MORAVIANS MORAVIANS tionable authority; for he communicated hi sentiments on the subject to Dr. Secker, whe bishop of Oxford. In conformity with these se timents of the archbishop, we are assured th the parliament of Great Britain, after mature 2vestigation, acknowledged the Unitos Framin to be a Protestant episcopal church; and 1794 an act was certainly passed in their favo This sect, like many others, has been stans fully misrepresented, and things laid to the charge of which they never were guilty. must, however, be acknowledged, that son their converts having previously imbibed extre vagant notions, propagated them with zeal an their new friends in a phraseology extreme reprehensible; and that count Zinzendorf self sometimes adopted the very improper lat guage of those fanatics, whom he wished to claim from their errors to the soberness of truth; but much of the extravagance and aburity which has been attributed to the count is not to be charged to him, but to those persons who, writing his extempore sermons in short hand, printed and published them without his knowledge or consent. 1570, put an end to by a synod, which decreed | that differences about non-essentials should not destroy their union; and the persecution ceased in 1575, when the United Brethren obtained an edict for the public exercise of their religion.This toleration was renewed in 1609, and liberty granted them to erect new churches. But a civil war, which, in 1612, broke out in Bohemia, and a violent persecution which followed it in 1621, occasioned the dispersion of their ministers, and brought great distress upon the Brethren in general. Some of them fled to England, others to Saxony and Brandenburgh; whilst many, overcome by the severity of the persecution, conformed to the rites of the church of Rome. One colony of these, who retained in purity their original principles and practice, was in 1722, conducted by a brother, named Christian David, from Fulneck, in Moravia, to Upper Lusatia, where they put themselves under the protection of Nicholas Lewis, count of Zinzendorf, and built a village on his estate at the foot of a hill, called Hutberg, or Watch Hill. The count, who, soon after their arrival, removed from Dresden to his estate in the country, showed every mark of kindness to the poor emigrants; but This eminent benefactor to the United Bre being a zealous member of the church established thren died in 1760; and it is with reason that by law, he endeavoured for some time to prevail they honour his memory, as having been the i upon them to unite themselves with it, by adopt-strument by which God restored and built up ing the Lutheran faith and discipline. This their church. But they do not regardin they declined; and the count, on a more minute their head, nor take his writings, nor the writings Inquiry into their ancient history and distinguish- of any other man, as the standard of their de ing tenets, not only desisted from his first pur- trines, which they profess to derive immediately pose, but became himself a convert to the faith from the word of God. and discipline of the United Brethren. The synod which, in 1570, put an end to the disputes which then tore the church of the Brethren into factions, had considered as non-essentials the distinguishing tenets of their own society, of the Lutherans, and of the Calvinists. In consequence of this, many of the reformers of both these sects had followed the Brethren to Herrnhut, and been received by them into communion; but not being endued with the peaceable spirit of the church which they had joined, they started disputes among themselves, which threatened the destruction of the whole establishment. By the indefatigable exertions of count Zinzendorf these disputes were allayed; and statutes being, in 1727, drawn up and agreed to for the regulation both of the internal and of the external concerns of the congregation, brotherly love and union was again established; and no schism whatever, in point of doctrine, has since that period disturbed the church of the United Brethren. of the United Brethren is episcopal; but though It has been already observed, that the church they consider episcopal ordination as res sary to qualify the servants of the church for their respective functions, they allow to their bishops no elevation of rank or pre-eminent a thority; their church having, from its first esta blishment, been governed by synods, cons other subordinate bodies, which they call C of deputies from all the congregations, and la ences. province, h once in seven years, are called together by the The synods, which are generally d elders who were in the former synod appet ting a president is chosen, and these elders to superintend the whole unity. In the first down their office; but they do not wit from the assembly; for they, together with al bishops, seniors, civiles, or lay elders, and those ministers who have the general care or inspect of several congregations in one seats in the synod without any particular elect In 1735, the count, who, under God, had been sent by each congregation, and such ministers of The other members are, one or more det the instrument of renewing the Brethren's missionaries as are particularly called to attend church, was consecrated one of their bishops, Women, approved by the congregation, are so having the year before been examined and readmitted as hearers, and are called upon to