notorious profligate, resigned his rank and office in the Romish church,
and publicly embraced the communion of the Anabaptists.
Menno was born at Witmarsum, a village in the
neighbourhood of Bolswert, in Friesland, in the year 1505, and died in 1561, in
the duchy of Holstein, at the country-seat of a certain nobleman, not far from
the city of Oldesloe, who, moved with compassion by the view of the perils to
which Menno was exposed, and the snares that were daily laid for his ruin, took
him, with certain of his associates, into his protection, and gave him an
asylum. The writing of Menno, which are almost all composed in the Dutch
language, were published in folio at Amsterdam, in the year 1651. About the
year 1537, Menno was earnestly solicited by many of the sect with which he
connected himself, to assume among them the rank and functions of a public
teacher; and, as he looked upon the persons who made this proposal to be exempt
from the fanatical phrenzy of their brethren at Munster (though according to
other accounts they were originally of the same stamp, only rendered somewhat
wiser by their sufferings) he yielded to their entreaties. From this period to
the end of his life he travelled from one country to another with his wife and
children, exercising his ministry, under pressures and calamities of various
kinds, that succeeded each other without interruption, and constantly exposed
to the danger of falling a victim to the severity of the laws. East and West
Friesland, together with the province of Gronigen, were first visited by this
zealous apostle of the Anabaptists; from whence he directed his course into
Holland, Guelderland, Brabant and Westphalia; continued it through the German
provinces that lie on the coast of the Baltic sea, and penetrated so far as
Livonia. In all these places his ministerial labours were attended with
remarkable success, and added to his sect a prodigious number of followers.
Hence he is deservedly considered as the common chief of almost all the
Anabaptists, and the parent of the sect that still subsists under that
denomination. Menno was a man of genius, though not of a very sound judgment:
he possessed a natural and persuasive eloquence, and such a degree of learning
as made him pass for an oracle in the estimation of the multitude. He appears,
moreover, to have been a man of probity, of a meek and tractable spirit, gentle
in his manners, pliable and absequious in his commerce with persons of all ranks
and characters, and extremely zealous in promoting practical religion and
virtue, which he recommended by his example as well as by his precepts. The
plan of doctrine and discipline drawn up by Menno was of a much more mild and
moderate nature than that of the furious and fanatical Anabaptists (whose
tumultuous proceedings have been recited under that article,) but somewhat more
severe, though more clear and consistent than the doctrine of the wiser
branches of that sect, who aimed at nothing more than the restoration of the
Christian church to its primitive purity. Accordingly, he condemned the plan of
ecclesiastical discipline that was founded on the prospect of a new kingdom, to
be miraculously established by Jesus Christ on the ruins of civil government,
and the destruction of human rulers, and which had been the fatal and
pestilential source of such dreadful commotions, such execrable rebellions, and
such enormous crimes. He declared publicly his dislike of that doctrine which
pointed out the approach of a marvelous reformation in the church by the means
of a new and extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit. He expressed his
abhorrence of the licentious tenets which several of the Anabaptists had
maintained with respect to the lawfulness of polygamy and divorce; and,
finally, considered as unworthy of toleration those fanatics who were of
opinion, that the holy Ghost continued to descend into the minds of many chosen
believers, in as extraordinary a manner as he did at the first establishment of
the Christian church, and that he testified his peculiar presence to several of
the faithful, by miracles, predictions, dreams, and visions of various kinds.
He retained, indeed, the doctrines commonly received among the Anabaptists, in
relation to the baptism of infants; the millennium, or one thousand years'
reign of Christ upon earth; the exclusion of magistrates from the Christian
church; the abolition of war; and the prohibition of oath enjoined by our
Saviour; and the vanity, as well as the pernicious effects of human science.
But while Menno retained these doctrines in a general sense, he explained and
modified them in such a manner as made them resemble the religious tenets that
were universally received in the Protestant churches; and this rendered them agreeable
to many, and made them appear inoffensive even to numbers who had no
inclination to embrace them. It, however, so happened, that the nature of the
doctrines considered in themselves, the eloquence of Menno, which set them off
to such advantage, and the circumstances of the times, gave a high degree of
credit to the religious system of this famous teacher among the Anabaptists, so
that it made a rapid progress in that sect. And thus it was in consequence of
the ministry of Menno, that the different sorts Anabaptists agreed together in
excluding from their communion the fanatics that dishonoured it, and in
renouncing all tenets that were detrimental to the authority of civil
government, and by an unexpected coalition formed themselves into one community.
Though the Mennonites usually pass for a sect of
Anabaptists, yet M. Herman Schyn, a Mennonite minister, who has published their
history and apology, maintains, that they are not anabaptists either by
principle or origin. However, nothing can be more certain than this fact, viz.
that the first Mennonite congregations were composed of the different sorts of
Anabaptists; of those who had been always inoffensive and upright, and of those
who, before their conversion by the ministry of Menno, had been seditious
fanatics; besides, it is alleged, that the Mennonites do actually retain at
this day some of those opinions and doctrines which led the seditious and
turbulent Anabaptists of old to the commission of so many and such enormous
crimes; such particularly is the doctrine concerning the nature of Christ's
kingdom, or of the church of the New Testament, though modified in such a
manner as to have lost its noxious qualities, and to be no longer pernicious in
its influence.
The Mennonites are subdivided into several sects,
whereof the two principal are the Flandrians, or Flemingians, and the
Waterlandians. The opinions, says Mosheim, that are held in common by the
Mennonites, seem to be all derived from this fundamental principle,--that the
kingdom which Christ established upon earth is a visible church, or community,
into which the holy and just alone are to be admitted; and which is
consequently exempt from all those institutions and rules of discipline that
have been invented by human wisdom for the correction and reformation of the
wicked. This principle, indeed, was avowed by the ancient Mennonites, but it is
now almost wholly renounced: nevertheless, from this ancient doctrine many of
the religious opinions that distinguish the Mennonites from all other Christian
communities seem to be derived. In consequence of this doctrine, they admit
none to the sacrament of baptism but persons that are come to the full use of
their reason; they neither admit civil rulers into their communion, nor allow
any of their members to perform the functions of magistracy; they deny the
lawfulness of repelling force by force; and consider war, in all its shapes, as
unchristian and unjust: they entertain the utmost aversion to the execution of
justice, and more especially to capital punishments: and they also refuse to
confirm their testimony by an oath. The particular sentiments that divided the
more considerable societies of the Mennonites, are the following: The rigid
Mennonites, called the Flemingians, maintain with various degrees of rigour the
opinions of their founder, Menno, as to the human nature of Christ, alleging
that it was produced in the womb of the Virgin by the creating power of the
Holy Ghost; the obligation that binds us to wash the feet of strangers, in consequence
of our Saviour's command: the necessity of excommunicating and avoiding, as one
would do the plague, not only avowed sinnere, but also all those who depart,
even in some light instances pertaining to dress, &c. from the simplicity
of their ancestors; the contempt due to human learning; and other matters of
less moment. However, this austere system declines, and the rigid Mennonites
are gradually approaching towards the opinions and discipline of the more
moderate, or Waterlandians.
The first settlement of the Mennonites in the
United Provinces was granted them by William, prince of Orange, towards the
close of the sixteenth century; but it was not before the following century
that their liberty and tranquility were fixed upon solid foundations, when, by
a confession of faith published in the year 1626, they cleared themselves from
the imputations of those pernicious and detestable errors that had been laid to
their charge. In order to appease their intestine discords, a considerable part
of the Anabaptists of Flanders, Germany, and Friesland, concluded their debates
in a conference held at Amsterdam in the year 1630, and entered into the bonds
of fraternal communion, each reserving to themselves a liberty of retaining
certain opinions. This association was renewed and confirmed by new resolutions
in the year 1649; in consequence of which the rigorous laws of Menno and his
successors were in various respects mitigated and corrected. See ANABAPTISTS.
This title distinguished a denomination which
appeared in Flanders and Brussels in the year 1511. they owed their origin to
an illiterate man, whose name was Egidius Cantor, and to William of Hildenison,
a Carmelite monk. They pretended to be honoured with celestial visions, denied
that any could arrive at perfect knowledge of the Holy Scriptures without the
extraordinary succours of a divine illumination, and declared the approach of a
new revelation from heaven, more perfect than the Gospel of Christ. They said
that the resurrection was accomplished in the person of Jesus, and no other was
to be expected; that the inward man was not defiled by the outward actions,
whatever they were; that the pains of hell were to have an end; and not only
all mankind, but even the devils themselves were to return to God, and be made
partakers of eternal felicity. They also taught among other things, that Christ
alone had merited eternal life and filicity for the human race; and that
therefore men could not acquire this inestimable privilege by their own actions
alone--that the priests to whom the people confessed their transgressions, had
not the power of absolving them, but this authority was vested in Christ
alone--that voluntary penance and mortification was not necessary to salvation.
This denomination appears to have been a branch
of the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit.
Is that disposition of mind which excites us to
pity and relieve those who are in trouble, or to pass by their crimes without
punishing them. It is distinguished from love, thus: The object of love is the
creature simply; the object of mercy is the creature fallen into misery.
Parents love their children simply as they are their children; but if they fall
into misery, love works in a way of pity and compassion: love is turned into
mercy.
"As we are all the objects of mercy in one
degree or another, the mutual exercise of it towards each other is necessary to
preserve the harmony and happiness of society. But there are those who may be
more particularly considered as the objects of it; such as the guilty, the
indigent, and the miserable. As it respects the guilty, the greatest mercy we
can show to them is to endeavour to reclaim them, and prevent the bad
consequences of their misconduct, James v. 20. Mercy may also be shown to them
by a proper mitigation of justice, and not extending the punishment beyond the
nature or desert of the crime. With regard to those who are in necessity and
want, mercy calls upon us to afford the most suitable and seasonable supplies;
and here our benefactions must be dispensed in proportion to our circumstances,
and the real distress of the object, 1 John iii. 17. As to those who are in
misery and distress, mercy prompts us to relieve and comfort them by doing what
we can to remove or alleviate their burdens. Our Lord strongly recommended this
act of mercy in the parable of the man who fell among thieves, and was relieved
by the poor Samaritan: and in the conclusion he adds, 'Go and do thou
likewise,' Luke x. 30-37.
"This merciful temper will show and exert
itself not only towards those of our own party and acquaintance, but to the
whole human species; and not only to the whole human species, but to the animal
creation. It is a degree of inhumanity to take a pleasure in giving any thing
pain, and more in putting useful animals to extreme torture for our own sport.
This is not that dominion which God originally gave to man over the beasts of
the field. It is, therefore, an usurped authority, which man has no right to
exercise over brute creatures, which were made for his service, convenience,
support, and ease; but not for the gratification of unlawful passions, or cruel
dispositions.
"Mercy must be distinguished from those
weaknesses of a natural temper which often put on the appearance of it. With
regard to criminals or delinquents, it is false compassion to suppress the salutary
abmonition, and refuse to set their guilt before them, merely because the sight
of it will give their conscience pain: such unseasonable tenderness in a
surgeon may prove the death of his patient: this, however it may appear is not
mercy, but cruelty. So is that fondness, of a parent that withholds the hand of
discipline from a beloved child, when its frowardness and faults render
seasonable and prudent correction necessary to save it from ruin. In like
manner, when a magistrate, through excessive clemency, suffers a criminal who
is a pest to society to escape unpunished, or so mitigates the sentence of the
law as to put it into his power to do still greater hurt to others, he violates
not only the laws of justice, but of mercy too.
"Mercy to the indigent and necessitous has
been no less abused and perverted by acts of mistaken beneficence, when
impudence and clamour are permitted to extort from the hand of charity that
relief which is due to silent distress and modest merit; or when one object is
lavishly relieved to the detriment of another who is more deserving. As it
respects those who are in tribulation or misery, to be sure, every such person
is an object of our compassion; but that compassion may be, and often is,
exercised in a wrong manner. Some are of so tender a make, that they cannot
bear the sight of distress, and stand aloof from a friend in pain and
affliction, because it affects them too sensibly, when their presence would at
least give them some little comfort, and might possibly administer lasting
relief. This weakness should be opposed, because it not only looks like
unkindness to our friends, but is really showing more tenderness to ourselves
than to them: nor is it doing as we would be done by . Again; it is false pity,
when, out of mere tenderness of nature, we either advise or permit our
afflicted friend to take or do any thing which will give him a little present
transient ease, but which we know at the same time will increase his future
pain, and aggravate the symptoms of his disease." Seeing, therefore, the
extremes to which we are liable, let us learn to cultivate that wisdom and
prudence which are necessary to regulate this virtue. To be just without being
cruel, and merciful without being weak, should be our constant aim, under all
the circumstances of guilt, indigence, and misery, which present themselves to
our view. See BENEFICENCE, CHARITY, LOVE.
Is his readiness to relieve the miserable and to pardon the guilty. 1. It is essential to his nature, Exod. xxxiv. 6,7; not, indeed, as a passion or affection, as it is in men, but the result of his sovereign will, and guided by his infinite wisdom.--2. It is free, as nothing out of himself can be the cause of it; for then there would be a cause prior to him, the cause of himself. The misery of the creature is not the cause of mercy, for he is not wrought upon as creatures are, nor are the merits of the creature the cause, Tit. iii. 5; nor are even the sufferings of Christ the cause, but the effects of it; but it arises from the goodness of his nature, and from his sovereign will and pleasure, Exod. xxxiii. 19. Rom. ix. 18.--3. His mercy is infinite; it pardons offences committed against an infinitely holy Being, and bestows an infinite good on all who believe, even Jesus Christ, Luke i. 78.--4. It is immutable; nothing can change it; it is invariably the same, Mal. iii. 6. Luke i. 50.--5. Shall be for ever celebrated in a future state, Psal. lxxxix. 2. ciii. 17.--6. It is only displayed in and through Christ, Eph. ii. It has been farther distinguished into, 1. Preventing mercy, Psal. lix. 10.--2. Forbearing mercy, Rom. ii. 4.--3. Comforting mercy, 2 Cor. i. 4.--4. Relieving mercy, Psal. cxiv. 8,9.--5. Pardoning mercy, Is. lv. 6.--6. Universal or extensive mercy. It extends to all kinds of beings and fallen creatures. The brute creation share in it, Psal. cxlv. 9. xxxvi. 5,6. The ungodly are the objects of it in a general way, Matt. v. 45. 1 Tim. iv. 10. The saints on earth are continual monuments of it, Rom. ix. 23; and the spirits of just men made perfect in glory are always praising God for it. Finally, it is enjoyed in an especial manner by all who are true believers, of every nation, in every age, in every circumstance, in all places, and at all times. See GRACE, PARDON; Gill's Body of Div. vol. i. p. 124. oct. ed. Saurin's Ser. vol. i. ser. 8. Dr. Goodwin's Works, vol. v. part 2. Tillotson's Ser. ser. 147. Hill's Ser. ser. 10.
Signifies desert, or to earn: originally the word was applied to soldiers and other military persons, who, by their labours in the field, and by the various hardships they underwent during the course of a campaign, as also by other services they might occasionally render to the commonwealth, were said, merere stipendia, to merit, or earn their pay; which they might properly be said to do, because they yielded in real service an equivalent to the state for the stipend they received, which was therefore due to them in justice. Here, then, we come at the true meaning of the word merit; from which it is very clearly to be seen that there can be no such thing as merit in our best obedience. One man may merit of another, but all mankind together cannot merit from the hand of God. This evidently appears, if we consider the imperfections of all our services, and the express declaration of the divine word, Eph. ii. 8,9. Rom. xi. 5,6. Tit. iii. 5. Rom. x. 1,4. The Doctrine of Merit stated, ser. i. vol. iii. South's Sermons; Toplady's Works, p. 471, vol. iii. Hervey's Eleven Letters to Wesley; Robinson's Claude, vol. ii. p. 218.
Signifies anointed, the title given by way of
eminence to our Saviour; meaning the same in Hebrew as Christ in Greek, and
alludes to the authority he had to assume the characters of prophet, priest,
and king, and that of Saviour of the world. The ancient Jews had just notions
of the Messiah, which came gradually to be corrupted, by expecting a temporal
monarch and conqueror; and finding Jesus Christ to be poor, humble, and of an
unpromising appearance, they rejected him. Most of the modern rabbins,
according to Buxtorf, believe that the Messiah is come, but that he lies concealed
because of the sins of the Jews. Others believe he is not yet come, fixing
different times for his appearance, many of which are elapsed; and, being thus
baffled, have pronounced an anathema against those who shall pretend to
calculate the time of his coming. To reconcile the prophecies concerning the
Messiah that seemed to be contradictory, some have had recourse to a twofold
Messiah; one in a state of poverty and suffering, the other of splendor and
glory. The first, theysay, is to proceed from the tribe of Ephraim, who is to
fight against Gog, and to be slain by Annillus, Zech. xii. 10; the second is to
be of the tribe of Judah and lineage of David, who is to conquer and kill
Annillus; to bring the first Messiah to life again, to assemble all Isreal, and
rule over the whole world.
That Jesus Christ is the true Messiah, and
actually come in the flesh is evident, if we consider (as Mr. Fuller observes)
that it is intimated that whenever he should come, the sacrifices and
ceremonies of the Mosiac law were to be superseded by him, Ps. xl. 6-8; 1 Sam.
xv. 22; Dan. ix. 27; Jer. xxxi. 31, 34; Heb. viii. 13. Now sacrifice and
oblation have ceased. They virtually ceased when Jesus offered himself a
sacrifice, and in a few years after, they actually ceased. A few of the ancient
ceremonies are indeed adhered to, but as one of the Jewish writers
acknowledges. "The sacrifices of the Holy Temple have ceased." Let
every Jew therefore, ask himself this question. Should Messiah the Prince come
at some future period, how are the sacrifice and oblation to cease on his
appearance, when they have already ceased near 1800 years.
Again, it is suggested in the Scripture, that the
great body of sacred prophecy should be accomplished in him; Gen. iii. 16;
xxii. 18; Is. xlix. 10. liii. 1. The time when he was to come is clearly marked
out in prophecy: Is. xlix. 10; Hag. ii. 6-9; Dan. ix. 24. He actually came
according to that time.--2. The place where Messiah should be born, and where
he should principally impart his doctrine is determined; Mic. v. 2; Is. ix. 2;
and was literally fulfilled in Jesus.--3. The house or family from whom he
should descend is clearly ascertained. So much is said of his descending from
David, that we need not refer to particular proofs; and the rather as no Jew
will deny it. The genealogies of Matthew and Luke, whatever varieties there are
between them, agree in tracing his pedigree to David. And though, in both it is
traced in the name of Joseph, yet this appears to be only in conformity to the
Jewish custom of tracing no pedigree in the name of a female. The father of
Joseph, as mentioned by Luke, seems to have been his father by marriage only;
so that it was, in reality, Mary's pedigree that is traced by Luke, though
under her husband's name; and this being the natural line of descent, and that
of Matthew the legal one, by which, as a king he would have inherited the
crown, there is no incosistency between them.--4. The kind of miracles that
Messiah should perform is specified; Is. xxxv. 5,6. He actually performed the
miracles there predicted, his enemies themselves being judges.--5. It was
prophesied that he should as a King be distinguished by his lowliness; entering
into Jerusalem, not in a chariot of state, but in a much humbler style; Zech. ix.9;
this was really the case, Matt. xxi. 6. It was predicted that he should suffer
and die by the hands of wicked men; Is. xlix. 7; liii. 9; Dan. ix. 26. Nothing
could be a more striking fulfilment of prophecy than the treatment the Messiah
met with in almost every particular circumstance.--7. It was foretold that he
should rise from the dead; Is. liii. 11. Ps. lxviii. 18. xvi. 10, his
resurrection is proved by indubitable evidence.--8. It was foretold that the
great body of the Jewish nation would not believe in him, and that he would set
up his kingdom among the Gentiles; Is. liii. 1. xlix. 4-6. vi. 9-12. Never was
a prophecy more completely fulfilled than this, as facts evidently prove.
Lastly, it is declared that when the Messiah
should come, the will of God would be perfectly fulfilled by him, Is.xlii. 1,
49. Is. 3-5. And what was his whole life but perfect conformity to him? He
finished the work the Father gave him to do: never was there such a character
seen among men. Well therefore may we say, Truly this was the Son of God. See
article CHRISTIANITY, JESUS CHRIST.
There have been numerous false Messiahs which
have arisen at different times. Of these the Saviour predicted, Matt. xxiv. 14.
Some have reckoned as many as twenty-four, of whom we shall here give an
account.
1. Caziba was the first of any note who made a
noise in the world. Being dissatisfied with the state of things under Adrian,
he set himself up at the head of the Jewish nation, and proclaimed himself
their long expected Messiah. He was one of those banditti that infested Judea,
and committed all kinds of violence against the Romans; and had become so
powerful, that he was chosen king of the Jews, and by them acknowledged their
Messiah.--However, to facilitate the success of this bold enterprise, he
changed his name from Caziba, which it was at first, to that of Barchocheba,
alluding to the star foretold by Balaam; for he pretended to be the star sent
from heaven to restore his nation to its ancient liberty and glory. He chose a
forerunner, raised an army, was anointed king, coined money inscribed with his
own name, and proclaimed himself Messiah and prince of the Jewish nation.
Adrian raised an army, and sent it against him. He retired into a town called
Bither, where he was besieged. Barchocheba was killed in the siege, the city
was taken, and a dreadful havoc succeeded. The Jews themselves allow, that,
during this short war against the Romans, in defence of this false Messiah,
they lost five or six hundred thousand souls. This was in the former part of
the second century.
2. In the reign of Theodosius the younger, in the
year of our Lord 434, another impostor arose, called Moses Cretensis. He
pretended to be a second Moses, sent to deliver the Jews who dwelt in Crete,
and promised to divide the sea, and give them a safe passage through it. Their
delusion proved so strong and universal, that they neglected their lands,
houses, and all other concerns, and took only so much with them as they could
conveniently carry. And on the day appointed, this false Moses, having led them
to the top of a rock, men, women, and children, threw themselves headlong down
into the sea, without the least hesitation or reluctance, till so great a
number of them were drowned, as opened the eyes of the rest, and made them
sensible of the cheat. They then began to look out for their pretended leader,
but he disappeared, and escaped out of their hand.
3. In the reign of Justin, about 520, another
impostor appeared, who called himself the son of Moses. His name was Dunaan. He
entered into a city of Arabia Felix, and there he greatly oppressed the
Christians; but he was taken prisoner, and put to death by Elesban, and
AEthiopian general.
4. In the year 529 the Jews and Samaritans
rebelled against the emperor Justinian, and set up one Julian for their king;
and accounted him the Messiah. The emperor sent an army against them, killed
great numbers of them, took their pretended Messiah prisoner, and immediately
put him to death.
5. In the year 571 was born Mahomet, in Arabia.
At first he professed himself to be the Messiah who was promised to the Jews.
By this means he drew many of that unhappy people after him. In some sense,
therefore, he may be considered in the number of false Messiahs. See MAHOMETANISM.
6. About the year 721, in the time of Leo
Isaurus, arose another false Messiah in Spain; his name was Serenus. He drew
great numbers after him, to their no small loss and disappointment, but all his
pretensions came to nothing.
7. The twelfth century was fruitful in false
Messiahs: for about the year 1137, there appeared one in France, who was put to
death, and many of those who followed him.
