under pressures and calamities of various kinds, that succeeded each other without interruption, and constantly exposed to the danger of falling a victim to the severity of the laws. East and West Friesland, together with the province of Groningen, were first visited by this zealous apostle of the Anabaptists; from whence he directed his course into Holland, Guelderland, Brabant, and Westphalia; 1 1 tumultuous proceedings have been recited under that article), but somewhat more severe, though more clear and consistent than the doctrine of the wiser branches of that sect, who aimed at nothing more than the restoration of the Christian church to its primitive purity. Accordingly he condemned the plan of ecclesiastical discipline that was founded on the prospect of a new kingdom to continued it through the German be miraculously established by Jecertain than this fact, viz. that the first Mennonite congregations were composed of the different sorts of Anabaptists; of those who had been always inoffensive and upright, and of those who, before their conversion by the ministry of Menno, had been seditious fanatics: besides, it is alleged, that the Mennonites do actually retain at this day some of those opinions and doctrines which led the seditious and turbulent Anabaptists of old to the commission of so many and such enormous crimes: such particularly is the doctrine concerning the nature of Christ's kingdom, or of the church of the New Testament, though modified in such a manner as to have lost its noxi ous qualities, and to be no longer pernicious in its influence. provinces that lie on the coast of the Baltic sea, and penetrated so far as Livonia. In all these places his ministerial labours were attended with remarkable success, and added to his sect a prodigious number of followers. Hence he is deservedly considered as the common chief of almost all the Anabaptists, and the parent of the sect that still subsists under that denomination. Menno was a man of genius, though not of a very sound judgment: he possessed a natural and persuasive eloquence, and such a degree of learning as made him pass for an oracle in the estimation of the multitude. He appears, moreover, to have been a man of probity, of a meek and tractable spirit, gentle in his manners, pliable and obsequious in his commerce with persons of all ranks and characters, and extremely zealous in promoting practical religion and virtue, which he recommended by his example as well as by his precepts. The plan of doctrine and discipline drawn up by Menno was of a much more mild and moderate nature than that of the furious and fanatical Anabaptists (whose He sus Christ on the ruins of civil government and the destruction of human rulers, and which had been the fatal and pestilential source of such dreadful commotions, such execrable rebellions, and such enormous crimes. declared publicly his dislike of that doctrine which pointed out the approach of a marvellous reformation in the church by the means of a new and extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit. He expressed his abhorrence of the licentious tenets which several of the Anabaptists had maintained with respect to the lawfulness of polygamy and divorce; and, finally, considered as unworthy of toleration those fanatics who were of opinion that the Holy Ghost continued to descend into the minds of many chosen believers, in as extraordinary a manner as he did at the first establishment of the Christian church, and that he testified his peculiar presence to several of the faithful by miracles, predictions, dreams, and visions of various kinds. He retained, indeed, the doctrines commonly received among the Anabaptists, in relation to the baptism of infants; the millenni-that they are not Anabaptists um, or one thousand years reign either in principle or by origin. of Christ upon earth; the exclu- However, nothing can be more sion of magistrates from the Christian church; the abolition of war; • and the prohibition of oaths enjoined by our Saviour, and the vanity, as well as the pernicious effects of human science. But while Menno retained these doctrines in a general sense, he explained and modified them in such a manner as made them resemble the religious tenets that were universally received in the Protestant churches; and this rendered them agreeable to many, and made them appear inoffensive even to numbers who had no inclination to embrace them. It, however, so happened, that the nature of the doctrines considered in themselves, the eloquence of Menno, which set them off to such advantage, and the circumstances of the times, gave a high degree of credit to the religious system of this famous teacher among the Anabaptists, so that it made a rapid progress in that sect. And thus it was in consequence of the ministry of Menno that the different sorts of Anabaptists agreed together in excluding from their derived from this fundamental communion the fanatics that principle, that the kingdom which dishonoured it, and in renouncing Christ established upon earth is a all tenets that were detrimental to visible church, or community, into the authority of civil government, which the holy and just alone are and by an unexpected coalition to be admitted; and which is conformed themselves into one com-sequently exempt from all those munity. The Mennonites are subdivided into several sects, whereof the two principal are the Flandrians, or Flemingians, and the Waterlandians. The opinions, says Mosheim, that are held in common by the Mennonites, seem to be all institutions and rules of discipline that have been invented by human wisdom for the correction and reformation of the wicked. This principle, indeed, was avowed by Though the Mennonites usually pass for a sect of Anabaptists, yet M. Herman Schyn, a Mennonite minister, who has published their history and apology, maintains, the ancient Mennonites, but it is VOL. II. 0 now almost wholly renounced: of less moment. However, this nevertheless, from this ancient austere system declines, and the doctrine many of the religious rigid Mennonites are gradually approaching towards the opinions and discipline of the more moderate, or Waterlandians. opinions that distinguish the Mennonites from all other Christian communities seem to be derived. In consequence of this doctrine, The first settlement of the Menthey admit none to the sacrament nonites in the United Provinces of baptism but persons that are was granted them by William, come to the full use of their prince of Orange, towards the reason; they neither admit civil close of the sixteenth century; rulers into their communion, nor but it was not before the followallow any of their members to ing century that their liberty and perform the functions of magis- tranquillity were fixed upon solid tracy; they deny the lawfulness foundations, when, by a confesof repelling force by force; and sion of faith published in the year consider war, in all its shapes, as 1626, they cleared themselves unchristian and unjust: they en- from the imputations of those pertertain the utmost aversion to the nicious and detestable errors that execution of justice, and more es- had been laid to their charge. In pecially to capital punishments: order to appease their intestine and they also refuse to confirm discords, a considerable part of their testimony