MEL 
MEL'BURY-AB'BOTS, three miles from Shaftefbury, 
fituated partly in a valley, and partly on a rifing ground, 
two miles from Shafton. Adjoining to it is Eaft Melbury. 
MEL'BURY-OS'MOND, or Lower Melbury, one 
mile north from Melbury-Samford: here is a fmall church, 
rebuilt in 174.7. 
MEL'BURY-SAM'FORD, near the Vale of White 
Hart, where the earl of Ilchefter has a feat. It is fituated 
on a rifing ground, one mile north-weft from Everlhot. 
Its church is neat and elegant. 
MEL'BY, a town of Norway,, in the province of Ag- 
gerhuus, on the Glomme: fifty-five miles north-eaft of 
Chriftiana. 
MELCAPOU'R, a town of Hindooftan, in the Cau- 
deifli: twenty miles fouth of Burhampour. 
MEL'CHA, a fmall village of Barbary, fituated about 
thirty miles from the city of Tunis, built on the ruins of 
Carthage, fome of which are ftill vifible. 
MEL'CHI, [Heb. my king.] A man’s name. 
MELCHI'AH, [Heb. the Lord’s king.] A man’s name. 
MEL'CHIN, a fmall town of Germany, in the princi¬ 
pality of Munfter. On the 8 th of December, 1815, a fire 
broke out here during a violent ftorm, and, fpreading 
with irrefiftible fury, reduced in a few hours fixty-two of 
the principal houfes, and many fmaller dwellings, to allies, 
and deprived about eighty families of their homes, their 
effects, and of all they had acquired by years of indultry. 
But little was faved; the lofs, on a moderate calculation, 
was 66,000 rix-dollars. 
MEL'CHIOR, a man’s name. 
MELCHI'ORITES, a religious feft, fo called from 
Melchior their leader. 
MEL'CHITES, or Melechites, in ecclefiaftical hif- 
tory, were thofe Chriftians in Syria, Egypt, and the Le¬ 
vant, who, in the feventh century, though not Greeks, 
followed the doctrines and ceremonies of the Greek 
church. They were called melechites, i. e. royalifts, from 
the Hebrew melech, king, by their adverfaries, by way of 
reproach, on account of their implicit fubmiflion to the 
edit# of the emperor Marcian, in favour of the council of 
Chalcedon. The Melchites are governed by a particular 
patriarch, who refides at Damas, and affumes the title of 
Patriarch of Antioch. They celebrate mafs in the Ara¬ 
bian language. The religious among the Melchites fol¬ 
low the rule of St. Bafil, the common rule of all the Greek 
monks. They have four fine convents diftant about 
a day’s journey from Damas, and never go out of the 
cloifter. 
MELCHIS'EDEC, or Melchizedek, King of Salem, 
and Prieft of the Moft High God. The Scripture tells us 
nothing either of his father or of his mother, of his genea¬ 
logy, of his birth, or of hie death. And in this fenfe he 
was a figure of Jefus Chrift, who is a priejl forever, accord- 
ing to the order of MelchiJ'edec, (Heb. v.'6-io.) and not 
according to the order of Aaron, whofe original, life, and 
death, are known. When Abraham returned from pur- 
fuing the four confederate kings, who had defeated the 
kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, and had taken away Lot, 
Abraham’s nephew, along with them, (Gen.xiv. 12,17,18, 
19,&c.) Melchifedec came to meet Abraham as far as the 
valley of Saveh, which was afterwards named the King’s 
Dale, prefented him with the refrelhment of bread and 
wine (or he offered bread and wine in facrifice to the 
Lord, for he was a prieft of the moft lijgh God), and 
blelled him. Abraham, being defirous to acknowledge 
in him the quality of prieft of the Lord, offered him the 
tithes of all he had taken from the enemy. After this 
time there is no mention made of the perfon of Melchi¬ 
fedec; only the Pfalmift (cx. 4..) fpeaking of the Melfiah, 
fays, Thou art a prieft for eper after.the order of Melchifedec. 