8. In the year 1138 the Persians were disturbed
with a Jew, who called himself the Messiah. He collected together a vast army.
But he, too, was put to death, and his followers treated with great inhumanity.
9. In the year 1157, a false Messiah stirred up
the Jews at Corduba, in Spain. The wiser and better sort looked upon him as a
madman, but the great body of the Jews in that nation believed in him. On this
occasion almost all the Jews in Spain were destroyed.
10. In the year 1167, another false Messiah rose
in the kingdom of Fez, which brought great trouble and persecution upon the
Jews that were scattered through that country.
11. In the same year an Arabian set up there for
the Messiah, and pretended to work miracles. When search was made for him, his
followers fled, and he was brought before the Arabian king. Being questioned by
him, he replied, that he was a prophet sent from God. The king then asked him
what sign he could show to confirm his mission. Cut off my head, said he, and I
will return to life again. The king took him at his word, promising to believe
him if his prediction came to pass. The poor wretch, however, never returned to
life again, and the cheat was sufficiently discovered. Those who had been
deluded by him were grievously punished and the nation condemned to a very
heavy fine.
12. Not long after this, a Jew who dwelt beyond
Euphrates, called himself the Messiah, and drew vast multitudes of people after
him. He gave this for a sign of it, that he had been leprous, and was cured in
the course of one night. He, like the rest, perished in the attempt, and
brought great persecution on his countrymen.
13. In the year 1174, a magician and false Christ
arose in Persia, who was called David Almusser. He pretended that he could make
himself invisible; but he was soon taken and put to death, and a heavy fine
laid upon his brethren the Jews.
14. In the year 1176, another of these impostors
arose in Moravia, who was called David Almusser. He pretended that he could
make himself invisible; but he was soon taken and put to death and a heavy fine
laid upon his brethren the Jews.
15. Int he year 1199, a famous cheat and rebel
exerted himself in Persia, called David el David. He was a man of learning, a
great magician, and pretended to be the Messiah. He raised an army against the
king, but was taken and imprisoned; and, having made his escape, was afterwards
seized again, and beheaded. Vast numbers of the Jews were butchered for taking
part with this impostor.
16. We are told of another false Christ in this
same century by Maimonides and Solomon: but they take no notice either of his
name, country, or good or ill success.
Here we may observe, that no less than ten false
Christs arose in the twelfth century, and brought prodigious calamities and
destruction upon the Jews in various quarters of the world.
17. In the year 1497, we find another false
Christ, whose name was Ismael Sophus, who deluded the Jews in Spain. He also
perished, and as many as believed in him were dispersed.
18. In the year 1500, Rabbi Lemlem, a German Jew
of Austria, declared himself a forerunner of the Messiah, and pulled down his
own oven, promising his brethren that they should bake their bread in the Holy
Land next year.
19. In the year 1509, one whose name was
Plefferkorn, a Jew of Cologne, pretended to be the Messiah. He afterwards
affected, however, to turn Christian.
20. In the year 1534, Rabbi Salomo Malcho, giving
out that he was the Messiah, was burnt to death by Charles the Fifth of Spain.
21. In the year 1615, a false Christ arose in the
East Indies, and was greatly followed by the Portuguese Jews, who were
scattered over that country.
22. In the year 1624, another in the Low
Countries pretended to be the Messiah of the Family of David, and of the line
of Nathan. He promised to destroy Rome, and to overthrow the kingdom of
Antichrist, and the Turkish empire.
23. In the year 1666, appeared the false Messiah
Sabatai Sevi, who made so great a noise, and gained such a number of
proselytes. He was born at Aleppo, imposed on the Jews for a considerable time;
but afterwards, with a view of saving his life, turned Mahometan, and was at
last beheaded. As the history of this impostor is more entertaining than that
of those we have already mentioned, I will give it at some length.
The year 1666 was a year of great expectation,
and some wonderful thing was looked for by many. This was a fit time for an
impostor to set up; and, accordingly, lying reports were carried about. It was
said, that great multitudes marched from unknown parts to the remote deserts of
Arabia, and they were supposed to be the ten tribes of Israel, who had been
dispersed for many ages; that a ship was arrived in the north part of Scotland
with sails and cordage of silk: that the mariners spake nothing but Hebrew;
that on the sails was this motto, The twelve tribes of Israel. Thus were
credulous men possessed at that time.
Then it was that Sabatai Sevi appeared at Smyrna,
and professed himself to be the Messias. He promised the Jews deliverance and a
prosperous kingdom. This which he promised they firmly believed. The Jews now
attended to no business, discoursed of nothing but their return, and believed
Sabatai to be the Messias as firmly as we Christians believe any article of
faith. A right reverend person, then in Turkey, meeting with a Jew of his
acquaintance at Aleppo, he asked him what he thought of Sabatai. The Jew
replied, that he believed him to be the Messias; and that he was so far of that
belief, that, if he should prove an impostor, he would then turn Christian. It
is fit we should be particular in this relation, because the history is so very
surprising and remarkable; and we have the account of it from those who were in
Turkey.
Sabatai Sevi was the son of Moredecai Sevi, a
mean Jew of Smyrna. Sabatai was very bookish, and arrived to great skill in the
Hebrew learning. He was the author of a new doctrine, and for it was expelled
the city. He went thence to Salonichi, of old called Thessalonica, where he
married a very handsome woman, and was divorced from her. Then he travelled
into the Morea, then to Tripoli, Gaza, and Jerusalem. By the way he picked up a
third wife. At Jerusalem he began to reform the Jews' constitutions, and
abolish one of their solemn fasts, and communicated his designs of professing himself
tha Messias to one Nathan. He was pleased with it, and set up for his Elias, or
forerunner, and took upon him to abolish all the Jewish fasts, as not
beseeming, when the bridegroom was not come. Nathan prophesied that the Messias
should appear before the Grand Seignior in less than two years, and take from
him his crown, and lead him in chains.
At Gaza, Sabatai preached repentance, together
with a faith in himself, so effectually, that the people gave themselves up to
their devotions and alms. The noise of this Messias began to fill all places.
Sabatai now resolves for Smyrna, and then for Constantinople, Nathan writes to
him from Damascus, and thus he begins his letter; "To the king, our king,
lord of lords, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, who redeems our captivity,
the man elevated to the height of all sublimity the Messias of the God of
Jacob, the true Messias, the celestial Lion, Sabatai Sevi."
And now, throughout Turkey, the Jews were in
great expectation of glorious times. They now were devout and penitent, that
they might not obstruct the good which they hoped for.
Some fasted so long that they were famished to
death; others buried themselves in the earth till their limbs grew stiff; some
would endure melting wax dropped on their flesh; some rolled in snow; others,
in a cold season, would put themselves into cold water; and many buried
themselves. Business was laid aside; superfluities of household utensils were
sold; the poor were provided for by immense contributions. Sabatai comes to
Smyrna, where he was adored by the people, though the Chacham contradicted him,
for which he was removed from his office. There he in writing styles himself
the only and first-born Son of God, the Messias, the Saviour of Israel. And
though he met with some opposition, yet he prevailed there at last to that
degree, that some of his followers prophesied, and fell into strange ecstacies:
four hundred men and women prophesied of his growing kingdom; and young
infants, who could hardly speak, would plainly pronounce Sabatai, Messias, and
Son of God. The people were for a time possessed, and voices heard from their
bowels: some fell into trances, foamed at the mouth, recounted their future
prosperity, their visions of the Lion of Judah, and the triumphs of Sabatai.
All which, says the relator, were certainly true, being effects of diabolical
delusions, as the Jews themselves have since confessed.
Now the impostor swells and assumes. Whereas the
Jews, in their synagogues, were wont to pray for the Grand Seignior, he orders
those prayers to be forborne for the future, thinking it an indecent thing to
pray for him who was shortly to be his captive; and, instead of praying for the
Turkish emperor, he appoints prayers for himself. He also elected princes to
govern the Jews in their march towards the Holy Land, and to minister justice
to them when they should be possessed of it. These princes were men well known
in the sity of Smyrna at that time. The people were now pressing to see some
miracle to confirm their faith, and to convince the Gentiles. Here the impostor
was puzzled, though any juggling trick would have served their turn. But the
credulous people supplied this defect. When Sabatai was before the Cadi (or
justice of peace,) some affirmed they saw a pillar of fire between him and the
Cadi; and after some had affirmed it, others were ready to swear it, and did
swear it also; and this was presently believed by the Jews of that city. He
that did not now believe him to be the Messias was to be shunned as an
excommunicated person. The inpostor now declares that he was called of God to
see Constantinople, where he had much to do. He ships himself, to that end, in
a Turkish saick, in January, 1666. He had a long and troublesome voyage; he had
not power over the sea and winds. The Visier, upon the news, sends for him, and
confines him in a loathsome prison. The Jews pay him their visits; and they of
this city are as infatuated as those in Smyrna. They forbid traffic and refuse
to pay their debts. Some of our English merchants not knowing how to recover
their debts from the Jews, took this occasion to visit Sabatai, and make their
complaints to him against his subjects; whereupon he wrote the following letter
to the Jews.
"To you of the nation of the Jews, who
expect the appearance of the Messias, and the salvation of Israel, peace
without end. Whereas we are informed that you are indebted to several of the
English nation, it seemeth right unto us to order you to make satisfaction to
these your just debts, which if you refuse to do, and not obey us herein, know
you that then you are not to enter with us into our joys and dominions."
Sabatai remained a prisoner in Constantinople for
the space of two months. The Grand Visier, designing for Candia, thought it not
safe to leave him in the city during the Grand Seignior's absence and his own.
He, therefore, removed him to the Dardanelli, a better air indeed, but yet out
of the way, and consequently importing less danger to the city; which
occasioned the Jews to conclude that the Turks could not, or durst not, take
away his life; which had, they concluded, been the surest way to have removed
all jealousy. The Jews flocked in great numbers to the castle where he was a
prisoner; not only those that were near, but from Poland, Germany, Leghorn,
Venice, and other places: they received Sabatai's blessing, and promises of
advancement. The Turks made use of this confluence; they raised the price of
their lodgings and provisions, and put their price upon those who desired to
see Sabatai for their admittance. This profit stopped their mouths, and no
complaints were for this cause sent to Adrianople.
Sabatai, in his confinement, appoints the manner
of his own nativity. He commands the Jews to keep it on the ninth day of the
month Ab, and to make it a day of great joy, to celebrate it with pleasing
meats and drinks, with illuminations and music. He obligeth them to acknowledge
the love of God, in giving them that day of consolation for the birth of their
king Messias, Sabatai Servi, his servant and first-born Son in love.
We may observe, by the way, the insolence of this
impostor. This day was a solemn day of fasting among the Jews, formerly in
memory of the burning of the temple by the Chaldees: several other sad things
happened in this month, as the Jews observe; that then, and upon the same day,
the second temple was destroyed; and that in this month it was decreed in the
wilderness that the Israelites should not enter into Canaan, &c. Sabatai
was born on this day; and, therefore, the fast must be turned to a feast;
whereas, in truth, it had been well for the Jews had he not been born at all;
and much better for himself, as will appear from what follows.
The Jews of that city paid Sabatai Sevi great
respect. They decked their synagogues with S.S. in letters of gold, and made
for him in the wall a crown: they attributed the same titles and prophecies to
him which we apply to our Saviour. He was also, during this imprisonment,
visited by pilgrims from all parts, that had heard his story. Among whom
Nehemiah Cohen, from Poland, was one, a man of great learning in the Kabbala
and eastern tongues; who desired a conference with Sabatai, and at the
conference maintained, that according to the Scripture, there ought to be a
two-fold Messias; one the son of Ephraim, a poor and despised teacher of the
law; the other the son of David, to be a conqueror. Nehemiah was content to be
the former, the son of Ephraim, and to leave the glory and dignity of the
latter to Sabatai. Sabatai, for what appears, did not dislike this. But here
lay the ground of the quarrel: Nehemiah taught that the son of Ephraim ought to
be the forerunner of the son of David, and to usher him in; and Nehemiah
accused Sabatai of too great forwardness in appearing as the son of David,
before the son of Ephraim had led him the way. Sabatai could not brook this
doctrine; for he might fear that the son of Ephraim, who was to lead the way,
might pretend to be the son of David, and so leave him in the lurch; and, therefore,
he excluded him from any part or share in this matter; which was the occasion
of the ruin of Sabatai, and all his glorious designs. Nehemiah, being
disappointed, goes to Adrianople, and informs the great ministers of state
against Sabatai, as a lewd and dangerous person to the government, and that it
was necessary to take him out of the way. The Grand Seignior, being informed of
this, sends for Sabatai, who, much dejected, appears before him. The Grand
Seignior requires a miracle, and chooses one himself; and it was this: that
Sabatai should be stripped naked, and set as a mark for his archers to shoot
at; and, if the arrows did not pierce his flesh, he would own him to be the
Messias. Sabatai had not faith enough to bear up under so great a trial. The
Grand Seignior let him know that he would forthwith impale him, and that the
stake was prepared for him, unless he would turn Turk. Upon which he consented
to turn Mahometan, to the great confusion of the Jews. And yet some of the Jews
were so vain as to affirm that it was not Sabatai himself, but his shadow, that
professed the religion, and was seen in the habit of a Turk; so great was their
obstinacy and infidelity, as if it were a thing impossible to convince these
deluded and infatuated wretches.
After all this, several of the Jews continued to
use the forms, in their public worship prescribed by this Mahometan Messias,
which obliged the principal Jews of Constantinople to send to the synagogue of
Smyrna to forbid this practice. During these things, the Jews, instead of
minding their trade and traffic, filled their letters with news of Sabatai
their Messias, and his wonderful works. They reported, that, when the Grand
Seignior sent to take him, he caused all the messengers that were sent to die; and
when other Janizaries were sent, they all fell dead by a word from his mouth;
and being requested to do it, he caused them to revive again. They added, that,
though the prison where Sabatai lay was barred and fastened with strong iron
locks, yet he was seen to walk through the streets with a numerous train; that
the shackles which were upon his neck and feet did not fall off, but were
turned into gold, with which Sabatai gratified his followers. Upon the fame of
these things the Jews of Italy sent legates to Smyrna, to enquire into the
truth of these matters. When the legates arrived at Smyrna, they heard of the
news that Sabatai was turned Turk, to their very great confusion; but, going to
visit the brother of Sabatai, he endeavoured to persuade them that Sabatai was
still the true Messias; that it was not Sabatai that went about in the habit of
a Turk, but his angel, or spirit; that his body was taken into heaven, and
should be sent down again when God should think it a fit season. He added, that
Nathan, his forerunner, who had wrought many miracles, would soon be at Smyrna;
that he would reveal hidden things to them, and confirm them. But this Elias
was not suffered to come into Smyrna, and though the legates saw him elsewhere,
they received no satisfaction at all.
24. The last falst Christ that had made any
considerable number of converts was one Rabbi Mordecai, a Jew of Germany: he
appeared in the year 1632. It was not long before he was found out to be an
impostor, and was obliged to fly from Italy to Poland to save his life. What
became of him afterwards does not seem to be recorded.
This may be considered as true and exact an
account of the false Christs that have arisen since the crucifixion of our
blessed Saviour, as can well be given. See Johannes a Lent's Hist. of False
Messiahs; Jortin's Rem. on Eccl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 330; Kidder's Demonstration
of the Messias; Harris's Sermons on the Messiah; The Eleventh Volume of the
Modern Part of the Universal History; Simpson's Key to the Prophecies, sec. 9;
Maclaurin on the Prophecies relating to the Messiah; Fuller's Jesus the true
Messiah.
A term used to denote the active and passive obedience of Christ; all that he wrought and all that he suffered for the salvation of mankind. See articles ATONEMENT, IMPUTATION, RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST.
A name applied to different sects, both Papists and Protestants.--1. The popish Methodists were those polemical doctors who arose in France about the middle of the seventeenth century, in opposition to the Huguenots, or Protestants. These Methodists, from their different manner of treating the controversy with their opponents, may be divided into two classes. The one comprehends those doctors whose method of disputing with the Protestants was disingenuous and unreasonable; and who followed the example of those military chiefs, who shut up their troops in intrenchments and strong holds, in order to cover them from the attacks of the enemy. Of this number were the Jesuit Veron, who required the Protestants to prove the tenets of their church by plain passages of Scripture, without being allowed the liberty of illustrating those passages, reasoning upon them, or drawing any conclusions from them; Nihusius, an apostate from the Protestant religion; the two Wallenburgs, and others, who confined themselves to the business of answering objections; and cardinal Richlieu, who confined the whole controversy to the single article of the divine institution and authority of the church.--2. The Methodists of the second class were of opinion, that the most expedient manner of reducing the Protestants to silence, was not to attack them by piecemeal, but to overwhelm them at once by the weight of some general principle, or presumption, or some universal argument, which comprehended or might be applied to all the points contested between the two churches; thus imitating the conduct of those military leaders, who, instead of spending their time and strength in sieges and skirmishes, endeavoured to put an end to the war by a general and decisive action. Some of these polemics rested the defence of popery upon prescription; others upon the wicked lives of Protestant princes who had left the church of Rome; others, the crime of religious schism; the variety of opinions among Protestants with regard to doctrine and discipline, and the uniformity of the tenets and worship of the church of Rome; and thus, by urging their respective arguments, they thought they should stop the mouths of their adversaries at once.
Origin of. It is not generally known that the
name of Methodist had been given long before to a religious sect in England, or
at least, to a party in religion which was distinguished by some of the same
marks as are now supposed to apply to the Methodists. John Spence, who was
librarian of Sion College in 1657, in a book which he published, says,
"Where are now our Anabaptists and plain pike staff Methodists, who esteem
all flowers of rhetoric in sermons no better than stinking weeds?"--But
the denomination to which we here refer, was founded, in the year 1729, by one
Mr. Morgan and Mr. John Wesley. In the month of November that year, the latter
being then fellow of Lincoln College, began to spend some evenings in reading
the Greek Testament, with Charles Wesley, student, Mr. Morgan, commoner of
Christ Church, and Mr. Kirkham, of Merton College. Not long afterwards, two or
three of the pupils of Mr. John Wesley obtained leave to attend these meetings.
They then began to visit the sick in different parts of the town, and the
prisoners also, who were confined in the castle. Two years after they were
joined by Mr. Ingham, of Queen's College, Mr. Broughton, and Mr. Hervey; and,
in 1735, by the celebrated Mr. Whitfield, then in his eighteenth year. At this
time their number in Oxford amounted to about fourteen. They obtained their
name from the exact regularity of their lives, which gave occasion to a young
gentleman of Christ Church to say, "Here is a new sect of Methodists
sprung up;" alluding to a sect of ancient physicians who were called
Methodists because they reduced the whole healing art to a few common
principles, and brought it into some method and order.
At the time that this society was formed, it was
said that the whole kingdom of England was tending fast to infidelity. "It
is come," says Bishop Butler, "I know not how, to be taken for
granted by many persons, that Christianity is not so much as a subject of
enquiry; but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious; and
accordingly they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreement
among all people of discernment, and nothing remained but to set it up as a
principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were, by way of reprisal for its
having so long interrupted the pleasures of the world." There is every
reason to believe that the Methodists were the instruments of stemming this
torrent. The sick and the poor also tasted the fruits of their labours and
benevolence: Mr. Wesley abridged himself of all his superfluities, and proposed
a fund for the relief of the indigent; and so prosperous was the scheme, that
they quickly increased their fund to eighty pounds per annum. This, which one
should have thought would have been attended with praise instead of censure,
quickly drew upon them a kind of persecution; some of the seniors of the
university began to interfere, and it was reported "that the college
censor was going to blow up the godly club." They found themselves,
however, patronized and encouraged by some men eminent for their learning and
virtue; so that the society still continued, though they had suffered a severe
loss, in 1730, by the death of Mr. Morgan, who, it is said, was the founder of
it. In October, 1735, John and Charles Wesley, Mr. Ingham, and Mr. Delamotte,
son of a merchant in London, embarked for Georgia, in order to preach the
Gospel to the Indians. After their arrival they were at first favourably
received, but in a short time lost the affection of the people; and, on account
of some differences with the store-keeper, Mr. Wesley was obliged to return to
England. Mr. Wesley, however, was soon succeeded by Mr. Whitfield, whose
repeated labours in that part of the world are well known.
II. Methodists, tenets of. After Mr. Whitfield
returned from America in 1741, he declared his full assent to the doctrines of
Calvin. Mr. Wesley, on the contrary, professed the Arminian doctrine, and had
printed, in favour of perfection and universal redemption, and very strongly
against election, a doctrine which Mr. Whitfield believed to be unscriptural.
The difference, therefore, of sentiments between these two great men caused a
separation. Mr. Wesley preached in a place called the Foundery, where Mr.
Whitfield preached but once, and no more. Mr. Whitfield then preached to very
large congregations out of doors; and soon after, in connection with Mr.
Cennick, and one or two more, began a new house, in Kingswood, Gloucestershire,
and established a school that favoured Calvinistical preachers. The Methodists,
therefore, were now divided; one part following Mr. Wesley, and the other Mr.
Whitfield.
The doctrines of the Wesleyan Methodists,
according to their own account, are the same as the church of England, as set
forth in her liturgy, articles, and homilies. This, however, has been disputed.
Mr. Wesley, in his appeal to men of reason and religion, thus declares his sentiments:
"All I teach," he observes, "respects either the nature and
condition of salvation, the nature of justifying and saving faith, or the
Author of faith and salvation. That justification whereof our articles and
homilies speak signifies present forgiveness, and consequently acceptance with
God: I believe the condition of this faith: I mean not only that without faith
we cannot be justified, but also that, as soon as any one has true faith, in
that moment he is justified. Good works follow this faith, but cannot go before
it; much less can sanctification, which implies continued course of good works,
springing from holiness of heart. But it is allowed that sanctification goes
before our justification at the last day, Heb. xii. 14. Repentance, and fruits
meet for repentance, go before faith. Repentance absolutely must go before
faith; fruits meet for it, if there be opportunity. By repentance I mean
conviction of sin, producing real desires and sincere resolutions of amendment;
by salvation I mean not barely deliverance from hell, but a present deliverance
from sin. Faith, in general, is a divine supernatural evidence, or conviction
of things not seen, not discoverable by our bodily senses: justifying faith
implies not only a divine evidence or conviction that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself, but a sure trust and confidence that Christ
died for my sins, that he loved me, and gave himself for me. And the moment a
penitent sinner believes this, God pardons and absolves him; and as soon as his
pardon or justification is witnessed to him by the Holy Ghost, he is saved.
From that time (unless he make shipwreck of the faith) salvation gradually
increases in his soul.
