3. How long miracles were continued in the church, has been a matter of keen dispute, and has been investigated with as much anxiety as if the truth of the Gospel depended upon the manner in which it was decided. Assuming, as we are here warranted to do, that real miraculous power was conveyed in the way detailed by the inspired writers, it is plain, that it may have been exercised in different countries, and may have remained, without any new communication of it, throughout the first, and a considerable part of the second century. The Apostles, wherever they went to execute their commission, would avail themselves of the stupendous gift which had been imparted to them; and it is clear, not only that they were permitted and enabled to convey it to others, but that spiritual gifts, including the power of working miracles, were actually conferred on many of the primitive disciples. Allusions to this we find in the epistles of St. Paul; such allusions, too, as it is utterly inconceivable that any man of a sound judgment could have made, had he not known that he was referring to an obvious fact, about which there could be no hesitation. Of the time at which several of the Apostles died, we have no certain knowledge. St. Peter and St. Paul suffered at Rome about A. D. 66, or 67; and it is fully established, that the life of John was much longer protracted, he having died a natural death, A. D. 100, or 101. Supposing that the two former of these Apostles imparted spiritual gifts till the time of their suffering martyrdom, the persons to whom they were imparted might, in the course of nature, have lived through the earlier part of the second century; and if John did the same till the end of his life, such gifts as were derived from him might have remained till more than the half of that century had elapsed. That such was the fact, is asserted by ancient ecclesiastical writers. Whether, after the generation immediately succeeding the Apostles had passed away, the power of working miracles was anew communicated, is a question, the solution of which cannot be nearly so satisfactory. The probability is, that there was no such renewal; and this opinion rests upon the ground that natural causes were now sufficient to accomplish the end for which miracles were originally designed; and it does not appear to have been any part of the scheme of the blessed Author of our religion, that, solely for the purpose of hastening that conversion of the nations which might gradually be accomplished, miracles should be wrought, when these could be of no use in establishing after ages in the faith.
MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION. By this is meant, that the human nature of Jesus Christ was formed, not in the ordinary method of generation, but out of the substance of the Virgin Mary, by the immediate operation of the Holy Ghost. The evidence upon which this article of the Christian faith rests is found in Matt. i, 18–23, and in the more particular narration which St. Luke has given in the first chapter of his Gospel. If we admit this evidence of the fact, we can discern the emphatical meaning of the appellation given to our Saviour when he is called the seed of the woman,” Gen. iii, 15; we can perceive the meaning of a phrase which St. Luke has introduced into the genealogy of Jesus, Luke iii, 23, and of which, otherwise, it is not possible to give a good account, ων, ὡς ενομιζετο, ὑιος Ιωσηφ; [being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph;] and we can discover a peculiar significancy in an expression of the Apostle Paul, Gal. iv, 4, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.” The conception of Jesus is the point from which we date the union between his divine and human nature; and, this conception being miraculous, the existence of the person in whom they are united, was not physically derived from Adam. But, as Dr. Horsley speaks in his sermon on the incarnation, the union with the uncreated Word is the very principle of personality and individual existence in the son of Mary. According to this view of the matter, the miraculous conception gives a completeness and consistency to the revelation concerning Jesus Christ. Not only is he the Son of God, but, as the Son of man, he is exalted above his brethren, while he is made like them. He is preserved from the contamination adhering to the race whose nature he assumed; and when the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, was made flesh, the intercourse which, as man, he had with God, is distinguished, not in degree only, but in kind, from that which any prophet ever enjoyed, and it is infinitely more intimate, because it did not consist in communications occasionally made to him, but arose from the manner in which his human nature had its existence.
MIRIAM, sister of Moses and Aaron, and daughter of Amram and Jochebed, was born about A. M. 2424. She might be ten or twelve years old when her brother Moses was exposed on the banks of the Nile, since Miriam was watching there, and offered herself to Pharaoh’s daughter to fetch her a nurse. The princess accepting the offer, Miriam fetched her own mother, to whom the young Moses was given to nurse, Exod. ii, 4, 5, &c. It is thought that Miriam married Hur, of the tribe of Judah; but it does not appear that she had any children by him, Exod. xvii, 10, 11. Miriam had the gift of prophecy, as she intimates, Num. xii, 2: Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?” After the passage of the Red Sea, Miriam led the choirs and dances of the women, and sung with them the canticle, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea:” while Moses led the choir of men, Exod. xv, 21. When Zipporah, the wife of Moses, arrived in the camp of Israel, Miriam and Aaron disputed with her, speaking against Moses on her account, Num. xii. This conduct the Lord punished by visiting Miriam with a leprosy. Aaron interceded with Moses for her recovery, and besought the Lord, who ordered her to be shut out of the camp seven days. We are acquainted with no subsequent particulars of the life of Miriam. Her death happened in the first month of the fortieth year after the exodus, at the encampment of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, Num. xx, 1. The people mourned for her, and she was there buried.
