atonement for them by suffering in their stead, and thus n.aking the Deity propitious to them. He believes nothing of all the actions of any man being necessarily sinful; but, on the contrary, can be on no other principle, than that || one of them should come under the description of an effect without a cause; just as if the beam of a balance might incline either way, thoug loaded with equal weights. And if any thing what-thinks that the very worst of men are ever, even a thought in the mind of man, could arise without an adequate cause, any thing else, the mind itself or the whole universe, might likewise exist without an adequate cause. capable of benevolent intentions in many things that they do; and likewise that very good men are capable of falling from virtue, and consequently of sinking into final perdition. Upon the principles of the Necessarians, also, all late repentance, and especially after long and confirmed habits of vice, is altogether and necessarily ineffectual; there not being sufficient time left to produce a change of disposition and character, which can only be done by a change of conduct of proportionably long continuance. This scheme of philosophical necessity implies a chain of causes and effects established by infinite wisdom, and terminating in the greatest good of the whole universe; evils of all kinds, natural and moral, being admitted, as far as they contribute to that end, or are in the nature of things inseparable from it. Vice is productive not of good, but of In short, the three doctrines of Maevil to us, both here and hereafter, terialism, Philosophical Necessity, and though good may result from it to the Socinianism, are considered as equally whole system; and, according to the parts of one system The scheme of fixed laws of nature, our present and Necessity is the immediate result of the future happiness necessarily depend on materiality of man; for mechanism is our cultivating good dispositions. the undoubted consequence of materialThis scheme of philosophical neces-ism, and that man is wholly material, is sity is distinguished from the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination in the following particulars: eminently subservient to the proper or mere humanity of Christ. For if no man have a soul distinct from his body, Christ. who in all other respects ap|| peared as a man, could not have a soul which had existed before his body: and the whole doctrine of the pre-existence of souls, of which the opinion of the preexistence of Christ is a branch, will be effectually overturned See NECESSITY, PRE-EXISTENCE, SHINOSISM, SOUL, UNITARIAN, and books under those articles 1. No Necessarian supposes that any of the human race will suffer eternally; but that future punishments will answer the same purpose as temporal ones are found to do; all of which tend to good, and are evidently admitted for that purpose. Upon the doctrine of necessity, also, the most indifferent actions of men are equally necessary with the most important; since every volition, like any other effect, must have an ade- MEANS OF GRACE denote those quate cause depending upon the pre- duties we perform for the purpose of vious state of the mind, and the influ-improving our minds, affecting our ence to which it is exposed. hearts, and of obtaining spiritual bless2. The Necessarian believes that his ings; such as hearing the Gospel, readown dispositions and actions are the neing the Scriptures, self-examination, cessary and sole means of his present meditation, prayer, praise, Christian and future happiness; so that in the conversation, &c. The means are to most proper sense of the words, it de-be used without any reference to merit, pends entirely on himself whether he but solely with a dependence on the be virtuous or vicious, happy or mise-Divine Being; nor can we ever expect rable. happiness in ourselves, nor be good ex3. The Calvinistic system entirely exemplars to others, while we live in the cludes the popular notion of free will, viz. the liberty or power of doing what we please, virtuous or vicious, as belone ing to every person, in every situation; which is perfectly consistent with thBesides, he himself generally works by doctrine of philosophical necessity, and indeed results from it. 4. The Necessarian believes nothing of the posterity of Adam's sinning in him, and of their being liable to the wrath of God on that account; or the necessity of an infinite Being making neglect of them. It is in vain to argue, that the divine decree supercedes the necessity of them, since God has as certainly appointed the means as the end. them; and the more means he thinks proper to use, the more he displays his glorious perfections. Jesus Christ, when on earth, used means; he prayed, he exhorted, and did good, by going from place to place. Indeed, the systems of nature, providence, and grace, are all carried on by means. The Scriptures | abound with exhortations to them, Matt. v. Rom. xii and none but enthusiasts or immoral characters ever refuse to use them. people under all their trials, temptations, &c. Heb. ii. 17, 18. Heb. iv. 15, 6. It was fit that he should be a holy and righteous man, free from all sin, original and actual, that he might offer himself without spot to God, take away the sins of men, and be an advocate for But it was not enough to be truly man, and an innocent person: he must be more than a man; it was requisite that he should be God also, for, 1. No mere with God to mediate between him and sinful men.