NESTORI firmative side of this question, one party attempted to maintain it on the ground of the Gospel being a new law, consisting of commands, promises, and threatenings, the terms or conditions of which were repentance, faith, and sincere obedience. But those who first engaged in the controversy, though they allowed the encouragement to repent and believe to arise merely from the grace of the Gospel, yet considered the formal obligation to do as arising merely from the moral law, which, requiring supreme love to God, requires acquiescence in any revelation which he shall at any time make known. Witsius's Irenicum; Edwards on the Will, p. 220; Williams's Gospel Truth; Edwards's Crispianism Unmasked; Chauncey's Neonomianism Unmasked; Adams's View of Religions. NESTORIANS, the followers of Nestorius, the bishop of Constantinople, who lived in the fifth century. They believed that in Christ there were not only two natures, but two persons, or ; of which the one was divine, even the eternal word; and the other, which was human, was the man Jesus: that these two persons had only one aspect; that the union between the Son of God and the son of man was formed in the moment of the virgin's conception, and was never to be dissolved; that it was not, however, an union of nature or of person, but only of will and affection. Nestorius, however, it is said, denied the last position; that Christ was therefore to be carefully distinguished from God, who dwelt in him as in his temple; and that Mary was to be called the mother of Christ, and not the mother of God. One of the chief promoters of the Nestorian cause was Barsumas, created bishop of Nisibis, A. D. 435. Such was his zeal and success, that the Nestorians who still remain in Chaldea, Persia, Assyria, and the adjacent countries, consider him alone as their parent and founder. By him, Pherozes, the Persian monarch, was persuaded to expel those Christians who adopted the opinions of the Greeks, and to admit the Nestorians in their place, putting them in possession of the principal seat of ecclesiastical authority in Persia, the see of Seleucia, which the patriarch of the Nestorians has always filled even down to our time. Barsumas also erected a school at Nisibis, from which proceeded those Nestorian doctors who in the fifth and sixth centuries spread abroad their tenets through Egypt, Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary, and China. NEW endeavours to reduce them under the papal yoke. Innocent IV. in 1246, and Nicholas IV. in 1278, used their utmost efforts for this purpose, but without success. Till the time of pope Julius III., the Nestorians acknowledged but one patriarch, who resided first at Bagdad, and afterwards at Mousul; but a division arising among them, in 1551 the patriarchate became divided, at least for a time, and a new patriarch was consecrated by that pope, whose successors fixed their residence in the city of Ormus, in the mountainous parts of Persia, where they still continue, distinguished by the name of Simeon; and so far down as the seventeenth century, these patriarchs persevered in their communion with the church of Rome, but seem at present to have withdrawn themselves from it. The great Nestorian pontiffs, who form the opposite party, and look with an hostile eye on this little patriarch, have, since the year 1559, been distinguished by the general denomination of Elias, and reside constantly in the city of Mousul. Their spiritual dominion is very extensive, takes in a great part of Asia, and comprehends also within its circuit the Arabian Nestorians, and also the Christians of St. Thomas, who dwell along the coast of Malabar. It is observed, to the lasting honour of the Nestorians, that of all the Christian societies established in the East, they have been the most careful and successful in avoiding a multitude of superstitious opinions and practices that have infected the Greek and Latin churches. About the middle of the seventeenth century, the Romish missionaries gained over to their communion a small number of Nestorians, whom they formed into a congregation or church; the patriarchs or bishops of which reside in the city of Amida, or Diarbeker, and all assume the denomination of Joseph. Nevertheless, the Nestorians in general persevere to our own times in their refusal to enter into the communion of the Romish church, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties and alluring offers that have been made by the pope's legate to conquer their inflexible constancy. NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH. See SWEDENBORGIANS. NEW PLATONICS, or AMMONIANS, SO called from Ammonius Saccas, who taught with the highest applause in the Alexandrian school, about the conclusion of the second century. This learned man attempted a general reconciliation of all sects, whether philosophical or religious. He maintained that the great principles of all philosoIn the tenth century, the Nestorians in Chal- phical and religious truth were to be found equally dea, whence they are sometimes called Chaldeans, in all sects, and that they differed from each other extended their spiritual conquests beyond Mount only in their method of expressing them, in some Imaus, and introduced the Christian religion into opinions of little or no importance; and that by Tartary properly so called, and especially into a proper interpretation of their respective sentithat country called Karit, bordering on the north-ments they might easily be united in one body. ern part of China. The prince of that country, Ammonius supposed that true philosophy dewhom the Nestorians converted to the Christian faith, assumed, according to the vulgar tradition, the name of John after his baptism, to which he added the surname of Presbyter, from a principle of modesty; whence, it is said, his successors were each of them called