dridge's Lect. lec. 101 and 135; Leland's View of Deistical Writers, letter 3, 4, 7; Hurrion on the Spirit, p. 299, &c.

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 MIRTH, joy, gaiety, merriment. It is of the former miracles is worthy of a distinguished from cheerfulness thus: God of infinite wisdom, goodness, and Mirth is considered as an act; cheerpower; the object of the latter is abso-fulness an habit of the mind. Mirth lutely inconsistent with wisdom and is short and transient; cheerfulness goodness, which are demonstrably at- fixed and permanent. "Those are oftributes of that Being by whom alone ten raised into the greatest transports miracles can be performed. Whence of mirth who are subject to the greatest it follows, that the supposition of the depressions of melancholy; on the conapostles bearing false testimony to the trary, cheerfulness, though it does not miracles of their Master, implies a se- give such an exquisite gladness, preries of deviations from the laws of na- vents us from falling into any depths of ture infinitely less probable in them- sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightselves than those miracles: and there- ning, that breaks through a gloom of fare, by Mr. Hume's maxim, we must clouds, and glitters for a moment; necessarily reject the supposition of cheerfulness keeps up a kind of day. falsehood in the testimony, and admit|| light in the mind, and fills it with a the reality of the miracles. So true it is, steady and perpetual serenity." Mirth that for the reality of the Gospel mira- is sinful, 1. When men rejoice in that cles we have evidence as convincing to which is evil. 2. When unreasonable. the reflecting mind as those had who 3. When tending to commit sin. 4. were contemporary with Christ and his When a hindrance to duty. 5. When apostles, and were actual witnesses to it is blasphemous and profane. their mighty works."

MISANTHROPIST, μgos, a 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 con

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 connecting ourselves with society, to add troversy 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 appear. ed Dr. Stebbing, Dr. Chapman, Mr. Parker, Mr. Brooke, and others.

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.

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 his- "He is a man," says Saurin, "who torians; others were performed with- avoids society only to free himself from out any credible witnesses, or in circum- the trouble of being useful to it. He is stances where the performer had the a man, who considers his neighbours greatest opportunity of juggling; and it only on the side of their defects, not is particularly remarkable, that they knowing the art of combining their virwere hardly ever wrought where they tues with their vices, and of rendering seem most necessary, i. e. in countries the imperfections of other people tolerwhere those doctrines are renounced able by reflecting on his own. He is a which that church esteems of the high- man more employed in finding out and est importance. See Fleetwood, Clara-inflicting punishments on the guilty than hede, Conybeare, Campbell, Lardner, in devising means to reform them. He Farmer, Adams, and Weston, on Mira- is a man, who talks of nothing but bacles, article Miracle, Enc. Brit. Dod-nishing and executing, and who, because

renders a person an object of compas
sion.

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 communi

he thinks his talents are not sufficiently
valued and employed by his fellow-ci-
tizens, or rather because they know his MISCHNA, or MISNA (from 7.
foibles, and do not choose to be subject iteravit,) a part of the Jewish Talmud.
to his caprice, talks of quitting cities,
The Mischna contains the text; and
towns, and societies, and of living in the Gemara, which is the second part
dens or deserts."
of the Talmud, contains the commenta-
MISER, a term formerly used in ref-ries: so that the Gemara is, as it were,
erence to a person in wretchedness or a glossary on the Mischna.
calamity; but now denotes a parsimo
nious person, or one who is covetous
to extremity; who denies himself even
the comforts of life to accumulate
wealth. Avarice, says Sauriu, 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 Ro-cated to Aaron, Eleazar, and his ser-
man emperor Vespasian were called, vant Joshua. By these they were trans-
those sponges of society, who, infatuated mitted to the seventy elders; by them
with this passion, seek after riches as to the prophets, who communicated
the supreme good, determine to acquire them to the men of the great sanhe-
it by any methods, and consider the drim, from whom the wise men of Je-
ways that lead to wealth, legal or ille-rusalem and Babylon received them.
gal, as the only road for them to travel. According to Prideaux's account, they
Avarice, however, must be consi- passed from Jeremiah to Baruch, from
dered in a second point of light. It not him to Ezra, and from Ezra to the men
only consists in committing bold crimes, of the great synagogue, the last of whom
but in entertaining mean ideas and prac-was Simon the Just, who delivered
tising low methods, incompatible with them to Antigonus of Socho: and from
such magnanimity as our condition him they came down in regular suc-
ought to inspire. It consists not only incession to Simeon, who took our Saviour
omitting to serve God, but in trying to
associate the service of God with that
of mammon.

in his arms; to Gamaliel, at whose feet Paul was educated; and list of all, to Rabbi Judah the Holy, who committed How many forms doth avarice take them to writing in the Mischna. But to disguise itself from the man who is Dr. Prideaux, rejecting the Jewish ficguilty of it, and who will be drenched ||tion, observes, that after the death of in the guilt of it till the day he dies! Simon the Just, about 299 years before Sometimes it is prudence which re-Christ, the Mischnical doctors arose, quires him to provide not only for his who by their comments and conclusions present wants, but for such as he may added to the number of those traditions have in future. Sometimes it is charity which had been received and allowed which requires him not to give society by Ezra and the men of the great synaexamples of prodigality and parade. gogue; so that towards the middle of Sometimes it is parental love obliging the second century after Christ, under him to save something for his children. the empire of Antoninus Pius, it was Sometimes it is circumspection, which found necessary to commit these tradirequires him not to supply people who tions to writing; more especially as make an ill use of what they get. Some- their country had considerably suffered times it is necessity, which obliges him under Adrian, and many of their schools to repel artifice by artifice. Sometimes had been dissolved, and their learned it is conscience, which convinces him, men cut off; and therefore the usual good man, that he hath already exceed-method of preserving their traditions ed in compassion and alms-giving, and ||had failed. Rabbi Judah on this occadone too much. Sometimes it is equity,sion being rector of the school of Tibefor justice requires that every one rias, and president of the sanhedrim in should. enjoy the fruit of his Own that place, undertook the work, and labours, and those of his ancestors.-compiled it in six books, each consisting Such, alas! are the awful pretexts and of several tracts, which altogether make subterfuges of the miser. Saurin's Ser.up the number of sixty-three. Prid. vol. v. ser. 12. See AVARICE, COVET

OUSNESS.