give ceived into the clerical order by the Theological their advice in what relates to the minister Faculty of Tubingen. Dr. Potter, then arch- labour among their sex; but they have no i bishop of Canterbury, congratulated him upon sive vote in the synod. The votes of all the other this event, and promised his assistance to a church members are equal. of confessors, of whom he wrote in terms of the highest respect, for their having maintained the pure and primitive faith and discipline in the midst of the most tedious and cruel persecutions. That his Grace, who had studied the various controversies about church-government with uncommon success, admitted the Moravian episcopal succession, we know from the most unques 298 consequences cannot be foreseen, neither the MORAVIANS standing 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 comfortable 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 deviations in practice have crept in, the synod endeavours not only to remove them, but, 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 his 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; but, by consecration, they are vested with no superiority over their brethren, since it behoves him who is the greatest to be the servant of all. MORAVIANS every individual with his advice.-3. Of a Mar ried Pair, who care particularly for the spiritus welfare of the married people.-4. Of a Single Clergyman, to whose care the young women 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 lat ter 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 government of the whole church. In their opinion, episcopal consecration does not cenfer 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 among 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 in the Brethren's churches, 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 admi 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 Mis-nister the sacraments. They have likewise se sions' department, which superintends all the con- niores civiles, or lay elders, in contradistinction cerns of the missions into heathen countries. to spiritual elders, or bishops, who are appointed 2 The Helpers' department, which watches over to watch over the constitution and discipline of the purity of doctrine, and the moral conduct of the Unity of the Brethren, over the observance the different congregations.-3. The Servants of the laws of the country in which congregations department, to which the economical concerns of or missions are established, and over the privi the Unity are committed.-4. The Overseers' de- leges granted to the Brethren by the govern partment, of which the business is to see that the ments under which they live. They have econoconstitution and discipline of the brethren be mies, or choir houses, where they live together every where maintained. No resolution, how-in community: the single men and single wo ever, 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 synod, or enact new ones itself, it is possessed of the supreme executive power over the whole body of the United Brethren. Besides this general Conference of Elders, which superintends the affairs of the whole Unity, there is another conference of elders belonging to each congregation, which directs its affaire, and to which the bishops and all other ministers, as well as the lay members of the congregation, are subject. This body, which is called the Elders Conference of the Congregations, 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 intrusted to a separate person, called the Congregation Helper.-2. Of the Warden, whose office it is to superintend, with the aid of his council, all outward concerns of the congregation, and to assist men, widows and widowers, apart, each under the superintendence 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 stipu lated sum for their maintenance. Their children are educated with peculiar care; their subjection to their superiors and elders is singular, and ap pears particularly striking in their missions and marriages. In the former, those who have offered themselves on the service, and are approved as candidates, wait their several calls, referring themselves entirely to the decision of the lot; and, it is said, never hesitate when that hath decided the place of their destination. (See above.). In marriage, they may only form & connexion with those of their own communion The brother who marries out of the congregation is immediately cut off from church fellowship Sometimes a sister, by express licence from the Elders' Conference, is permitted to marry a per son of approved piety in another communion, yet still to join in their church ordinances as bo fore. 