BSO ' M e ;o 
mingle. Obfolele.—A meddled Hate, of the orders of the gof- 
pel and ceremonies of popery, is not the belt way to ba- 
nilh popery. Hooker. 
He that had well ycon’d his lere, 
Thus meddled his talk with many a teare. Spenfcr. 
MED'DLER, f. One who bufies himfelf wjth things in 
which he has no concern.—Do not drive away fiich as 
bring thee information, as meddlers, but accept of them in 
good part. Bacon. 
MED'DLESOME, adj. Intermeddling; as, A meddle- 
Jbme bufy-body. Ainfworlk. 
MED'DLING, f. The aft of interpofing. 
MED'DLING, adj. Troublefome, officious.—Thism^f- 
dling prieit longs to be found a fool. Rowe. 
Let me fliake off th’ intrufive cares of day, 
And lay the meddling fenfes all afide. Thomfon. 
MEDE,/. [from Media.] An inhabitant of Media ; a 
native of Media. 
MEDE (Jofepli), one of the mod learned Engliffi di¬ 
vines who flourifhed in the feventeenth century, was de- 
feended from a refpeflable family, and born at Berden in 
Effex in the year 1586. When he was about ten years 
of age, both lie and his father fell lick of the fmall-pox, 
which proved fatal to the latter ; after which thefuperin- 
tendence of Jofeph’s education devolved on a Mr. Gower, 
Ilis mother’s fecond hulband, who fent him to fchool. He 
was intruded in grammar learning, firlt at Hoddefdon in 
Hertfordlhire, and afterward at Weathersfield in Effex. 
While he was at this laft fchool, during a vifit which he 
paid to London, he bought Bellarmine’s Hebrew Gram¬ 
mar ; and though his mailer, who was ignorant of that 
language, told him that it was not a book fit for him, yet 
fo great was young Mede’s thirft for knowledge, that in a 
little time he attained no fmall Ikill in the Hebrew tongue. 
Encouraged by his promifing parts and afliduous induf- 
try, in the year 1602 his friends fent him to Chrift’s col¬ 
lege, Cambridge, where, by his extraordinary talents, ap¬ 
plication, and proficiency, he attracted the notice not only 
of his own college, but of the whole univerfity, notwith- 
Itanding that he had an uncommon impediment in his 
fpeech, which prevented him from difplaying his learn¬ 
ing and abilities to advantage. By patience and perle- 
verance, however, he in time attained a confiderable de¬ 
gree of maftery over this infirmity. In the year 1610, he 
was admitted to the degree of M.A.at which time he had 
made fo uncommon a progrefs through the various de¬ 
partments of academical ftudies, that he was univerfally 
efteemed a moft accomplilhed fcholar. He was, it is faid, 
an acute logician, an accurate philofopher, alkilful mathe¬ 
matician, a great philologer, a mailer of many languages, 
an excellent anatomid, and a good proficient in hiltory 
and chronology. Of his learning he gave a fpecimen in 
a Latin treatife, “ de Sandlitate relativa, &c.” addrelfed 
to bilhop Andrews; which in his inaturer years he cen- 
fured as a juvenile performance, and therefore never pub- 
lilhed it. However, that celebrated prelate, who was a 
confummate judge and patron of learning, was fo well 
pleafed with it, that he made the author an offer of the 
lituation of his domellic chaplain ; which Mr. Mede grate¬ 
fully declined, efleeming the liberty of purfuing his ftu- 
tlies above any hopes of preferment, and the freedom 
which he enjoyed in his cell, by which term he uftd 
cheerfully to call his college-apartment, as the crown of 
his mod ambitious wifhes. This difpolition, indeed, he 
had difeovered while a fchool-boy : when having been 
fent for by his uncle, Mr. Richard Mede, a merchant, 
who had no children, and offered to adopt him for his fon, 
if he would live with him ; he refufed the offer, preferring, 
even then, a life of (tudy to any lucrative advantages. 
