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509
MET
.Mess an a, in ancient greography, a town of Sicily , now 1* J essina.
Mess ena, orMESSENE, an inland town, and the capital IMessenia, a country of Peloponnesus , 24 miles N. E. of Na-
.. MESSENGERS, certain officers chiefly employed under the'reclion of the secretaries of state, and always in readiness to be^ ut With all kinds of dispatches foreign and domestic. They also,i' virtue of the secretaries warrants, take up persons for highr eason, or other offences against the state.
Messengers of the ExcHEauER, are four officers who at-crtd the exchequer, in the nature of pursuivants, and carry the0r d treasurer’s letters, precepts, &c.
.Messengers of the Press, persons who, by order of,. e court, search printing-houses, booksellers shops, &c. to^jscover the printers or publishers of seditious books, pam-
MESSENrA, a country in the S. of Peloponnesus, mostly'aritime, situated between Elea on the \V. and Laconica to thetri Anciently a part of Laconica under Menelaus , and calledlessene by Homer ; interpreted by the scholiast, Messemea^egia.
messerschmtdia, in botany, a genus of the monogynia"■tier, and pentandria class of plants. Corolla funnel-shaped, with.naked throat; berry bipartite, suberous. The two species are*L l'ructicosa, and M. arquuzia.
. MESSIAH , [rwo, Iieb.] signifies one anointed, or installed,nto an office by unction. It was usual among the Jews to anointj n gs, high-priests, and sometimes prophets, at the designation or•'stalment of them, to signify emblematically the mental quali-j^ations necessary for discharging these offices. Saul, David, So-? ni on, and Joash , kings of Judah, received the royal unction,yutron and his sons received the sacerdotal, and Elisha the disci-s e of Elijah , received the prophetic unction. The name Mes-..’“n, or Christ (x/ipo;), was given to the kings and lngh-priests ofle Jews. The patriarchs and prophets are also called Messiahs ,j, r the Lord’s anointed. See 1 Sam. xii. 3, 5. 1 Citron, xvi. 22.s - cv. 15 . Hut this name Messiah was principally, and by way* eminence, given by the Jews to their expected great Deliverer;a ! nl is a name the Christians apply to Jesus Christ , in whom the pro-Pbeeies relating to the Messiah were and will be accomplished. The11111 of these prophecies is, That there should he a glorious personjanied Messiah, descended from Abraham , Isaac, and Jacob, who.j'mfid bp born at Bethlehem , of a virgin of the family of David,.f ei1 in Rs decline, before the Jews ceased to be a people, while. e second temple was standing, and about 500 years after Ezra’s.'me ; w t, 0> though appearing in mean circumstances, should beproduced by a remarkable foreruinter, whose business it should,, p ; to awaken the attention and expectation of the people. Thatf 1 ! 8 illustrious Person should himself he eminent for the piety,’ ls flom, and benevolence, of his character, and the miraculous„? ur ks he should perform : yet, that notwithstanding all this, heJ °ukl he rejected and put to death by the Jews ; hut should af-m>ards he raised from the dead, and exalted to a glorious throne,J' "finch he should through all generations continue to rule, at'h same time making intercession for sinners. Thatgreatcala-( ."liesshould he brought on the Jews for rejecting him : whereasle kingdom of God should by his means he erected among theand.extended unto the ends of the earth ; wherever itJ . an ' e > destroying idolatry, and establishing true religion and'6‘Ueousness. In a word, that this glorious Person should he re-S ;i| ded by all who believed in him as a divine teacher, an atoningRefillce, and a royal governor: by means of whom God wouldotSl a covenant with his people, which should he the exact antitypeP la t made with Israel of old; in consequence of which they shouldj. e res tored to, and established in, the divine favour, and fixed in ait . P er l ,<Jlll ‘fi happiness. See Jesus Christ , and Chiustian-j y fi he Jews still wait for the coming of the Messiah , beinglimited with the notion of a temporal Messiah , who is to he al ghty conqueror, and to subdue all the world. Most of thej s rabbins, according to Buxtorf, believe tiiat the Messiah
J j* come, hut that iie keeps himself concealed, and will not
j e ni 'est himself because of the sins of the Jews . Some of the,ef s > however, to reconcile those prophecies that seem to contra-c each other as to the character and condition of the Messiah ,V0L -m,— no, i4i.