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 rather refer their choice to the church than decide for themselves. And as the lot must be cast to sanction their union, each receives his partner as a MIRACLE temporary with Christ and his apostles, and ac- | our own senses. MIRACLE religion. Nor could their prospects be brighter upon the supposition of their success. As they knew themselves to be false witnesses, and unpious deceivers, they could have no hopes beyond the grave; and by determining to oppose all the religious systems, superstitions, and prejudices of the age in which they lived, they wilfully er posed themselves to inevitable misery in the pre sent life, to insult and imprisonment, to stripes and death. Nor can it be said that they might look forward to power and affluence, when they should, through sufferings, have converted their countrymen; for so desirous were they of obtain ing nothing but misery, as the end of their mis sion, that they made their own persecution a test of the truth of their doctrines. They introduced the Master from whom they pretended to have received these doctrines as telling them, that 'they were sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; that they should be delivered up to councils and scourged in synagogues; that they should be hated of all men for his name's sake; that the brother should deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child; and that he who took not up his cross, and followed after him, was not worthy of him.' The very system of region, therefore, which they invented and resolved to impose upon mankind, was so contrived, that the worldly prosperity of its preachers, and even their exemption from persecution, was incom patible with its success. Had these clear predie tions of the Author of that religion, under who the apostles acted only as ministers, not been verified, all mankind must have instantly per ceived that their pretence to inspiration was false, and that Christianity was a scandalous and impudent imposture. All this the apostles could not but foresee when they formed their plan for deluding the world. Whence it follows, th when they resolved to support their pretended revelation by an appeal to forged miracles, the wilfully, and with their eyes open, exposed them selves to inevitable misery, whether they should succeed or fail in their enterprise; and that ther concerted their measures so as not to admit of a possibility of recompence to themselves, either i this life or in that which is to come. But if there be a law of nature, for the reality of which we have better evidence than we have for others i is, that no man can choose misery for its sake,' or make the acquisition of it the ultimate end of his pursuit. The existence of other laws of nature we know by testimony, and our o observation of the regularity of their effects. The existence of this law is made known to us only by these means, but also by the still cleart and more conclusive evidence of our own cuố "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 swa!-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 Testainent, is as great a miracle as human imagination can easily conceive. When they formed this design, either they must have hoped to succeed, or they must have foreseen that they should fail in their undertaking; 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 "Thus, then, do miracles force themselves upon our assent in every possible view which we can take of this interesting subject. If the tes mony of the first preachers of Christianity wer true, the miracles recorded in the Gospel were certainly performed, and the doctrines of our res gion are derived from heaven. On the other hand, if that testimony were false, either God must have miraculously effaced from the minds of those by whom it was given all the assoc 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 revelatio MIRACLE MISER for the purpose of deceiving the world, and in- necessary, i. e. in countries where those doctrines volving themselves in certain and foreseen de-are renounced which that church esteems of the struction. highest importance. See Fleetwood, Clarapede, Conybeare, Campbell, Lardner, Farmer, Adams, and Weston, on Miracies; article Miracle, Encyclop. Brit.; Doddridge's Lect. lec. 101, and 135; Leland's View of Deistical Writers, letter 3, 4, 7; Hurrion on the Spirit, p. 299, &c. MIRTH, joy, gaiety, merriment. tinguished from cheerfulness thus: Mirth is It is disconsidered as an act; cheerfulness an habit of the mind. Mirth is short and transient; cheerfulness fixed and permanent. "Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth who are subject to the greatest depressions of melancholy: on the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give such an exquisite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment: cheerfulness keeps up a kind of day-light in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity." Mirth is sinful, 1. When men rejoice in that which is evil. 2 When unreasonable. 3. When tending to commit sin. 4. When a hindrance to duty. 5. When it is blasphemous and profane. The power necessary to perform the one series of those miracles may, for any thing known to us, be as great as that which would be requisite for the performance of the other; and, considered merely as exertions of preternatural power, they may seem to balance each other, and to hold the mind in a state of suspense; but when we take into consideration the different purposes for which these opposite and contending miracles were wrought, the balance is instantly destroyed. The miracles recorded in the Gospels, if real, were wrought in support of a revelation which, in the opinion of all by whom it is received, has brought to light many important truths, which could not otherwise have been made known to men; and which, by the confession of its adversaries, contains the purest moral precepts by which the conduct of mankind was ever directed. The opposite series of miracles, if real, was performed to enable, and even to compel, a company of Jews, of the lowest rank and of the narrowest