letter of the Hebrew text, in which they have first fixed the true reading by vowels and accents; they have, secondly, numbered not only the chapters and sections, but the verses, words, and letters of the text, and they find in the Pentateuch 5245 verses, and in the whole Bible 23,206. The masora is called, by the masora, "tradition," from מסר tradidit, as if this critique were nothing but a tradition which they had received from their forefathers. Accordingly they say, that, when God gave the law to Moses at Mount Sinai, he taught him first the true reading of it; and, secondly, its true interpretation; and that both these were handed Jews, the hedge or fence of the law, down by oral tradition from ge because this enumeration of the neration to generation, till at verses, &c., is a means of pre-length they were committed to serving it from being corrupted writing. The former of these, and altered. They have, thirdly, marked whatever irregularities occur in any of the letters of the Hebrew text; such as the differ-mishna and gemara. ent size of the letters, their various positions and inversions, &c.; and they have been fruitful in finding out reasons for these mysteries and irregularities in them. They are, fourthly, supposed to be the authors of the Keri and Chetibh, or the marginal corrections of the text in our Hebrew Bibles. viz. the true reading, is the subject of the masora; the latter, or true interpretation, that of the According to Elias Levita, they were the Jews of a famous school at Tiberias, about five hundred years after Christ, who composed, or at least began, the masora; whence they are called masorites and masoretic doctors. Aben Ezra makes them the authors of the points and accents in the Hebrew text, as we now find it, and which serve for vowels. The age of the masorites has been much disputed. Archbishop Usher places them befor Jerome; Capel, at the end of the fifth century; father Morin, in the tenth century. Basnage says, that they were not a society, but a succession of men; and that the masora was the work of many grammarians, who, without associating and communicating their notions, composed this collection of cri ticisms on the Hebrew text. It is urged, that there were masorites The text of the sacred books, it is to be observed, was originally written without any breaks or divisions into chapters or verses, or even into words; so that a whole book, in the ancient manner, was but one continued word: of this kind we have still several ancient manuscripts, both Greek and Latin. In regard, therefore, the sacred writings had undergone an infinite number of alterations, whence various readings had arisen, and the original was become much mangled and disguised, the Jews had recourse to a canon, which they judged infallible, to fix and from the time of Ezra and the ascertain the reading of the He-men of the great synagogue, to brew text; and this rule they call about the year of Christ 1030: VOL. II. M and that Ben Asher and Ben Nicod, after Baronius, observes, Naphtali, who were the best of that the word comes from the Hethe profession, and who, accord-brew missach (oblatum); or from ing to Basnage, were the inventors of the masora, flourished at this time. Each of these published a copy of the whole Hebrew text, as correct, says Dr. Prideaux, as they could make it. The eastern Jews have followed that of Ben Naphtali, and the western that of Ben Asher; and all that has been done since is to copy after them, without making any more corrections, or masoretical criticisms. The Arabs have done the same thing by their Koran that the Masorites have done by the Bible; nor do the Jews deny their having borrowed this expedient from the Arabs, who first put it in practice in the seventh century. the Latin missa missorum; because in the former times the catechumens and excommunicated were sent out of the church, when the deacons said, Ite, missa est, after sermon and reading of the epistle and gospel; they not being allowed to assist at the consecration. Menage derives the word from missio, "dismissing;" others from missa, "missing, sending;" because in the mass the prayers of men on earth are sent up to heaven. The general division of masses consists in high and low. The first is that sung by the choristers, and celebrated with the assistance of a deacon and sub-deacon: low masses are those in which the prayers are barely rehearsed without sing There is a great and little ma-ing. sora printed at Venice and at Ba- There are a great number of sil, with the Hebrew text in a dif- different or occasional masses in ferent character. Buxtorf has the Romish church, many of written a masoretic commentary, which he calls Tiberias. MASS, Missa, in the church of Rome, the office or prayers used at the celebration of the eucharist; or, in other words, consecrating the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, and offering them, so transubstantiated, as an expiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead. As the mass is in general believed to be a representation of the passion of our blessed Saviour, so every action of the priest, and every particular part of the service, is supposed to allude to the particular circumstances of his passion and death. which have nothing peculiar but the name: such are the masses of the saints; that of St. Mary of the Snow, celebrated on the fifth of August; that of St. Margaret, patroness of lying-in-women; that at the feast of St. John the Baptist, at which are said three masses; that of the Innocents, at which the gloria in excelsis and hallelujah are omitted, and, it being a day of mourning, the altar is of a violet colour. As to ordinary masses, some are said for the dead, and, as is supposed, contribute to fetch the soul out of purgatory. At these masses the altar is put in mourning, and the only decorations are a cross in lights: the dress of the celebrant, and the very mass-book, are black; many parts of the office are omitted, and the people are dismissed without the benediction. If the mass be said for a person distinguished by his rank or virtues, it is followed with a funeral oration: they erect a chapelle ardente, that is, a representation of the deceased, with branches and tapers of yellow wax, either in the middle of the church, or near the deceased's tomb, where the priest pronounces a solemn absolution of the deceased. There are likewise private masses said for stolen or strayed goods or cattle, for health, for travellers, &c., which go under the name of votive masses. There is still a further distinction of masses, denominated from the countries in which they were used: thus, the Gothic mass, or missa mosarabum, is that used among the Goths when they were masters of Spain, and which is still kept up at Toledo and Salamanca; the Ambrosian mass is that composed by St. Ambrose, and used only at Milan, of which city he was bishop; the Gallic mass, used by the ancient Gauls; and the Roman mass, used by almost all the churches in the Romish communion. the middle of six yellow wax || days, Sundays, and the Annun ciation. The priest counts upon his fingers the days of the ensuing week on which it is to be celebrated, and cuts off as many pieces of bread at the altar as he is to say masses; and after having consecrated them, steeps them in wine, and puts them in a box; out