473 
M Y S 
hides for the introduction of other fpotts; fometimes 
they were of a fatirical nature; and, when occafion re¬ 
quired, they took another turn, and became the agents 
of flattery and adulation. Both thefe purpofes were an- 
fwered by the following dialogue, taken from the author 
juft now quoted : “ On Sonday at night the fifteenth of 
June, in the great halle at Wyndfore,” the emperor Maxi¬ 
milian and Henry VIII. being prefent, “ was a difguijiyng , 
or play ; the effeCt of it was, that there was a proud horfe 
which would not be tamed nor brideled ; but Amitie fent 
Prudence and Policie which tamed him, and Force and 
Puifl'ance brideled him. By this horfe was meant the 
Frenche kyng, and by Amitie the kynge of England ; 
and the emperor and the other perfons were their counfail 
and power.” 
The ecclefiaftical plays, as we obferved before, w'ere 
ufually performed in churches, or chapels, upon tempo¬ 
rary fcaffolds ereCled for that purpofe; and fometimes, 
when a fufficient number of clerical aflors were not to 
be procured, the churchwardens and chief parilhioners 
caufed the plays to be aCted by thefecular players, in order 
to collect money for the defraying of the church-expenfes; 
and in many inftances they borrowed the theatrical appa¬ 
rel from other parifhes when they had none of their own. 
The afting of pfeys in churches was much declaimed 
againftby the religious writers of the fixteenth century; 
and Bonner, bifhop of London, in the thirty-third year 
of the reign of Henry VIII. iffued a proclamation to the 
clergy of his diocefe, prohibiting all manner of common 
plays, games, or interludes, to be played, fet forth, or de¬ 
clared, within their churches or chapels. 
In Cornwall the miracle-plays were differently repre- 
fented : they were not performed in the churches nor 
under any kind of cover, but in the open air, as we learn 
from Carew, whofe words upon this fubjeCt are as follow : 
“ The guary-miracle, in Englifli a miracle-play, is a kind 
of enterlude compiled in Cornifh out of fome fcripture- 
hiftory, with that groffnefs which accompanied the Ro¬ 
manes vetus comedia. For reprefenting it, they raife an 
earthen amphitheatre in fome open field, having the dia¬ 
meter of his enclined plain fome forty or fifty feet. The 
country-people flock from all fides many miles of, to hear 
and fee it, for they have therein devils and devices to de¬ 
light as well the eye as the eare. The players conne not 
their parts without booke, but-are prompted by one called 
the ordinary, who followeth at their backs with the book 
in his hand, and telleth them what to fay.” This fpecies 
of amufement continued to be exhibited in Cornwall 
long after the abolition of the miracles and moralities in 
the other parts of the kingdom, and when the eftablifh- 
ment of regular plays had taken place. Strutt, p. 116-123. 
Upon the whole, we may conclude, with Mr. Warton, 
that “ the myjleries appear to have originated among the 
ecclefiaftics ; and were-probably firft adled, at leaft with 
any degree of form, by the monks. This was certainly 
the cafe in the Englifh monafteries. As learning increafed, 
and was more widely difleminated from the monafteries, 
the practice migrated to fchools and univerfities, which 
were formed upon the monaftic plan ; and it is well 
known, that the practice of ailing Latin plays in the 
colleges of Oxford and Cambridge continued until Crom¬ 
well’s ufurpation. Many inftances of its occurrence in 
fchools and feminaries of an inferior nature, both in Eng¬ 
land and France, might be enumerated ; and it has been 
perpetuated to the prefent day.” 
MYS'TIC, or Mistic, a fliort river which falls into 
the north fide of Bofton harbour, by a broad mouth on 
the eaft fide of the peninfula of Charleftown. It is navi¬ 
gable for floops four miles to the town of Medford; and 
is crofted by two bridges, one at its mouth, and another 
a mile above it. The Middlefex-canai conneits this river 
with the Merrimac|c. 
MYS'TIC, or Mystical, adj. Sacredly obfcure.-—Let 
God himfelf that made me, let not man that knows not 
Vol. XVI. No. 1128. 