"The Author of faith and salvation is God
alone. There is no more of power than of merit in man; but as all merit is in
the Son of God, in what he has done and suffered for us, so all power is in the
Spirit of God. And, therefore, every man, in order to believe unto salvation,
must receive the Holy Ghost." So far Mr. Wesley. Respecting original sin,
free will, the justification of men, good works, and works done before
justification, he refers us to what is said on these subjects in the former
part of the ninth, and tenth, the eleventh, the twelfth, and thirteenth
articles of the church of England. One of Mr. Wesley's preachers bears this
testimony of him and his sentiments: "The Gospel, considered as a general
plan of salvation, he viewed as a display of the divine perfections, in a way
agreeable to the nature of God; in which all the divine attributes harmonize,
and shine forth with peculiar lustre.--The Gospel, considered as a means to
attain an end, appeared to him to discover as great fitness in the means to the
end as can possibly be discovered in the structure of natural bodies, or in the
various operations of nature, from a view of which we draw our arguments for
the existence of God.--Man he viewed as blind, ignorant, wandering out of the
way, with his mind estranged from God.--He considered the Gospel as a dispensation
of mercy to men, holding forth pardon, a free pardon of sin to all who repent
and believe in Christ Jesus. The Gospel, he believed, inculcates universal
holiness, both in heart and in the conduct of life.--He showed a mind well
instructed in the oracles of God, and well acquainted with human nature. He
contended, that the first step to be a Christian is to repent; and that, till a
man is convinced of the evil of sin, and is determined to depart from it; till
he is convinced that there is a beauty in holiness, and something truly
desirable in being reconciled to God, he is not prepared to receive Christ. The
second important and necessary step, he believed to be faith, agreeable to the
order of the apostle, 'Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ,' Acts xx. 20,21. In explaining sanctification, he accurately
distinguished it from justification, or the pardon of sin. Justification admits
us into a state of grace and favour with God, and lays the foundation of
sanctification, or Christian holiness, in all its extent. There has been a
great clamour raised against him because he called his view of sanctification
by the word perfection; but he often explained what he meant by this term. He
meant by the word perfection, such a degree of the love of God, and the love of
man; such a degree of the love of justice, truth, holiness, and purity, as will
remove from the heart every contrary disposition towards God or man; and that
this should be our state of mind in every situation and in every circumstance
of life.--He maintained that God is a God of love, not to a part of his
creatures only, but to all; that He who is the Father of all, who made all, who
stands in the same relation to all his creatures, loves them all; that he loved
the world, and gave his Son a ransom for all without distinction of persons. It
appeared to him, that to represent God as partial, as confining his love to a
few, was unworthy our notions of the Deity. He maintained that Christ died for
all men; and that he is to be offered to all; that all are to be invited to
come to him: and that whosoever comes in the way which God has appointed may
partake of his blessings. He supposed that sufficient grace is given to all, in
that way and manner which is best adapted to influence the mind. He did not
believe salvation was by works. So far was he from putting works in the place
of the blood of Christ, that he only gave them their just value: he considered
them as the fruits of a living operative faith, and as the measure of our
future reward: for every man will be rewarded not for his work, but according
to the measure of them. He gave the whole glory of salvation to God, from first
to last. he believed that man would never turn to God, if God did not begin the
work: he often said that the first approaches of grace to the mind are
irresistible; that is, that a man cannot avoid being convinced that he is a
sinner; that God, by various means, awakens his conscience; and whether the man
will or no, these convictions approach him." In order that we may form
still clearer ideas respecting Mr. Wesley's opinions, we shall here quote a few
questions and answers as laid down in the Minutes of Conference. Q. "In
what sense is Adam's sin imputed to all mankind?" A. "In Adam all
die, i.e. 1. Our bodies then became mortal.--2. Our souls died, i.e. were
disunited from God. And hence,--3. We are all born with a sinful, devilish
nature; and reason whereof,--4. We are children of wrath, liable to death
eternal." Rom. v. 18. Eph. ii. 3. Q. "In what sense is the
righteousness of Christ imputed to all mankind, or to believers?" A.
"We do not find it expressly affirmed in Scripture that God imputes the
righteousness of Christ to any, although we do find that faith is imputed for
righteousness. That text, 'As by one man's disobedience all men were made
sinners, so by the obedience of one all were made righteous' we conceive, means
by the merits of Christ all men are cleared from the guilt of Adam's actual
sin." Q. "Can faith be lost but through disobedience?" A. "It
cannot. A believer first inwardly disobeys; inclines to sin with his heart;
then his intercourse with God is cut off, i.e. his faith is lost; and after
this he may fall into outward sin, being now weak, and like another man."
Q. "What is implied in being a perfect Christian?" A. "The
loving the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our mind, and soul,
and strength." Q. "Does this imply that all inward sin is taken
away?" A. :Without doubt; or how could we be said to be saved from all our
uncleannesses?" Ezek. xxxvi. 29. Q. "How much is allowed by our
brethren who differ from us with regard to entire sanctificatio?" A.
"They grant, 1. That every one must be entirely sanctified in the article
of death.--2. That till then a believer daily grows in grace, comes nearer and
nearer to perfection.--3. That we ought to be continually pressing after this,
and to exhort all others to do so." Q. "What do we allow them?"
A. "We grant, 1. That many of those who have died in the faith, yea, the
greater part of those we have known, were not sanctified throughout, not made
perfect in love, till a little before death.--2. That the term sanctified is
continually applied by St. Paul to all that were justified, that were true
believers.--3. That by this term alone he rarely (if ever) means saved from all
sin.--4. That consequently it is not proper to use it in this sense, without
adding the word 'wholly, entirely,' or the like.--5. That the inspired writers
almost continually speak of or to those who were justified, but very rarely
either of or to those who were sanctified.--6. That consequently it behoves us
to speak in public almost continually of the state of justification; but more
rarely in full and explicit terms concerning entire sanctification." Q.
"What then, is the point wherein we divide?" A. "It is this:
Whether we should expect to be saved from all sin before the article of
death." Q. "Is there any clear Scripture promise of this, that God
will save us from all sin?" A. "There is, Ps. cxxx. 8: 'He shall
redeem Israel from all his iniquities.' This is more largely expressed in Ezek.
xxxvi. 26,29. 2 Cor. vii. 1. Deut. xxx. 6. 1 John iv. 17."
Thus I have endeavoured to give a view of the
tenets of the Wesleyan Methodists; and this I have chosen to do in their own
words, in order to prevent misrepresentation.
As to the doctrines of the Calvinistic Methodist,
they need not be inserted here, as the reader will find the substance of them
under the article CALVINISTS.
III. Methodists, government and discipline of. A
considerable number both of the Calvinists and Arminian Methodists approve of
the discipline of the church of England, while many, it is said, are dissenters
in principle. Mr. Wesley and Mr. Whitfield were both brought up in, and paid
peculiar respect to that church. They did not, however, as it is well known,
confine themselves to her laws in all respects as it related to discipline.
Mr. Wesley having formed numerous societies in
different parts, he, with his brother Charles, drew up certain rules, by which
they were, and it seems in many respects still are governed. They state the
nature and design of a Methodist society in the following words:
"Such a society is no other than a company
of men having the form and seeking the power of godliness; united, in order to
pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch over one
another in love, that they may help each other to work out their
salvation."
"That it may the more easily be discerned
whether they are indeed working out their own salvation, each society is
divided into smaller companies, called classes, according to their respective
places of abode. There are about twelve persons (sometimes fifteen, twenty, or
even more) in each class; one of whom is styled the leader. It is his business,
1. To see each person in his class once a week, at least, in order to enquire
how their souls prosper; to advise, reprove, comfort, or exhort, as occasion
may require; to receive what they are willing to give to the poor, or toward
the Gospel.--2. To meet the minister and the stewards of the society once a
week, in order to inform the minister of any that are sick, or of any that walk
disorderly, and will not be reproved; to pay to the stewards what they have
received of their several classes in the week preceding; and to show their
account of what each person has contributed.
"There is only one condition previously
required of those who desire admission into these societies, namely, A desire
to flee from the wrath to come; to be saved from their sins: but wherever this
is really fixed in the soul, it will be shown by its fruits. It is, therefore,
expected of all who continue therein, that they should continue to evidence
their desire of salvation.
"First, by doing no harm; by avoiding evil
in every kind; especially that which is most generally practised, such as the
taking the name of God in vain; the profaning the day of the Lord, either by
doing ordinary work thereon, or by buying or selling; drunkenness; buying or
selling spirituous liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme
necessity; fighting, quarrelling, brawling; brother going to law with brother;
returning evil for evil, or railing for railing; the using many words in buying
or selling; the buying or selling uncustomed goods; the giving or taking things
on usury, i.e. the unlawful interest.
"Uncharitable, or unprofitable conversation;
particularly speaking evil of magistrates, or of ministers.
"Doing to others as we would not they should
do unto us.
"Doing what we know is not for the glory of
God; as the putting on gold or costly apparel: the taking such diversions as
cannot be used in the name of the Lord Jesus.
"The singing those songs, or reading those
books, which do not tend to the knowledge or love of God; softness and needless
self-indulgence; laying up treasure upon earth; borrowing without a probability
of paying; or taking up goods without a probability of paying for them.
"It is expected of all who continue in these
societies that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation.
"Secondly, By doing good; by being in every
kind merciful after their power, as they have opportunity; doing good of every
possible sort, and as far as possible to all men; to their bodies, of the
ability which God giveth; by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked,
by visiting or helping them that are sick, or in prison; to their souls, by
instructing, reproving, or exhorting all we have any intercourse with;
trampling under foot that enthusiastic doctrine of devils, that, 'We are not to
do good, unless our hearts be free to it.'
"By doing good, especially to them that are
of the household of faith, or groaning so to be; employing them preferably to
others; buying one of another; helping each other in business; and so much the
more, because the world will love its own, and them only; by all possible
diligence and frugality, that the gospel be not blamed; by running with
patience the race set before them, denying themselves, and taking up their
cross daily; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ; to be as the filth and
offscouring of the world, and looking that men should say all manner of evil of
them falsely for the Lord's sake.
"It is expected of all who desire to
continue in these societies, that they should continue to evidence their desire
of salvation,
"Thirdly, By attending on all the ordinances
of God: such are,--The public worship of God; the ministry or the word, either
read or expounded; the supper of the Lord; family and private prayer; searching
the Scriptures; and fasting and abstinence.
"These are the general rules of our
societies, all which we are taught of God to observe, even in his written word;
the only rule, and the sufficient rule, both of our faith and practice; and all
these we know his Spirit writes on every truly awakened heart. If there be any
among us who observe them not, who habitually break any of them, let it be made
known unto them who watch over that soul, as they who must give an account. We
will admonish him of the error of his ways; we will bear with him for a season;
but then, if he repent not, he hath no more place among us: we have delivered
our own souls.
May 1, 1743 John Wesley
Charles
Wesley."
In Mr. Wesley's connexion, they have circuits and
conferences, which we find were thus formed:--When the preachers at first went
out to exhort and preach, it was by Mr. Wesley's permission and direction; some
from one mission and direction; some from one part of the kingdom, and some
from another; and though frequently strangers to each other, and those to whom
they were sent, yet on his credit and sanction alone they were received and
provided for as friends by the societies wherever they came. But, having little
or no communication or intercourse with one another, nor any subordination
among themselves, they must have been under the necessity of recurring to Mr.
Wesley for directions how and where they were to labour. To remedy this inconvenience,
he conceived the design of calling them together to an annual conference: by
this means he brought them into closer union with each other, and made them
sensible of the utility of acting in concert and harmony. He soon found it
necessary, also to bring their itinerancy under certain regulations, and reduce
it to some fixed order, both to prevent confusion, and for his own ease: he
therefore took fifteen or twenty societies, more or less, which lay round some
principal society in those parts, and which were so situated, that the greatest
distance from one to the other was not much more than twenty miles, and united
them into what was called a circuit. At the yearly conference he appointed two,
three, or four preachers, to one of these circuits, according to its extent,
which at first was often very considerable, sometimes taking in a part of three
or four counties. Here, and here only, were they to labour for one year, that
is until the next conference. One of the preachers on every circuit was called
the assistant, because he assisted Mr. Wesley in superintending the societies
and other preachers; he took charge of the societies within the limits assigned
him; he enforced the rules every where, and directed the labours of the
preachers associated with him. Having received a list of the societies forming
his circuit, he took his own station in it, gave to the other preachers a plan
of it, and pointed out the day when each should be at the place fixed for him,
to begin a progressive motion round it, in such order as the plan directed.
They now followed one another through all the societies belonging to that
circuit, at stated distances of time, all being governed by the same rules, and
undergoing the same labour. By this plan, every preacher's daily work was
appointed beforehand; each knew, every day, where the others were, and each
society when to expect the preacher, and how long he would stay with them.--It
may be observed, however, that Mr. Wesley's design in calling the preachers
together annually, was not merely for the regulation of the circuits, but also
for the review of their doctrines and discipline, and for the examination of
their moral conduct; that those who were to administer with him in holy things
might be thoroughly furnished for every good work.
The first conference was held in June 1744, at
which Mr. Wesley met his brother, two or three other clergymen, and a few of
the preachers whom he had appointed to come from various parts, to confer with
them on the affairs of the societies.
"Monday, June 25," observes Mr. Wesley,
"and the five following days, we spent in conference with our preachers,
seriously considering by what means we might the most effectually save our own
souls, and them that heard us; and the result of our consultations we set down
to be the rule of our future practice."
Since that time a conference has been held
annually, Mr. Wesley himself having presided at forty-seven. The subjects of
their deliberations were proposed in the form of questions, which were amply
discussed; and the questions, with the answers agreed upon, were afterwards
printed under the title of "Minutes of several Conversations between the
Rev. Mr. Wesley and others," commonly called Minutes of Conference.
As to their preachers, the following extract from
the above-mentioned Minutes of Conference will show us in what manner they are
chosen and designated: Q. "How shall we try those who think they are moved
by the Holy Ghost to preach?" A. "Inquire 1. Do they know God as a
pardoning God? Have they the love of God abiding in them? Do they desire and
seek nothing but God? And are they holy in all manner of conversation?--2. Have
they gifts, as well as grace, for the work? Have they, in some tolerable
degree, a clear, sound understanding? Have they a right judgment in the things
of God? Have they a just conception of salvation by faith? And has God given
them any degree of utterance? Do they speak justly, readily, clearly?--3. Have
they fruit? Are any truly convinced of sin, and converted to God, by their
preaching?
"As long as these three marks concur in any
one, we believe he is called of God to preach. These we receive as sufficient
proof that he is moved thereto by the Holy Ghost.
Q. "What method may we use in receiving a
new helper?" A. "A proper time for doing this is at a conference,
after solemn fasting and prayer; every person proposed is then to be present,
and each of them may be asked.
"Have you faith in Christ? Are you going on
to perfection? Do you expect to be perfected in love in this life? Are you
groaning after it? Are you resolved to devote yourself wholly to God and to his
work? Have you considered the rules of a helper? Will you keep them for
conscience' sake? Are you determined to employ all your time in the work of
God? Will you preach every morning and evening? Will you diligently instruct
the children in every place? Will you visit from house to house? Will you
recommend fasting both by precept and example?
"We then man receive him as a probationer, by
giving him the Minutes of the Conference, inscribed thus:--'To A.B. You think
it your duty to call sinners to repentance. Make full proof hereof, and we
shall rejoice to receive you as a fellow-labourer.' Let him then read and
carefully weigh what is contained therein, that if he has any doubt it may be
removed."
"To the above it may be useful to add,"
says Mr. Benson, "a few remarks on the method pursued in the choice of the
itinerant preachers, as many have formed the most erroneous ideas on the subject,
imagining they are employed with hardly any prior preparation. 1. They are
received as private members of the society on trial.--2. After a quarter of a
year, if they are found deserving, they are admitted as proper members.--3.
When their grace and abilities are sufficiently manifest, they are appointed
leaders of classes.--4. If they then discover talents for more important
services, they are employed to exhort occasionally in the smaller
congregations, when the preachers cannot attend.--5. If approved in this line
of duty, they are allowed to preach.--6. Out of these men who are called local
preachers, are selected the itinerant preachers, who are first proposed at a
quarterly meeting of the stewards and local preachers of the circuit; then at a
meeting of the travelling preachers of the district; and, lastly, in the
conference; and, if accepted, are nominated for a circuit.--7. Their characters
and conduct are examined annually in the conference; and, if they continue
faithful for four years of trial, they are received into full connection. At
these conferences, also, strict enquiry is made into the conduct and success of
every preacher, and those who are found deficient in abilities are no longer
employed as itinerants; while those whose conduct has not been agreeable to the
Gospel are expelled, and thereby deprived of all the privileges even of private
members of the society."
IV. Methodists, new connection of. Since Mr.
Wesley's death, his people have been divided; but this division, it seems,
respects discipline more than sentiment. Mr. Wesley professed a strong
attachment to the established church of England, and exhorted the societies
under his care to attend her service, and receive the Lord's supper from the
regular clergy. But in the latter part of his time he thought proper to ordain
some bishops and priests for America and Scotland; but as one or two of the
bishops have never been out of England since their appointment to the office,
it is probable that he intended a regular ordination should take place when the
state of the connection might render it necessary. During his life, some of the
societies petitioned to have preaching in their own chapels in church hours,
and the Lord's supper administered by the travelling preachers. This request he
generally refused, and, where it could be conveniently done, sent some of the
clergymen who officiated at the New Chapel in London to perform these solemn
services. At the first conference after his death, which was held at
Manchester, the preachers published a declaration, in which they said that they
would "take up the Plan as Mr. Wesley had left it." This was by no
means satisfactory to many of the preachers and people, who thought that
religious liberty ought to be extended to all the societies which desired it.
In order to favour this cause, so agreeable to the spirit of Christianity and
the rights of Englishmen, several respectable preachers came forward; and by
the writings which they circulated through the connection, paved the way for a
plan of pacification; by which it was stipulated, that in every society where a
threefold majority of class-leaders, stewards, and trustees desired it, the
people should have preaching in church hours, and the sacraments of baptism and
the Lord's supper administered to them. The spirit of inquiry being roused did
not stop here; for it appeared agreeable both to reason and the customs of the
primitive church, that the people should have a voice in the temporal concerns
of the societies, vote in the election of church officers, and give their
suffrages in spiritual concerns. This subject produced a variety of arguments
on both sides of the question: many of the preachers and people thought that an
annual delegation of the general stewards of the circuits, to sit either in the
conference or the district meetings, in order to assist in the disbursement of
the yearly collection, the Kingswood School collection, and the preachers'
fund, and in making new or revising old laws, would be a bond of union between
the conference and connection at large, and do away the very idea of arbitrary
power among the travelling preachers. In order to facilitate this good work,
many societies in various parts of the kingdom, sent delegates to the
conference held at Leeds in 1797; they were instructed to request, that the
people might have a voice in the formation of their own laws, the choice of
their own officers, and the distribution of their own property. The preachers
proceeded to discuss two motions: Shall delegates from the societies be
admitted into the conference? Shall circuit stewards be admitted into the
district meetings? Both motions were negatived, and consequently all hopes of
accommodation between the parties were given up. Several friends of religious
liberty proposed a plan for a new itinerancy. In order that it might be carried
into immediate effect, they formed themselves into a regular meeting, in
Ebenezer Chapel, Mr. William Thom being chosen president, and Mr. Alexander
Kilham, secretary. The meeting proceeded to arrange the plan for supplying the
circuits of the new connection with preachers; and desired the president and
secretary to draw up the rules of church government, in order that they might
be circulated through the societies for their approbation. Accordingly, a form
of church government, suited to an itinerant ministry, was printed by these two
brethren, under the title of "Outlines of a Constitution proposed for the
Examination, Amendment, and Acceptance of the Members of the Methodist new
Itinerancy." The plan was examined by select committees in different
circuits of the connection, and, with few alterations, was accepted by the
conference of preachers and delegates. The preachers and people are
incorporated in all meetings for business, not by temporary concession, but by
the essential principles of their constitution; for the private members choose
the class-leaders; the leaders' meeting nominates the stewards; and the society
confirms or rejects the nomination. The quarterly meetings are composed of the general
stewards and representatives chosen by the different societies of the circuits,
and the fourth quarterly meeting of the year appoints the preacher and delegate
of every circuit that shall attend the general conference. For a farther
account of their principles and discipline, we must refer the reader to a
pamphlet entitled "General Rules of the United Societies of Methodists in
the new Connection."
The Calvinistic Methodists are not incorporated
into a body as the Arminians are, but are chiefly under the direction or
influence of their ministers or patrons.
It is necessary to observe here, that there are
many congregations in London, and elsewhere, who, although they are called
Methodists, yet are neither in Mr. Wesley's, Mr. Whitfield's, nor the new
connection. Some of these are supplied by a variety of ministers; and others,
bordering more upon the congregational plan, have a resident minister. The
clergy of the church of England who strenuously preach up her doctrines and
articles, are called Methodists. A distinct connection upon Mr. Whitfield's
plan, was formed and patronized by the late Lady Huntingdon, and which still
subsists. The term Methodist, also, is applied by way of reproach to almost
every one who manifests more than common concern for the interests of religion,
and the spiritual good of mankind.
V. Methodists, numbers, and success of.
Notwithstanding the general contempt that has been thrown upon them, and the
opposition they have met with, yet their numbers are very considerable. From
the minutes of the conference of the Wesleyan Methodists held in London, July
30, 1810, it appears that the number of persons in their societies is as
follows. In Great Britain, 137,997; Gibraltar 50; in the West Indies, Nova
Scotia, and Newfoundland, 13,580. The Methodists in America are not in
immediate connection with the Wesleyans here. Their church is Episcopal, and
according to their account in 1809, contains 163,033 persons. Among the
Calvinistic Methodists, there are also a considerable number of preachers,
whose congregations and societies are very extensive: some of their chapels in
London are the largest and best attended in the world: it is almost incredible
to see the numbers of people who flock to these places. As to their success in
doing good, it is evident, that though many ignorant enthusiasts have been
found among them, yet no people have done more to moralize mankind than they:
nor have they rested there; they have not only contributed to render thousands
better members of society, but been the instruments of promoting their
spiritual and eternal interests. Their simplicity of language, fervour of
address, patience in opposition, unweariedness in labour, piety of conduct, and
dependence on Almighty God, are certainly worthy of the greatest praise, and
call for the imitation of many who unjustly condemn them. See History of
Methodism; Gillies's Life of Whitfield, and Works; Coke's Life of Wesley;
Macgowan's Shaver; Wesley's Works; Benson's Vindication and Apology for the
Methodists; Fletcher's Works; Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of the Dissenters, vol.
iii; Walker's address to the Methodists.
A bishop of a mother church, or of the chief church in the chief city. An archbishop. See articles BISHOP, EPISCOPACY.
From militans, fighting; a term applied to the church on earth, as engaged in a warfare with the world, sin, and the devil; in distinction from the church triumphant in heaven.
Or SHILIANISTS, a name given to those who believe that the saints will reign on earth with Christ a thousand years. See next article.
"a thousand years;" generally employed to denote the
thousand years, during which, according to an ancient tradition in the church,
grounded on some doubtful texts in the Apocalypse and other scriptures, our
blessed Saviour shall reign with the faithful upon earth after the first
resurrection, before the final completion of beatitude.
Though there have been no age of the church in
which the millennium was not admitted by individual divines of the first
eminence, it is yet evident, from the writings of Eusebius, Irenxus, Origen,
and others, among the ancients, as well as from the histories of Dupin,
Mosheim, and all the moderns, that it was never adopted by the whole church or
made an article of the established creed in any nation.
About the middle of the fourth century the
Millenarians held the following tenets:
1st, That the city of Jerusalem should be
rebuilt, and that the land of Judea should be the habitation of those who were
to reign on the earth a thousand years.
2dly, That the first resurrection was not to be
confined to the martyrs, but that, after the fall of Antichrist, all the just
were to rise, and all that were on the earth were to continue for that space of
time.