education, to fabricate, with the view of inevitable destruction to themselves, a consistent scheme of falsehood, and by an appeal to forged miracles to MISANTHROPIST, μs, a hater of impose it upon the world as a revelation from mankind; one that abandons society from a prin heaven. The object of the former miracles is ciple of discontent. The consideration of the worthy of a God of infinite wisdom, goodness, depravity of human nature is certainly enough and power; the object of the latter is absolutely to raise emotions of sorrow in the breast of every inconsistent with wisdom and goodness, which man of the least sensibility; yet it is our duty to are demonstrably attributes of that Being by bear with the follies of mankind; to exercise a whom alone miracles can be performed. Whence degree of candour consistent with truth; to lessen, it follows, that the supposition of the apostles if possible, by our exertions, the sum of moral bearing false testimony to the miracles of their and natural evil; and by connecting ourselves Master, implies a series of deviations from the with society, to add at least something to the laws of nature infinitely less probable in them-general interests of mankind. The misanthroselves than those miracles: and therefore, by pist, therefore, is an ungenerous and dishonourMr. Hume's maxim, we must necessarily rejectable character. Disgusted with life, he seeks a the supposition of falsehood in the testimony, and retreat from it: like a coward, he flees from the admit the reality of the miracles. So true it is, scene of action, while he increases his own misery that for the reality of the Gospel miracles we by his natural discontent, and leaves others to have evidence as convincing to the reflecting do what they can for themselves. mind as those had who were contemporary with Christ and his apostles, and were actual witnesses to their mighty works." The following is his character more at large. "He is a man," says Saurin, "who avoids society only to free himself from the trouble of The power of working miracles is supposed by being useful to it. He is a man, who considers some to have been continued no longer than the his neighbours only on the side of their defects, apostles' days. Others think that it was con- not knowing the art of combining their virtues tinued long after. It seems pretty clear, how with their vices, and of rendering the imperfecever, that miracles universally ceased before tions of other people tolerable by reflecting on his Chrysostom's time. As for what Augustine says own. He is a man more employed in finding of those wrought at the tombs of the martyrs, and out and inflicting punishments on the guilty, some other places, in his time, the evidence is not than in devising means to reform them. He is a always so convincing as might be desired in facts man who talks of nothing but banishing and of importance. The controversy concerning the executing, and who, because he thinks his talents time when miraculous power ceased was car-are not sufficiently valued and employed by his ried on by Dr. Middleton, in his Free Enquiry fellow-citizens, or rather because they know his into the Miraculous Powers, &c.; by Mr. Yate, foibles, and do not choose to be subject to his Mr. Toll, and others, who suppose that miracles caprice, talks of quitting cities, towns and socieceased with the apostles. On the contrary ties, and of living in dens or deserts." side appeared Dr. Stebbing, Dr. Chapman, Mr. Parker, Mr. Brooke, and others. MISER, a term formerly used in reference to a person in wretchedness or calamity; but it now As to the miracles of the Romish church, it is denotes a parsimonious person, or one who is coevident, as Doddridge observes, that many of vetous to extremity; who denies himself even the them were ridiculous tales, according to their own comforts of life to accumulate wealth. Avarice, historians; others were performed without any says Saurin, may be considered in two different dible witnesses, or in circumstances where the points of light. It may be considered in those performer had the greatest opportunity for jug-men, or rather those public blood-suckers, or, as gling and it is particularly remarkable, that they the officers of the Roman emperor Vespasian were hardly ever wrought where they seem most were called, those sponges of society, who, in 289 2 M Z MISCHNA fatuated with this passion, seek after riches as the supreme good, determine to acquire it by any methods, and consider the ways that lead to wealth, legal or illegal, as the only road for them to travel. Avarice, however, must be considered in a second point of light. It not only consists in committing bold crimes, but in entertaining mean ideas and practising low methods, incompatible with such magnanimity as our condition ought to inspire. It consists not only in omitting to serve God, but in trying to associate the service of God with that of mammon. MISREPRESENTATION 132 lowed by Ezra and the men of the great site gogue: so that towards the middle of the se century after Christ, under the empire of A ninus Pius, it was found necessary to cond these traditions to writing; more espectac their country had considerably suffered cake Adrian, and many of their schools had been solved, and their learned men cut off; and the fore the usual method of preserving their tra had failed. Rabbi Judah on this occasion rector of the school at