MINISTER MILLENNIAL CHURCH. See SHAKERS. MIND, 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. MINISTER God. His mind should clearly perceive the beauty, harmony, and utility of the doctrines, while his heart should be deeply impressed with 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 socie-a sense of their value and importance.-2. They ties that have been lately instituted for the be- should be mild and affable as to their dispositions nevolent purpose of informing the minds and and deportment. A haughty imperious sparit is impressing the hearts of the ignorant; who knows, a disgrace to the ministerial character, and geneI say, but what these things are the forerunners rally brings contempt. They should learn to of events of the most delightful nature, and which bear injuries with patience, and be ready to do may usher in the happy morn of that bright and good to every one; be courteous to all, without glorious day when the whole world shall be filled cringing to any; be affable without levity, and with his glory, and all the ends of the earth see humble without pusillanimity; conciliating the the salvation of our God? See Hopkins on the affections without violating the truth; connecting Millenn.; Whitby's Treatise on it, at the end of a suavity of manners with a dignity of character; his 2nd vol. of his Annotations on the New Test.; obliging without flattery; and throwing off all Robert Gray's Discourses, dis. 10; Bishop New-reserve without running into the opposite extreme ton's Twenty-fifth Diss. on the Proph.; Bella- of volubility and trifling.-3. They should be su my's Treat. on the Millennium. There are four perior as to their knowledge and talents. Though admirable papers of Mr. Shrubsole's on the sub-many have been useful without what is called ject, in the 6th vol. of the Theol. Misc.; Lard- learning, yet none have been so without some ner's Cred. 4th, 5th, 7th, and 9th vols.; Mo- portion of knowledge and wisdom. Nor has God sheim's Ecel Hist. cent. 3, p. 11, ch. 12; Tay- Almighty ever sanctified ignorance, or conse lor's Sermons on the Millennium; Illustrations crated it to his service; since it is the effect of of Prophecy, ch. 31. 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 communica tion, should be obtained.-4. They should be duigent as to their studies. Their time especiai y 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 Testaments, 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 good. |—5. Ministers should be extensive as to their be nevolence 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, anathematized each other. Now, while ministers ought to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, they must remember that men always will thenk 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 ristaken 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 ordi MINIMS 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 or day. Formerly they went barefooted, but are now allowed the use of shoes. MINISTER, 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 MINISTERIAL MIRACLE rances administered; and the word of God supposes that it should rest on the suffrage of preached. These things must be taken up, the people to whom he is to minister. The hot as a matter of duty only, but of pleasure, and Churchman reasons thus: "Though the people executed with faithfulness; and, as they are of may be competent judges of the abilities of their the utmost importance, ministers should attend to tradesmen, they cannot be allowed to have an them with all that sincerity, earnestness, and equal discernment in matters of science and eruzal which that importance demands. An idle, dition. Daily experience may convince us how frigid, indifferent minister is a pest to society, a injudiciously preferment would be distributed by disgrace to his profession, an injury to the church, popular elections. The modesty of genius would and offensive to God himself.-7. Lastly, minis- stand little chance of being distinguished by an ters should be uniform as to their conduct. No ignorant multitude. The most illiterate, the most brightness of talent, no superiority of intellect, no impudent, those who could most dexterously play extent of knowledge, will ever be a substitute for the hypocrite, who could best adapt their preachthis. They should not only possess a luminous ing to the fanaticism of the vulgar, would be the cand, but set a good example. This will pro- only successful candidates for public favour. eure dignity to themselves, give energy to what Thus moderation and literature would soon be they say, and prove a blessing to the circle in banished, and a scene of corruption, confusion, which they move. In fine, they should be men and madness would prevail." But specious as of prudence and prayer, light and love, zeal and these arguments seem, they have but little force knowledge, courage and humility, humanity on the mind of the Congregationalist, who thus and religion. See DECLAMATION, ELOQUENCE, reasons: "The church being a voluntary society, PREACHING and SERMONS, in this work; Dr. none imposed upon her members by men can be Smith's Lect. on the Sacred Office; "Gerard's related to them as their pastor without their own Pastoral