MIRRORS, usually, but improperly, rendered looking glasses. The eastern mirrors were made of polished metal, and for the most part convex. So Callimachus describes Venus as taking the shining brass,” that is, to adjust her hair. If they were thus made in the country of Elihu, the image made use of by him will appear very lively: Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?” Job xxxvii, 18. Shaw informs us that “in the Levant, looking glasses are a part of female dress. The Moorish women in Barbary are so fond of their ornaments, and particularly of their looking glasses, which they bang upon their breasts, that they will not lay them aside, even when, after the drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go two or three miles with a pitcher or a goat’s skin, to fetch water.” The Israelitish women used to carry their mirrors with them, even to their most solemn place of worship. The word mirror should be used in the passages here referred to. To speak of looking glasses made of steel,” and glasses molten,” is palpably absurd; whereas the term mirror obviates every difficulty, and expresses the true meaning of the original.
MISHNA, or MISNA, משנה, signifies repetition, and is properly the code of the Jewish civil law. The Mishna 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 Mishna. The Mishna consists of various traditions of the Jews, and of explanations of several passages of Scripture. These traditions, serving as an explication of the written law, and supplementary to it, are said to have been delivered to Moses during the time of his abode upon the mount; which he afterward communicated to Aaron, Eleazar, and his servant Joshua. By these they were transmitted to the seventy elders; by them to the prophets, who communicated them to the men of the great sanhedrim, from whom the wise men of Jerusalem and Babylon received them. According to Dr. Prideaux, they passed from Jeremiah to Baruch, from him to Ezra, and from Ezra to the men of the great synagogue, the last of whom was Simon the Just, who delivered them to Antigonus of Socho. From him they came down in regular succession to Simeon, who took our Saviour in his arms; to Gamaliel, at whose feet St. Paul was brought up; and last of all to rabbi Judah the holy, who committed them to writing in the Mishna. Dr. Prideaux, rejecting this Jewish fiction, observes, that after the death of Simon the Just, about B. C. 299, arose the Tannaim or Mishnical doctors, who by their comments and conclusions, added to the number of those traditions which had been received and allowed by Ezra and the men of the great synagogue. Hence toward the middle of the second century after Christ, under the reign of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, it was found necessary to commit these traditions to writing. This was requisite, because the traditions had been so much increased that they could no longer be preserved by the memory of man; and also because their country had suffered considerably in the reign of the Emperor Adrian, and many of their schools being dissolved, and their learned men cut off, the usual method of preserving their traditions had failed. Lest, therefore, the traditions should be forgotten and lost, it was resolved that they should be collected and committed to writing. Rabbi Judah, who was at that time rector of the school at Tiberias in Galilee, and president of the sanhedrim at that place, undertook the work. He compiled it in six books, each consisting of several tracts, which altogether form the number of sixty-three. Dr. Prideaux computes, that the Mishna was composed about A. D. 150. Dr. Lightfoot, however, says, that rabbi Judah compiled the Mishna about A. D. 190, in the latter end of the reign of Commodus; or, as some compute, A. D. 220. Dr. Lardner is of opinion, that this work could not have been finished before A. D. 190, or later. Thus the book called the Mishna was formed; a book which was received by the Jews with great veneration, and which has been always held in high esteem among them. Their opinion of it is, that all the particulars which it contains were dictated by God himself to Moses upon Mount Sinai, as well as the written word itself; and, consequently, that it must be of the same divine authority, and ought to be as religiously observed. See [Cabbala], [Gemara], [Jews].
MITE. See [Money].
MITYLENE, the capital of the island of Lesbos, through which St. Paul passed as he went from Corinth to Jerusalem, Acts xx, 14.
