ral care or inspection of several congregations in one province have seats in the synods, 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 this practice the brethren allege the examples of the ancient jews, and of 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 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 missions are taken into consideration. If errors in doctrine, or deviation in practice have crept in, the synod endeavours to remove them, and 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 a 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. 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 con duct of the different congregations. (3.) The servants' department, to which the œconomical 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; authorises 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 synods, or enact new ones itself, yet it is possessed of the supreme executive power over the whole body of the united brethren. Besides this general conference of elders, there is another conference of elders be'longing to each congregation, which directs its affairs, and to which the bishops and all other ministers, as well as the lay members of the congrega tion, are subject. This body, which is called "The elders' cenference of the congregation," 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 entrusted to a separate person, called the congregation-helper.-(2.) Of the warden, whose office it is to superintend, with the aid of 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 govern ment of the whole church. and single women, widows, Episcopal consecration does not, in the opinion of the brethren, 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 amongst 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 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 ordinances. They have likewise seniores civiles, or lay-elders, in contradistinction from spiritual elders, or bishops, who are appointed to watch over the constitution and discipline of the united 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 œconomies, or choir-houses, where they live together in community; the single men, and widowers apart, each under the superintendance 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. In marriage they may only form a connexion with those of their own communion: the brother who marries out of the congregation is immediately cut off from churchfellowship. Sometimes however, a sister is by express licence from the elders' conference permitted to marry a person of approved piety in another communion, yet still to join in their church ordinandes 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 refer their choice to the church rather than decide for themselves. And as the lot must be cast to sanction their union, each receives his partner as a divine appointment.-They do not consider a literary course of education as at all necessary to the ministry, provided there be a thorough knowledge of the word of God, a solid christian experience, and a wellregulated zeal to serve God and their neighbours. They consider the church of Christ as not confined to any particular party, community, or church, and 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. But the most distinguishing feature of this denomination is, their earnest and unremitted labour in attempt ing to convert the heathen. They seem to have considered themselves, within the last seventy years, as a church of missionaries. And though other denominations have of late emulated their zeal, yet are they far behind them. In modesty, meekness, patience, and silent perseverance in this great work, they are unequalled. The following are the names of their settlements in heathen countries:-Begun in 1732, in the Danish West India Islands. In St. Thomas, New Herrnhut, Nisky; in St. Croix, Friedensburg, Friedensthal; in St. Jan, Bethany, and Emmaus.-In 1733, in Greenland, New Herrnhut, Lichtensels, and Lichtenau.-In 1734, North America, Fairfield in Upper Canada, and 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; and among the native Indians at Hope on the river Corentyn.-In 1754, in Jamaica, two settlements in Elizabeth parish.-In 1756, in Antigua, at St. John's, Grace hill, and Grace Bay.In 1760, near Tranquebar in the East Indies, Brethren's Garden.-In 1764, on the Coast of Labrador, Nain, Okkak, and Hopedale.-In 1765, in Barbadoes, Sharon, near Bridge-town.-In the same year, in the Russian part of Asia, Sarepta.-In 1775, in St. Kitt's at Basseterre.In 1789, in Tobago, Signall hill, renewed in 1798. The East India missions are at present suspended. The most flourishing at this time 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 Ame 1 rica, the Esquimeaux on the Coast of Labrador, and in Barbadoes: the latest accounts (1802) give the most pleasing hopes of success in those places.*] a MUGGLETONIANS, denomination which arose in England about the year 1657; so called from their leader, Lodowick Muggleton, a journeyman taylor, who, with his associate Reeves,† set up for great prophets, and declared that their message was wholly spiritual; and that whoever despised or rejected it committed the unpardonable sin against the holy Ghost. They asserted, that they were the Lord's two last true witnesses and prophets spoken of in the eleventh chapter of the Revelation, who should appear a little before the coming of Christ, and the end of the world. Among other things, they denied the doctrine of the trinity; and affirmed that God the Father, who was a spiritual man from all eternity, in time came down, and suffered upon earth in a human form. They declared that it was revealed to them that Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind to heaven, for the purpose of representing the person of God the Father while he dwelt on earth. MYSTICS. [This is a name not confined to any particular division of christians; but has been generally given to those who maintain that the scriptures have a mystic and hidden sense, which must be sought after in order to understand their true import; and who, laying but little stress on outward things, profess to aspire after a pure and sublime devotion-an infused and passive contemplation, through a silent and inward attention to the operations of the Spirit of God upon the mind.] They derived their origin from Dionysius, the Areopagite, who was converted to christianity in the first century by the preaching of Paul at Athens. To support this idea, they attributed to this great man various treatises which are generally ascribed to writers *Crantz's Anc. and Mod. Hist. of the United Brethren, 1780. Hist, of the mission in Greenland. Summary of the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Period. Acc. of the missions of the United Brethren, + Reeves affirmed that the Lord Jesus, from the throne of his glory, thus addressed him: "I have given thee understanding of my mind in the scriptures above all men in the world; I have chosen thee, my last messenger, for a great work unto this bloody, unbelieving world; and I have given thee Lodowick Muggleton to be thy mouth. Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. iii. p. 2149. Reeves's and F f |