Care; Macgill's Address to Young consent. None can so well judge what gifts are Clergymen; Chrysostom on the Priesthood; best suited to their spiritual edification as ChrisBaster's Reformed Pastor; Burnet's Pastoral tians themselves. The Scriptures allow the Care; Watts's Humble Attempt; Dr. Edwards's election of pastors in ordinary cases to adult Preacher; Mason's Student and Pastor; Gib- Christians, and to none else, Acts i. 15, 26; vi. bon's Christian Minister; Mather's Student 1, 6; xiv. 23. Christ requires his people to try and Preacher; Ostervald's Lectures on the Sa- the spirits, which supposeth their ability to do so, ered Ministry; Robinson's Claude; Doddridge's and their power to choose such only as they find Lectures on Preaching and the Ministerial most proper to edify their souls, and to refuse Office. others, 1 John iv. 1. The introduction of minisMINISTRY, GOSPEL, an ordinance apters into their office by patronage, of whatever pointed for the purpose of instructing men in the Erinciples and knowledge of the Gospel, Eph. iv. 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. ; 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. Ixvi. 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 befal any people, Rev. ii. and iii. See books under last article. 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. MIRACLE, 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 MINISTERIAL CALL, a term used to de- supposed, be the only real agent in the universe, note that right or authority which a person rewe have the evidence of experience, that in the ceives to preach the Gospel. This call is consi-particular system to which we belong he acts by dered as twofold, divine and ecclesiastical. The stated rules. If he employs inferior agents to flowing things seem essential to a divine call: conduct the various notions from which the phe1. A holy, blameless life.-2. An ardent and nomena result, we have the same evidence that constant inclination and zeal to do good.- he has subjected those agents to certain fixed 3. Abilities suited to the work; such as know-laws, commonly called the laws of nature. On ledge, aptness to teach, courage, &c.-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 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 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 constitution 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 of the most important truths; that they are the Being by whom they were created 82 ported; that they paid divine adoration to s stones, and the vilest reptiles; and that the slaves to the most impious, cruel, and dem superstitions. "From this depraved state it was scre unworthy of the Divine Being to rescue Es less creatures, to enlighten their understa that they might perceive what is right. present to them motives of sufficient for *) gage them in the practice of it. But the L lightened by arguments; because of the m such arguments as regard moral science t not qualified to judge. The philosophe Athens and Rome inculcated, indeed, 27207 cellent moral precepts, and they sometist tured to expose the absurdities of the re superstition; but their lectures had no int upon the multitude; and they had thems bibed such erroneous notions respecting " butes of the Supreme Being, and the tu the human soul, and converted those not first principles, of which they would not an examination, that even among them event can be deemed miraculous merely because | kind were once sunk into the grossest ig 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 circum-standings of ignorant barbarians cannot stances 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 che-rough reformation was not to be expecti mical 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. the powers of reasoning. It is likewise ty "An immediate revelation from heaven. "If miracles be effects contrary to the esta-fore, was the only method by which infinite blished constitution of things, we are certain that and perfect goodness could reform a bevy they will never be performed on trivial occasions. and vicious race. But this revelation, at wh The constitution of things was established by the time we suppose it given, must have bee Creator and Governor of the universe, and is un- directly either to some chosen individuas e doubtedly the offspring of infinite wisdom, pur-missioned to instruct others, or to every suing 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 plans devised by wisdom are steady in 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. woman for whose benefit it was ultimat tended. Were every person instructed a knowledge of his duty by immediate ins and were the motives to practise it brought to his mind by God himself, human natur w be wholly changed; men would not be agents, nor by consequence be capable citie reward or of punishment. It remains th that, if God has been graciously pleased to lighten and reform mankind, without descr that moral nature which man possesses "Man is unquestionably the principal creature have done it only by revealing his truth in this world, and apparently the only one in ittain chosen instruments, who were the 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 "Let us suppose this to have