3dly, That Christ shall then come down from
heaven, and be seen on earth, and reign there with his servants.
4thly, That the saints, during this period, shall
enjoy all the delights of a terrestrial paradise.
These opinions were founded upon several passages
in Scripture, which the Millenarians, among the fathers, understood in no other
than a literal sense; but which the moderns, who hold that opinion, consider as
partly literal and partly metaphorical. Of these passages, that upon which the
greatest stress has been laid we believe to be the following:--"And I saw
an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a
great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent,
which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into
the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should
deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and,
after that, he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon
them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were
beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and which had not
worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon
their foreheads, nor in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a
thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand
years were finished. This is the first resurrection." Rev. xx. 1-6. This
passage all the ancient Millenarians took in a sense grossly literal, and
taught, that, during the Millennium, the saints on earth were to enjoy every
bodily delight. The moderns, on the other hand, consider the power and
pleasures of this kingdom as wholly spiritual; and they represent them as not
to commence till after the conflagration, or the present earth. But that this
last supposition is a mistake, the very next verse but one assures us; for we
are there told, that, "when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be
loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in
the four quarters of the earth;" and we have no reason to believe that he
will have such power or such liberty in "the new heavens and the new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." We may observe, however, the
following things respecting it: 1. That the Scriptures afford us ground to
believe that the church will arrive to a state of prosperity which it never has
yet enjoyed, Rev. xx. 4,7. Psal. lxxii. 11. Is. ii. 2,4. xi. 9. xlix. 23. lx.
Can. vii. 27.--2. That this will continue at least a thousand years, or a
considerable space of time, in which the work of salvation may be fully
accomplished in the utmost extent and glory of it. In this time, in which the
world will soon be filled with real Christians, and continue full by constant
propagation to supply the place of those who leave the world, there will be
many thousands born and live on the earth, to each one that has been born and
lived in the preceeding six thousand years; so that, if they who shall be born
in that thousand years shall be all, or most of them saved (as they will be,)
there will, on the whole, be many thousands of mankind saved to one that shall
be lost.--3. This will be a state of great happiness and glory. Some think that
Christ will reign personally on earth, and that there will be a literal
resurrection of the saints, Rev. xx. 4,7; but I rather suppose that the reign
of Christ and resurrection of saints alluded to in that passage, is only
figurative; and that nothing more is meant than that, before the general
judgment, the Jews shall be converted, genuine Christianity be diffused through
all nations, and that Christ shall reign, by his spiritual presence, in a
glorious manner. It will, however, be a time of eminent holiness, clear light and
knowledge, love, peace, and friendship, agreement in doctrine and worship.
Human life, perhaps, will rarely be endangered by the poisons of the mineral,
vegetable, and animal kingdoms. Beasts of prey, perhaps will be extirpated, or
tamed by the power of man. The inhabitants of every place will rest secure from
fear of robbery and murder. War shall be entirely ended. Capital crimes and
punishments be heard of no more. Governments placed on fair, just, and humane
foundations. The torch of civil discord will be extinguished. Perhaps Pagans,
Turks, Deists, and Jews, will be as few in number as Christians are now. Kings,
nobles, magistrates, and rulers in churches shall act with principle, and be
forward to promote the best interests of men: tyranny, oppression, persecution,
bigotry, and cruelty, shall cease. Business will be attended to without
contention, dishonesty, and covetousness. Trades and manufactories will be
carried on with a design to promote the general good of mankind, and not with
selfish interests, as now. Merchandise between distant countries will be
conducted without fear of an enemy; and works of ornament and beauty, perhaps,
shall not be wanting in those days. Learning, which has always flourished in
proportion as religion has spread, shall then greatly increase, and be employed
for the best of purposes. Astronomy, geography, natural history, metaphysics,
and all the useful sciences, will be better understood, and consecrated to the
service of God; and I cannot help thinking that by the improvements which have
been made, and are making, in ship-building, navigation, electricity, medicine,
&c. that "the tempest will lose half its force, the lightning lose
half its terrors,: and the human frame not near so much exposed to danger.
Above all, the Bible will be more highly appreciated, its harmony perceived,
its superiority owned, and its energy felt by millions of human beings. In
fact, the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters
cover the sea.--4. The time when the Millennium will commence cannot be fully
ascertained; but the common idea is, that it will be in the seven thousandth
year of the world. It will, most probably, come on by degrees, and be in a
manner introduced years before that time. And who knows but the present
convulsions among different nations; the overthrow which popery has had in
places where it has been so dominant for hundreds of years; the fulfilment of
prophecy respecting infidels, and the falling away of many in the last times;
and yet in the midst of all, the number of missionaries sent into different
parts of the world, together with the increase of Gospel ministers; the
thousands of ignorant children that have been taught to read the Bible, and the
vast number of different societies that have been lately instituted for the
benevolent purpose of informing the minds and impressing the hearts of the
ignorant; who knows, I say, but what these things are the forerunners of events
of the most delightful nature, and which may usher in the happy morn of that
bright and glorious day when the whole world shall be filled with his glory,
and all the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God? See Hopkins on the
Millen.: Whitby's Treatise on it, at the end of the 2d Vol. of his Annotations
on the New. Tes.; Robert Gray's Discourses, dis. 10; Bishop Newton's
Twenty-fifth Diss. on the Proph.; Bellamy's Treat. on the Millennium. There are
four admirable papers of Mr. Shrubsole's on the subject, in the 6th vol. of the
Theol. Miscellany; Lardner's Cred. 4th, 5th, 7th, and 9th vols.; Mosheim's
Eccl. Hist. cent. 3, p. 11, ch. 12; Taylor's Sermons on the Millennium;
Illustrations of Prophecy, ch. 31.
A thinking, intelligent being; otherwise called spirit, or soul. See SOUL. Dr. Watts has given us some admirable thoughts as to the improvement of the mind. "There are five eminent means or methods," he observes, "whereby the mind is improved in the knowledge of things; and these are, observation, reading, instruction by lectures, conversation, and meditation; which last, in a most peculiar manner, is called study. See Watts on the Mind, a book which no student should be without.
a religious order in the church of Rome, founded by St. Francis de Paula, towards the end of the fifteenth century. Their habit is a coarse black woollen stuff, with a woollen girdle of the same colour, tied in five knots. They are not permitted to quit their habit and girdle night nor day. Formerly they went barefooted, but are now allowed the use of shoes.
A name applied to those who are pastors of a congregation, or preachers of God's word. They are also called divines, and may be distinguished into polemic, or those who possess controversial talents; casuistic, or those who resolve cases of conscience; experimental, those who address themselves to the feelings, cases, and circumstances of their hearers; and, lastly, practical, those who insist upon the performance of all those duties which the word of God enjoins. An able minister will have something of all these united in him, though he may not excel in all; and it becomes every one who is a candidate for the ministry to get a clear idea of each, that he may not be deficient in the discharge of that work which is the most important that can be sustained by mortal beings. Many volumes have been written on this subject, but we must be content in this place to offer only a few remarks relative to it. In the first place, then, it must be observed, that ministers of the Gospel ought to be sound as to their principles. They must be men whose hearts are renovated by divine grace, and whose sentiments are derived from the sacred oracles of divine truth. A minister without principles will never do any good; and he who professes to believe in a system, should see to it that it accords with the word of God. His mind should clearly perceive the beauty, harmony, and utility of the doctrines, while his heart should be deeply impressed with a sense of their value and importance.--2. They should be mild and affable as to their dispositions and deportment.--A haught imperious spirit is a disgrace to the ministerial character, and generally brings contempt. They should learn to bear injuries with patience, and be ready to do good to every one; be courteous to all without cringing to any; be affable without levity, and humble without pusillanimity; conciliating the affections without violating the truth; connecting a suavity of manners with a dignity of character, obliging without flattery; and throwing off all reserve without running into the opposite extreme of volubility and trifling.--3. They should be superior as to their knowledge and talents. Though many have been useful without what is called learning, yet none have been so without some portion of knowledge and wisdom. Nor has God Almighty ever sanctified ignorance, or consecrated it to his service; since it is the effect of the fall, and the consequence of our departure from the Fountain of intelligence. Ministers, therefore, especially, should endeavour to break these shackles, get their minds enlarged, and stored with all useful knowledge. The Bible should be well studied, and that, if possible, in the original language. The scheme of salvation by Jesus Christ should be well understood, with all the various topics connected with it. Nor will some knowledge of history, natural philosophy, logic, mathematics, and rhetoric, be useless. A clear judgment, also, with a retentive memory, inventive faculty, and a facility of communication should be obtained.--4. They should be diligent as to their studies. Their time especially should be improved, and not lost by too much sleep, formal visits, indolence, reading useless books, studying useless subjects. Every day should have its work, and every subject its due attention. Some advise a chapter in the Hebrew Bible, and another in the Greek Testament, to be read every day. A well-chosen system of divinity should be accurately studied. The best definitions should be obtained, and a constant regard paid to all those studies which savour of religion, and have some tendency to public work.--5. Ministers should be extensive as to their benevolence and candour. A contracted bigoted spirit ill becomes those who preach a Gospel which breathes the purest benevolence to mankind. This spirit has done more harm among all parties than many imagine; and is, in my opinion, one of the most powerful engines the devil makes use of to oppose the best interests of mankind; and it is really shocking to observe how sects and parties have all, in their turns, anethematized each other. Now, while ministers ought to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, they must remember that men always will think different from each other; that prejudice of education has great influence; that difference of opinion as to non-essential things is not of such importance as to be a ground of dislike. Let the ministers of Christ, then, pity the weak, forgive the ignorant, bear with the sincere though mistaken zealot, and love all who love the Lord Jesus Christ.--6. Ministers should be zealous and faithful in their public work. The sick must be visited; children must be catechised; the ordinances administered; and the word of God preached. These things must be taken up, not as a matter of duty only, but of pleasure, and executed with faithfulness; and, as they are of the utmost importance, ministers should attend to them with all that sincerity, earnestness, and zeal which that importance demands. An idle, frigid, indifferent minister is a pest to society, a disgrace to his profession, an injury to the church, and offensive to God himself.--7. Lastly, ministers should be uniform as to their conduct. No brightness of talent, no superiority of intellect, no extent of knowledge, will ever be a substitute for this. They should not only possess a luminous mind, but set a good example. This will procure dignity to themselves, give energy to what they say, and prove a blessing to the circle in which they move. In fine, they should be men of prudence and prayer, light and love, zeal and knowledge, courage and humility, humanity and religion. See DECLAMATION. ELOQUENCE, PREACHING, and SERMONS, in this work; Dr. Smith's Lect. on the Sacred Office; Gerard's Pastoral Care; Macgill's Address to Young Clergymen; Chrysostom on the Priesthood; Baxter's Reformed Pastor; Burnett's Pastoral Care; Watt's Humble Attempt; Dr. Edwards's Preacher; Mason's Student and Pastor; Gibbon's Christian Minister; Mather's Student and Preacher; Osterwald's Lectures on the Sacred Ministry; Robinson's Claude; Doddridge's Lectures on Preaching and the Ministeral Office.
An ordinance appointed for the purpose of instructing men in the principles and knowledge of the Gospel, Eph. iv. 8, 11. Rom. x. 15. Heb. v. 4. That the Gospel ministry is of divine origin, and intended to be kept up in the church, will evidently appear, if we consider the promises, that in the last and best times of the New Testament dispensation there would be an instituted and regular ministry in her, Eph. iv. 8, 11. Tit. i. 5. 1 Pet. v. 1 Tim. i.; also from the names of office peculiar to some members in the church, and not common to all, Eph. iv. 8, 11; from the duties which are represented as reciprocally binding on ministers and people, Heb. xiii. 7, 17. 1 Pet. v. 2, 3, 4; from the promises of assistance which were given to the first ministers of the new dispensation, Matt. xxviii. 20; and from the importance of a gospel Ministry, which is represented in the Scripture as a very great blessing to them who enjoy it, and the removal of it as one of the greatest calamities which can befall any people, Rev. ii. and iii. See books under last article.
A term used to denote that right or authority which a person receives to preach the Gospel. This call is considered as twofold, divine and ecclesiastical. The following things seem essential to a divine call: 1. A holy, blameless life.--2. An ardent and constant inclination and zeal to do good.--3. Abilities suited to the work; such as knowledge, aptness to teach, courage, 7c.--4. An opportunity afforded in Providence to be useful. An ecclesiastical call consists in the election which is made of any person to be a pastor. But here the Episcopalian and the Dissenter differ; the former believing that the choice and call of a minister rest with the superior clergy, or those who have the gift of an ecclesiastical benefice; the latter supposes that it should rest on the suffrage of the people to whom he is to minister. The Churchman reasons thus: "Though the people may be competent judges of the abilities of their tradesmen, they cannot be allowed to have an equal discernment in matters of science and erudition. Daily experience may convince us how injudiciously preferment would be distributed by popular elections. The modesty of genius would stand little chance of being distinguished by an ignorant multitude. The most illiterate, the most impudent, those who could most dexterously play the hypocrite, who could best adapt their preaching to the fanaticism of the vulgar, would be the only successful candidates for public favour. Thus moderation and literature would soon be banished, and a scene of corruption, confusion, and madness, would prevail." But specious as these arguments seem, they have but little force on the mind of the Congregationalist, who thus reasons: "The church being a voluntary society, none imposed upon her members by men can be related to them as their pastor without their own consent. None can so well judge what gifts are best suited to their spiritual edification as Christians themselves. The Scriptures allow the election of pastors in ordinary cases to adult Christians, and to none else, Acts i. 15, 26. Acts vi. 1,6. Acts xiv. 23. Christ requires his people to try the spirits, which supposeth their ability to do so, and their power to choose such only as they find most proper to edify their souls, and to refuse others, 1 John iv. 1. The introduction of ministers into their office by patronage, of whatever form, hath its origin from popery, tends to establish a tyranny over men's conscience, which and whom Christ hath made free, and to fill pulpits with wicked and indolent clergymen. Whoever will attentively examine the history of the primitive times, will find that all ecclesiastical officers for the first three hundred years were elected by the people." We must refer the reader for more on this subject to the articles CHURCH, EPISCOPACY, and INDEPENDENTS.
In its original sense, is a word of the same
import with wonder; but, in its usual and more appropriate signification, it
denotes "an effect contrary to the established constitution and course of
things, or a sensible deviation from the known laws of nature."
"That the visible world," says Dr.
Gleig, "is governed by stated general rules, or that there is an order of
causes and effects established in every part of the system of nature which
falls under our observation, is a fact which cannot be controverted. If the
Supreme Being, as some have supposed, be the only real agent in the universe,
we have the evidence of experience, that in the particular system to which we
belong he acts by stated rules. If he employs inferior agents to conduct the
various motions from which the phenomena result, we have the same evidence that
he has subjected those agents to certain fixed laws, commonly called the laws
of nature. On either hypothesis, effects which are produced by the regular
operation of these laws, or which are conformable to the established course of
events, are properly called natural; and every contradiction to this
contitution of the natural system, and the correspondent course of events in
it, is called a miracle.
"If this definition of a miracle be just, no
event can be deemed miraculous merely because it is strange, or even to us
unaccountable: since it may be nothing more than a regular effect of some
unknown law of nature. In this country earthquakes are rare; and for monstrous
births, perhaps, no particular and satisfactory account can be given: yet an
earthquake is as regular an effect of the established laws of nature as any of
those with which we are most intimately acquainted: and, under circumstances in
which there would always be the same kind of production, the monster is
nature's genuine issue. It is therefore necessary, before we can pronounce any
effect to be a true miracle, that the circumstances under which it is produced
be known, and that the common course of nature be in some degree understood;
for in all those cases in which we are totally ignorant of nature, it is
impossible to determine what is, or what is not, a deviation from its course.
Miracles, therefore, are not, as some have represented them, appeals to our
ignorance. They suppose some antecedent knowledge of the course of nature,
without which no proper judgment can be formed concerning them; though with it
their reality may be so apparent as to prevent all possibility of a dispute.
"Thus, were a physician to cure a blind man
of a cataract, by anointing his eyes with a chemical preparation which we had
never before seen, and to the nature and effects of which we are absolute
strangers, the cure would undoubtedly be wonderful; but we could not pronounce
it miraculous, because, for any thing known to us, it might be the natural
effect of the operation of the unguent on the eye. But were he to recover his
patient merely by commanding him to see, or by anointing his eyes with spittle,
we should with the utmost confidence pronounce the cure to be a miracle;
because we know perfectly that neither the human voice nor human spittle have,
by the established constitution of things, any such power over the diseases of
the eye.
"If miracles be effects contrary to the
established constitution of things, we are certain that they will never be
performed on trivial occasions. The constitution of things was established by
the Creator and Governor of the universe, and is undoubtedly the offspring of
infinite wisdom, pursuing a plan for the best of purposes. From this plan no
deviation can be made but by God himself, or by some powerful being acting with
his permission. The proportion to their perfection, and the plans of infinite
wisdom must be absolutely perfect. From this consideration, some men have
ventured to conclude that no miracle was ever wrought, or can rationally be
expected; but maturer reflection must soon satisfy us that all such conclusions
are hasty.
"Man is unquestionably the principal
creature in this world, and apparently the only one in it who is capable of
being made acquainted with the relation in which he stands to his Creator. We
cannot, therefore, doubt, but that such of the laws of nature as extend not
their operation beyond the limits of this earth were established chiefly, if
not solely, for the good of mankind; and if, in any particular circumstances,
that good can be more effectually promoted by an occasional deviation from
those laws, such a deviation may be reasonably expected.
"We know from history, that almost all
mankind were once sunk into the grossest ignorance of the most important
truths; that they knew not the Being by whom they were created and supported;
that they paid divine adoration to stocks, stones, and the vilest reptiles; and
that they were slaves to the most impious, cruel, and degrading superstitions.
: From this depraved state it was surely not
unworthy of the Divine Being to rescue his helpless creatures, to enlighten
their understandings that they might perceive what is right, and to present to
them motives of sufficient force to engage them in the practice of it. But the
understandings of ignorant barbarians cannot be enlightened by arguments;
because of the force of such arguments as regard moral science they are not
qualified to judge. The philosophers of Athens and Rome inculcated, indeed, many
excellent moral precepts, and they sometimes ventured to expose the absurdities
of the reigning superstitions; but their lectures had no influence upon the
multitude; and they had themselves imbibed such erroneous notions respecting
the attributes of the Supreme Being, and the nature of the human soul, and
converted those notions into first principles, of which they would not permit
an examination, that even among them a thorough reformation was not to be
expected from the powers of reasoning. It is likewise to be observed, that
there are many truths of the utmost importance to mankind, which unassisted
reason could never have discovered. Amongst these, we may confidently reckon
the immortality of the soul, the terms upon which God will save sinners, and
the manner in which that all perfect Being may be acceptably worshipped; about
all of which philosophers were in such uncertainty, that, according to Plato,
'Whatever is set right, and as it should be, in the present evil state of the
world, can be so only by the particular interposition of God.
"an immediate revelation from heaven,
therefore, was the only method by which infinite wisdom and perfect goodness
could reform a bewildered and vicious race. But this revelation, at whatever
time we suppose it given, must have been made directly either to some chosen
individuals commissioned to instruct others, or to every man and woman for
whose benefit it was ultimately intended. Were every person instructed in the
knowledge of his duty by immediate inspiration, and were the motives to
practise it brought home to his mind by God himself, human nature would be
wholly changed; men would not be moral agents, nor by consequence be capable
either of reward or of punishment. It remains, therefore that, if God has been
graciously pleased to enlighten and reform mankind, without destroying that
moral nature which man possesses, he can have done it only by revealing his
truth to certain chosen instruments, who were the immediate instructors of
their contemporaries, and through them have been the instructors of succeeding
ages.
"Let us suppose this to have been actually
the case, and consider how those inspired teachers could communicate to others
every truth which had been revealed to themselves. They might easily, if it
were part of their duty, to deliver a sublime divine system of natural and
moral science, and establish it upon the common basis of experiment and
demonstration: but what foundation could they lay for those truths which
unassisted reason cannot discover, and which, when they are revealed, appear to
have no necessary relation to any thing previously known? To a bare affirmation
that they had been immediately received from God, no rational being could be
expected to assent. The teachers might be men of known veracity, whose simple
assertion would be admitted as sufficient evidence for any fact in conformity
with the laws of nature; but as every man has the evidence of his own
consciousness and experience that revelations from heaven are deviations from these
laws, an assertion so apparently extravagant would be rejected as false, unless
supported by some better proof than the mere affirmation of the teacher. In
this state of things we can conceive no evidence sufficient to make such
doctrines be received as the truths of God, but the power of working miracles
committed to him who taught them. This would, indeed, be fully adequate to the
purpose: for if there were nothing in the doctrines themselves impious,
immoral, or contrary to truths already known, the only thing which could render
the teacher's assertion incredible, would be its implying such an intimate
communion with God as is contrary to the established course of things, by which
men are left to acquire all their knowledge by the exercise of their own
faculties. Let us now suppose one of those inspired teachers to tell his
countrymen, that he did not desire them, on his ipse dixit, to believe that he
had any preternatural communion with the Deity, but that, for the truth of his
assertion, he would give them the evidence of their own senses; and after this
declaration, let us suppose him immediately to raise a person from the dead in
their presence, merely by calling upon him to come out of his grave. Would not
the only possible objection to the man's veracity be removed by this miracle?
and his assertion that he had received such and such doctrines from God be as
fully credited as if it related to the most common occurrence? Undoubtedly it
would; for when so much preternatural power was visibly communicated to this
person, no one could have reason to question his having received an equal
portion of preternatural knowledge. A palpable deviation from the known laws of
nature in one instance, is a sensible proof that such a deviation is possible
in another; and in such a case as this, it is the witness of God to the truth
of a man.
"Miracles, then, under which we include
prophecy, are the only direct evidence which can be given of divine
inspiration. When a religion, or any religious truth, is to be revealed from
heaven, they appear to be absolutely necessary to enforce its reception among
men; and this is the only case in which we can suppose them necessary, or
believe for a moment that they ever have been or will be performed.
"The history of almost every religion
abounds with relations of prodigies and wonders, and of the intercourse of men
with the gods; but we know of no religious system, those of the Jews and
Christians excepted, which appealed to miracles as the sole evidence of its
truth and divinity. The pretended miracles mentioned by Pagan historians and
poets, are not said to have been publicly wrought to enforce the truth of a new
religion, contrary to the reigning idolatry. Many of them may be clearly shown
to have been mere natural events; others of them are represented as having been
performed in secret on the most trivial occasions, and in obscure and fabulous
ages long prior to the era of the writers by whom they are recorded; and such
of them as at first view appear to be best attested, are evidently tricks
contrived for interested purposes, to flatter power, or to promote the
prevailing superstitions. For these reasons, as well as on account of the
immoral character of the divinities by whom they are said to have been wrought,
they are altogether unworthy of examination, and carry in the very nature of
them the completest proofs of falsehood and imposture.
"But the miracles recorded of Moses and of
Christ bear a very different character. None of them are represented as wrought
on trivial occasions. The writers who mention them were eye-witnesses of the
facts; which they affirm to have been performed publicly, in attestation of the
truth of their respective systems. They are, indeed, so incorporated with these
systems, that the miracles cannot be separated from the doctrines; and if the
miracles be not really performed, the doctrines cannot possibly be true.