An infinite number of difficulties and fpruples have 
been ftarted upon the fubjeift of Melchifedec. St. Jerome 
thought that Salem, of which Melchifedec was king, was 
not Jerufalem, but the city of Salem near Scythopolis, 
where they ftill pretended to fiiow the ruins of the palace 
MEL 47 
of this prince. The greatnefs and extent of thefc ruins 
are a fufficient proof of the magnificence of this ancient 
building. He thinks that it was at this city of Salem, or 
Shalem, that Jacob arrived after his paffage over Jordan, 
at his return from Mefopotamia. (Gen. xxxiii. 18.) Some 
believe that Salem, where Melchifedec reigned, is the fame 
as Salim fpoken of in the Gofpel of St. John, chap. iii. 23. 
It is generally agreed on by the learned, that when the 
apoftle fays that Melchifedec was without father and with¬ 
out mother, (Heb. vii. 1-4..) no more is meant, than that 
he is introduced into the hiftory of Abraham without ac¬ 
quainting us who he was, or whence he came, where he 
lived, or when he died. Neverthelefs, fome have taken 
St. Paul’s words literally, and contended that he was not 
of human but divine nature. Origen and Didymus took 
him to be an angel; and the author of the Queftions upon 
the Old and New Teftament pretends that he was the 
Holy Ghoft, who appeared to Abraham in a human form. 
The Arabic Catena, upon the ninth chapter of Genefis, 
makes Melchifedet to be defcended from Shem by his 
father, and from Japheth by his mother. Cedrenus and 
others derive Melchifedec from an Egyptian ftock: they 
fay his father was called Sidon or Sida, and was the foun¬ 
der of the city of Sidon, the capital of Phoenicia. Suidas 
fays he was of the curfed race of Canaan; for which rea- 
fon the Scripture does not mention his genealogy. The 
Jews and Samaritans believed Melchifedec to be the fame 
with the patriarch Shem; which opinion has been followed 
by a great number of modern writers. M. Jurieu has un¬ 
dertaken to prove that he is the fame with Cham, or Ham. 
It would be endlels to fet down all the opinions upon this 
matter: therefore we lhall only add, that Peter Cunams 
and Peter du Moulin have afferted, that Melchifedec who 
appeared to Abraham was the Son of God; and that the 
patriarch worlhipped him, and acknowledged him for the 
Mefliah. 
About the beginning of the third century arole the 
herefy of the Melchifedechians, who affirmed that Mel¬ 
chifedec was not a man, but a heavenly power fuperior 
to Jelus Chrift: for Melchifedec, they faid, was the inter- 
ceflbr and mediator of the angels, but Jefus Chrift was fo 
only for men, and his priefthood only a copy of that of 
Melchifedec, who was the Holy Ghoft. The learned 
Heidegger (who, as the author of the Hift. Patriar. thinks, 
has taken the right method of explaining the accounts of 
Mofes and the apoftle Paul relating to this extraordinary 
perfon) luppofes a twofold Melchifedec; the one hiftori- 
cal, whereof Mofes gives an account in the 14th chapter 
of Genefis, as that he was king as well as high prieft of 
Jerufalem; the other allegorical, whom St. Paul defcribes, 
and this allegorical perfon is Jefus Chrift. 
The lateft opinion that has been delivered upon this 
myfterious fubjeft, is that of fir William Drummond, in 
his Differtation on the 14th Chapter of Genefis, (in the 
GBdipus Judaicus.) Though the reader may not go with 
him in the whole of this enquiry, he cannc-t fail to admire 
the conclufion, which relates more particularly to this 
myfterious'perlbn. As the book is not publilhed for fale, 
we are precluded from making any extra#:. 
MELCK, a pleafant town of Lower Auftria, on the 
banks of the Danube, is fuppofed to have been formerly a. 
Roman colony. Lazius fays, that Julius Csefar, being 
charmed with its fituation, built three forts here, and 
called it Mea Dilecta, which was afterwards corrupted in¬ 
to Medelick, and, in time, into Melck. In the wall of its 
great church are the figures of [Romulus and Remus, 
fucking a wolf, in baflo relievo. On a neighbouring hill 
ftands St. Colman’s, a Benediftine monaftery, which chal¬ 
lenges the pre-eminence of all the monafteries in Auftria: 
i.t is richly endowed, and has the monuments of feveral 
great perfons; particularly thofe of its founder., Leopold 
margrave of Auftria, and St. Column, whom . they pretend 
was of the royal blood of Scotland, and the apoftle of Au¬ 
ftria ; but, palling through the. country in h'is journey to Je- 
rulalem, drelfed in a pilgrim^ habit, he. was apprehended* 
3 ' and 