MIZPAH, or MIZPEH, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, situated in a plain, about eighteen miles west of Jerusalem. Here Samuel dwelt; and here he called Israel together, to observe a solemn fast for their sins, and to supplicate God for his assistance against the Philistines; after which they sallied out on their enemies, already discomfited by the thunders of heaven, and gave them a total defeat, 1 Sam. vii. Here, also, Saul was anointed king, 1 Sam. x, 17–25. It appears that between this and the time of Asa, king of Judah, Mizpah had suffered probably in some of the intervening wars, as we are told that Asa built it with the stones and timber of Ramah, 1 Kings xv, 22. There was another Mizpeh in Gilead; on the spot where Jacob set up the pillar or heap of stones, to commemorate the covenant there made between him and Laban, Gen. xxxi, 49. (See [Gilead].) There was also a third Mizpeh, in the land of Moab, where David placed his father and mother, while he remained in his retreat at Adullam, 1 Sam. xxii, 3. It is to be observed, that Mizpeh implies a beacon or watch tower, a pillar or heap of commemoration; and at all the places bearing this name, it is probable that a single pillar, or a rude pile, was erected as the witness and the record of some particular event. These, subsequently, became altars and places of convocation on public occasions, religious and civil.
MIZRAIM, or MESRAIM, son of Ham, and father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, and Casluhim, Gen. x, 6. Meser or Misor was father of the Mizraim, the Egyptians; and he himself is commonly called Mizraim, although there is very strong probability that Mizraim, being of the plural number, signifies rather the Egyptians themselves, than the father of that people. Mizraim is also put for the country of Egypt: thus it has three significations, which are perpetually confounded and used promiscuously, sometimes denoting the land of Egypt, sometimes him who first peopled Egypt, and sometimes the inhabitants themselves. Cairo, the capital of Egypt, and even Egypt itself, are to this day called Mezer by the Arabians. But the natives call Egypt Chemi, that is, the land of Cham, or Ham, as it is also sometimes called in Scripture, Psalm lxxviii, 12; cv, 23; cvi, 22. The Prophet Micah, vii, 15, gives to Egypt the name of Mezor, or Matzor; and rabbi Kimchi, followed in this by several learned commentators, explains by Egypt what is said of the rivers of Mezor, 2 Kings xix, 24; Isaiah xix, 6; xxxvii, 25.
MOAB[MOAB] was the son of Lot, and of his eldest daughter, Gen. xix, 31, &c. He was born about the same time as Isaac, A. M. 2108, and was father of the Moabites, whose habitation lay beyond Jordan and the Dead Sea, on both sides of the river Arnon. Their capital city was situated on that river, and was called Ar or Areopolis, or Ariol of Moab, or Rabbah Moab, that is, the capital of Moab, or Kir-haresh, that is, a city with brick walls. This country was originally possessed by a race of giants called Emim, Deut. ii, 11, 12. The Moabites conquered them, and afterward the Amorites took a part from the Moabites, Judges xi, 13. Moses conquered that part which belonged to the Amorites, and gave it to the tribe of Reuben. The Moabites were spared by Moses, for God had restricted him, Deut. ii, 9. But there always was a great antipathy between the Moabites and the Israelites, which occasioned many wars between them. Balaam seduced the Hebrews to idolatry and uncleanness, by means of the daughters of Moab, Num. xxv, 1, 2; and Balak, king of this people, endeavoured to prevail on Balaam to curse Israel. God ordained that the Moabites should not enter into the congregation of his people, because they had the inhumanity to refuse the Israelites a passage through their country, nor would they supply them with bread and water in their necessity. Eglon, king of the Moabites, was one of the first that oppressed Israel after the death of Joshua. Ehud killed Eglon, and Israel expelled the Moabites, Judges iii, 12, &c. Hanun king of the Ammonites having insulted David’s ambassadors, David made war against him, and subdued Moab and Ammon; under which subjection they continued till the separation of the ten tribes. The Ammonites and the Moabites continued in subjection to the kings of Israel to the death of Ahab. Presently after the death of Ahab the Moabites began to revolt, 2 Kings iii, 4, 5. Mesha, king of Moab, refused the tribute of a hundred thousand lambs, and as many rams, which till then had been customarily paid, either yearly, or at the beginning of every reign; which of these two is not clearly expressed in Scripture. The reign of Ahaziah was too short to make war with them; but Jehoram, son of Ahab, and brother to Ahaziah, having ascended the throne, thought of reducing them to obedience. He invited Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who, with the king of Edom, then his vassal, entered Moab, where they were near perishing with thirst, but were miraculously relieved, 2 Kings iii, 16, &c.