Prester John until the time of Gengis Khan. But Mosheim observes, that the famous Prester John did not begin to reign in that part of Asia before the conclusion of the eleventh century. The Nestorians formed so considerable a body of Christians, that the missionaries of Rome were industrious in their rived its origin and its consistence from the eastern nations; that it was taught to the Egyptians by Hermes; that it was brought from them to the Greeks, and preserved in its original purity by Plato, who was the best interpreter of Hermes and the other oriental sages. He maintained that all the different religions which prevailed in the world were, in their original integrity, conformable to this ancient philosophy; but it unfortunately happened, that the symbols and fictions under which, according to the ancient manner, the ancients delivered their precepts and doc MORTIFICATION sylvania, 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 abovementioned 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. MOSQUE Rom. viii. 13, while faith, prayer, and dependence are subordinate means to this end. The en dences of mortification are, not the cessation from one sin, for that may be only exchanged for an other; 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 s ritual; we shall find more happiness in spirital services, and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit Dr. Owen on Mortification and on the Hy Spirit, ch. viii. book 4; Charnock's Woria, vel ii. p. 1313; Bryson's Sermons on Romans vii p. 97, &c. MOSAIC DISPENSATION, inferiority of the, to the Gospel dispensation. See DISPENBA TION. As to the tenets of the Moravians, though they acknowledge no other standard of truth than the sacred Scriptures, they adhere to the Augsburgh confession (see that article). They pro- MOSAIC LAW, or the law of Moses, is the fess to believe that the kingdom of Christ is not most ancient that we know of in the workd, and confined to any particular party, community, or is of three kinds; the moral law, the ceremonial church; and they consider themselves, though law, and the judicial law. See Law. Some ob united in one body, or visible church, as spiritu- serve, that the different manner in which each of ally joined in the bond of Christian love to all these laws was delivered may suggest to us a right who are taught of God, and belong to the uni-idea of their different natures. The moral law, versal 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; Spandenburgh'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; Loskiel's History of the North American Indian Missions; Oldendorp's History of the Brethren's Missions in the Danish West India Islands. The principal Moravian settlement in the United States is at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, commenced by Count Zinzendorf in 1741. They are found chiefly in Pennsylvania, New York city, and North Carolina. Their female seminary at Bethlehem is extensively and deservedly celebrated. In 1828 the ministers in the Moravian connexion in this country were 23, congregations 23, and members 6000.-B. MORNING LECTURES. See LECTURE. MORTALITY, a 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 prolificness, and the progress of population in the place where they are kept. MORTIFICATION, any severe 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.; Gal. v. 24; Rom. viii. 13. The means to be used in this work are, not macerating the body, seclusion from society, our own resolutions; but the Holy Spirit is the chief agent, 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 or so audibly given as the moral law, nor yet so pr vately as the ceremonial; this kind of law bring of an indifferent nature, to be observed or not observed, as its rites suit with the place and go vernment under which we live. The five books of Moses called the Pentateuch, are frequently styled, by way of emphasis, the law. This mat 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. MOSQUE, a temple or place of rela worship among the Mahometans. Alles are square buildings, generally constructed f stone. Before the chief gate there is a square court paved with white marble, and low gain round it, whose roof is supported by marble pa lars. In these galleries the Turks wash the selves before they go into mosque. In exc mosque there is a great number of lamps; and between these hang many crystal rings, ostriches eggs, and other curiosities, which, when the lamps are lighted, make a fine show. As not lawful to enter the mosque with stockings shoes on, the pavements are covered with p of stuff sewed together, each being wide enough to hold a row of men kneeling, sitting, or p trate. The women are not allowed to enter t mosque, but stay in the porches without. Ab every mosque there are six high towers minarets, each of which has three little open leries, one above another; these towers, as the mosques, are covered with lead, and ader ed with gilding and other ornaments: and m thence, instead of a bell, the people are caled prayers by certain officers appointed for that pe pose. Most of the mosques have a kind of bo pital, in which travellers, of what religion so are entertained three days. Each mosque MUFTI also a place called tarbe, which is the burying-1 MOURNING, sorrow, grief. See SORROW. MOURNING, 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 all 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; Num. xx.; Deut. xxxiv. 8. MOYER'S LECTURES, 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 the Christian faith.-The first course of these lectures was preached by Dr. Waterland, on the Divinity of Christ, and are well worthy of perusal. MUFTI, the chief of the ecclesiastical order, of 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 corpercal punishment. In all actions, 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 ar Olmuz, 1. 