-2. He must be God, to give virtue and value to his obedience and sufferings; for the sufferings of men or angels would not have been sufficient. -3. Being thus God-man, we are encouraged to hope in him. In the person of Jesus Christ the object of trust is brought nearer to ourselves; and those well-known tender affections which are only figuratively ascribed to the Deity, are in our great Mediator thoroughly realized. Farther, were he God, and not man, we should approach him with fear and dread; were he man and not God, we should be guilty of idolatry to worship and trust him at all, Jer. xvii. 5. The plan of salvation, therefore, by such a Mediator, is the most suitable to hu MEDIATOR, a person that intervenes between two parties at variance, in order to reconcile them. Thus Je-them, Heb. vii. 26. ix. 14. 1 John iii. 5. sus Christ is the Mediator between an offended God and sinful man, 1 Tim. ii. 5. Both Jews and Gentiles have a notion of a Mediator: the Jews call the Messiah xyy the Mediator or Mid-man could have entered into a covenant dle One. The Persians call their god Mithras, uns, a Mediator; and the dæmons, with the heathens, seem to be, according to them, mediators between the superior gods and men. Indeed, the whole religion of Paganism was a system of mediation and intercession. The idea, therefore, of salvation by a Mediator, is not so novel or restricted as some imagine; and the Scriptures of truth inform us, that it is only by this way human beings can arrive to eternal felicity, Acts iv. 12. John xiv. 6. Man, in his state of innocence, was in friendship with God; but, by sinning against him, he exposed himself to his just displeasure; his powers became enfeebled, and his heart filled with enmity against him, Rom. viii. 6: he was driven out of his paradisaical Eden, and totally inca-man beings that possibly could be; for pable of returning to God, and making here" mercy and truth meet together, satisfaction to his justice. Jesus Christ, righteousness and peace kiss each therefore, was the appointed Mediator other," Psalm 1xxxv. 10. The properto bring about reconciliation, Gen. iiities of Christ as Mediator are these: 12. Col. i. 21; and in the fulness of time he came into this world, obeyed the law, satisfied justice, and brought his people into a state of grace and favour; yea, into a more exalted state of friendship with God than was lost by the fall, Eph. ii. 18. Now, in order to the accomplishing of this work, it was necessary that the Mediator should be God and man in one person. It was necessary that he should be man, 1. That he might be related to those he was a Mediator and Redeemer of.-2. That sin might be satisfied for, and reconciliation be made for it, in the same nature which sinned -3. It was proper that the Mediator should be capable of obeying the law broken by the sin of man, as a divine person could not be subject to the law, and yield obedience to it, Gal. iv. 4. Rom. v. 19.-4. It was meet that the Mediator should be man, that he might be capable of suffering death; for, as God, he could not die, and without shedding of blood there was no remission, Heb. ii. 10, 15. viii. 3.-5. It was fit he should be man, that he might be a faithfut high-priest, to sympathise with his 1. He is the only Mediator, 1 Tim. ii. 4. Praying, therefore, to saints and angels is an error of the church of Rome, and has no countenance from the Scripture.-2. Christ is a Mediator of men only, not of angels: good angels need not any; and as for evil angels, none is provided nor admitted.-3. He is the Mediator both for Jews and Gentiles, Eph. ii. 18. 1 John ii. 2.-4. He is Mediator both for Old and New Testament saints.-5. He is a suitable, constant, willing and prevalent Mediator; his mediation always succeeds, and is infallible. Gill's Body of Divinity, vol. i. oct. p. 336; Witsii Econ. Fed. lib. ii. c. 4; Fuller's Gospel its own Witness, ch. 4. p. 2; Hurrion's Christ Crucified, p. 103, &c. Dr. Owen on the Person of Christ; Dr. Goodwin's Works, b. iii. MEDITATION is an act by which we consider any thing closely, or wherein the soul is employed in the search or consideration of any truth. In religion it is used to signify the serious exercise of the understanding, whereby our thoughts are fixed on the observation of spiritual things, in order to practice. Mystic divines make a great difference | taste of eternal glory, Psal. Ixxiii. 