Parnel. 
540 M I N 
I but your recorder am in this, 
Or mouth, and fpeaker of the univerfe, 
A minifterial notary ; for ’tis 
Not I, but you and fame that make this verfe. 
Donne's Poems. 
Sacerdotal; belonging to the ecclefiaftics or their office. 
•—Thefe fpeeches of Jerom and Chryfoftom plainly allude 
unto fuch minfterial garments as were then in ufe. Hooker. 
—Pertaining to minilters of Hate, or perfons in fubordi- 
nate authority.—Very folid and very brilliant talents dif- 
tinguilb. the minifterial benches ; but the whole minifterial 
cant is quickly got by heart. Burke. 
MINISTE'RIALLY, adv. In a minifterial manner.— 
Supremacy of office, by mutual agreement and voluntary 
ceconomy, belongs to the father; while the fon, out of 
voluntary condefcenfton, fubmits to aft nxinifter tally, or 
in capacity of mediator. Waterland. 
MIN'ISTERING, ft The aft of ferving. 
MIN'ISTERY, f. [This word is now contrafted to mi¬ 
ni ft vy, but ufed by Milton as four fyllables.] Office ; fer- 
vice.—They that will have their chamber filled with a 
good feent, make fome odoriferous water be blown about 
it by their fervants' mouths that are dextrous in that mi¬ 
ll ft ery. Dighy. 
This high temple to frequent 
With minifteries due, and l'olemn rites. Milton's P. L. 
MIN'ISTRAL, adj. Pertaining to a minifter. 
MIN'ISTRANT, adj. Attendant; afting at command. 
Pope accents it, not according to analogy, on the fecond 
fyllable : 
Him thrones, and powers. 
Princedoms, and dominations miniftrant, 
A.ccompany d to heaven-gate. Milton’s Paradife Loft. 
Miniftrant to their queen with bufy care, 
Four faithful handmaids the loft rites prepare. Pope. 
MINISTRA'TION, ft. [old French.] Agency; inter¬ 
vention ; office of an agent delegated or commiffioned by 
another.—Though fometimes effefted by the immediate 
fiat of the divine will, yet I think they are moft ordinarily 
done by the mmiftration of angels. Hale's Orig. of Mankind. 
■ —Service; office; ecclefiaftical funftion.-—'The profefiion 
of a clergyman is an holy profefiion, becaufe it is a minij - 
tration in holy things, an attendance at the altar. Law. 
MIN'ISTRESS, J\ She who fupplies or difpenfes : 
Thus was beauty fent from heaven, 
The lovely minftrej's of truth and good 
In this dark world. Altenfide's P leaf arcs of Imagination. 
MIN'ISTR Y,f [contrafted from minftery; minfterium, 
Lat.] Office ; fervice.— So far is an indiltinftion of all per¬ 
fons, and, by confequence, an anarchy of all things, fo far 
from being agreeable to the will of God, declared in his 
great houfehold, the world, and efpecially in all the mi- 
nift erics of his proper houfehold, the church, that there 
was never yet any time, I believe, fince it was a number, 
when fome of its members were not more facred than 
others. Sprat's Sermons. —Office of one fet apart to preach ; 
ecclefiaftical funftion,—Saint Paul was miraculoufly called 
to the miniftry of the gofpel, and had the whole doftrine 
of the gofpel from God by immediate revelation ; and 
was appointed the apoltle of the Gentiles for propagating 
it in the heathen world. Locke. 
Their miniftry perform’d, and race well run. 
Their doftrine and their llory written left, 
They die. Milton's Paradife Loft. 
Agency; interpofition.—The natural world he made after 
a miraculous manner; but direfts the affairs of it ever 
fince by Handing rules, and the ordinary miniftry of fecond 
caufe.s. Attcrbury .— The poets introduced the miniftry of 
the gods, and taught the feparate exillcnce of human 
fouls. Bentley. 
M I N 
To all but thee in fits he feem’d to go. 
And ’twas my miniftry to deal the blow'. 