Besides all this, they were wrought in support of revelations which opposed all
the religious systems, superstitions, and prejudices, of the age in which they
were given; a circumstance which of itself sets them in point of authority,
infinitely above the Pagan prodigies, as well as the lying wonders of the
Romish church.
"It is indeed, we believe, universally
admitted that the miracles mentioned in the book of Exodus, and in the four
Gospels, might, to those who saw them performed, be sufficient evidence of the
divine inspiration of Moses and of Christ; but to us it may be thought that
they are no evidence whatever, as we must believe in the miracles themselves,
if we believe in them at all, upon the bare authority of human testimony. Why,
it has been sometimes asked, are not miracles wrought in all ages and
countries? If the religion of Christ was to be of perpetual duration, every
generation of men ought to have complete evidence of its truth and divinity.
"To the performance of miracles in every age
and in every country, perhaps the same objections lie, as to the immediate
inspiration of every individual. Were those miracles universally received as
such, men would be so overwhelmed with the number rather than with the force of
their authority, as hardly to remain masters of their own conduct; and in that
case the very end of all miracles would be defeated by their frequency. The
truth, however, seems to be, that miracles so frequently repeated would not be
received as such, and of course would have no authority; because it would be
difficult, and in many cases impossible, to distinguish them from natural
events. If they recurred regularly at certain intervals, we could not prove
them to be deviations from the known laws of nature, because we should have the
same experience for one series of events as for the other; for the regular
succession of preternatural effects, as for the established constitution and
course of things.
"Be this, however, as it may, we shall take
the liberty to affirm, that for the reality of the Gospel miracles, we have
evidence as convincing to the reflecting mind, though not so striking to vulgar
apprehension, as those had who were contemporary with Christ and his apostles,
and actually saw the mighty works which he performed. Me. Hume, indeed,
endeavoured to prove, that 'no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle?
and the reasoning employed for this purpose is, that 'a miracle being a
violation of the laws of nature, which a firm and unalterable experience has
established, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is
as entire as any argument from experience' can be: whereas our experience of
human veracity, which (according to him) is the sole foundation of the evidence
of testimony, as far from being uniform, and can therefore never preponderate
against that experience which admits of no exception.' This boasted and
plausible argument has with equal candour and acuteness been examined by Dr.
Campbell, in his Dissertation on Miracles, who justly observes, that so far is
experience from being the sole foundation of the evidence of testimony, that,
on the contrary, testimony is the sole foundation of by far the greater part of
what Mr. Hume calls firm and unalterable experience; and that it, in certain
circumstances, we did not give an implicit faith to testimony, our knowledge of
events would be confined to those which had fallen under the immediate
observation of our own senses.
"We need not waste time here in proving that
the miracles, as they are presented in the writings of the New Testament, were
of such a nature, and performed before so many witnesses, that no imposition
could possibly be practised on the senses of those who affirm that they were
present. From every page of the Gospel this is so evident, that the
philosophical adversaries of the Christian faith never suppose the apostles to
have been themselves deceived, but boldly accuse them of bearing false witness.
But if this accusation be well founded, their testimony itself is as great a
miracle as any which they record of themselves, or of their Master. For if they
sat down to fabricate their pretended revelation, and to contrive a series of
miracles to which they were unanimously to appeal for its truth, it is plain,
since they proved successful in their daring enterprise, that they must have
clearly foreseen every possible circumstance in which they could be placed, and
have prepared consistent answers to every question that could be put to them by
their most inveterate and most enlightened enemies; by the statesman, the
lawyer, the philosopher, and the priest. That such foreknowledge as this would
have been miraculous, will not surely be denied: since it forms the very
attribute which we find it the most difficult to allow even to God himself. It
is not, however, the only miracle which this supposition would compel us to
swallow. The very resolution of the apostles to propagate the belief of false
miracles in support of such a religion as that which is taught in the New
Testament, is as great a miracle as human imagination can easily conceive.
"When they formed this design, either they
must have hoped to succeed, or they must have foreseen that they should fail in
their undertaking; and, in either case, they chose evil for its own sake. They
could not, if they foresaw that they should fail, look for any thing but that
contempt, disgrace, and persecution, which were then the inevitable
consequences of an unsuccessful endeavour to overthrow the established
religion. Nor could their prospects be brighter upon the supposition of their
success. As they knew themselves to be false witnesses, and impious deceivers,
they could have no hopes beyond the grave; and by determining to oppose all the
religious systems, superstitions, and prejudices of the age in which they
lived, they wilfully exposed themselves to inevitable misery in the present
life, to insult and imprisonment, to stripes and death. Nor can it be said that
they might look forward to power and affluence, when they should through
sufferings have converted their countrymen; for so desirous were they of
obtaining nothing but misery, as the end of their mission, that they made their
own persecution a test of the truth of their doctrines. They introduced the
Master from whom they pretended to have received these doctrines as telling
them, that 'they were sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: that they
should be delivered up to councils, and scourged in synagogues; that they
should be hated of all men for his name's sake; that the brother should deliver
up the brother to death, and the father the child; and that he who took not up
his cross, and followed after him, was not worthy of him.' The very system of
religion, therefore, which they invented and resolved to impose upon mankind,
was so contrived, that the worldly prosperity of its first preachers, and even
their exemption from persecution, was incompatible with its success. Had these
clear predictions of the Author of that religion, under whom the apostles acted
only as ministers not been verified, all mankind must have instantly perceived
that their pretence to inspiration was false, and that Christianity was a
scandalous and impudent imposture. All this the apostles could not but foresee
when they formed their plan for deluding the world. Whence it follows, that
when they resolved to support their pretended revelation by an appeal to forged
miracles, they wilfully, and with their eyes open, exposed themselves to
inevitable misery, whether they should succeed or fail in their enterprise; and
that they concerted their measures so as not to admit of a possibility of
recompence to themselves, either in this life or in that which is to come. But
if there be a law of nature, for the reality of which we have better evidence
than we have for others, it is, that 'no man can choose misery for its own
sake,' or make the acquisition of it the ultimate end of his pursuit. The
existence of other laws of nature we know by testimony, and our own observation
of the regularity of their effects. The existence of this law is made known to
us not only by these means, but also by the still clearer and more conclusive evidence
of our own consciousness.
"Thus, then, do miracles force themselves
upon our assent in every possible view which we can take of this interesting
subject. If the testimony of the first preachers of Christianity were true, the
miracles recorded in the Gospel were certainly performed, and the doctrines of
our religion are derived from heaven. On the other hand, if that testimony were
false, either God must have miraculously effaced from the minds of those by
whom it was given, all the associations formed between their sensible ideas and
the words of language, or he must have endowed those men with the gift of
prescience, and have impelled them to fabricate a pretended revelation for the
purpose of deceiving the world, and involving themselves in certain and
foreseen destruction.
"The power necessary to perform the one
series of these miracles may, for any thing known to us, be as great as that
which would be requisite for the performance of the other; and, considered
merely as exertions of preternatural power, they may seem to balance each
other, and to hold the mind in a state of suspense; but when we take into
consideration the different purposes for which these opposite and contending
miracles were wrought, the balance is instantly destroyed. The miracles
recorded in the Gospels, if real, were wrought in support of a revelation
which, in the opinion of all by whom it is received, has brought to light many
important truths which could not otherwise have been made known to men; and
which, by the confession of its adversaries, contains the purest moral precepts
by which the conduct of mankind was ever directed. The opposite series of
miracles, if real, was performed to enable, and even to compel, a company of
Jews, of the lowest rank and of the narrowest education, to fabricate, with the
view of inevitable destruction to themselves, a consistent scheme of falsehood,
and by an appeal to forged miracles to impose it upon the world as a revelation
from heaven. The object of the former miracles is worthy of a God of infinite
wisdom, goodness, and power; the object of the latter is absolutely
inconsistent with wisdom and goodness, which are demonstrably attributes of
that Being by whom alone it follows, that the supposition of the apostles
bearing false testimony to the miracles of their Master, implies a series of
deviations from the laws of nature infinitely less probable in themselves than
those miracles: and therefore, by Mr. Hume's maxim, we must necessarily reject
the supposition of falsehood in the testimony, and admit the reality of the
miracles. So true it is, that for the reality of the Gospel miracles we have
evidence as convincing to the reflecting mind as those had who were
contemporary with Christ and his apostles, and were actual witnesses to their
mighty works."
The power of working miracles is supposed by some
to have been continued no longer than the apostles' days. Others think that it
was continued long after. It seems pretty clear, however, that miracles
universally ceased before Chrysostom's time. As for what Augustine says of
those wrought at the tombs of the martyrs, and some other places, in his time,
the evidence is not always so convincing as might be desired in facts of
importance. the controversy concerning the time when miraculous powers ceased
was carried on by Dr. Middleton, in his Free Enquiry into the Miraculous
Powers, &c. by Mr. Yate, Mr. Toll, and others, who suppose that miracles
ceased with the apostles. On the contrary side appeared Dr. Stebbing, Dr.
Chapman, Mr. Parker, Mr. Brooke, and others.
As to the miracles of the Romish church, it is
evident, as Doddridge observes, that many of them were ridiculous tales,
according to their own historians; others were performed without any credible
witnesses, or in circumstances where the performer had the greatest opportunity
of juggling; and it is particularly remarkable, that they were hardly ever
wrought where they seem most necessary, i. e. in countries where those
doctrines are renounced which that church esteems of the highest importance.
See Fleetwood, Clarapede, Conybeare, Campbell, Lardner, Farmer, Adams, and
Weston, on Miracles, article Miracle, Enc. Brit. Doddridge's Lect. lec. 101 and
135; Leland's View of Deistical Writers, letter 3,4,7; Hurrion on the Spirit, p.
299. &c.
Joy, gaiety, merriment. It is distinguished from cheerfulness thus: Mirth is considered as an act; cheerfulness an habit of the mind. Mirth is short and transient; cheerfulness fixed and permanent. "Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth who are subject to the greatest depressions of melancholy; on the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give such an exquisite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity." Mirth is sinful, 1. When men rejoice in that which is evil. 2. When unreasonable. 3. When tending to commit sin. 4. When a hindrance to duty. 5. When it is blasphemous and profane.
Hater of mankind; one that abandons society from
a principle of discontent. The consideration of the depravity of human nature
is certainly enough to raise emotions of sorrow in the breast of every man of
the least sensibility; yet it is our duty to bear with the follies of mankind;
to exercise a degree of candour consistent with truth; to lessen, if possible,
by our exertions, the sum of moral and natural evil; and by connecting
ourselves with society, to add at least something to the general interests of
mankind. The misanthropist, therefore, is an ungenerous and dishonourable
character. Disgusted with life, he seeks a retreat from it: like a coward, he
flees from the scene of action, while he increases his own misery by his
natural discontent, and leaves others to do what they can for themselves.
The following is his character more at large.
"He is a man," says Saurin, "who
avoids society only to free himself from the trouble of being useful to it. He
is a man, who considers his neighbours only on the side of their defects, not
knowing the art of combining their virtues with their vices, and of rendering
the imperfections of other people tolerable by reflecting on his own. He is a
man more employed in finding out and inflicting punishments on the guilty than
in devising means to reform them. He is a man, who talks of nothing but
banishing and executing, and who, because he thinks his talents are not
sufficiently valued and employed by his fellow-citizens, or rather because they
know his foibles, and do not choose to be subject to his caprice, talks of
quitting cities, towns, and societies, and of living in dens or deserts.
A term formerly used in reference to a person in
wretchedness or calamity; but now denotes a parsimonious person, or one who is
covetous to extremity; who denies himself even the comforts of life to
accumulate wealth. Avarice, says Saurin, may be considered in two different
points of light. It may be considered in those men, or rather those public
blood-suckers, or, as the officers of the Roman emperor Vespasian were called,
those sponges of society, who, infatuated with this passion, seek after riches
as the supreme good, determine to acquire it by any methods, and consider the
ways that lead to wealth, legal or illegal, as the only road for them to
travel.
Avarice, however, must be considered in a second
point of light. It not only consists in committing bold crimes, but in
entertaining mean ideas and practising low methods, incompatible with such
magnanimity as our condition ought to inspire. It consists not only in omitting
to serve God, but in trying to associate the service of God with that of mammon.
How many forms doth avarice take to disguise
itself from the man who is guilty of it, and who will be drenched in the guilt
of it till the day he dies! Sometimes it is prudence which requires him to
provide not only for his present wants, but for such as he may have in future.
Sometimes it is charity which requires him not to give society examples of
prodigality and parade. Sometimes it is parental love obliging him to save
something for his children. Sometimes it is circumspection, which requires him
not to supply people who make an ill use of what they get. Sometimes it is
necessity, which obliges him to repel artifice by artifice. Sometimes it is
conscience, which convinces him, good man, that he hath already exceeded in
compassion and alms-giving, and done too much. Sometimes it is equity, for
justice requires that every one should enjoy the fruit of his own labours, and
those of his ancestors. Such, alas! are the awful pretexts and subterfuges of
the miser. Saurin's Ser. vol. v. ser. 12. See AVARICE, COVETOUSNESS.
Such a state of wretchedness, unhappiness, or calamity, as renders a person an object of compassion.
Or MISNA (from iteravit) a part of the Jewish
Talmud.
The Mischna contains the text; and the Gemara,
which is the second part of the Talmud, contains the commentaries: so that the
Gemara is, as it were, a glossary on the Mischna.
The Mischna consists of various traditions of the
Jews, and of explanations of several passages of Scripture: these traditions
serving as an explication of the written law, and supplement to it, are said to
have been delivered to Moses during the time of his abode on the Mount; which
he afterwards communicated to Aaron, Eleazar, and his servant Joshua. By these
they were transmitted to the seventy elders; by them to the prophets, who
communicated them to the men of the great sanhedrim, from whom the wise men of
Jerusalem and Babylon received them. According to Prideaux's account, they
passed from Jeremiah to Baruch, from him to Ezra, and from Ezra to the men of
the great synagogue, the last of whom was Simon the Just, who delivered them to
Antigonus of Cocho: and from him they came down in regular succession to
Simeon, who took our Saviour in his arms; to Gamaliel, at whose feet Paul was
educated; and last of all, to Rabbi Judah the Holy, who committed them to
writing in the Mischina. But D. Prideaux, rejecting the Jewish fiction,
observes, that after the death of Simon the Just, about 299 years before
Christ, the Mischnical doctors arose, who by their comments and conclusions
added to the number of those traditions which had been received and allowed by
Ezra and the men of the great synagogue; so that towards the middle of the
second century after Christ, under the empire of Antoninus Pius, it was found
necessary to commit these traditions to writing; more especially as their
country had considerably suffered under Adria, and many of their schools had
been dissolved, and their learned men cut off; and therefore the usual method
of preserving their traditions had failed. Rabbi Judah on this occasion being
rector of the school of Tiberias, and president of the sanhedrim in that place,
undertook the work, and compiled it in six books, each consisting of several
tracts, which altogether make up the number of sixty-three. Prid. Connex. vol.
ii. p. 468, &c. ed. 9. This learned author computes, that the Mischna was
composed about the 150th year of our Lord; but Dr. Lightfoot says that the
Rabbi Judah compiled the Mischna about the year of Christ 190, in the latter
end of the reign of commodus; or, as some compute, in the year of Christ 220.
Dr. Lardner is of opinion that this work could not have been finished before
the year 190, or later. Collection of Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol.i. p.
178. Thus the book called the Mischna was formed; a book which the Jews have
generally received with the greatest veneration. The original has been
published with a Latin translation by Surenhusius, with notes of his own and
others from the learned Maimonides, &c. in six vols, fol. Amster. A. D.
1698--1703. See TALMUD. It is written in a much purer style, and is not near so
full of dreams and visions as the Gemara.
The act of wilfully representing a thing otherwise than it is. "This," as an elegant writer observes, "is one of the greatest mischiefs of conversation. Self-love is continually at work to give to all we say a bias in our own favour. How often in society, otherwise respectable, are we pained with narrations in which prejudice warps, and self-love blinds!--How often do we see that withholding part of a truth answers the worst ends of a falsehood! How often regret the unfair turn given to a cause, by placing a sentiment in one point of view, which the speaker had used in another! the letter of truth preserved, where its spirit is violated! a superstitious exactness scrupulously maintained in the under parts of a detail, in order to impress such an idea of integrity as shall gain credit for the misrepresenter, while he is designedly mistaking the leading principle! How may we observe a new character given to a fact by a different look, tone, or emphasis, which alters it as much as words could have done! the false impression of a sermon conveyed, when we do not like the preacher, or when through him we wish to make religion itself ridiculous! the care to avoid literal untruths, while the mischief is better effected by the unfair quotation of a passage divested of its context! the bringing together detached portions of a subject, and making those parts ludicrous, when connected, which were serious in their distinct position! the insidious use made of a sentiment by representing it as the opinion of him who had only brought it forward in order to expose it! the relating opinions which had merely been put hypothetically, as if they were the avowed principles of him we would discredit! that subtle falsehood which is so made to incorporate with a certain quantity of truth, that the most skilful moral chemist cannot analyze or separate them! for a good misrepresenter knows that a successful lie must have a certain infusion of truth, or it will not go down. And this amalgamation is the test of his skill; as too much truth would defeat the end of his mischief, and too little would destroy the belief of the hearer. All that indefinable ambiguity and equivocation; all that prudent deceit, which is rather implied than expressed; those more delicate artifices of the school of Loyala and of Chesterfield, which allow us, when we dare not deny a truth, yet so to disguise and discolour it, that the truth we relate shall not resemble the truth we heard; these, and all the thousand shades of simulation and disimulation, will be carefully guarded against in the conversation of vigilant Christians."--Miss H. More on Educ. vol. ii. p. 91.
The Romish mass-book, containing the several masses to be said on particular days. It is derived from the Latin word missa, which in the ancient Christian church signified every part of divine service.
A power or commission to preach the Gospel. Thus Jesus Christ gave his disciples their mission, when he said, "go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." See next article.
An establishment of people zealous for the glory
of God and the salvation of souls, who go and preach the Gospel in remote
countries, and among infidels. No man possessed of the least degree of feeling
or compassion for the human race can deny the necessity and utility of
Christian missions. Whoever considers that the major part of the world is
enveloped in the grossest darkness, bound with the chains of savage barbarity,
and immersed in the awful chaos of brutal ignorance, must, if he be not
destitute of every principle of religion and humanity, concur with the design
and applaud the principles of those who engage in so benevolent a work. We
shall not, however, in this place, enter into a defence of missions, but shall
present the reader with a short view of those that have been established.
In the sixteenth century, the Romish church
particularly exerted herself for the propagation of their religion. The
Portuguese and Spaniards pretend to have done mighty exploits in the spread of
the Christian faith in Asia, Africa, and America; but, when we consider the
superstitions they imposed on some, and the dreadful cruelties they inflicted
on others, it more than counterbalances any good that was done. For a time, the
Dominicans, Franciscans, and other religious orders, were very zealous in the
conversion of the heathen; but the Jesuits outdid them all in their attempts in
the conversion of African, Asian, and American infidels. Xavier spread some
hints of the Romish religion through the Portuguese settlements in the East
Indies, through most of the Indian continent, and of Ceylon. In 1549 he sailed
to Japan, and laid the foundation of a church there, which at one time was said
to have consisted of about 600,000 Christians. After him, others penetrated
into china, and founded a church which continued about 170 years. About 1580,
others penetrated into Chili and Peru, in South America, and converted the
natives. Others bestirred themselves to convert the Greeks, Nestorians,
Monophysites, Abyssinians, the Egyptian Copts. "It is, however," as
one observes, "a matter of doubt whether the disciples of a Xavier, or the
converts of a Loyola and Dominic, with their partisans of the Romish church,
should be admitted among the number of Christians, or their labours be thought
to have contributed to the promotion or to the hindrance of the religion of
Christ. Certain it is, that the methods these men pursued tended much more to
make disciples to themselves and the pontiffs of Rome, than to form the mind to
the reception of evangelical truth." With ardent zeal, however, and
unwearied industry, these apostles laboured in this work. In 1622 we find the
pope established a congregation of cardinals, de propaganda fide, and endowed
it with ample revenues, and every thing which could forward the missions was
liberaly supplied. In 1627, also, Urban added the college for the propagation
of the faith; in which missionaries were taught the languages of the countries
to which they were to be sent. France copied the example of Rome, and formed an
establishment for the same purposes. The Jesuits claimed the first rank, as due
to their zeal, learning, and devotedness to the holy see. The Dominicans,
Franciscans, and others, disputed the palm with them. The new world and the
Asiatic regions were the chief field of their labours. They penetrated into the
uncultivated recesses of America. They visited the untried regions of Siam,
Tonquin, and Cochin China. They entered the vast empire of China itself, and
numbered millions among their converts. They dared affront the dangers of the
tyrannical government of Japan. In India they assumed the garb and austerities
of the Brahmins, and boasted on the coasts of Malabar of a thousand converts
baptized in one year by a single missionary. Their sufferings however, were
very great, and in China and Japan they were exposed to the most dreadful
persecutions, and many thousands were cut off, with, at last, a final expulsion
from the empires. In Africa the Capuchins were chiefly employed, though it does
not appear that they had any considerable success. And in America their
laborious exertions have had but little influence, we fear to promote the real
conversion of the native to the truth.
In the year 1621, the Dutch opened a church in
the city of Batavia, and from hence ministers were sent to Amboyna. At Leyden,
ministers and assistants were educated for the purpose of missions under the
famous Walxus, and sent into the East, where thousands embraced the Christian
religion at Formosa, Columba, Java, Malabar, &c. and though the work
declined in some places, yet there are still churches in Ceylon, Sumatra,
Amboyna, &c.
About 1705, Frederick IV. of Denmark, applied to
the university of Halle, in Germany, for missionaries to preach the Gospel on
the coast of Malabar, in the East Indies; and Messrs. Ziegenbalg and Plutsche
were the first employed on this important mission; to them others were soon
added, who laboured with considerable success. It is said that upwards of
18,000 Gentoos have been brought to the profession of Christianity.
A great work has been carried on among the Indian
nations in North America. One of the first and most eminent instruments in this
work was the excellent Mr. Elliott, commonly called the Indian apostle, who,
from the time of his going to New England, in 1631, to his death, in 1690,
devoted himself to this great work by his lips and pen, translating the Bible
and other books into the native dialect. Some years after this, Thomas Mahew,
esq. governor and patentee of the islands of Martha's Vineyard, and some
neighbouring islands, greatly exerted himself in the attempt to convert the
Indians in that part of America. His son John gathered and founded an Indian
church, which, after his death, not being able to pay a minister, the old
gentleman himself, at seventy years of age, became their instructor for more
than twenty years, and his grandson and great grandson both succeeded him in
the same work. Mr. D. Brainard was also a truly pious and successful missionary
among the Susquehannah and Delaware Indians. His journal contains instances of
very extraordinary conversions.
But the Moravians have exceeded all in their
missionary exertions. They have various missions: and, by their persevering
zeal, it is said, upwards of 23,000 of the most destitute of mankind, in
different regions of the earth, have been brought to the knowledge of the
truth. Vast numbers in the Danish islands of St. Thomas, St. Jau. and St.
Croix, and the English islands, of Jamaica, Antigua, Nevis, Barbadoes, St.