of which, upon every occasion, he takes some of it with a spoon, and, putting it on a dish, sets it on the altar. MASSACRE, a term used to signify the sudden and promiscuous butchery of a multitude. See PERSECUTION. MASSALIANS, or MESSALIANS, a sect which sprung up about the year 361, in the reign of the emperor Constantius, who maintained that men have two souls, a celestial and a diabolical; and that the latter is driven out by prayer. From those words of our Lord, "Labour not for the meat that perisheth," it is said, that they concluded they ought not to do any work to get their bread. We may suppose, says Dr. Jortin, that this sect did not last long; that these sluggards were soon starved out of the world; or, rather, that cold and hunger sharpened their wits, and taught them to be better interpreters of scrip ture. MASTER, a person who has servants under him; a ruler, or instructor. The duties of masters relate to the civil concerns of the family. To arrange the several Mass of the presanctified (missa presanctificatorum), is a mass peculiar to the Greek church, in which there is no consecration of the elements; but, after singing some hymns, they receive the businesses required of servants ; bread and wine which were before consecrated. This mass is performed all Lent, except on Satur to give particular instructions what is to be done, and how it is to be done; to take care that no substance distinct from the body, but the result of corporeal organization. There are others called by this name, who have maintained that there is nothing but matter in the universe. The followers of the late Dr. Priestley are considered as Materialists or philosophical Necessarians. According to the doctor's writings, he believed, more is required of servants than they are equal to; to be gentle in our deportment toward them; to reprove them when they do wrong, to commend them when they do right; to make them an adequate recompence for their services, as to protection, maintenance, wages, and character.-2. As to the morals of servants. Masters must look well to their servants' characters before they hire them; instruct them in the principles and confirm them in the habits of virtue; watch over their morals, and set them good examples.-3. As to their religious interests. They should instruct them in the knowledge of divine things, Gen. xiv, 14. Gen. xviii, 19. Pray with them and for them. Joshua xxiv, 15. Allow them time and leisure for religious services, &c. Eph. vi, 9. See Stennet on Domestic Du- it to life again. For if the menties, ser. 8; Paley's Mor. Phil., tal principle were, in its own navol. i, 233, 235; Beattie's Ele-ture, immaterial and immortal, all ments of Moral Science, vol. i, 150, its peculiar faculties would be so 153; Doddrige's Lec., v. ii, 266. too; whereas we see that every MATERIALISTS, a sect in the ancient church, composed of persons, who, being prepossessed with that maxim in philosophy, "ex nihilo nihil fit," out of nothing nothing can arise, had recourse to an internal matter, on which they supposed God wrought in the creation, instead of admitting Him alone as the sole cause of the existence of all things. Tertullian vigorously opposed them in his treatise against Hermogenes, who was one of their number. Materialists are also those who maintain that the soul of man is material, or that the principle of perception and thought is not a 1. That man is no more than what we now see of him: his being commences at the time of his conception, or perhaps at an earlier period. The corporeal and mental faculties, inhering in the same substance, grow, ripen, and decay together; and whenever the system is dissolved, it continues in a state of dissolution, till it shall please that Almighty Being who called it into existence to restore faculty of the mind, without exception, is liable to be impaired, and even to become wholly extinct, before death. Since, therefore, all the faculties of the mind, separately taken, appear to be mortal, the substance, or principle, in which they exist, must be pronounced mortal too. Thus we might conclude that the body was mortal, from observing that all the separate senses and limbs were liable to decay and perish. This system gives a real value to the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead, which is peculiar to revelation; on which alone the sacred writers build all our hope of future life: and it ex-ed by what precedes it: and this plains the uniform language of the constant determination of mind, scriptures, which speak of one day of judgment for all mankind; and represent all the rewards of virtue, and all the punishments of vice, as taking place at that awful day, and not before. In the scrip⚫tures, the heathens are represented as without hope, and all mankind as perishing at death, if there be no resurrection of the dead. The apostle Paul asserts, in 1st Cor. xv, 16, that if the dead rise not, then is not Christ risen; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins: then they also who ure fallen asleep in Christ are perished. And again, ver. 32, If the dead rise not, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. In the whole discourse, he does not even mention the doctrine of happiness or misery without the body. If we search the scriptures for passages expressive of the state of man at death, we find such declarations as expressly exclude any trace of sense, thought, or enjoySee Ps. vi, 5. Job xiv. 7, ment. &c. 2. That there is some fixed law of nature respecting the will, as well as the other powers of the mind, and every thing else in the according to the motives presented to it, is what is meant by its necessary determination. This being admitted to be fact, there will be a necessary connexion between all things past, present, and to come, in the way of proper cause and effect, as much in the intellectual as in the natural world; so that, according to the established laws of nature, no event could have been otherwise than it has been, or is to be, and therefore all things past, present, and to come, are precisely what the Author of Nature really intended them to be, and has made provision for. To establish this conclusion, nothing is necessary but that throughout all nature the same consequences should invariably result from the same circumstances. For if this be admitted, it will necessarily follow, that at the commencement of any system, since the several parts of it and their respective situations were appointed by the Deity, the first change would take place according to a certain rule established by himself, the result of which would be a new situation; after which the same laws containing another change would succeed, according to the same rules, and so constitution of nature; and conse-on for ever; every new situation quently that it is never determined without some real or apparent cause foreign to itself; i. e. without some motive of choice; or, that motives influence us in some definite and invariable manner, so that every volition, or choice, is constantly regulated and determin invariably leading to another; and every event, from the commencement to the termination of the system, being strictly connected, so that, unless the fundamental laws of the system were changed, it would be impossible that any event should have been otherwise than it was. |