25, MEEKNESS, a temper of mind not 1. Meditation is a duty which ought sulting from this are, improvement of MEETING HOUSE, a place appro- derable time, indeed, they were prohibited by the conventicie act; but, at last, toleration being granted to Dissenters, they enjoyed the privilege of meeting and worshipping God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and which they still possess to this day. The number of meeting-houses in London may, perhaps, amount to about 150, though some reckon upwards of 200. In all the respectable_towns, and even in many villages of England, there are meeting-houses; and, within a few years, they have greatly increased. MELANCHOLY, sadness or gloom; arising either from the habit of body, or the state of the mind. To remove it, the following remedies may be applied. 1. Early rising. 2. Plain nourishing food. 3. Exercise in the open air. Or if it arises particularly from the mind, 1. Associate with the cheerful. 2. Study the Scriptures. 3. Consider the amiable character of God. 4. Avoid sin 5. Be much in prayer. See Burton, Baxter, and Rogers on Melancholy. MELATONI, so called from one Mileto, who taught that not the soul, but the body of man, was made after God's image. MELCHIZEDEZIANS, a denomination which arose about the beginning of the third century They affirmed that Melchizedeck was not a man, but a heavenly power superior to Jesus Christ; for Melchizedeck, they said, was the intercessor and mediator of the angels; and Jesus Christ was only so for man, and his priesthood only a copy of that of Melchizedeck. MELCHITES, the name given to the Syriac, Egyptian, and other Christians of the Levant. The Melchites, excepting some few points of little or no importance, which relate only to ceremonies, and ecclesiastical discipline, are, in every respect, professed Greeks; but they are governed by a particular patriarch, who assumes the title of Patriarch of Antioch. They celebrate mass in the Arabian language. The religious among the Melchites follow the rule of St. Basil, the common rule of all the Greek monks. MELETIANS, the name of a considerable party who adhered to the cause of Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis, in Upper Egypt, after he was deposed, about the year 306, by Peter, bishop of Alexandria, under the charge of his having sacrificed to the gods, and having been guilty of other heinous crimes; though Epiphanius makes his only failing to have been an excessive severity against the lapsed. This dispute, which was at first a personal difference between Meletius and Feter, became a religious controversy; and the Meletian party subsisted in the fifth century, but was condemned by the first council of Nice. or MEMORY, a faculty of the mind, which presents to us ideas or notions of things that are past accompanied with a persuasion that the things themselves When were formerly real and present we remember with little or no effort, it it is called remembrance simply, or memory, and sometimes passive memory. When we endeavour to remember what does not immediately and of itself occur, it is called active memory, or recollection. A good memory has these several qualifications: 1. It is ready to receive and admit with great ease the various ideas, both of words and things, which are learned or taught.-2. It is large and copious to treasure up these ideas in great number and variety.-3. It is strong and durable to retain, for a considerable time, those words thoughts which are committed to it.-4. It is faithful and active to suggest and recollect, upon every proper occasion, all those words or thoughts which it hath treasured up As this faculty may be injured by neglect and slothfulness, we will here subjoin a few of the best rules which have been given for the improvement of it. 1 We should form a clear and distinct apprehension of the things which we commit to memony.-2. Beware of every sort of intemperance, for that greatly impairs the faculties.-3. If it be weak we must not overload it, but charge it only with the most useful and solid notions.-4. We should take every opportunity of uttering our best thoughts in conversation, as this will deeply imprint them.-5. We should join to the idea we wish to remember, some other idea that is more familiar to us, which bears some similitude to it, either in its nature, or in the sound of the word -6. We should think of it before we go to sleep at night, and the first thing in the morning, when the faculties are fresh-7. Method and regularity in the things we commit to the memory are necessary.