With regard to the action and the necessity of the means of grace, the differences of the different confes- sions come again into plaj-. While the evangelical churches teach that the sacraments are agents of sanc- tification for those who receive them with faith, strength- ening and increasing that faith, the Roman Catholic holds that they are the agents of faith, requiring none to be worthily participated in beyond faith in the au- thority of the Church, and that mortal sin alone can render them ineffectual, and the Baptists and Socinians look upon the participation in the sacraments only as outward acts, professions of the Christian faith.
In dogmatics, the means of grace represent the eter- nal presence of Christ in the spiritual Church, and through her in the world. In his institutions, Christ, by the Holy Spirit, identifies himself with them, and in his eternal presence draws the world to his salvation. The Word and the sacraments are inseparably con- nected with each other: the Word receives its fulfilment and seal in the sacrament, while the sacrament receives light and spiritual life from the creative power of the Word. The Word, without the seal of the sacrament, is only a scholastic knowledge; the sacrament, without the vivifying influence of the Word, is a piece of priestly magic. But though the means of grace, in their con- nection with the Holy Spirit, set at work the saving power of the life of Christ, as a participation in his sal- vation, still they must be preceded by faith, suice Christ required faith when personally present on earth. Yet he no more requires a perfect faith than he compels to be- lieve. Those who ask shall receive'. See Sacrajient.
See Fletcher, Works; Wesley, Works; Hagenbach, Hist, of Doctrines ; Winer, Symbol, p. 113 ; Kurtz, Ch. Hist. vol. i ; Niedner, Philos. p. 441.
Mea'rah (Heb. Medrah', i^^^'P, a cave, as often ; Sept. aTTo Fa^r/c, apparently reading il^^T^jf-omGaza; Vulg. Maar-a), a place mentioned in Josh, xiii, 4 as sit- uated in the northern edge of Palestine: "From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that is beside the Sidonians, unto Aphek." Some find it in the town Marathos (Strabo, xvi, 753 ; Pliny, v, 17 ; Ptolemy, v, 15^ 16). Most interpreters, following the Chaldce and Syriac (see the Critici Biblici, s.v.), are of the opinion that the term should rather be rendered as an appellative — the cace (Keil's Comment, ad loc.) ; but if a mere cave were intended, and not a place called Mearah, the name would surely have been preceded by the definite article, and would have stood as niySil, "the cave." Besides, the scope of the passage sliows that some place — either a city or district — must be meant. " Reland {Palcest. p. 896) suggests that Mearah may be the same with Meroth, a village named by Jo- sephus {Ant. iii, 3, 1) as forming the limit of Galilee on the west (see also Ant. ii, 20, 6), and which again may possibly hav^ been connected with the waters of Merom. A village called el-Mughar is found in the mountains of Naphtali, some ten miles west of the northern extrem- ity of the Sea of Galilee (Robinson, iii, 79, 30 ; Van de Velde's Map), which may possibly represent an ancient JMearah" (Smith). "About half way between Tyre and Sidon, close to the shore, are the ruins of an ancient town ; and in the neighboring cliffs are large numbers of caves and grottos hewn in the rock, and formerly used as tombs. Dr. Robinson suggested that this may be ' Mearah of the Sidonians' (ii, 474). The ruins are now called 'Adldn, but perhaps take that name from the village on the mountain-side" (Kitto). Ritfcer {Erdk. xvii, 10 ; also xvi, 8, 9), on the other hand, identifies Mearah, under the name Mughara, with the remarka- ble cavern (Rosenmliller, Alterth. II, i, 39 sq., 66) which the Crusaders fortified, and which is described by Wil- liam of Tyre {Histor. Hieros. xix, 2, 11) as "a certain fortress of ours in the Sidonian territory, namely, an impregnable grotto, commonly called the Cave of Tyre {Cavea de Tyron)." It was afterwards the last retreat of the emir Fakhr ed-Din. The place is now also known as ShukifTairun (Abulfeda, Table). -Schultz is the first traveller who mentions it in modern Qays. It is situ- ated in the high cliff east of Sidon, between Jezim and Michmurhy (Van de Velde, Memoir, s. v.). See Cave.
Mears, Thomas, M.A., an English divine of note, flourished near the opening of the present centurj'. He was at one time rector of St. La^vrence and vicar of St. Michael's, in Southampton, and chaplain to the corpo- ration of that town. He died about 1810. Jlr. Mears was a prolific writer, and a pulpit orator of no mean ability. He contributed many articles to the Orthodox Churchman's Magazine, and published several of his ser-
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mons, among which the following desen-e special men- | by the change which has taken place in the meaning tion : Eiightud expects tvny Man to do his Duty (1805, of the word is in the case of the •• incat-tiffering," the 8vo) ■.-RcVufiom Example (1807, 8vo):— On the Lord's second of the three great divisions into which the sacri- kiupper (1807, 8vo). tices of the Law were divided — the bumt-offcring, the