MISERY, such a state of wretchedness, unhappiness, or calamity, as

Connex. vol. ii. p. 463, &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 falsehood which is so made to incorpo Mischna about the year of Christ 190, in rate with a certain quantity of truth, the latter end of the reign of Commo- that the most skilful moral chemist dus ; or, as some compute, in the year of | cannot analyse or separate them ! for a Christ 220. Dr. Lardner is of opinion good misrepresenter knows that a sucthat this work could not have been cessful lie must have a certain infusion finished before the year 190, or later. of truth, or it will not go down. And Collection of Jewish and Heathen Tes- this amalgamation is the test of his timonies, vol. i. p. 178. Thus the book skill; as too much truth would defeat called the Mischna was formed; a book the end of his mischief, and too little which the Jews have generally re- would destroy the belief of the hearer. ceived with the greatest veneration. All that indefinable ambiguity and equiThe original has been published with a vocation; all that prudent deceit, which Latin translation by Surenhusius, with is rather implied than expressed; those notes of his own and others from the more delicate artifices of the school of learned Maimonides, &c. in six vols. fol. Loyala and of Chesterfield, which alAmster. A. D. 1698-1703. See TAL-low us, when we dare not deny a truth, MUD. It is written in a much purer style, and is not near so full of dreams and visions as the Gemara.

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 dissimulation, will be carefully guarded against in the conversation of vigilant Christians."- Miss H. More on Educ: vol. ii. p. 91.

MISSAL, 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.

MISSION, 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.

MISREPRESENTATION, 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 scruMISSION, an establishment of peopulously maintained in the under parts of ple zealous for the glory of God and the a detail, in order to impress such an salvation of souls, who go and preach idea of integrity as shall gain credit for the Gospel in remote countries, and the misrepresenter, while he is design among infidels. No man possessed of edly mistaking the leading principle! the least degree of feeling or compasHow may we observe a new character sion for the human race can deny the given to a fact by a different look, tone, necessity and utility of Christian misor emphasis, which alters it as much as sions. Whoever considers that the mawords could have done! the false im-jor part of the world is enveloped in the pression of a sermon conveyed, when grossest darkness, bound with the chains we do not like the preacher, or when of savage barbarity, and immersed in through him we wish to make religion the awful chaos of brutal ignorance, itself ridiculous! the care to avoid lite-must, if he be not destitute of every ral untruths, while the mischief is bet-principle of religion and humanity, conter effected by the unfair quotation of a passage divested of its context! the bringing together detached portions of a subject, and making those parts ludicrofs, when connected, which were se rious in their distinct position! the insidious use made of a sentiment by re-been established. presenting 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

cur 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

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,

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 baptised 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 natives to the truth.

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 out did 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 In dies, 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 In the year 1621, the Dutch opened and Peru, in South America, and con- a church in the city of Batavia, and verted the natives. Others bestirred from hence ministers were sent to Amthemselves to convert the Greeks, Nes-boyna. At Leyden, ministers and assis torians, Monophysites, Abyssinians, the tants were educated for the purpose of Egyptian Copts. "It is, however," as missions under the famous Walæus, and one observes, "a matter of doubt wheth-sent into the East, where thousands emer the disciples of a Xavier, or the con- braced the Christian religion at Forverts of a Loyola and Dominic, with mosa, Columba, Java, Malabar, &c. and their partisans of the Romish church, though the work declined in some plashould be admitted among the number ces, yet there are still churches in of Christians, or their labours be thought Ceylon, Sumatra, Amboyna, &c. 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 liberally 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

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 natic 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 in- || among the Baptists, called, "The Parstructor for more than twenty years, ticular Baptist Scciety for propagating and his grandson and great grandson the Gospel among the Heathen;" unboth succeeded him in the same work.der the auspices of which missionaries Mr. D. Brainard was also a truly pious were sent to India, and favourable acand successful missionary among the counts of their success have been reSusquehannah and Delaware Indians.ceived. We learn, with pleasure, that

His journal contains instances of very extraordinary conversions.

through their indefatigable industry, the New Testament, and part of the Bible have been translated and printed in the Bengalee; 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, forti

tion, 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,

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 is lands 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 Labradore they have inet with wonderful success, after undergoing the most astonishing dangers and difficulties. The Arrowack Indians, and the negroes of Surinam and Ber-tude of mind, and fixedness of resolubice, 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 up-others have been formed of less note. In wards 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 lab ured 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 ser vice; for they have numerous missionaries still employed in different parts of the world. See MORAVIANS.

1699, a society was instituted in England for promoting Christian Knowledge. In 1701, another was lormed 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 Good has been also done by the Wes-institutions, which have not the mere leyan 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.

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 reliIn 1791, a society was institutedgion and virtue; the savage barbarian