been achiz limits of this earth, were established chiefly, if not case, and consider how those inspared to solely, for the good of mankind; and if, in any could communicate to others every trul particular circumstances, that good can be more had been revealed to themselves. They effectually promoted by an occasional deviation easily, if it were part of their duty, or from those laws, such a deviation may be reason-sublime system of natural and moral se ably expected. "We know from history, that almost all man diate instructors of their contemporarethrough them have been the instructors ceeding ages. establish it upon the common basis of expr and demonstration; but what fearkats. MIRACLE MIRACLE 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 æra 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. lay for those truths which unassisted reason not discover, and which, when they are reappear to have no necessary relation to shing previously known? To a bare affirmathat they had been immediately received God, no rational being could be expected to t. The teachers might be men of known rity, whose simple assertion would be addas sufficient evidence for any fact in conty with the laws of nature; but as every has the evidence of his own consciousness experience that revelations from heaven are tions from these laws, an assertion so apntly extravagant would be rejected as false, Supported by some better proof than the affiniation of the teacher. In this state of gs we can conceive no evidence sufficient to te such doctrines be received as the truths of but the power of working miracles comto him who taught them. This would, inbe fully adequate to the purpose; for, if e were nothing in the doctrines themselves , immoral, or contrary to truths already wa, the only thing which could render the ber's assertion incredible would be its inaz such an intimate communion with God as trary to the established course of things, by ra men are left to acquire all their knowledge the exercise of their own faculties. Let us suppose one of those inspired teachers to tell countrymen, that he did not desire them, on i dirit, to believe that he had any preterural communion with the Deity, but that, for “It is indeed, we believe, universally admitted, truth of his assertion, he would give them the that the miracles mentioned in the book of Exorace of their own senses; and after this de- dus, and in the four Gospels, might, to those ton, let us suppose him immediately to raise who saw them performed, be sufficient evidence from the dead in their presence, merely of the divine inspiration of Moses and of Christ: ing upon him to come out of his grave. but to us it may be thought that they are no d not the only possible objection to the evidence whatever, as we must believe in the miis veracity be removed by this miracle? and racles themselves, if we believe in them at all, sertion that he had received such and such upon the bare authority of human testimony. s from God be as fully credited as if it re- Why, it has been sometimes asked, are not miat the most common occurrence? Undoubt-racles wrought in all ages and countries? If the it would; for when so much preternatural religion of Christ was to be of perpetual duration, was visibly communicated to this person, every generation of men ought to have complete e could have reason to question his having evidence of its truth and divinity. ved an equal portion of preternatural knowA palpable deviation from the known of nature in one instance is a sensible proof such a deviation is possible in another; and à a case as this, it is the witness of God e truth of a man. Miracles, then, under which we include pro- "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 con MIRACLE temporary with Christ and his apostles, and ac- | tually saw the mighty works which he performed. Mr. 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, is 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 if, 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. MIRACLE religion. Nor could their prospects be brighter "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 Gospels 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 most difficult to allow even to God himself. It is not, however, the only miracle which this supposition would compel us to swal-sciousness. low. 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. "Thus, then, do miracles force themselves upon our assent in every possible view which we can take of this interesting subject. If the testmony of the first preachers of Christianity were true, the miracles recorded in the Gospel were "When they formed this design, either they certainly performed, and the doctrines of our redmust have hoped to succeed, or they must have gion are derived from heaven. On the other foreseen that they should fail in their undertak-hand, if that testimony were false, either God ing; 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 must have miraculously effaced from the minds of those by whom it was given all the associa tions formed between their sensible ideas and the words of language, or he must have endowed those men with the gifts of prescience, and have impelled them to fabricate a pretended revelation |