Kitts, and Tobago, have by their ministry been called to worship God in spirit
and in truth. In the inhospitable climes of Greenland and Labrador they have
met with wonderful success, after undergoing the most astonishing dangers and
difficulties. The Arrowack Indians, and the negroes of Surimnam and Berbice,
have been collected into bodies of faithful people by them. Canada and the
United States of North America, have, by their instrumentality, afforded happy
evidences of the power of the Gospel. Even those esteemed the last of human
beings, for brutishness and ignorance, the Hottentots, have been formed into
their societies; and upwards of seven hundred are said to be worshipping God at
Bavian's Cloof, near the Cape of Good Hope. We might also mention their efforts
to illumine the distant East, the coast of Coromandel, and the Nicobar islands;
their attempts to penetrate into Abyssinia, to carry the Gospel to Persia and
Egypt, and to ascend the mountains of Caucasus. In fact, where shall we find
the men who have laboured as these have? Their invincible patience, their
well-regulated zeal, their self-denial, their constant prudence, deserve the
meed of highest approbation. Nor are they wearied in so honourable a service;
for they have numerous missionaries still employed in different parts of the
world. See MORAVIANS.
Good has been also done by the Wesleyan
Methodists, who are certainly not the least in missionary work. They have
several missionaries in the British dominions in America and in the West Indies.
They have some thousands of members in their societies in those parts. See
METHODISTS.
In 1791, a society was instituted among the
Baptists, called, "The particular Baptist Society for propagating the
Gospel among the Heathen," under the auspices of which missionaries were
sent to India, and favourable accounts of their success have been received. We
learn, with pleasure, that through their indefatigable industry, the New
Testament, and part of the Bible have been translated and printed in the Benegalee;
and that parts of the Scriptures have been translated into ten of the languages
spoken in the East. See Periodical Accounts of this society.
In the year 1795, The London Missionary Society
was formed.--This is not confined to one body of people, but consists of
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Seceders, Methodists, and Independents, who hold
an annual meeting in London in May. As the state of this society is before the
public, it would be unnecessary here to enlarge; suffice it to say, that it is
now on the most permanent and respectable footing. "It has assumed
consistency and order; it combines integrity of character, fortitude of mind,
and fixedness of resolution, with a continued progression of effort for the
exalted purpose of presenting the doctrines of the blessed Gospel to the
acceptance of the perishing heathen, and of exhibiting an uncorrupt example of
their tendencies and effects in their own characters and conduct."
Besides the above-mentioned societies, others
have been formed of less note. In 1699, a society was instituted in England for
promoting Christian Knowledge. In 1701, another was formed for the propagation
of the Gospel in foreign parts. In Scotland, about the year 1700, a society was
instituted for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. Recently, some clergymen
of the established church have formed one among themselves. Societies for
spreading the Gospel also have been instituted in various other places. From
the whole, it seems evident that the light and knowledge of the glorious Gospel
will be more diffused than ever throughout the earth. And who is there that has
any concern for the souls of men, any love for truth and religion, but what
must rejoice at the formation, number, and success of those institutions, which
have not the mere temporal concerns of men, but their everlasting welfare as
their object? My heart overflows with joy, and mine eyes with tears, when I
consider the happy and extensive effects which are likely to take place. The
untutored mind will receive the peaceful principles of religion and virtue; the
savage barbarian will rejoice in the copious blessings, and feel the benign
effects of civilization; the ignorant idolater will be directed to offer up his
prayers and praises to the true God, and learn the way of salvation through
Jesus Christ. The habitations of cruelty will become the abodes of peace and
security, while ignorance and superstition shall give way to the celestial
blessings of intelligence, purity, and joy. Happy men, who are employed as
instruments in this cause: who forego your personal comforts, relinquish your
native country, and voluntarily devote yourselves to the most noble and
honourable of services! Peace and prosperity be with you! Miller's History of
the Propagation of Christ; Kennett's ditto; Gillies's Historical Collection;
Carey's Enquiry respecting Missions; Loskiell's History of the Moravian
Missions; Crantz's History of Greenland; Horne's Letters on Missions; Sermons
and Reports of the London Missionary Society.
The state of keeping a due mean between extremes: calmness, temperance, or equanimity. It is sometimes used with reference to our opinions, Rom. xii. 3. but in general it respects our conduct in that state which comes under the description of ease or prosperity; and ought to take place in our wishes, pursuits, expectations, pleasures, and passions. See Bp. Hall on Moderation, ser. 16; Blair's Sermons, vol. iii. ser. 12; Toplady's Works, vol.iii. ser. 10.
Is sometimes used to denote humility, and sometimes to express chastity. The Greek word modestus, signifies neat or clean. Modesty, therefore, consists in purity of sentiment and manners, inclining us to abhor the least appearance of vice and indecency, and to fear doing any thing which will incur censure. An excess of modesty may be called bashfulness, and the want of it impertinence. There is a false of vicious modesty, which influences a man to do any thing that is ill or indiscreet; such as, through fear of offending his companions he runs into their follies or excesses; or it is a false modesty which restrains a man from doing what is good or laudable; such as being ashamed to speak of religion, and to be seen in the exercises of piety and devotion.
A sect in the Romish church who follow the doctrine and sentiments of the Jesuit Molina, relating to sufficient and efficacious grace. He taught that the operations of divine grace were entirely consistent with the freedom of the human will; and introduced a new kind of hypothesis to remove the difficulties attending the doctrines of predestination and liberty, and to reconcile the jarring opinions of Augustines, Thomists, Semi-Pelagians, and other contentious divines. He affirmed that the decree of predestination to eternal glory was founded upon a previous knowledge and consideration of the merits of the elect; that the grace, from whose operation these merits are derived, is not efficacious by its own intrinsic power only, but also by the consent of our own will, and because it is administered in those circumstances in which the Deity, by that branch of his knowledge which is called scientia media, foresees that it will be efficacious. The kind of prescience, denominated in the schools scientia media, is that foreknowledge of future contingents that arises from an acquaintance with the nature and faculties of rational beings, of the circumstances in which they shall be placed, of the objects that shall be presented to them, and of the influence which their circumstances and objects must have on their actions.
The same as the Patripassians: which see.
A convent or house built for the reception of religious; whether
it be abbey, priory, nunnery, or the like.
Monastery is only properly applied to the houses
of monks, mendicant friars, and nuns: the rest are more properly called
religious houses. For the origin of monasteries, see MONASTIC, and MONK.
The houses belonging to the several religious
orders which obtained in England and Wales, were catherdrals, colleges, abbeys,
priories, preceptories, commandries, hospitals, friaries, hermitages,
chantries, and free chapels.--These were under the direction and management of
various officers. The dissolution of houses of this kind began so early as the year
1312, when the Templars were suppressed; and in 1323, their lands, churches,
advowsons, and liberties, here in England, were given, by 17 Edw. II. stat. 3,
to the prior and brethren of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. In the
years 1390, 1437, 1441, 1459, 1497, 1505, 1508, and 1515, several other houses
were dissolved, and their revenues settled on different colleges in Oxford and
Cambridge. Soon after the last period, cardinal Wolsey, by licence of the king
and pope, obtained a dissolution of above thirty religious houses for the
founding and endowing his colleges at Oxford and Ipswich. About the same time a
bull was granted by the same pope to cardinal Wolsey to suppress monasteries,
where there were not above six monks, to the value of eight thousand ducats a
year, for endowing. Windsor and King's College in Cambridge; and two other
bulls were granted to cardinals Wolsey and Campeins, where there were less than
twelve monks, and to annex them to the greater monasteries; and another bull to
the same cardinals to inquire about abbeys to be suppressed in order to be made
cathedrals. Although nothing appears to have been done in consequence of these
bulls, the motive which induced Wolsey and many others to suppress these houses
was the desire of promoting learning; and arch-bishop Crammer engaged in it
with a view of carrying on the reformation. There were other causes that
concurred to bring on their ruin: many of the religious were loose and vicious;
the monks were generally thought to be in their hearts attached to the pope's
supremacy; their revenues were not employed according to the intent of the
donors; many cheats in images, feigned miracles, and counterfeit relics, had
been discovered, which brought the monks into disgrace; the observant friars
had opposed the king's divorce from queen Catharine; and these circumstances
operated, in concurrence with the king's want of a supply and the people's
desire to save their money, to forward a motion in parliament, that, in order
to support the king's state, and supply his wants, all the religious houses
might be conferred upon the crown, which were not able to spend above 200 l. a
year; and an act was passed for that purpose, 27 Hen. VIII. c. 28. By this act
about three hundred and eighty houses were dissolved, and a revenue of 30,000
l. or 32,000 l.a year came to the crown; besides about 100,000 l. in plate and
jewels. The suppression of these houses occasioned discontent, and at length an
open rebellion: when this was appeased, the king resolved to suppress the rest
of the monasteries, and appointed a new visitation, which caused the greater
abbeys to be surrendered apace: and it was enacted by 31 Henry VIII. c. 13,
that all monasteries which have been surrendered since the 4th of February, in
the twenty-seventh year of his majesty's reign, and which hereafter shall be
surrendered, shall be vested in the king. The knights of St. John of Jerusalem
were also suppressed by the 32d Henry VIII. c. 24. The suppression of these
greater houses by these two acts produced a revenue to the king of above
100,000 l. a year, besides a large sum in plate and jewels. The last act of
dissolution in this king's reign was the act of 37 Hen. VIII. c. 4, for
dissolving, colleges, free chapels, chantries, &c. which act was farther
enforced by I Edw. VI. c. 14. By this act were suppressed 90 colleges, 110
hospitals, and 2374 chantries and free chapels. The number of houses and places
suppressed from first to last, so far as any calculations appear to have been
made, seems to be as follows:
Of lesser monasteries, of which we have the valuation-------374
Of greater monasteries--------------------------------------186
Belonging to the hospitallers--------------------------------48
Colleges-----------------------------------------------------90
Hospitals---------------------------------------------------110
Chantries and free chapels---------------------------------2374
-----
Total
3182
Besides the friars' houses, and those suppressed by Wolsey, and many small
houses of which we have no particular account.
the sum total of the clear yearly revenue of the
several houses at the time of their dissolution, of which we have any account,
seems to be as follows:
Of the great monasteries--------------------l. 104,919 13 3
Of all those of the lesser
monasteries of which we have the valuation 29,702 1 10
Knights hospitallers, head house
in London 2,385 12 8
We have the valuation of only
28 of their houses in the country 26 9 5
Friars' houses of which we have
the valuation 751 2 0
__________________
Total
l.140,784 19 2
If proper allowances are made for the lesser monasteries and houses not
included in this estimate, and for the plate, &c. which came into the hands
of the king by the dissolution, and for the value of money at that time, which
was at least six times, as much as at present, and also consider that the
estimate of the lands was generally supposed to be much under the real worth,
we must conclude their whole revenues to have been immense.
It does not appear that any computation hath been
of the number of persons contained in the religous houses.
Those of the lesser monasteries
dissolved by 27 Hen. VIIi. were
reckoned at about 10,000
If we suppose the colleges and
hospitals to have contained a
proportionable number, these
will make about 5,347
If we reckon the number in the
greater monasteries according to
the proportion of their revenues,
they will be about 35,000; but as
probably they had larger allowances
in proportion to their number than
those of the lesser monasteries, if
we abate upon that account 5,000,
they will then be 30,000
One for each chantry and free chapel 2,374
_____________
Total
47,721
But as there were probably more than one person to officiate in several of
the free chapels, and there were other houses which are not included within
this calculation, perhaps they may be computed in one general estimate at about
50,000. As there were pensions paid to almost all those of the greater monasteries,
the king did not immediately come into the full enjoyment of their whole
revenues; however, by means of what he did receive, he founded six new
bishoprics, viz. those of Westminster, (which was changed by queen Elizabeth
into a deanery, with twelve prebends and a school,) Peterborough, Chester,
Gloucester, Bristol, and Oxford. And in eight other sees he founded deaneries
and chapters, by converting the priors and monks into deans and prebendaries,
viz. Canterbury, Winchester, Durham, Worcester, Rochester, Norwich, Ely, and
Carlisle. He founded also the colleges of Christ Church in Oxford, and Trinity
in Cambridge, and finished King's College there. He likewise founded
professorships of divinity, law, physic, and of the Hebrew and Greek tongues in
both the said Universities. He gave the house of Grey Friars and St.
Bartholomew's Hospital to the city of London, and a perpetual pension to the
poor knights of Windsor, and laid out great sums in building and fortifying
many ports in the channel. It is observable, upon the whole, that the
dissolution of these houses was not an act of the church, but of the state, in
the period preceding the reformation, by a king and parliament of the Roman
Catholic commission in all points, except the king's supremacy; to which the
pope himself, by his bulls and licences, had led the way.
As to the merits of these institutions, authors
are much divided. While some have considered them as beneficial to learning,
piety, and benevolence, others have thought them very injurious. We may form
some idea of them from the following remarks of Mr. Gilpin.
He is speaking of Glastonbury Abbey, which
possessed the amplest revenues of any religious house in England. "Its
fraternity," says he, "is said to have consisted of five hundred
established monks, besides nearly as many retainers on the abbey. Above four
hundred children were not only educated in it, but entirely maintained.
Strangers from all parts of Europe were liberally received, classed according
to their sex and nation, and might consider the hospitable roof under which
they lodged as their own. Five hundred travellers, with their horses, have been
lodged at once within its walls; while the poor from every side of the country,
waiting the ringing of the alms bell; when they flocked in crowds, young and
old, to the gate of the monastery, where they received, every morning, a
plentiful pro-vision for themselves and their families:--all this appears great
and noble.
"On the other hand, when we consider five
hundred persons bred up in indolence and lost to the commonwealth; when we
consider that these houses were the great nurseries of superstition, bigotry,
and ignorance; the stews of sloth, stupidity, and perhaps intemperance; when we
consider that the education received in them had not the least tincture of
useful learning, good manners, or true religion, but tended rather to vilify
and disgrace the human mind; when we consider that the pilgrims and strangers
who resorted thither were idle vagabonds, who got nothing abroad that was
equivalent to the occupations they left at home; and when we consider, lastly,
that indiscriminate alms-giving is not real charity, but an avocation from
labour and industry, checking every idea of exertion, and filling the mind with
abject notions, we are led to acquiesce in the fate of these foundations, and
view their ruins, not only with a picturesque eye, but with moral and religious
satisfaction."Gilpin's Observations on the Western Parts of England, p.
138, 139; Bigland's Letters on Hist. p. 313.
Something belonging to monks, or the monkish
life.--The monastic profession is a kind of civil death, which in all worldly
matters has the same effect with the natural death. The council of Trent,
&c. fix sixteen years the age at which a person may be admitted into the
monastical state.
St. Anthony is the person who, in the fourth
century, first instituted the monastic life; as St. Pachomius, in the same
century, is said to have first set on foot the coenobite life, i. e. regular
communities of religious. In a short time the deserts of Egypt became inhabited
by a set of solitaries, who took upon them the monastic profession. St. Basil
carried the monkish humour into the East, where he composed a rule which
afterwards obtained through a great part of the West.
In the eleventh century, the monastic discipline
was grown very remiss. St. Oddo first began to retrieve it in the monastery of
Cluny: that monastery, by the conditions of its erection, was put under the
immediate protection of the holy see; with a prohibition to all powers, both
secular and ecclesiastical, to disturb the monks in the possession of their
effects or the election of their abbot. In virtue hereof they pleaded an
exemption from the jurisdiction of the bishop, and extended this privilege to
all the houses dependent on Cluny. This made the first congregation of several
houses under one chief immediately subject to the pope, so as to constitute one
body, or as they now call it, one religious order. Till then, each monastery
was independent, and subject to the bishop. See MONK.
Anciently denoted, "a person who retired
from the world to give himself wholly to God, and to live in solitude and
abstinence." The word is derived from the Latin monachus, and that from
the Greek "solitary;" of "alone."
This original of monks seems to have been this:
The persecutions which attended the first ages of the Gospel forced some
Christians to retire from the world, and live in deserts and places most
private and unfrequented, in hopes of finding that peace and comfort among
beasts, which were denied them among men; and this being the case of some very
extraordinary persons, their example gave such reputation to retirement, that
the practice was continued when the reason of its commencement ceased. After
the empire became Christian, instances of this kind were numerous: and those
whose security had obliged them to live separately and apart, became
afterwards, united into societies. We may also add, that the mystic theology,
which gained ground towards the close of the third century, contributed to
produce the same effect, and to drive men into solitude for the purposes of
devotion.
The monks, at least the ancient ones, were
distinguished into solitaries, coenobites, and sarabites.
The solitaries are those who live alone, in
places remote from all towns and habitations of men, as do still some of the
hermits. The coenobites are those who live in community with several others in
the same house, and under the same superiors. The sarabites were strolling
monks, having no fixed rule or residence.
The houses of monks, again, were of two kinds,
viz. monasteries and laurae.
Those who are now called monks, are coenobites,
who live together in a convent or monastery, who make vows of living according
to a certain rule established by the founder, and wear a habit which
distinguishes their order.
The first monks were those of St. Anthony, who,
towards the close of the fourth century, formed them into a regular body,
engaged them to live in society with each other, and prescribed to them fixed
rules for the direction of their conduct. These regulations, which Anthony had
made in Egypt, were soon introduced into Palestine and Syria by his disciple
Hilarion. Almost about the same time, Aones, or Eugenius, with their companions
Gaddanus and Azyzias, instituted the monastic order in Mesopotamia, and the
adjacent countries; and their example was followed with such rapid success,
that in a short time the whole east was filled with a lazy set of mortals, who
abandoning all human connexions, advantages, pleasures, and concerns, wore out
a languishing and miserable existence amidst the hardships of want and various
kinds of suffering, in order to arrive at a more close and rapturous
communication with God and angels.
From the East this gloomy disposition passed into
the West, and first into Italy and its neighbouring islands; though it is
uncertain who transplanted it thither. St. Martin, the celebrated bishop of
Tours, erected the first monasteries in Gaul, and recommended this religious
solitude with such power and efficacy both by his instructions and his example,
that his funeral is said to have been attended by no less than two thousand
monks. From hence the monastic discipline extended gradually its progress
through the other provinces and countries of Europe. There were, besides the
monks of St. Basil (called in the East Cologeri, from "a good old
man,") and those of St. Jerome, the hermits of St. Augustine, and
afterwards those of St. Benedict and St. Bernard: at length came those of St.
Francis and St. Cominic, with a legion of others; all which see under their
proper heads.
towards the close of the fifth century, the
monks, who had formerly lived only for themselves in solitary retreats, and had
never thought of assuming any rank among the sacerdotal order, were now
gradually distinguished from the populace, and endowed with such oppulence and
honourable privileges, that they found themselves in a condition to claim an
eminent station among the pillars and supporters of the Christian community.
The fame of their piety and sanctity was so great, that bishops and presbyters
were often chosen out of their order; and the passion of erecting edifices and
convents, in which the monks and holy virgins might serve God in the most
commodious manner, was at this time carried beyond all bounds. However, their
licentiousness, even in this century, was become a proverb; and they are said
to have excited the most dreadful tumults and seditions in various places. The
monastic orders were at first under the immediate jurisdiction of the bishops,
from which they were exempted by the Roman pontiff about the end of the seventh
century; and the monks, in return, devoted themselves wholly to advance the
interests and to maintain the dignity of the bishop of Rome. This immunity
which they obtained was a fruitful source of licentiousness and disorder, and
occasioned the greatest part of the vices with which they were afterwards so
justly charged. In the eighth century the monastic discipline was extremely
relaxed, both in the eastern and western provinces, and all efforts to restore
it were ineffectual. Nevertheless, this kind of institution was in the highest
esteem; and nothing could equal the veneration that was paid about the close of
the ninth century to such as devoted themselves to the sacred gloom and
indolence of a convent. This veneration caused several kings and emperors to
call them to their courts, and to employ them in civil affairs of the greatest
moment. Their reformation was attempted by Louis the Meek, but the effect was
of short duration. In the eleventh century they were exempted by the popes from
the authority established; insomuch, that in the council of Lateran that was
held in the year 1215, a decree was passed, by the advice of Innocent III. to
prevent any new monastic institutions; and several were entirely suppressed. In
the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, it appears, from the testimony of the
best writers, that the monks were generally lazy, illiterate, profligate, and
licentious epicures, whose views in lite were confined to opulence, idleness,
and pleasure. However, the reformation had a manifest influence in restraining
their excesses, and rendering them more circumspect and cautious in their
external conduct.
Monks are distinguished by the colour of their
habits into black, white, grey, &c. Among the monks, some are called monks
of the choir, others professed monks, and others lay monks; which last are
destined for the service of the convent, and have neither clericate nor
literature.
Cloistered monks are those who actually reside in
the house: in opposition to extra monks, who have benefices depending on the
monastery.
Monks are also distinguished into reformed, whom
the civil and ecclesiastical authority have made masters of ancient converts,
and put in their power to retrieve the ancient discipline, which had been
relaxed; and ancient, who remain in the convent, to live in it according to its
establishment at the time when they made their vows, without obliging
themselves to any new reform.
Anciently the monks were all laymen, and were
only distinguished from the rest of the people by a peculiar habit, and an
extraordinary devotion. Not only the monks were prohibited the priesthood, but
even priests were expressly prohibited from becoming monks, as appears from the
letters of St. Gregory. Pope Siricius was the first who called them to the
clericate, on occasion of some great scarcity of priests that the church was
then supposed to labour under; and since that time the priesthood has been
usually united to the monastical profession. Enc. Brit.; British Monochism, or
Manners and Customs of Monks and Nuns of England; Mosheim's Ecc. Hist.
(from solus, and natura,) a general name given
to all those sectaries in the Levant, who only own one nature in Jesus Christ;
and who maintain that the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ were so
united as to form only one nature, yet without any change, confusion, or
mixture of the two natures.
The Monophysites, however, properly so called,
are the followers of Severus, a learned monk of Palestine, who was created
patriarch of Antioch, in 513, and Petrus Fullenis.
The Monophysites were encouraged by the emperor
Anastasius, but suppressed by Justin and succeeding emperors. However, this
sect was restored by Jacob Baradxus, an obscure monk, insomuch that when he
died bishop of Edessa, A. D. 588, he left it in a most flourishing state in
Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and other countries. The
laborious efforts of Jacob were seconded in Egypt and the adjacent countries by
Theodosius, bishop of Alexandria; and he became so famous, that all the
Monophysites of the East considered him as their second parent and founder, and
are to this day called Jacobites, in honour of their new chief. The
Monophysites are divided into two sects or parties, the one African and the
other Asiatic; at the head of the latter is the patriarch of Antioch, who
resides for the most part in the monastery of St. Athanias, near the city of
Merdin: the former are under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Alexandria,
who generally resides at Grand Cairo, and are subdivided into Cophts and
Abyssinians. From the fifteenth century downwards, all the patriarchs of the
Monophysites have taken the name of Ignatius, in order to show that they are
the lineal successors of Ignatius, who was bishop of Antioch in the first
century, and consequently the lawful patriarch of Antioch. In the seventeenth
century, a small body of Monophysites, in Asia, abandoned for some time the
doctrine and institution of their ancestors, and embraced the communion of
Rome; but the African Monophysites, notwithstanding that poverty and ignorance
which exposed them to the seductions of sophistry and gain, stood firm in their
principles, and made an obstinate resistance to the promises, presents, and
attempts employed by the papal missionaries to bring them under the Roman yoke:
and in the eighteenth century, those of Asia and Africa have persisted in their
refusal to enter into the communion of the Romish church, notwithstanding the
earnest entreaties and alluring offers that have been made from time to time by
the pope's legates, to conquer their inflexible constancy.
