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 equi 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 avocation; all that prudent deceit, which 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 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. is rather implied than expressed; those more delicate artifices of the school of Loyala and of Chesterfield, which al 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 other wise 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 scru- MISSION, an establishment of peopulously maintained in the under parts ple zealous for the glory of God and the of 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 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 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, tants were educated for the purpose of missions under the famous Walaus, 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. and America; but, when we consider || empire of China itself, and numbered the superstitions they imposed on some, millions among their converts. They and the dreadful cruelties they inflicted dared affront the dangers of the tyranon others, it more than counterbalances nical government of Japan. In India any good that was done. For a time, they assumed the garb and austerities the Dominicans, Franciscans, and other of the Brahmins, and boasted on the religious orders, were very zealous in coasts of Malabar of a thousand conthe conversion of the heathen; but the verts baptized in one year by a single Jesuits outdid them all in their attempts missionary. Their sufferings however, in the conversion of African, Asian, and were very great, and in China and JaAmerican infidels. Xavier spread some pan they were exposed to the most hints of the Romish religion through the dreadful persecutions, and many thouPortuguese settlements in the East In- sands were cut off, with, at last, a final dies, through most of the Indian conti- expulsion from the empires. In Africa nent, and of Ceylon. In 1549 he sailed the Capuchins were chiefly employed, to Japan, and laid the foundation of though it does not appear that they a church there, which at one time had any considerable success. And in was said to have consisted of about America their laborious exertions have 600,000 Christians. After him, others had but little influence, we fear to propenetrated into China, and founded a mote the real conversion of the natives church which continued about 170 years. to the truth. 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 assistorians, 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 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 book's 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- || structor 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. 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 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. "It 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 In the year 1795, The London Misbeen brought to the knowledge of the sionary Society was formed.-This is truth. Vast numbers in the Danish not confined to one body of people, but islands of St. Thomas, St. Jau, and St. consists of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Croix, and the English islands of Ja- Seceders, Methodists, and Indepenmaica, Antigua, Nevis, Barbadoes, St. dents, who hold an annual meeting in Kitts, and Tobago, have by their minis- London in May. As the state of this sotry been called to worship God in spirit ciety is before the public, it would be and in truth. In the inhospitable climes unnecessary here to enlarge; suffice it of Greenland and Labrador they have to say, that it is now on the most perImet with wonderful success, after un- manent and respectable footing. dergoing the most astonishing dangers has assumed consistency and order; it and difficulties. The Arrowack Indians, combines integrity of character, fortiand the negroes of Surinam and Ber- tude of mind, and fixedness of resolubice, have been collected into bodies of tion, with a continued progression of effaithful people by them. Canada and fort for the exalted purpose of presentthe United States of North America,ing the doctrines of the blessed Gospel 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 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. 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, 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 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. In 1791, a society was instituted 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 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 Au 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 habita-gustines, Thomists, Semi-Pelagians, and tions 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. MODERATION, 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. MODESTY is sometimes used to denote humility, and sometimes to express chastity. The Greek word Kocuos 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 or 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. MOLINISTS, à 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 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. MONARCHIANS, the same as the Patripassians; which see. MONASTERY, 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 cathedrals, 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 Of lesser monasteries, of which Chantries and free chapels, 374 186 48 90 110 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: and endowing his colleges at Oxford pression of these greater houses by these and Ipswich. About the same time a two acts produced a revenue to the king bull was granted by the same pope to of above 100,0007. a year, besides a large cardinal Wolsey to suppress monaste- sum in plate and jewels. The last act ries, where there were not above six of dissolution in this king's reign was the monks, to the value of eight thousand act of 37 Hen. VIII. c. 4, for dissolving ducats a year, for endowing Windsor colleges, free chapels, chantries, &c. and King's College in Cambridge; and which act was farther enforced by 1 two other bulls were granted to cardi- Edw. VI. c. 14. By this act were supnals Wolsey and Campeius, where there pressed 90 colleges, 110 hospitals, and were less than twelve monks, and to an- 2,374 chantries and free chapels. The nex them to the greater monasteries; number of houses and places suppressed and another bull to the same cardinals from first to last, so far as any calculato inquire about abbeys to be suppress-tions appear to have been made, seems ed in order to be made cathedrals. Al- to be as follows: though 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 archbishop Cranmer 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 su- || premacy; 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 2001. 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 30,000l. or 32,000/. a year came to the crown; besides about 100,000/. 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 It does not appear that any compuby the 32d Henry VIII. c. 24. The sup-tation hath been made of the number of Of the great monaste- Of all those of the lesser monasteries of which 7. 104,919 13 3 we have the valuation, 29,702 1 10 Knights hospitallers, head house in Lon don, We have the valuation of only 28 of their houses in the country, Friars' houses of which we have the valuation, 2,385 12 8 26.9 5 751 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. |