have had recourse to the hypothesis of two Messiahs, who are vetto succeed each other; one in a state of humiliation and suffer-ing; the other of glory, splendor, and power. The first, theysay, is to proceed from the tribe of Ephraim, who is to fightagainst Gog, and to be slain by Annilltis, Zech. xii. 10. The se-cond is to he of the tribe of Judah, and lineage of David, who isto conquer and kill Anniilus, and restore the kingdom of Israel ,reigning over it in the highest glory and felicity. Jesus Chiistasserts himself to he the Messiah , in John iv. 25. Several impos-tors have endeavoured to pass for Messiahs* as Christ himself pre-dicted. J. Lent, a Dutchman, lias written a history De Pseudo-Messiis, Of False- Messiahs . The first he mentions was oneBarcochab, who appeared under Adrian. The last was rabbiMordecai, who began to he talked of in 16S2. A little beforehim, viz. in 1666, appeared Sabbathei Sebi, who was taken bythe Turks, and turned Mohammedan.
MESS1N A, an ancient, largo, handsome, and strong city ofSicily , in the Valley of Demona, with a citadel, several forts, afine spacious harbour, ami an archbishop’s see. it is seated on thesea-side, 110 miles E. of Palermo, 260 S. by E. of Rome , and 180S. E. of Naples. Lon. 15. 50. E. Lat. 38. 10. N.
MESS INKS, a town of France , in the department of theI.ys, and late province of Austrian Flanders; 10 miles N. N. W.of Lisle.
MESSINESE, the natives of Messina.
MESSING, a town of Franconia, in Aichstadt, 14 miles N.N. E. of Aichstadt.
MESSUAGE, [ messuagium , law Lat.] the house and groundset apart for household uses.
MESSUAGE, in English law, is also used for a garden, shop,mill, cottage, chamber, cellar, or the like.
MESSUE, St. a tow'ii of France , in the department of MontBlanc, and late duchy of Savoy ; 16 miles E. N. E. of Con-fians.
MESTA, a cape on the W. coast of Scio.
MESTERO, a cape of Egypt , 10 miles N. E. of Rosetta.
MESTRE, a town of Maritime Austria, in the province ofTrevisano, 8 miles N. W. of Venice .
MESUA, the Indian Rose Chesnut; in botany, a genusof the polyandria order, and monadelphia class of plants. Calyxsimple, four-leaved ; corolla four-petaled ; pistil one ; nut four-cornered, one-seeded. The only species is M. ferrea, a nativeof the East Indies.
META, in the Roman circus, was a pile of stones of pvra-midical form, intended as a boundary of the stadium, or chariot-course. When the mela was passed the seventh time, the racewas concluded.
METABASIS, in rhetoric, a figure by which the orator passes,from one thing to another.
METABOLA, in medicine, a change of time, air,
or disease.
METACABP1UM, or METACARPUS , [from be-
hind, and ihand,] in anatomy, a bone of the arm made upof four hones, which are joined to the lingers.
METAG1TN tA, a festival of Apollo.
M ETAGITN ION, the second month of the Athenian year,answering to the latter pari of July and beginning of August ; socalled from the Metagitnia, which_ was kept in it.
METAL, in natural history. See Metals.
Metal, in heraldry. There are two metals used in heraldry,by way of colours, viz. gold anti silver, in blazon called or andargent. In painting of arms these metals are represented byw hite and yellow, their natural colours. In engraving, gold isexpressed by dotting the coat, &c. all oyer; and silver, byleaving it quite blank. It is a general rule in heraldry, never toplace metal upon metal, nor colour upon colour : so that if thefield he of one of the metals, the hearing must he of some colour ;and if the field he of any colour, the hearing must be one ofthe metals.
MKTALEPSIS, [ f «1aA>i'k'.] a continuation of a trope in oneword through a succession of significations. See Oratory. .
METALLISATION, the natural process by which metal?are formed in the bowels of the earth. See Metallurgy .
METALLOGRAPHY, [tnctalhtm, and yga4w,]an account ordescription of metals.