Tiberias, and preside the sanhedrim in that place, undertook the How many forms doth avarice take to disguise several tracts, which altogether make and compiled it in six books, each consisting i itself from the man who is guilty of it, and who number of sixty-three. Prid. Conner. will be drenched in the guilt of it till the day he 468, &c. ed. 9. This learned author co dies! Sometimes it is prudence which requires that the Mischna was composed about the lit him to provide not only for his present wants, but year of our Lord; but Dr. Lightfoot says t for such as he may have in future. Sometimes Rabbi Judah compiled the Mischa abit the it is charity, which requires him not to give so-year of Christ 190, in the latter end of the reg ciety examples of prodigality and parade. Some of Commodus; or, as some compute, in the year times it is parental love, obliging him to save of Christ 220. Dr. Lardner is of opinion that something for his children. Sometimes it is cir- this work could not have been finished before the cumspection, which requires him not to supply year 190, or later. Collection of Jewish and people who make an ill use of what they get. Heathen Testimonies, vol. i. p. 178. This the Sometimes it is necessity, which obliges him to book called the Mischna was formed; a hed repel artifice by artifice. Sometimes it is con- which the Jews have generally received with the scien e, which convinces him, good man, that he greatest veneration. The original has been pa hath already exceeded in compassion and alms-lished with a Latin translation by Surenhusias giving, and done too much. Sometimes it is with notes of his own and others from the learned equity, for justice requires that every one should Maimonides, &c. in six vols, fol Arstet. A. D. enjoy the fruit of his own labours, and those of 1698-1703. See TALMUD. It is written in a his ancestors.-Such, alas! are the awful pre- much purer style, and is not near so full of dreams texts and subterfuges of the miser. Saurin's and visions as the Gemara Ser. vol. v. ser. 12. See AVARICE, COVETOUS NESS. MISERY, such a state of wretchedness, un happiness, or calamity, as renders a person an object of compassion. MISCHNA, or MISNA, (from, iteravit,) a part of the Jewish Talmud. The Mischna contains the text; and the Gemara, which is the second part of the Talmud, contains the commentaries: so that the Gemara is, as it were, a glossary on the Mischna. a MISREPRESENTATION, the act of wil fully representing a thing otherwise than it is of the greatest mischiefs of conversation. Se This," as an elegant writer observes, "is one bias in our own favour. How often in society, love is continually at work to give to all we sy tions in which prejudice warps, and se otherwise respectable, are we pained with narr blinds! How often do we see that withheding part of a truth answers the worst ends of a la The Mischna consists of various traditions of a cause by placing a sentiment in one point of hood? How often regret the unfair turn given to the Jews, and of explanations of several passages view, which the speaker had used in ander of Scripture: these traditions serving as an ex- the letter of truth preserved, where its s plication of the written law, and supplement to it, violated: a superstitious exactness scrupules are said to have been delivered to Moses during maintained in the underparts of a detail in orde the time of his abode on the Mount; which he to impress such an idea of integrity as shall put afterwards communicated to Aaron, Eleazar, and credit for the misrepresenter, while he is desig his servant Joshua. By these they were trans-edly mistaking the leading principle: How mitted to the seventy elders; by them to the we observe a new character given to a fa prophets, who communicated them to the men of different look, tone, or emphasis, which ales the great sanhedrim, from whom the wise men of Jerusalem and Babylon received them. Ac-pression of a sermon as much as words could have done! the false cording to Prideaux's account, they passed from like the preacher, or when through hi conveyed, when we do na Jeremiah to Baruch, from him to Ezra, and from wish to make religion itself ridiculous: Ezra to the men of the great synagogue, the last to avoid literal untruths, while the mischief of whom was Simon the Just, who delivered them better effected by the unfair quotation of a to Antigonus of Socho; and from him they came sage divested of its context: the bringing together down in regular succession to Simeon, who took detached portions of a subject, and making th our Saviour in his arms; to Gamaliel, at whose parts ludicrous, when connected, which w feet Paul was educated; and last of all, to Rabbi serious in their distinct position! the insis Judah the Holy, who committed them to writing use made of a sentiment, by representing it as the in the Mischna. But Dr. Prideaux, rejecting the opinion of him who had only brought it forwar Jewish fiction, observes, that after the death of in order to expose it! the relating opinions w Simon the Just, about 299 years before Christ, had merely been put hypothetically, as if the the Mischnical doctors arose, who by their comments and conclusions added to the number of credit! that subtle falsehood which is so made to were the avowed principles of him we would those traditions which had been received and al- incorporate with a certain quantity of truth, bu 290 |