by an oath. The the Anabaptists of Flanders, Gerparticular sentiments that divided many, and Friesland, concluded the more considerable societies of their debates in a conference held the Mennonites are the follow- at Amsterdam in the year 1630, ing: The rigid Mennonites, called and entered into the bonds of frathe Flemingians, maintain with ternal communion, each reserving various degrees of rigour the to themselves a liberty of retaining opinions of their founder Menno, certain opinions. This association as to the human nature of Christ, was renewed and confirmed by alleging that it was produced in new resolutions in the year 1649; the womb of the Virgin by the in consequence of which the ricreating power of the Holy Ghost; gorous laws of Menno and his the obligation that binds us to successors were in various respects wash the feet of strangers, in con- mitigated and corrected. sequence of our Saviour's com- ANABAPTISTS. mand; the necessity of excommunicating and avoiding, as one would do the plague, not only avowed. sinners, but also all those who depart, even in some light instances pertaining to dress, &c., from the simplicity of their ancestors; the contempt due to human learning; and other matters See MEN OF UNDERSTANDING. This title distinguished a denomination which appeared in Flanders and Brussels in the year 1511. They owed their origin to an illiterate man, whose name was Egidius Cantor, and to William of Hildenison, a Carmelite monk. They pretended to be honoured turned into mercy. with celestial visions, denied that their children simply as they are any could arrive at perfect know-their children; but if they fall ledge of the holy scriptures with- into misery, love works in a way out the extraordinary succours of of pity and compassion: love is a divine illumination, and declared the approach of a new revelation from heaven, more perfect than the gospel of Christ. They said that the resurrection was accomplished in the person of Jesus, and no other was to be expected; that the inward man was not defiled by the outward actions, whatever they were; that the pains of hell were to have an end; and not only all mankind, but even the devils themselves, were to return to God, and be made partakers of eternal felicity. They also taught among other things that Christ alone had merited eternal life and felicity for the human race; and that therefore men could not acquire this inestimable privilege by their own actions alone-that the priests, to whom the people confessed their transgressions, had not the power of absolving them, but this authority was vested in Christ alone-that voluntary penance and mortification was not necessary to salvation. This denomination appears to have been a branch of the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit. MERCY is that disposition of mind which excites us to pity and relieve those who are in trouble, or to pass by their crimes without punishing them. It is distinguished from love, thus: The object of love is the creature simply; the object of mercy is the creature fallen into misery. Parents love "As we are all the objects of mercy in one degree or another, the mutual exercise of it towards each other is necessary to preserve the harmony and happiness of society. But there are those who may be more particularly considered as the objects of it; such as the guilty, the indigent, and the miserable. As it respects the guilty, the greatest mercy we can shew to them is to endeavour to reclaim them, and prevent the bad consequences of their misconduct, James v, 20. Mercy may also be shewn to them by a proper mitigation of justice, and not extending the punishment beyond the nature or desert of the crime. With regard to those who are in necessity and want, mercy calls upon us to afford the most suitable and seasonable supplies; and here our benefactions must be dispensed in proportion to our circumstances, and the real distress of the object, 1st John iii, 17. As to those who are in misery and distress, mercy prompts us to relieve and comfort them by doing what we can to remove or alleviate their burdens. Our Lord strongly recommended this act of mercy in the parable of the man who fell among thieves, and was relieved by the poor Samaritan: and in the conclusion he adds, Go and do thou likewise,' Luke x, 30 to 37. "This merciful temper will shew and exert itself not only 1 towards those of our own party and acquaintance, but to the whole human species; and not only to the whole human species, but to the animal creation. It is a degree of inhumanity to take a pleasure in giving any thing pain, and more in putting useful animals to extreme torture for our own sport. This is not that dominion which God originally gave to man over the beasts of the field. It is, therefore, an usurped authority, which man has no right to exercise over brute creatures, which were made for his service, convenience, support, and ease; but not for the gratification of unlawful passions, or cruel dispositions. "Mercy must be distinguished from those weaknesses of a natural temper which often put on the appearance of it. With regard to criminals or delinquents, it is false compassion to suppress the salutary admonition, and refuse to set their guilt before them, merely because the sight of it will give their conscience pain: such unseasonable tenderness in a surgeon may prove the death of his patient; this, however it may appear, is not mercy, but cruelty. So is that fondness of a parent that withholds the hand of discipline from a beloved child, when its frowardness and faults render seasonable and prudent correction necessary to save it from ruin. In like manner, when a magistrate through excessive clemency, suffers a criminal who is a pest to society to escape unpunished, or so mitigates the sentence of the law as to put it into his power to do still greater hurt to others, he violates not only the laws of justice, but of mercy too. a "Mercy to the indigent and necessitous has been no less abused and perverted by acts of mistaken beneficence, when impudence and clamour are permitted to extort from the hand of charity that relief which is due to silent distress and modest merit; or when one object is lavishly relieved to the detriment of another who is more deserving. As it respects those who are in tribulation or misery, to be sure, every such person is an object of our compassion; but that compassion may be, and often is, exercised in wrong manner. Some are of so tender a make, that they cannot bear the sight of distress, and stand aloof from a friend in pain and affliction, be cause it affects them too sensibly, when their presence would at least give them some little comfort, and might possibly administer lasting relief. This weakness should be opposed, because it not only looks like unkindness to our friends, but is really showing more tenderness to ourselves than to them: nor is it doing as we would be done by. Again; it is false pity, when, out of mere tenderness of nature, we either advise or permit our afflicted friend to take or do any thing which will give him a little present transient ease, but which we know at the same time will increase his future pain, and aggravate the symptoms of his disease." Seeing, therefore, the extremes to which we are liable, let us learn to cultivate that wisdom and pru |