(compounded of "single," and volo,
"I will,") an ancient sect which sprung out of the Eutychians; thus
called, as only allowing of one will in Jesus Christ.
The opinion of the Monothelites had its rise in
930, and had the emperor Heraclius for an adherent: it was the same with that
of the acephalous Severians.--They allowed of two wills in Christ, considered
with regard to the two natures; but reduced them to one, by reason of the union
of the two natures, thinking it absurd that there should be two free wills in one
and the same person. They were condemned by the sixth general council in 680,
as being supposed to destroy the perfection of the humanity of Jesus Christ,
depriving it of will and operation. Their sentiments were afterwards embraced
by the Maronites.
A sect which sprung up about the year 171, in
the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. They were so called from their leader
Montamus, a Phrygian by birth: whence they are sometimes called Phrygians and
Cataphrygians.
Montanes, it is said, embraced Christianity in
hopes of rising to the dignities of the church. He pretended to inspiration;
and gave out that the Holy Ghost had instructed him in several points which had
not been revealed to the apostles. Priscilla and Maximilla, two enthusiastic
women of Phrygia, presently became his disciples, and in a short time he had a
great number of followers. The bishops of Asia, being assembled together,
condemned his prophecies, and excommunicated those that dispersed them.
Afterwards they wrote an account of what had passed to the western churches,
where the pretended prophecies of Montanus and his followers were likewise
condemned.
The Montanists, finding themselves exposed to the
censure of the whole church, formed a schism, and set up a distinct society
under the direction of those who called themselves prophets.--Montanus, in
conjunction with Priscilla and Maximilla, were at the head of the sect.
These sectaries made no alteration in the creed.
They only held that the Holy Spirit made Montanus his organ or delivering a
more perfect form of discipline than what was delivered by his apostles. They
refused communion for ever to those who were guilty of notorious crimes, and
believed that the bishops had no authority to reconcile them. They held it
unlawful to fly in time of persecution. They condemned second marriages,
allowed the dissolution of marriage, and observed three lents.
Relating to the action or conduct of life, or that which determines an action to be good or virtuous.--2. A moral agent is a being that is capable of those actions that have a moral quality, and which can properly be denominated good or evil in a moral sense.--3. A moral certainty is a very strong probability, and is used in contradistinction to mathematical probability.--4. Moral fitness is the agreement of the actions of any intelligent being with the nature, circumstances, and relation of things.--5. A moral impossibility is a very great or insuperable difficulty; opposed to a natural impossibility. See INABILITY.--6. Moral obligation is the necessity of doing or omitting any action in order to be happy and good. See OBLIGATION.--7. Moral Philosophy is the science of manners, the knowledge of our duty and felicity. See PHILOSOPHY.--8. Moral sense, that whereby we perceive what is good, virtuous, and beautiful in actions, manners, and characters; or it is a kind of satisfaction in the mind arising from the contemplation of those actions of rational agents which we call good or virtuous: some call this natural conscience, others intuitive perception of right and wrong, &c. See article SENSE.--9. Moral law. See LAW, EVIDENCE.
Is that relation or proportion which actions bear to a given rule. It is generally used in reference to a good life. Morality is distinguished from religion thus: "Religion is a studious conformity of our actions to the relations in which we stand to each other in civil society. Morality comprehends only a part of religion; but religion comprehends the whole of morality. Morality finds all her motives here below; religion fetches all her motives from above. The highest principle in morals is a just regard to the rights of men; the first principle in religion is the love of God." The various duties of morality are considered in their respective places in this work. See Bishop Horsley's Charge, 1790; Paley's and Grove's Moral Philosophy; Beattie's Elements of Moral Science; Evans's Sermons on Christian Temper; Watt's Sermons on Christian Morals; Mason's Christian Morals; H. More's Hints. vol. ii. p. 245; Gisborne's Sermons designed to illustrate and enforce Christian Morality.
A sect generally said to have arisen under
Nicholas Lewis, count of Zinzendorf, a German nobleman of the last century, and
thus called because the first converts to their system were some Moravian
families. According to the society's own account, however, they derive their
origin from the Greek church in the ninth century, when, by the instrumentality
of Methodius and Cyrillus, two Greek monks, the kings of Bulgaria and Moravia
being converted to the faith, were, together with their subjects, united in
communion with the Greek church. Methodius was their first bishop, and for
their use Cyrillus translated the Scriptures into the Selavonian language.
The antipathy of the Greek and Roman churches is
well known, and by much the greater part of the Brethren were in process of
time compelled, after many struggles, to submit to the see of Rome. A few,
however, adhering to the rites of their mother church, united themselves in
1170 to the Waldenses, and sent missionaries into many countries. In 1547 they
were called Fratres legis Christi, or Brethren of the Law of Christ; because,
about that period, they had thrown off all reverence for human compilations of
the faith, professing simply to follow the doctrines and precepts contained in
the word of God.
There being at this time no bishops in the
Bohemian church who had not submitted to the papal jurisdiction, three priests
of the society of United Brethren were, about the year 1467, consecrated by
Stephen, bishop of the Waldenses, in Austria, (see WALDENSES;) and these
prelates, on their return to their own country, consecrated ten co-bishops, or
co-seniors, from among the rest of the presbyters. In 1523, the United Brethren
commenced a friendly correspondence, first with Luther, and afterwards with
Calvin and other leaders among the reformers. A persecution, which was brought
upon them on this account, and some religious disputes which took place among
themselves, threatened for a while the society with ruin; but the disputes
were, in 1570, put an end to by a synod, which decreed that differences about
non-essentials should not destroy their union; and the persecution ceased in
1575, when the United Brethren obtained an edict for the public exercise of
their religion. This toleration was renewed in 1609, and liberty granted them
to erect new churches. But a civil war, which, in 1612, broke out in Bohemia,
and a violent persecution which followed it in 1621, occasioned the dispersion
of their ministers, and brought great distress upon the Brethren in general.
Some of them fled to England, others to Saxony and Brandenburg; whilst many,
overcome by the severity of the persecution, conformed to the rites of the
church of Rome. One colony of these, who retained in purity their original
principles and practice, was, in 1722, conducted by a brother, named Christian
David, from Fulneck, in Moravia, to Upper Lusatia, where they put themselves
under the protection of Nicholas Lewis, count of Zinzendorf, and built a
village on his estate at the foot of a hill, called Hutberg, or Watch Hill. The
count, who, soon after their arrival, removed from Dresden to his estate in the
country, showed every mark of kindness to the poor emigrants; but being a
zealous member of the church established by law, he endeavoured for some time
to prevail upon them to unite themselves with it, by adopting the Lutheran
faith and discipline. This they declined; and the count, on a more minute
inquiry into their ancient history and distinguishing tenets, not only desisted
from his first purpose, but became himself a convert to the faith and
discipline of the United Brethren.
The synod which, in 1570, put an end to the
disputes which then tore the church of the Brethren into factions, had
considered as non-essentials the distinguishing tenets of their own society, of
the Lutherans, and of the Calvinists. In consequence of this, many of the
reformers of both these sects had followed the Brethren to Herrnhut, and been
received by them into communion; but not being endued with the peaceable spirit
of the church which they had joined, they started disputes among themselves,
which threatened the destruction of the whole establishment. By the
indefatigable exertions of count Zinzendorf these disputes were allayed; and
statutes being, in 1727, drawn up and agreed to for the regulation both of the
internal and of the external concerns of the congregation, brotherly love and
union was again established; and no schism whatever, in point of doctrine, has
since that period disturbed the church of the United Brethren.
In 1735, the count, who, under God, had been the
instrument of renewing the Brethren's church, was consecrated one of their
bishops, having the year before been examined and received into the clerical
order by the Theological Faculty of Tubingen. Dr. Porter, then archbishop of
Canterbury, congratulated him upon this event, and promised his assistance to a
church of confessors, of whom he wrote in terms of the highest respect, for
their having maintained the pure and primitive faith and discipline in the
midst of the most tedious and cruel persecutions. That his Grace, who had
studied the various controversies about church-government with uncommon
success, admitted the Moravian episcopal succession, we know from the most
unquestionable authority; for he communicated his sentiments on the subject to
Dr. Secker, while bishop of Oxford. In conformity with these sentiments of the
arch-bishop, we are assured that the parliament of Great-Britain, after mature
investigation, acknowledged the Unitas Frairum to be a Protestant episcopal
church; and in 1794 an act was certainly passed in their favour.
This sect, like many others, has been shamefully
misrepresented, and things laid to their charge of which they never were
guilty. It must, however, be acknowledged, that some of their converts having
previously imbibed extravagant notions, propagated them with zeal among their
new friends in a phraseology extremely reprehensible; and that count Zinzendorf
himself sometimes adopted the very improper language of those fanatics, whom he
wished to reclaim from their errors to the soberness of truth; but much or the
extravagance and absurdity which has been attributed to the count is not to be
charged to him, but to those persons who, writing his extempore sermons in
short hand, printed and published them without his knowledge or consent.
This eminent benefactor to the United Brethren
died in 1760, and it is with reason that they honour his memory as having been
the instrument by which God restored and built up their church. But they do not
regard him as their head, nor take his writings, nor the writings of any other
man, as the standard of their doctrines, which they profess to derive
immediately from the word of God.
It has been already observed, that the church of
the United Brethren is episcopal; but though they consider episcopal ordination
as necessary to qualify the servants of the church for their respective
functions, they allow to their bishops no elevation of rank or pre-eminent
authority; their church having from its first establishment been governed by
synods, consisting of deputies from all the congregations, and by other
subordinate bodies, which they call Conferences. The synods, which are
generally held once in seven years, are called together by the elders who were
in the former synod appointed to superintend the whole unity. In the first
sitting a president is chosen, and these elders lay down their office; but they
do not withdraw from the assembly; for they, together with all bishops,
seniores civiles, or lay elders, and those ministers who have the general care
or inspection of several congregations in one province, have seats in the synod
without any particular election. The other members are, one or more deputies
sent by each congregation, and such ministers or missionaries as are
particularly called to attend. Women, approved by the congregations are also
admitted as hearers, and are called upon to give their advice in what relates
to the ministerial labour among their sex; but they have no decisive vote in
the synod. the votes of all the other members are equal.
In questions of importance, or of which the
consequences cannot be foreseen, neither the majority of votes nor the
unanimous consent of all present can decide; but recourse is had to the lot.
For adopting this unusual mode of deciding in ecclesiastical affairs, the
Brethren allege as reasons the practices of the ancient Jews and the apostles;
the insufficiency of the human understanding amidst the best and purest
intentions to decide for itself in what concerns the administration of Christ's
Kingdom; and their own confident reliance on the comfortable promises that the
Lord Jesus will approve himself the head and ruler of his church. The lot is
never made use of but after mature deliberation and fervent prayer; nor is any
thing submitted to its decision which does not, after being thoroughly weighed,
appear to the assembly eligible in itself.
In every synod the inward and outward state of
the unity, and the concerns of the congregations and mission, are taken into
consideration. If errors in doctrine or deviations in practice have crept in,
the synod endeavours not only to remove them, but, by salutary regulations, to
prevent them for the future. It considers how many bishops are to be
consecrated to fill up the vacancies occasioned by death; and every member of
the synod gives his vote for such of the clergy as he thinks best qualified.
Those who have the majority of votes are taken into the lot, and they who are
approved are consecrated accordingly; but, by consecration, they are vested
with no superiority over their brethren, since it behoves him who is the
greatest to be the servant of all.
Towards the conclusion of every synod a kind of
executive board is chosen, and called The Elders' Conference of the Unity. At
present it consists of thirteen elders, and is divided into four committees, or
departments.--1. The Missions' department, which superintends all the concerns
of the missions into Heathen countries.--2. The Helpers' department, which
watches over the purity of doctrine, and the moral conduct of the different
congregations.--3. The Servants' department, to which the economical concerns
of the Unity are committed.--4. the Overseers' department, of which the
business is to see that the constitution and discipline of the brethren be
every where maintained. No resolution, however, of any of these departments has
the smallest force till it be laid before the assembly of the whole Elders'
Conference, and have the approbation of that body. The powers of the Elders'
Conference are, indeed, very extensive: besides the general care which it is
commissioned by the synods to take of all the congregations and missions, it
appoints, and removes every servant in the Unity, as circumstances may require;
authorizes the bishops to ordain presbyters or deacons, and to consecrate other
bishops; and, in a word, though it cannot abrogate any of the constitutions of
the synod, or enact new ones itself, it is possessed of the supreme executive
power over the whole body of the United Brethren.
Besides this general Conference of Elders, which
superintends the affairs of the whole Unity, there is another Conference of
elders belonging to each congregation, which directs its affairs, and to which
the bishops and all other ministers, as well as the lay members of the
congregation are subject. This body, which is called the Elders' Conference of
the Congregations, consists, 1. Of the Minister, as president, to whom the
ordinary care of the congregation is committed, except when it is very
numerous, and then the general inspection of it is intrusted to a separate
person, called the Congregation Helper.--2. Of the Warden, whose office it is
to superintend; with the aid of his council, all outward concerns of the
congregation, and to assist every individual with his advice.--3. Of a Married
Pair, who care particularly for the spiritual welfare of the married
people.--4. Of a Single Clergyman, to whose care the young men are more
particularly committed.--And, 5. Of those Women who assist in caring for the
spiritual and temporal welfare of their own sex, and who in this conference
have equal votes with the men. As the Elders' Conference of each Congregation is
answerable for its proceedings to the Elders' Conference of the Unity,
visitations from the latter to the former are held from time to time, that the
affairs of each congregation, and the conduct of its immediate governors, may
be intimately known to the supreme executive government of the whole church.
In their opinion, episcopal consecration does not
confer any power to preside over one or more congregations; and a bishop can
discharge no office but by the appointment of a synod, or of the Elders'
Conference of the Unity. Presbyters among them can perform every function of
the bishop, except ordination. Deacons are assistants to the Presbyters, much
in the same way as in the Church of England; and in the Brethren's churches,
deaconesses are retained for the purpose of privately admonishing their own
sex, and visiting them in their sickness; but though they are solemnly blessed
to this office, they are not permitted to teach in public, and far less to
administer the sacraments. They have likewise seniores civiles, or lay elders,
in contradistinction to spiritual elders, or bishops, who are appointed to
watch over the constitution and discipline of the Unity of the Brethren, over
the observance of the laws of the country in which congregations or missions
are established, and over the privileges granted to the Brethren by the
governments under which they live. They have economies, or choir houses, where
they live together in community: the single men and single women, widows and
widowers, apart, each under the superintendence of elderly persons of their own
class. In these houses every person who is able, and has not an independent
support, labours in their own occupation, and contributes a stipulated sum for
their maintenance. Their children are educated with peculiar care; their
subjection to their superiors and elders is singular, and, appears particularly
striking in their missions and marriages. In the former, those who have offered
themselves on the service, and are approved as candidates, wait their several
calls, referring themselves entirely to the decision of the lot; and, it is
said, never hesitate when that hath decided the place of their destination.
(See Above.) In marriage, they may only form a connexion with those of their
own communion. The brother who marries out of the congregations is immediately
cut off from church fellowship. Sometimes a sister, by express licence from the
Elders' Conference, is permitted to marry a person of approved piety in another
communion, yet still to join in their church ordinances as before. A brother
may make his own choice of a partner in the society; but as all intercourse
between the different sexes is carefully avoided, very few opportunities of
forming particular attachments are found, and they usually rather refer their
choice to the church than decide for themselves. And as the lot must be cast to
sanction their union, each receives his partner as a divine appointment; and,
however strange this method may appear to those who consult only their passions
or their interest, it is observable, that no where fewer unhappy marriages are
found than among the Brethren. But what characterises the Moravians most, and
holds them up to the attention of others, is their missionary zeal. In this
they are superior to any other body of people in the world. "Their
missionaries," as one observes, "are all of them volunteers; for it
is an inviolabel maxim with them to persuade no man to engage in missions. They
are all of one mind as to the doctrines they teach, and seldom make an attempt
where there are not half a dozen of them in the mission. Their zeal is calm,
steady, persevering. They would reform the world, but are careful how they
quarrel with it. They carry their point by address, and the insinuations of
modesty and mildness, which commend them to all men, and give offence to none.
The habits of silence, quietness, and decent reserve, mark their character. If
any of their missionaries are carried off by sickness or casualty, men of the
same stamp are ready to supply their place."
As they stand first on the list of those who have
engaged in missionary exertions, we shall here insert a farther account of them
and their missions, with which I have been favoured by a most respectable
clergyman of their denomination: "When brethren of sisters find themselves
disposed to serve God among the heathen, they communicate their wishes and
views to the committee appointed by the synods of the brethren to superintend
the missions, in a confidential letter. If on particular inquiry into their
circumstances and connexions no objection is found, they are considered as
candidates. As to mental qualifications, much erudition is not required by the
brethren. To be well versed in the sacred Scriptures, and to have an
experimental knowledge of the truths they contain, is judged indispensably
necessary. and it has been found by experience, that a good understanding
joined to a friendly disposition, and, above all, a heart filled with the love
of God, are the best and the only essential qualifications of a missionary. Nor
are in general the habits of a student so well calculated to form his body for
a laborious life as those of a mechanic. Yet men of learning are not excluded,
and their gifts have been made useful in various ways. When vacancies occur, or
new missions are to be begun, the list of candidates is examined; and those who
appear suitable are called upon, and accept or decline the call as they find
themselves disposed."
"The following are the names of the
settlements of the United Brethren in heathen countries.
"Begun in 1732, in the Danish West India
Islands. In St. Thomas; New Perrnhut, Nisky. In St. Croix; Friedensberg,
Friedensthal. In St. Jan; Bethany, Emmaus.--In 1733: In Greenland; New
Herrnhut, Litchenfels Lichtenau.--1734: In North America; Fairfield, in Upper
Canada, Goshen on the river Muskingum.--In 1736: At the Cape of Good Hope;
Bavians Kloof (renewed in 1792.)--In 1738: In South America; among the negro
slaves at Paramaribo and sommelsdyk; among the free negroes at Bambey, on the
Sarameca; among the native Indians at Hope, on the river Corentyn.--In 1754: In
Jamaica; two settlements in St. Elizabeth's parish.--In 1756: In Antigua; at
St. John's Grace Hill, Grace Bay.--In 1760: Near Tranquebar, in the East Indies;
Brethren's Garden.--In 1764: On the Coast of Labrador; Nain, Okkak,
Hopedale.--In 1765: In Barbadoes; Sharon, near Bridgetown.--In 1765: In the
Russian part of asia; Sarepta.--In 1775: In St. Kitt's; at Basseterre.--In
1789: In Tobago; Signal Hill (renewed in 1798.)
"The Brethren had three flourishing
settlements on the river Muskingum, Salem, Gnadenhuetten, and Schoenbruna,
before the late American war, during which these places were destroyed, and the
inhabitants partly murdered, partly dispersed. The settlement Fairfield, in
Canada, was made by those of the Indian converts, who were again collected by
the missionaries. In 1798, a colony of Christian Indians went from thence to
take possession of their former settlements on the Muskingum, which have been
given to them by an act of congress, and built a new town, called Goshen. Part
of the Indian congregation will remain at Fairfield, in Canada, as a good seed;
our missionaries entertaining hopes that the Gospel may yet find entrance among
the wild Chippeway tribe inhabiting those parts.
"The Mission among the Hottentots at the
Cape of Good Hope was begun in 1736, by George Schmidt, a man of remarkable
zeal and courage, who laboured successfully among these people, till he had
formed a small congregation of believers, whom he left to the care of a pious
man, and went to Europe with a view to represent the promising state of the
mission, and to return with assistants. But, to his inexpressible grief and
disappointment, he was not permitted by the Dutch East India Company to resume
his labours; some ignorant people having insinuated that the propagation of
Christianity among the Hottentots would injure the interests of the
colony.--Since that time to the year 1792 the brethren did not cease to make application
to the Dutch government for leave to send missionaries to the Cape, especially
as they heard that the small Hottentot congregation had kept together for some
time, in earnest expectation of the return of their beloved teacher. He had
taught some of them to read, and had left a Dutch Bible with them, which they
used to read together, for their edification. At length, in 1792, by the mercy
of God, and the kind interference of friends in the Dutch government, the
opposition of evil-minded people was over-ruled, and leave granted to send out
three missionaries, who, on their arrival, were willing, at the desire of the
governor, to go first to Bavians Kloof, about one hundred and sixty English
miles east from Capetown, and there to commence their labours on the spot where
George Schmidt had resided. Their instructions from the government in Holland
granted them leave to choose the place of their residence, wherever they might
find it most convenient; but the circumstances of the colony at that time would
not admit of it. Since the English have made themselves masters of that
country, they have built a new chapel; and from the favour and protection which
the British government has uniformly granted to the brethren's missions, we
have the best hopes that they will remain undisturbed and protected in their
civil and religious liberty. The late Dutch government at the Cape deserve also
our warmest thanks for the kind manner in which they received and protected the
missionaries, promoting the views of the mission to the utmost of their power.
"When the missionaries first arrived at
Bavians Kloof, in 1792, it was a barren, uninhabited place. There are at
present (1811) twelve missionaries residing there and in the neighbourhood, and
about 1000 Hottentots.
"The settlement near Tranquebar, on the
coast of Coromandel, was made in the year 1760, at the desire of the Danish
government, chiefly with a view to bring the Gospel to the inhabitants of the
Nicobar islands. After a persevering but fruitless attempt to form an
establishment at Nancawery, one of the Nicobar islands, for that purpose, the
whole plan was defeated by the following circumstances: The Danish government,
finding the advantage gained by their settlements on these islands not to
answer the great expense attending it, withdrew the people, who had already
suffered greatly by the unwholesomeness of the climate; and the Brethren
residing there being left alone, and all communication cut off between
Tranquebar and the Nicobar islands, it became necessary to purchase a vessel to
convey provisions and other necessaries to the missionaries. This was done with
great expense and hazard for some years, when, in the American war, the vessel
was taken by a French cruiser, though belonging to a neutral state. No redress
could be obtained from the French, and the Brethren at Tranquebar were obliged
immediately to procure another vessel, lest the missionaries at Nancawery
should be left destitute. The enormous expense and loss incurred by these
events, and the sickly state of the missionaries, made it necessary to recall
them: and thus not only the mission in these islands, but the first aim of the
Brethren's settling in the East Indies, was frustrated. Since that time, no
success has attended the mission near Tranquebar. Some brethren, indeed, went
to Serampore and Patua, where they resided for a time, watching an opportunity
to serve the cause of God in those places; but various circumstances occasioned
both these settlements to be relinquished. By a late resolution, the East India
mission will be suspended for the present, the expenses attending it having of
late years far exceeded our ability.