M Y S 
himfelf, be my inftrudlor concerning the myjlical way to 
heaven. Hoolier— Involving fome fecret meaning; em¬ 
blematical.—It is Cbrift’s body in the facrament and out 
of it; but in the facrament not the natural truth, but 
the fpiritual and myftical. Bp. Taylor. —It is plain from 
the Apocalypfe, that myftical Babylon is to be confumed 
by fire. Burnet. 
Ye five other wandering fires ! that move 
In myjiick dance not without fong, refound 
His praife, wdio out of darknefs call’d up light. Milton. 
Obfcure ; fecret: 
Left new fears difturb the happy ftate, 
Know, I have fearch’d the myjiick rolls of fate. Drydcn. 
MYS'TIC, f. [from the adj.] One of an enthufiaftic 
fe£t of Chriftians that prevailed in the firft ages of Chrif- 
tianity.—The myftics were a kind of religious fedt diftin- 
guiftiedby their profefling pure, fublime, and perfefr, de¬ 
votion, with an entire difinterefted love of God, free 
from all felfilh confiderations. Chambers. —It is this way 
of thinking and talking in religion, that, I fuppofe, has 
given rife to what is called myftical theology; the teachers 
whereof have accordingly been ftyled tnyjticks. Coventry's 
Phil, to Hyd. —This moft excellent principle had been 
ftretched too far, perhaps even to enthufiafm ; as for¬ 
merly among the myftics of the ancient Church. ShaftcJ- 
bury. 
The myftics, to excufe their fanatic extacies and licen¬ 
tious extravagances, allege that paflage of St. Paul, The 
Spirit prays in us by figns and groans that are unutterable. 
Now if the Spirit, fay they, pray in us, we miift refign our- 
felves to its motions, and be fwayed and guided by its 
impulfe, by remaining in a ftate of mere inadtion. Pafiive 
contemplation, therefore, is that ftate of perfedlion to 
which the myftics all afpire. 
The authors of this myftic fcience, which ,fprung up 
towards the clofe of thefecond century, are not known; 
but the principles from which it w'as formed are manifeft. 
Its firft promoters argued from the known dodtrine of the 
Platonic fchool, which was alfo adopted by Origen and his 
difciples, that the Divine Nature was diffufed through all 
human fouls; or that the faculty of reafon, from which 
proceed the health and vigour of the mind, was an emana¬ 
tion from God into the human foul, and comprehended 
in it the principles and elements of all truth, human and 
divine. They denied that men could, by labour or ftudy, 
excite this celeftial flame in their breafts; and therefore 
they difapproved highly of the attempts of thofe, who, by 
definitions, abftradl theorems, and profound fpeculations, 
endeavoured to form diftind: notions of truth, and to dif- 
cover its hidden nature. On the contrary, they main¬ 
tained that filence, tranquillity, repofe, and folitude, ac¬ 
companied with fuch ads as might tend to extenuate and 
exhauft the body, were the means by which the internal 
word was excited to produce its latent virtues, and to 
inftrud men in the knowledge of divine things. For 
thus they reafoned ; fhofe who behold with a noble con¬ 
tempt all human affairs, who turn away their eyes from 
terreftrial vanities, and Unit all the avenues of the outward 
fenfes againft the contagious influences of a material 
world, muft neceflarily return to God, when the fpirit is 
thus difengaged from the impediments that prevented 
that happy union. And in this blefled frame they not 
only enjoy inexpreflible raptures from their communion 
with the Supreme Being, but alfo are invefted with the 
ineftimable privilege of contemplating truth undifguifed 
and uncorrupted, in its native purity, while others behold 
it in a vitiated and delufive form. 
Towards the clofe of the fifth century, the myftics, pre¬ 
tending to higher degrees of perfection than other Chrif¬ 
tians, drew every-where to their party, particularly in the 
eaftern provinces, a vaft number of the ignorant and in- 
conftdeVatp multitude, by the ftriking appearance of their 
6 E Angular 