Some time after he had taken his degree of M. A. he was 
defied fellow of his college, through the particular in- 
tered of bilhop Andrews, having been repeatedly palled 
M E D 
over when vacancies had occurred, owing to a ftrfprci'as 
of his being favourable to puritanical principles.* He 
now became an eminent and faithful college-tutor, and 
adopted an excellent method of teaching his pupils thc- 
exercife of their reafoning powers. Soon after his elec¬ 
tion to the fellowfhip, Mr. Mede was appointed Greek 
lefturer on fir Walter Mildmay’s foundation ; which of¬ 
fice, by leading him to make Homer his frequent text¬ 
book, made him perfeflly converfant in that author. He 
was alfo a diligent collator of the Greek with the Hebrew, 
Chaldee,and Syriac,and made himfelf familiarly acquaint¬ 
ed with the peculiar idioms of all thofe languages. So 
entirely did he devote himfelf to the (tudy of all ufeful 
knowledge, that he made even the time which he fpeat 
in his recreations fubfervient to the acquifition or im¬ 
provement of it: for, as the chief exercif’e which he al¬ 
lowed himfelf was walking, when he was abroad with 
others in the fields, or in the college-garden, he would 
take occafion to expatiate on the beauty, diftinguilhing 
charaflers, and ufeful properties, of the plants which they 
met with ; and he rs faid to have been a curious florid, 
an accurate botanifl, as far as the fcience was then under- 
flood, and profoundly fkiiled in the book of nature. One 
of his greatefl entertainments, was to meet and converfc 
with men eminent for their literary acquirements. His 
principal delight, however, was in his ltudy, where his 
enquiiies were direfled to the moft abitrufe branches of 
learning, and to fubjefls the mod remote from common 
invedigation. In his younger years, he fpent no little 
time and labour in founding the depths of aftrological 
fcience, and he blotted much paper in calculating the na¬ 
tivities of his near relations and fellow-dudents ; but his 
good fenfe led hitn afterwards to be convinced of the 
vanity and folly of this art. When he relinquifhed it, 
he applied to the dudy of hidory and antiquities, parti¬ 
cularly of thofe mylterious fciences which made the an¬ 
cient Chaldeans, Egyptians, and other nations, fo famous ; 
tracing them, as far as he could have any light to guide 
him, in their oriental fchemes and figurative exprefiions, 
and likewife in their hieroglyphics. He alfo ftudied the 
oneirocritics of the ancients, conceiving that their la¬ 
bours would be found ufeful in illudrating the language 
of the prophets. His claflical and mathematical fludies, 
likewife, he made fubfervient to acquiring a more per¬ 
fect knowledge of divinity ; as he did his curious and 
laborious refearches into antiquities relating to religion, 
whether the Pagan, Jewifli, Chriftian, or Mahometan. Ire 
fhort, he cultivated mod diligently every branch of learn¬ 
ing, facred and profane, which could furnidi him with 
aflidance in obtaining an intimate knowledge of the facred 
writings. 
In the year 1618, Mr. Mede took the degree of bache¬ 
lor of divinity; but his great modedy and humility pre¬ 
vented him from proceeding to the degree of dodtor. In 
the year 1627, he publilhed at Cambridge, in quarto, his 
“ Clavis Apocalyptica, ex innatis et infitis Vifionum Cha- 
radleribus eruta et demondrata;” to which he added, in 
1632, “ In Sandli Joannis Apocalypfin Cominentarius, ad 
amullim Clavis Apocalypticas.” This Clavis was after¬ 
wards reprinted at London, and in Englifli in 1650. Both 
thefe pieces were received with great approbation, in Eng¬ 
land and in foreign countries; where they were conli- 
dered, by the ableit and moft difpaffionate judges, as con¬ 
taining the moll rational and fatisfadlory explanation of 
thofe obfeure prophecies, fo far as they had at that time 
been fulfilled. And they have contributed materially to 
aflilt the enquiries of the moft judicious commentators 
lince his time, both at home and abroad, who have en¬ 
deavoured to throw light on the book of revelation. 
In the year 1627, an honourable tribute of refpedl was 
paid to the merits of Mr. Mede, by his being defied to 
the provoltlhip of Trinity-college, Dublin, on the parti¬ 
cular recommendation of archbilhop Ulher, This dignity 
our author’s inodelt diffidence in his own powers, and his 
1 averfion 