-8. Often thinking, writing, or talking, on the subjects we wish to remember-9. Fervent aud frequent prayer. See Watts on the Mind, chap. 17; Grey's Memoria Technica; Rogers' Pleasures of Memory; Reid's Intell. Powers of Man, 303, 310, 338, 356. MENANDRIANS, the most ancient branch of Gnostics; thus called from Menander their chief, said by some, without sufficient foundation, to have been a disciple of Simon Magus, and himself a reputed magician. of Mendicants, as Gregory called them, were reduced to a smaller number, and confined to the four following societies or denominations, viz. the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Carmelites, and the Augustins, or hermits of St. Augustin. As the pontiffs allowed these four Mendicant orders the liberty of travelling wherever they thought proper, of conversing with persons of every rank, of instructing the youth and multitude wherever they went; and as those monks exhibited, in their outward appearance and manner of life, more striking marks of gravity and holiness than were observable in the other He taught, that no person could be saved unless he were baptized in his name: and he conferred a peculiar sort of baptism, which would render those who received it immortal in the next world; exhibiting himself to the world with the phrenzy of a lunatic more than the founder of a sect as a promised saviour; for it appears by the testimonies of Iranæus, Justin, and Tertullian, that he pretended to be one of the cons sent from the pleroma, or ecclesiastical regions, to succour the souls that lay groaning under bodily oppression and servitude; and to maintain them against the violence and stratagems of the dæmonastic societies, they rose all at once mons that hold the reigns of empire in this sublunary world. As this doctrine was built upon the same foundation with that of Simon Magus, the ancient writers look upon him as the instructor of Menander. See SIMONIANS MENDICANTS, or BEGGING FRIARS, several orders of religious in popish countries. who, having no settled revenues, are supported by the|| charitable contributions they receive from others. to the very summit of fame, and were regarded with the utmost esteem and veneration through all the countries of Europe. The enthusiastic attachment to these sanctimonious beggars went so far, that, as we learn from the most authentic records, several cities were divided or cantoned out into four parts, with a view to these four orders: the first part being assigned to the Dominicans, the second to the Franciscans, the third to the Carmelites, and the This sort of society began in the fourth to the Augustins. The people thirteenth century, and the members were unwilling to receive the sacraof it, by the tenor of their institution, ments from any other hands than were to remain entirely destitute of all those of the Mendicants, to whose fixed revenues and possessions; though churches they crowded to perform in process of time their number became their devotions while living, and were a heavy tax upon the people. Innocent extremely desirous to deposit there III was the first of the popes who per- also their remains after death. Nor ceived the necessity of instituting such did the influence and credit of the Menan order; and accordingly he gave such dicants end here; for we find in the hismonastic societies as made a profession tory of this and of the succeeding ages, of poverty, the most istinguishing that they were employed not only in marks of his protection and favour. spiritual matters, but also in temporal They were also encouraged and patro- and political affairs of the greatest con. nized by the succeeding pontiffs, when sequence, in composing the differences experience had demonstrated their of princes, concluding treaties of peace, public and extensive usefulness. But concerting alliances, presiding in cabinet when it became generally known that councils, governing courts, levying taxes, they had such a peculiar place in the and other occupations, not only remote esteem and protection of the rulers of from, but absolutely inconsistent with the church, their number grew to such the monastic character and profession. an enormous and unwieldly multitude, However, the power of the Dominicans and swarmed so prodigiously in all the and Franciscans greatly surpassed that European provinces, that they became of the other two orders, insomuch that a burden, not only to the people but to these two orders were, before the rethe church itself. The great incon formation, what the Jesuits have been venience that arose from the excessive since that happy and glorious period; multiplication of the Mendicant orders the very soul of the hierarchy, the en was remedied by Gregory X., in a gines of the state, the secret springs of general council, which he assembled at all the motions of the one and the other, Lyons in 1272; for here all the religious and the authors and directors of every orders that had sprung up after the great and important event, both in the council held at Rome in 1215, under the religious and political world. By very pontificate of Innocent III. were sup quick progression their pride and conpressed; and the extravagant multitudefidence arrived at such a pitch, th |