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. MUSSULMAN 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 trea sures of truth; the light to doubtful allegories; strengthened with the grace of the Supreme Legis lator 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 bene fices belonging to the royal mosques, which he makes no scruple of selling to the best advantages and, on his admission to his office, he is compli mented by the agents of the bashas, 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 imme diately 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 Constantino ple, and pounded to death. MUGGLETONIANS, the followers of Ludovic Muggleton, a journeyman tailor, who, with his companion Reeves, (a person of equal ob scurity,) set up for great prophets in the time of Cromwell. They pretended to absolve or condeinn 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 inconsis tent tenets. MURDER, 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. Mur der is contrary to the authority of God, the sove reign 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 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 He alone has the ho-up murderers to the terrors of a guilty conscience, nour of kissing the sultan's left shoulder, whilst the Gen iv. 13, 15, 23, 24. Such are followed with prime vizier kisses only the hem of his garment. many instances of divine vengeance, 2 Sam. xii. When the grand seignior addresses any writ- 9, 10; their lives are often shortened, Ps. Iv. 23; ing to the Mufti, he gives him the following and judgments for their sin are oftentimes trans titles-"To the esad, the wisest of the wise; in-mitted to posterity, Gen. xlix. 7; 2 Sam. xxi. 1. structed in all knowledge; the most excellent of MUSSULMAN, or MUSYLMAN, a title by MYSTERIES which the Mahometans distinguish themselves; signifying in the Turkish language "true believer, or orthodox." There are two kinds of Mussulmen very averse to each other; the one talled Sonniles, and the other Shiites. The Sonnites follow the interpretation of the Alcoran given by Omar; the Shiites are the followers of Áli. The subjects of the king of Persia are Shiites, and those of the grand seignior Sonnites. See MAHOMETANS. стоми, MYSTICS cret 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 in vention 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 in stituted with a view to preserve the remembrance of heroes and great men who had been deißed in consideration of their martial exploits, useful in ventions, public virtues, and especially in cons quence of the benefits by them conferred on their contemporaries. MYSTERY, THIO, secret, (from US TO 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 Others, however, suppose, that the mysteries in part incomprehensible after they are revealed; were the offspring of bigotry and priesteraft, and such as the incarnation of Christ, the resurrec-that they originated in Egypt, the native land of tion of the dead, &c. Some critics, however, observe that the word in the 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. idolatry. In that country the priesthood roled 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 con In respect to the mysteries of religion, divines fined to one tribe, and was transmitted unalien. have run into two extremes. "Some," as one able from father to son. All the Orientals, but observes, "have given up all that was mysterious, more especially the Egyptians, delighted in my thinking that they were not called to believe any terious and allegorical doctrines. Every maxim thing but what they could comprehend. But, if of morality, every tenet of theology, every dega it can be proved that mysteries make a part of a of philosophy, was wrapt up in a veil of allegory religion coming from God, it can be no part of and mysticism. This propensity, no doubt, con piety to discard them, as if we were wiser than spired with avarice and ambition to dispose them he." And besides, upon this principle, a man to a dark and mysterious system of religion. Be must believe nothing: the various works of na- sides, the Egyptians were a gloomy race of men; ture, the growth of plants, instincts of brutes, they delighted in darkness and solitude. The s union of body and soul, properties of matter, the cred rites were generally celebrated with melan nature of spirit, and a thousand other things, are choly airs, weeping, and lamentation. The all replete with mysteries. If so in the common gloomy and unsocial bias of mind must have st works of nature, we can hardly suppose that mulated them to a congenial mode of worship those things which more immediately relate to MYSTICS, a sect distinguished by their p the Divine Being himself, can be without mys-fessing pure, sublime, and perfect devotior, with tery. "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 diligent 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 Gospels, vol. i. p. 333; Stilling fleet's Origines Sucre, vol. ii. c.8; Ridgley's Div. qu. 11; Calmet's Dict.; Cruden's Concordance; South's an entire disinterested love of God, free from all selfish considerations. The authors of this my tic science, which sprung up towards the close of the third century, are not known; but the p ciples from which it was formed are manifest, s first promoters proceeded from the known de of the Platonic school, which was also adejdal! ay Origen and his disciples, that the divine natu was diffused through all human souls; or that th faculty of reason, from which proceed the health and vigour of the mind, was an emanation fr God into the human soul, and comprehended it the principles and elements of all truth, a and divine. They denied that men coul bour or study, excite this celestial flate in the breasts; and therefore they disapproved higt, y of the attempts of those who, by definitions, alt