"Serepta, near Czarizin, on the Wolga, in
Russian Asia, was built chiefly with a view to bring the Gospel to the Calmuck
Tartars, and other Heathen tribes in those vast regions, among whom an opening
might be found. Hitherto but little success has attended the Brethren's
labours, though there exertions have been great and persevering, and equal to
those of any of our missionaries in other countries. Some Brethren even resided
for a considerable time among the Calmucks, conforming to their manner of
living in tents, and accompanying them wherever they moved their camp in the
Steppe (immense plains covered with long grass.) They omitted no opportunity of
preaching to them Jesus, and directing them, from their numberless idols and
wretched superstitious, to the only true God, and the only way of life and
happiness; but though they were heard and treated with civility, little
impression could be made upon the hearts of these Heathen. Four Kirgess Tartar
girls, who had been ransomed and educated by the Brethren, have been baptized.
These, and one Calmuck woman, have as yet been all the fruits of this mission.
The greatest part of the Calmucks have quitted those parts. The Brethren,
however, have been visited by the German colonists living on the Wolga; and,
through God's blessing, societies have been formed, and ministers of the Gospel
provided for most of the colonies by their instrumentality. Thus the mission
has answered a very beneficial purpose.
"The most flourishing missions at present
are those in Greenland, Antigua, St. Kitt's, the Danish West India islands, and
the Cape of Good Hope. A new awakening has appeared of late among the Arawacks
and free negroes in South America, the Esquimaux on the coast of Labrador, and
in Barbadoes; and the latest accounts give us the most pleasing hopes of
success in those parts. In Jamaica the progress of the missions has been slow.
However, of late, some of the most considerable planters in that island, being
convinced of the utility of the mission, generously undertook to provide for
the support of more missionaries, and measures have been adopted accordingly,
to which we humbly trust, the Lord will give success in due time. Several
attempts to carry the Gospel into other parts of the earth made by the Brethren
have not succeeded. In 1735, missionaries were sent to the Laplanders and
Samojedes; in 1737, and again in 1768, to the coast of Guinea; in 1738, to the
negroes in Georgia; in 1739, to the slaves in Algiers; in 1740, to Ceylon; in
1747, to Persia; in 1752, to Egypt; of which we omit any particular account,
for brevity's sake. In upper Egypt there was a prospect of their being useful
among the Copts, who were visited for many years.
"A society for the furtherance of the Gospel
among the Heathen was instituted by the Brethren in London as early as the year
1751, for the more effectual co-operation with and assistance of the said
missions' department, in caring for those missionaries who might pass through
London to their several posts. The society was, after some interruption in
their meetings, renewed in 1766, and took the whole charge of the mission on
the coast of Labrador upon themselves; besides continuing to assist the other
missions as much as lay in their power, especially those in the British
dominions. As no regular communication was kept up with the coast of Labrador
by government, a small vessel was employed to convey the necessaries of life to
the missionaries once a year; and here we cannot help observing, with thanks to
God, that upwards of twenty years have now elapsed, during which, by his
gracious preservation, no disaster has befallen the vessel, so as to interrupt
a regular annual communication, though the coast is very rocky and full of ice,
and the whole navigation of the most dangerous kind.
"In amsterdam a similiar society was
established by the Brethren in 1746, and renewed in 1793, at Zeist near Utrecht.
this society took particular charge of the mission at the Cape of Good Hope;
but the late troubles in Holland have rendered them unable to lend much
assistance for the present. The Brethren in North America established a society
for propagating the Gospel among the Heathen in the year 1787, which was
incorporated by the State of Pennsylvania, and has been very active in
assisting the missions among the Indians. These three societies do all in their
power to help to support the great and accumulated burdens of the
above-mentioned missions' department, and God has laid a blessing upon their
exertions. But they have no power to begin new missions, or to send out
missionaries, which, by the synods of the Brethren's church, is vested solely
in the Elders' Conference of the Unity."
The number of converts and persons under
instruction in the different missions amount to about 55,150, and the number of
missionaries about 163.
As to the tenets of the Moravians though they
acknowledge no other standard of truth than the sacred Scriptures, they adhere
to the Augsburg confession (see that article.) They profess to believe that the
kingdom of Christ is not confined to any particular party, community, or
church; and they consider themselves, though united in one body, or visible
church, as spiritually joined in the bond of Christian love to all who are
taught of God, and belong to the universal church of Christ, however much they
may differ in forms, which they deem non-essentials.
The Moravians are called Herrnhuters, from
Herrnhuth, the name of the village where they were first settled. They also go
by the name of Unitas Fratrum, or United Brethren. If the reader wish to have a
fuller account of this society, he may consult Crantz's Ancient and Modern History
of the Church of the United Brethren, 1780; Spandenburg's Exposition of the
Christ Doctrine, 1784; Dr. Haweis's Church History, vol. iii. p. 184, &c.;
Crantz's History of their Mission in Greenland; the Periodical Accounts of
their Missions; Loskell's History of the North american Indian Missions;
Oldendorp's History of the Brethren's Missions in the Danish West Indian
Islands.
See LECTURES.
Subjection to death. It is a term also used to signify a contagious disease which destroys great numbers of either men or beasts. Bills of Mortality are accounts or registers specifying the numbers born, married, and buried, in any parish, town, or district. In general, they contain only these numbers, and even when thus limited are of great use, by showing the degrees of healthiness and prolifickness, and the progress of population in the place where they are kept.
Any severy penance observed on a religious account. The mortification of sin in believers is a duty enjoined in the sacred Scriptures, Rom. viii. 13. Col. iii. 5. It consists in breaking the league with sin; declaration of open hostility against it; and strong resistance of it, Eph. vi. 10, &c. Bal. v. 24,. Rom. viii. 13. The means to be used in this work are, not emacerating the body, seclusion from society, our own resolutions: but the Holy Spirit is the chief agent, Rom. viii. 13. while faith, prayer, and dependence are subordinate means to this end. The Evidences of mortification are, not the cessation from one sin, for that may be only exchanged for another; or it may be renounced because it is a gross sin; or there may not be an occasion to practise it; but if sin be mortified, we shall not yield to temptation; our minds will be more spiritual; we shall find more happiness in spiritual services, and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. Dr. Owen on Mortification and on the Holy Spirit, ch. viii. book 4; Charnock's Works, vol. ii. p. 1313; Bryson's Sermons on Rom. viii. p. 97, &c.
Inferiority of the, to the Gospel dispensation. See DISPENSATION.
Or the law of Moses, is the most ancient that we know of in the world, and is of three kinds; the moral law, the ceremonial law, and the judicial law. See LAW. Some observe, that the different manner in which each of these laws was delivered may suggest to us a right idea of their different natures. The moral law, or ten commandments, for instance, was delivered on the top of the mountain, in the face of the whole world, as being of universal influence, and obligatory on all mankind. The ceremonial was received by Moses in private in the tabernacle, as being of peculiar concern, belonging to the Jews only, and destined to cease when the tabernacle was down, and the veil of the temple rent. As to the judicial law, it was neither so publicly nor so audibly given as the moral law, nor yet so privately as the ceremonial; this kind of law being of an indifferent nature, to be observed or not observed, as its rites suit with the place and government under which we live. The five books of Moses called the Pentateuch, are frequently styled, by way of emphasis, the law. This was held by the Jews in such veneration, that they would not allow it to be laid upon the bed of any sick person lest it should be polluted by touching the dead. See LAW.
A temple or place of religious worship among the Mahometans. All mosques are square buildings, generally constructed of stone. Before the chief gate there is a square court paved with white marble, and low galleries round it, whose roof is supported by marble pillars. In these galleries the Turks wash themselves before they go into mosque. In each mosque there is a great number of lamps: and between these hang many crystal rings, ostrich's eggs, and other curiosities, which, when the lamps are lighted make a fine show. As it is not lawful to enter the mosque with stockings or shoes on, the pavements are covered with pieces of stuff sewed together, each being wide enough to hold a row of men kneeling, sitting, or prostrate. The women are not allowed to enter the mosque, but stay in the porches without. About every mosque there are six high towers, called minarets, each of which has three little open galleries one above another: these towers as well as the mosques are covered with lead, and adorned with gilding and other ornaments; and from thence, instead of a bell, the people are called to prayers by certain officers appointed for that purpose. Most of the mosques have a kind of hospital, in which travellers of what religion soever are entertained three days. Each mosque has also a place called tarbe, which is the burying-place of its founders; within which is a tomb six or seven feet long, covered with green velvet or satin; at the ends of several seats for those who read the Koran, and pray for the souls of the deceased.
That which moves, excites, or invites the mind to volition. It may be one thing singly, or many things conjunctly. Some call it a faculty of the mind, by which we pursue good and avoid evil. See WILL; Edwards on the Will, p. 7, 8, 124, 259, 384; Toplady's Works, vol. ii. p. 41,42.
Sorrow, grief. See SORROW.
A particular dress or habit worn to signify grief on some melancholy occasion, particularly the death of friends, or of great public characters. The modes of mourning are various in various countries: as also are the colours that obtain for that end. In Europe the ordinary colour for mourning is black; in China, it is white; in Turkey, blue or violet; in Egypt, yellow; in Ethiopia, brown. Each people pretend to have their reasons for the particular colour of their mourning. White is supposed to denote purity; yellow, that death is the end of human hopes, as leaves when they fall, and flowers when they fade, become yellow; brown denotes the earth, whither the dead return; black, the privation of life, as being the privation of light; blue expresses the happiness which it is hoped the deceased enjoys; and purple or violet, sorrow on the one side, and hope on the other, as being a mixture of black and blue. For an account of the mourning of the Hebrews, see Lev. xix. and xxi. Jer. xvi. 6. Numbers, xx. Deuteronomy xxxiv. 8.
A course of eight sermons preached annually, set on foot by the beneficence of Lady Moyer, about 1720, who left by will a rich legacy, as a foundation for the same. A great number of English writers having endeavoured, in a variety of ways, to invalidate the doctrine of the Trinity, this opulent and orthodox lady was influenced to think of an institution which should produce to posterity an ample collection of productions in defence of this branch of Christian faith.--The first course of these lectures was preached by Dr. Waterland, on the Divinity of Christ, and are well worthy of perusal.
The chief of the ecclesiastical order, or
primate of the Mussulman religion. The authority of the Mufti is very great in
the Ottoman empire; for even the sultan himself, if he will preserve any
appearance of religion, cannot, without first hearing his opinion, put any
person to death, or so much as inflict any corporal punishment. In all actions,
and especially criminal ones, his opinion is required by giving him a writing
in which the case is stated under feigned names, which he subscribes with the
words Olur, or Olmaz, i. e. he shall or shall not be punished.
Such outward honour is paid to the Mufti, that
the grand seignior himself rises up to him, and advances seven steps towards
him when he comes into his presence. He alone has the honour of kissing the
sultan's left shoulder, whilst the prime vizier kisses only the hem of his
garment.
When the grand seignior addresses any writing to
the Mufti, he gives him the following titles; "To the esad, the wisest of
the wise; instructed in all knowledge; the most excellent of excellents;
abstaining from things unlawful; the spring of virtue and true science; heir of
the prophetic doctrines; resolver of the problems of faith; revealer of the
orthodox articles; key of the treasures of truth; the light to doubtful
allegories; strengthened with the grace of the Supreme Legislator of Mankind,
May the Most High God perpetuate thy favours."
The election of the Mufti is solely in the grand
seignior, who presents him with a vest of rich sables, and allows him a salary
of a thousand aspers a day, which is about five pounds sterling. Besides this,
he has the disposal of certain benifices belonging to the royal mosques, which
he makes no scruple of selling to the best advantage; and, on his admission to
his office, he is complimented by the agents of the bashaws, who make him the
usual presents, which generally amount to a very considerable sum.
Whatever regard was formerly paid to the Mufti,
it is now become very little more than form. If he interprets the law, or gives
sentence contrary to the sultan's pleasure, he is immediately displaced, and a
more pliant person put in his room. If he is convicted of treason, or any very
great crime, he is put into a mortar kept for that purpose in the seven towers
of Constantinople, and pounded to death.
The followers of Ludovic Muggleton, a journeyman tailor, who, with his companion Reeves (a person of equal obscurity,) set up for great prophets, in the time of Cromwell. They pretended to absolve or condemn whom they pleased, and gave out that they were the two last witnesses spoken of in the Revelation, who were to appear previous to the final destruction of the world. They affirmed that there was no devil at all without the body of man or woman; that the devil is man's spirit of unclean reason and cursed imagination; that the ministry in this world, whether prophetical or ministerial, is all a lie and abomination to the Lord; with a variety of other vain and inconsistent tenets.
The act of wilfully and feloniously killing a
person upon malice or forethought. Heart murder is the secret wishing or
designing the death of any man; yea, the Scripture saith, "Whosoever
hateth his brother is a murderer," 1 John iii. 15. We have instances of
this kind of murder in Ahab, 1 Kings, xxii. 9. Jezebel, 2 Kings, xix. 2. the
Jews, Mark, xi. 18. David, 1 Samuel, xxv. 21,22. Jonah, ch. iv. 1, 4. Murder is
contrary to the authority of God, the sovereign disposer of life, Deut. xxxii.
39; to the goodness of God, who gives it, Job, x. 12; to the law of nature,
Acts, xvi. 28; to the love a man owes to himself, his neighbour, and society at
large. Not but that life may be taken away, as in lawful war, 1 Chron. v. 22;
by the hands of the civil magistrate for capital crimes, Deut. xvii. 8, 10; and
in self-defence. See SELF-DEFENCE.
According to the divine law, murder is to be
punished with death, Deut. xix. 11, 12. 1 Kings, ii. 28, 29. It is remarkable
that God often gives up murderers to the terrors of a guilty conscience, Gen.
iv. 13, 15, 23, 24. Such are followed with many instances of divine vengeance,
2 Sam. xii. 9, 10; their lives are often shortened, Psalm, lv. 23; and
judgments of their sin are oftentimes transmitted to posterity, Gen. xlix. 7. 2
Sam. xxi. 1.
Or MUSYMAN, a title by which the Mahometans distinguish themselves; signifying in the Turkish language "true believer, or orthodox." There are two kinds of Musselmen very averse to each other; the one called Sonnites follow the interpretation of the Alcoran given by Omar; the Shiites are the followers of Ali. The subjects of the king of Persia are Shiites, and those of the grand seignior Sonnites. See MAHOMETANS.
Secret (from, to shut the mouth.) It is taken,
1. for a truth revealed by God which is above the power of our natural reason,
or which we could not have discovered without revelation; such as the call of
the Gentiles, Eph. i. 9; the transforming of some without dying, &c., 1
Cor. xv. 51.--2. The word is also used in reference to things which remain in
part incomprehensible after they are revealed; such as the incarnation of
Christ, the resurrection of the dead, &c. Some critics, however, observe
that the word in Scripture does not import what is incapable in its own nature
of being understood, but barely a secret, any thing not disclosed or published
to the world.
In respect to the mysteries of religion, divines
have run into two extremes. "Some," as one observes, "have given
up all that was mysterious, thinking that they were not called to believe any
thing but what they could comprehend. But if it can be proved that mysteries
make a part of a religion coming from God, it can be no part of piety to
discard them, as if we were wiser than he." And besides, upon this
principle, a man must believe nothing: the various works of nature, the growth
of plants, instincts of brutes, union of body and soul, properties of matter,
the nature of spirit, and a thousand other things, are all replete with
mysteries. If so in the common works of nature, we can hardly suppose that
those things which more immediately relate to the Divine Being himself, can be
without mystery. "The other extreme lies in an attempt to explain the
mysteries of revelation, so as to free them from all obscurity. To defend
religion in this manner, is to expose it to contempt. The following maxim
points out the proper way of defence, by which both extremes are avoided..
Where the truth of a doctrine depends not on the evidence of the things
themselves, but on the authority of him who reveals it, there the only way to
prove the doctrine to be true is to prove the testimony of him that revealed it
to be infallible." Dr. south observes, that the mysteriousness of those
parts of the Gospel called the credenda, or matters of our faith, is most
subservient to the great and important ends of religion, and that upon these
accounts: First, because religion, in the prime institution of it, was designed
to make impressions of awe and reverential fear upon men's minds.--2. To humble
the pride and haughtiness of man's reason.--3. To engage us in a closer and
more dilligent search into them.--4. That the full and entire knowledge of
divine things may be one principal part of our felicity hereafter. Robinson's
Claude, vol. i. p. 118, 119, 304, 305; Campbell's Preliminary Dissertation to
the Gospel, vol. i. p. 383; Stillingfleet's Origines Sacrae, vol. ii. c. 8;
Ridgley's Div. qu. 11; Calmet's Dict.; Cruden's Concordance; South's Serm. ser.
6. vol. iii.
A term used to denote the secret rites of the
Pagan superstition, which were carefully concealed from the knowledge of the
vulgar.
The learned bishop Warburton supposed that the
mysteries of the Pagan religion were the invention of legislators and other
great personages, whom fortune or their own merit had placed at the head of
those civil societies which were formed in the earliest ages in different parts
of the world.
Mosheim was of opinion that the mysteries were
entirely commemorative; that they were instituted with a view to preserve the
remembrance of heroes and great men who had been deified in consideration of
their martial exploits, useful inventions, public virtues, and especially in
consequence of the benefits by them conferred on their contemporaries.
Others, however, suppose that the mysteries were
the offspring of bigotry and priestcraft, and that they originated in Egypt,
the native land of idolatry. In that country the priesthood ruled predominant.
The kings were engrafted into their body before they could ascend the throne.
They were possessed of a third part of all the land of Egypt. The sacerdotal
function was confined to one tribe, and was transmitted unalienable from father
to son. All the orientals, but more especially the Egyptians, delighted in
mysterious and allegorical doctrines. Every maxim of morality, every tenet of
theology, every dogma of philosophy, was wrapt up in a veil of allegory and
mysticism. This propensity, no doubt, conspired with avarice and ambition to
dispose them to a dark and mysterious system of religion. Besides the Egyptians
were a gloomy race of men; they delighted in darkness and solitude. Their
sacred rites were generally celebrated with melancholy airs, weeping, and
lamentation. This gloomy and unsocial bias of mind must have stimulated them to
a congenial mode of worship.
A sect distinguished by their professing pure,
sublime, and perfect devotion, with an entire disinterested love of God, free
from all selfish considerations.--The authors of this mystic science, which
sprung up towards the close of the third century, are not known; but the
principles from which it was formed are manifest. Its first promoters proceeded
from the known doctrine of the Platonic school, which was also adopted by
Origen and his disciples, that the divine nature was diffused through all human
souls; or that the faculty of reason, from which proceed the health and vigour
of the mind, was an emanation from God into the human soul, and comprehended in
it the principles and elements of all truth, human and divine. They denied that
men could, by labour or study, excite this celestial flame in their breasts;
and therefore they disapprove highly of the attempts of those who, by
definitions, abstract theorems, and profound speculations, endeavoured to form
distinct notions of truth, and to discover its hidden nature. On the contrary,
they maintained that silence, tranquillity, repose, and solitude, accompanied
with such acts as might tend to extenuate and exhaust the body, were the means
by which the hidden and internal word was excited to produce its latent virtues,
and to instruct man in the knowledge of divine things. For thus they
reasoned:--Those who behold with a noble contempt all human affairs; who turn
away their eyes from terrestrial vanities, and shut all the avenues of the
outward senses against the contagious influence of a material world, must
necessarily return to god when the spirit is thus disengaged from the
impediments that prevented that happy union; and in this blessed frame they not
only enjoy inexpressible raptures from their communion with the Supreme Being,
but are also invested with the inestimable privilege of contemplating truth
undisguised and uncorrupted in its native purity, while others behold it in a
vitiated and delusive form.
The number of the Mystics increased in the fourth
century, under the influence of the Grecian fanatic, who gave himself out for
Dionysius the Areopagite, disciple of St. Paul, and probably lived about this
period; and by pretending to higher degrees of perfection than other
Christians, and practising greater austerity, their cause gained ground,
especially in the eastern provinces, in the fifth century. A copy of the
pretended works of Dionysius was sent by Balbus to Lewis the Meek, in the year
824, which kindled the only flame of mysticism in the western provinces, and
filled the Latins with the most enthusiastic admiration of this new religion.
In the twelfth century these Mystics took the lead in their method of
expounding the Scriptures. In the thirteenth century they were the most
formidable antagonists of the schoolmen; and towards the close of the
fourteenth, many of them resided and propagated their tenets almost in every
part of Europe. They had, in the fifteenth century, many persons of
distinguished merit in their number; and in the sixteenth century, previous to
the reformation, if any sparks of real piety subsisted under the despotic
empire of superstition, they were only to be found among the Mystics. The
celebrated Madame Bourignon, and the amiable Fenelon, archbishop of Cambray,
were of this sect. Dr. Haweis, in speaking of the Mystics' Church History,
vol.liii. p. 47, thus observes: "Among those called Mystics, I am
persuaded some were found who loved God out of a pure heart fervently; and
though they were ridiculed and reviled for proposing a disinterestedness of
love without other motives, and as professing to feel in the enjoyment of the
temper itself an abundant reward, their holy and heavenly conversation will
carry a stamp of real religion upon it."
as the late Reverend William Law, who was born in
1687, makes a distinguished figure among the modern Mystics, a brief account of
the outlines of his system may, perhaps be entertaining to some readers.--He
supposed that the material world was the very region which originally belonged
to the fallen angels. At length the light and Spirit of God entered into the
chaos, and turned the angels' ruined kingdom into a paradise on earth. God then
created man, and placed him there. He was made in the image of the Triune God,
a living mirror of the divine nature, formed to enjoy communion with Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, and live on earth as the angels do in heaven. He was
endowed with immortality, so that the elements of this outward world could not
have any power of acting on his body; but by his fall he changed the light,
life, and Spirit of God for the light, life, and spirit of the world. He died
the very day of his transgression to all the influences and operations of the
Spirit of God upon him, as we die to the influences of this world when the soul
and operations of the elements of this life were open in him, as they were in
any animal, at his birth into this world; he became an earthly creature,
subject to the dominion of this outward world, and stood only in the highest
rank of animals. But the goodness of God would not leave man in this condition:
redemption from it was immediately granted, and the bruiser of the serpent
brought the light, life, and spirit of heaven, once more into the human nature.
All men, in consequence of the redemption of Christ, have in them the first
spark, or seed, of the divine life, as a treasure his in the centre of our
souls, to bring forth, by degrees, a new birth of that life which was lost in
paradise. No son of Adam can be lost, only by turning away from the Saviour
within him. The only religion which can save us, must be that which can raise
the light, life, and Spirit of God in our souls. Nothing can enter into the
vegetable kingdom till it have the vegetable life in it, or be a member of the
animal kingdom till it have the animal life. Thus all nature joins with the
Gospel in affirming that no man can enter into the kingdom of heaven till the
heavenly life is born in him. Nothing can be our righteousness or recovery but
the divine nature of Jesus Christ derived to our souls. Law's Life; Law's
Spirit of Prayer and Appeal; Law's Spirit of Love, and on Regeneration.
In its original import, signifies any kind of fabulous doctrine. In its more appropriated sense, it means those fabulous details concerning the objects of worship, which were invented and propagated by men who lived in the early ages of the world, and by them transmitted to succeeding generations, either by written records or by oral tradition. See articles, HEATHEN, PAGANISM, and Gale's Court of the Gentiles, a work calculated to show that the pagan philosohers derived their most sublime sentiments from the Scriptures. Bryant's System of Ancient Mythology.