A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

MYSTICS. A party which arose towards the close of the third century, distinguished by their professing pure, sublime, and perfect devotion. They excuse their fanatical ecstasies by alleging the passage of St. Paul, “The Spirit prays in us with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered.” They contend that, if the Spirit prays within us, we must resign ourselves to its motions, and be guided and swayed through its impulse by remaining in a state of mere inaction. The principles proceeded from the known doctrine of the Platonic school, which was also adopted by Origen and his disciples, that the Divine nature was diffused through all human souls; or that the faculty of reason, from which proceed the health and vigour of the mind, was an emanation from God into the human soul, and comprehended in it the principles and elements of all truth, human and divine. They denied that men could, by labour or study, excite this celestial flame in their breasts; and therefore they disapproved highly of the attempts of those who, by definitions, abstract theorems, and profound speculations, endeavoured to form distinct notions of truth, and to discover its hidden nature. On the contrary, they maintained that silence, tranquillity, repose, and solitude, accompanied with such acts as might tend to extenuate and exhaust the body, were the means by which the hidden and internal word was excited to produce its latent virtues, and to instruct them in the knowledge of Divine things. For thus they reasoned: Those who behold with a noble contempt all human affairs; who turn away their eyes from terrestrial vanities, and shut all the avenues of the outward senses against the contagious 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 contemplating truth undisguised and uncorrupted in its native purity, while others behold it in a vitiated and delusive form.

The number of the Mystics increased in the fourth century, under the influence of the Grecian fanatic, who gave himself out for Dionysius the Areopagite, disciple of St. Paul, and probably lived about this period; and by pretending to higher degrees of perfection than other Christians, and practising greater austerity, their cause gained ground, especially in the Eastern provinces, in the fifth century. A copy of the pretended works of Dionysius was sent by Balbus to Louis the Meek, in the year 824, which kindled the holy flame of mysticism in the Western provinces, and filled the Latins with the most enthusiastic admiration of this new religion. In the twelfth century, these Mystics took the lead in their method of expounding the Scriptures. In the thirteenth century they were the most formidable antagonists of the Schoolmen; and, towards the close of the fourteenth, many of them resided and propagated their tenets in almost every part of Europe.

Among the Mystics of that time we may notice the Dominican John Tauler, of Strasburg, A. D. 1361; Henry Suso of Ulm, A. D. 1365; and especially John Ruysbroock, called Doctor Ecstaticus, A. D. 1381, who of all the Mystics was the most dreamy and enthusiastic. Among Protestants there have been and are many Mystics, but they have not formed a sect.—Mosheim. Gieseler.

NAG’S HEAD FABLE. (See Consecration of Bishops.)

NAHUM, THE PROPHECY OF. A canonical book of the Old Testament. Nahum is the seventh of the twelve lesser prophets; a native of Elkoshai, a little village of Galilee, the ruins of which were still to be seen in the time of St. Jerome. The particular circumstances of this prophet’s life are altogether unknown.

Authors are divided as to the time when Nahum prophesied, some fixing it to the reign of Ahaz, others to that of Manasseh, and others to the times of the captivity. St. Jerome places it in the reign of Hezekiah, after the war of Sennacherib in Egypt, which the prophet speaks of as a thing passed.

The subject of Nahum’s prophecy is the destruction of Nineveh, which he describes in the most lively and pathetic manner; and this prophecy was verified in the siege of that city by Astyages in the year of the world 3378, before Christ 622.

NAME. (See Christian Name.) The Christian name is given us in baptism. All things being prepared for the baptism of the child, the minister is now to “take it into his hands,” and to ask the godfathers and godmothers to “name” it. For the “Christian name” being given as a badge that we belong to Christ, we cannot more properly take it upon us, than when we are enlisted under his banner. We bring one name into the world with us, which we derive from our parents, and which serves to remind us of our original guilt, and that we are born in sin: but this new name is given us at our baptism, to remind us of our new birth, when, being washed in the laver of regeneration, we are thereby cleansed from our natural impurities, and become in a manner new creatures, and solemnly dedicate ourselves to God. So that the naming of children at this time hath been thought by many to import something more than ordinary, and to carry with it a mysterious signification. We find something like it even among the heathens; for the Romans had a custom of naming their children on the day of their lustration, (that is, when they were cleansed and washed from their natural pollution,) which was therefore called “Dies Nominalis.” And the Greeks also, when they carried their infants, a little after their birth, about the fire, (which was their ceremony of dedicating or consecrating them to their gods,) were used at the same time to give them their names.

And that the Jews named their children at the time of circumcision, the Holy Scriptures, (Gen. xxi. 3, 4; Luke i. 59, 60; ii. 21,) as well as their own writers, expressly tell us. And though the rite itself of circumcision was changed into that of baptism by our Saviour, yet he made no alteration as to the time and custom of giving the name, but left that to continue under the new, as he had found it under the old dispensation. Accordingly we find this time assigned and used to this purpose ever since; the Christians continuing from the earliest ages to name their children at the time of baptism.—Wheatly.

NANTES, EDICT OF. An edict of toleration, promulgated by Henry IV. of France in 1598, which restored the Protestants to all the favours which had been granted them in former reigns, and gave them the liberty of serving God according to their conscience, and a full participation in all civil rights and privileges. This edict was, at the instigation of the Jesuits, revoked by Louis XIV. in the year 1685.