Bufinefs: 
He fafe from loud alarms, 
Abhor’d the wicked miniftry of arms. Dryden's TF.neid. 
Perfons employed in the public affairs of a Hate.—I con- 
verfe in full freedom with many confiderable men of both 
parties; and, if not in equal number, it is purely accidental, 
as happening to have made acquaintance at court more 
under one miniftry than another. Swift. 
MINITO'BA, a lake of Canada, one hundred miles 
long, and from ten to fifteen wide. Lat. 50. 40. N. Ion. 
100. ao. V/. 
MI'NIUM,/. [Latin.] Red lead.—Melt lead in a broad 
earthen vefiel unglazed, and ftir it continually till it be 
calcined into a grey pow'der ; this is called the calx of lead; 
continue the fire, ltirring it in the fame manner, and it be- 
becomes yellow; in this ltate it is ufed in painting, and is 
called mafticot, or mafficot; after this put it into a rever¬ 
beratory furnace, and it will calcine further, and become 
of a fine red, which is the common minium, or red lead. 
Among the ancients minium was the name for cinnabar : 
the modern minium is ufed externally, and is excellent 
in cleanfmg and healing old ulcers. Hill's Mat. Med. 
MINI'US, f. Minever; a kind of fur. Phillips. 
MINKS. See Minx. 
MIN'NEKIN. See Minikin. 
MIN'NI, [Heb. difpofed.] The name of a country. 
Jeremiah. 
MIN'NIBOIL. See Maybole, vol. xiv. 
MINNIE', a river of Pruflian Lithuania, which runs 
into the Curifch Haft" feventeen miles fouth of Memel. 
MIN'NIGAFF, a town of Scotland, in the county of 
Kirkcudbright: fifteen miles fouth-weft of New Galloway. 
MIN'NIN, J\ A ftringed inftrument of muftc among 
the ancient Hebrews, having three or four chords to it. 
There is reafon, however, to queftion the antiquity of 
this inftrument; both becaufe it requires a hair bow, 
which was a kind of plectrum not known to the an¬ 
cients, and becaufe it fo much refembles the modern viol. 
Kircher took the figures of this, the machul, chinnor, 
and pfaltery, from an old book in the Vatican library. 
Hawkins's lift , of Muftc. 
MIN'NING, /! The previous fymptoms ofadifeafe. Sc. 
MIN'NING-DAY, J\ The anniverfary feftival in which 
prayers w r ere offered up for the fouls of the deceafed. Scott. 
MIN'NITH, or Mennith, (judges xi. 33.) a town 
near Hefhbon (Jerome), in Arabia Petraea; in a diftrift 
named Ecnjipolis, or Twenty-towns, (Cellarius.) There 
is alio a Minnith mentioned Ezekiel xxvii. 19. as being 
in a good wheat-country : but whether the fame with the 
foregoing is uncertain; though fome think that the firff: 
Minnith lay in the country of Ammon. 
MIN'NOCK,_/ Of this word I know not the precife 
meaning. It is not unlikely that minnock and minx are 
originally the fame word. Join fun. —This word is jultly 
fuppofed by Mr. Malone to be an error of the prefs ; and 
that mimiclt is the true word. One of the old quarto edi¬ 
tions of the comedy reads minnick; another minnock; and 
the folio mimmich. A player was called a mimick in the 
poet’s time. Todd. 
An afs’s nowl I fixed on his head; 
Anon, his Thifbe mull be anfwered. 
And forth my minnock conies. Shakcfpcure. 
MIN'NOW, f. [ mennife, finall fifh, Fr. from menu, fmall; 
min, Goth, fmall; and Dr. Jamiefon lays, he has been 
informed that the Gaelic name of the fifh, meanan, is 
traced to meanle, little.] A very fmall fifh; the Cyprinus 
phoxinus.—The minnow, when he is in perfeft feaioa, and 
not fick, which is only prefently after fpawning, hath a 
kind of dappled or waved colour, like a panther, on his 
fides, inclining to a greenifh and iky colour, his belly 
being milk-white, and his back almoft black or blackifh : 
3 \ he 