theorems, and profound speculations, endeavoured to form distinct notions of truth, and to disc its hidden nature. On the contrary, they tained that silence, tranquillity, repose, and saf tude, accompanied with such acts as might tel extenuate and exhaust the body, were the by which the hidden and internal word was e cited to produce its latent virtues, and to instr men in the knowledge of divine things. For t they reasoned:-Those who behold with ar contempt all human affairs; who turn away the eyes from terrestrial vanities, and shut all the MYSTERIES, a term used to denote the se-avenues of the outward senses against the cont Serm. ser. 6 vol. iii. NAME gious influences 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 contem plating truth undisguised and uncorrupted in its native purity, while others behold it in a vitiated and delusive form. NATIVITY 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 number of the Mystics increased in the the light, life, and spirit of the world. He died fourth century, under the influence of the Grecian the very day of his transgression to all the influfanatic, who gave himself out for Dionysius the ences and operations of the Spirit of God upon Areopagite disciple of St. Paul, and probably him, as we die to the influences of this world lived about this period; and by pretending to when the soul leaves the body; and all the influhigher degrees of perfection than other Chris-ences and operations of the elements of this life tians, and practising greater austerity, their cause were open in him, as they were in any animal, gained ground, especially in the eastern provinces, at his birth into this world: ne became an earthly In the fifth century. A copy of the pretended creature, subject to the dominion of this outward works of Dionysius was sent by Balbus to Lewis world, and stood only in the highest rank of anithe Meek, in the year 821, which kindled the only mals. But the goodness of God would not leave flame of mysticism in the western provinces, and man in this condition; redemption from it was filled the Latins with the most enthusiastic admi- immediately granted, and the bruiser of the serration of this new religion. In the twelfth cen- pent brought the light, life, and spirit of heaven, tury these Mystics took the lead in their method once more into the human nature. All men, in of expounding the Scriptures. In the thirteenth consequence of the redemption of Christ, have in century they were the most formidable antagonists them the first spark, or seed, of the divine life, as of the schoolmen; and, towards the close of the a treasure hid in the centre of our souls, to bring fourteenth, many of them resided and propagated forth, by degrees, a new birth of that life which their tenets almost in every part of Europe.- was lost in paradise. No son of Adam can be lost, They had, in the fifteenth century, many persons only by turning away from the Saviour within of distinguished merit in their number; and in him. The only religion which can save us, must the sixteenth century, previous to the Reforma- be that which can raise the light, life, and Spirit tion, if any sparks of real piety subsisted under of God in our souls. Nothing can enter into the the despotic empire of superstition, they were vegetable kingdom till it have the vegetable life in only to be found among the Mystics. The cele- it, or be a member of the animal kingdom till it brated Madame Bourignon, and the amiable Fe- have the animal life. Thus all nature joins with nelon, archbishop of Cambray, were of this sect. the Gospel in affirming that no man can enter Dr. Haweis, in speaking of the Mystics, Church into the kingdom of heaven till the heavenly life History, vol. iii. p. 47, thus observes: "Among is born in him. Nothing can be our righteousthose called Mystics, I am persuaded some were ness or recovery but the divine nature of Jesus found who loved God out of a pure heart fer- Christ derived to our souls. Law's Life; Law's vently; and though they were ridiculed and re- Spirit of Prayer and Appeal; Law's Spirit of viled for proposing a disinterestedness of love Love, and on Regeneration. 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." MYTHOLOGY, 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 As the late Rev. William Law, who was born in the early ages of the world, and by them transin 1687, makes a distinguished figure among the mitted to succeeding generations, either by writmodern Mystics, a brief account of the outlines ten records or by oral tradition. See articles of his system may, perhaps, be entertaining to HEATHEN, PAGANISM, and Gale's Court of the some readers. He supposed that the material Gentiles, a work calculated to show that the world was the very region which originally be-pagan philosophers derived their most sublime longed to the fallen angels. At length the light sentiments from the Scriptures. Bryant's Sysand spirit of God entered into the chaos, and tem of Ancient Mythology. 障 N. NATIVITY OF CHRIST. The birth of NAME OF GOD. By this term we are to | 3. Powerful, Phil. ii. 10.-4. Holy and reve understand,-1. God himself, Psal. xx. 1.-rend, Psal. exi. 9.-5. Awful to the wicked.2. His titles peculiar to himself, Exod. iii. 13, 6. Perpetual, Isa. lv. 13. Cruden's Concord14.-3. His word, Psal. v. 11; Acts ix. 15.- ance; Hannam's Anal. Comp. p. 20. 4. His works, Psal. viii. 1.-5. His worship, Exod. xx. 24.-6. His perfections and excel ences, Exod. xxxiv. 6; John xvii. 26.-The properties or qualities of this name are these: 1. A glorious name, Psal. lxxii. 17.-2. TranBerndent and incomparable, Rev. xix. 16. our Saviour was exactly as predicted by the prophecies of the Old Testament, Isa. vii. 14; Jer. xxxi. 22. He was born of a virgin of the house of David, and of the tribe of Judah, Matthew i.; Luke i. 27. His coming into the world was |