MYSTIC VEILS
794
MYSTICISM
the absence of an interpreter, and when, therefore, no man understood him, although "by the Spirit he was speaking m_vsteries," yet the apostle supposes that the man so doing himself understood what he said (I Cor. xiv, 2-1:). In the prophetic portion of his writings, " concerning the mystery- of iniquity" (2 Thess. ii, 7), he speaks of it as being ultimately " revealed'' (ver. 8). (See below.) Josephus applies nearly the same phrase, ftv- ariipiov KOKiac, a wysiery of wickedness, to Antipater's era/ft/ conduct to ensnare and destroy his brother Alexan- der ( War, i, 24, 1) ; and to complete the proof that the word " mystery" is used in the sense oiknoicaUe secrets, we add the words, " Though / vndefstaml all mysteries" (I Cor. xiii, 2). The Greeks used the word in the same way. Thus Jlenander, fivari^piov gov fiif KaTtiiri]q rip ^tXtjj, " Tell not your secret to a friend" (p. 274, line 671, ed. Clerici). Even when they ajiply the term to the greater and lesser Eleusinian mysteries, thej' arc still mysteries into which a person might'be initiated, when they would, of course, cease to be mysteries to him. The Avord is used in the same sense throughout the Apocry- pha as in the Sept. and New Testament (Tobit xii, 7 ; Judith ii, 2 ; Ecclus. xxii, 22 ; xxvii, IG, 17, 21 ; 2 Mace, xiii, 21) ; it is applied to divine or sacred mysteries (Wisd. ii, 33; vi, 22), and to the ceremonies of false religions (Wisd. xiv, 15, 23). — Kitto, Cyclop, s. v. See Bibliotheca -Sacw, Jan. 18G7, p. IDG ; \\'ha.t.(i\y,St.Paul, p. 176 ; Coniemp. Rev. Jan. 18G8, p. 182.
V. Kcclesiasticcd Use of the Term. — The word " mys- teries" is repeatedly applied to the Lord's Supper by Chrj-sostom. The eucharist was the last and the high- est point of the secret discipline [see Akcam Disci- puna] ; and the name which it received on this ac- count was retained so long as the superstitious doctrine of the miraculous presence of the body and blood of Christ gained ground. By the usage of the Christian Church it denotes the inscrutable union in the sacra- ment of the inward and spiritual grace Avith the out- ward and visible sign. In the carh- Church the term derived a still greater force from the secrecy which was observed in the administration of tliose ordinances. See Sacramknt.
MYSTERY OF INIQUITY (rt> /jvarnpiov Trig dvo- ftiat;), an exjiression that occurs in Paul's description of the workings of an antichristian power in his own day (1 Thess. ii, 7), and the meaning of which is not clear, ■i'he attributive genitire {c\voj.uai-) does not seem to be that of tlie ofjetit (Theodoret), nor that of apposition (Liinemann and Alford), but simj)!}- of definition, or of the cliaractcrizing (luality, i. e. the mystery of which the characterizing feature, or the active principle, was dvojiia, or luivlessness— the antithesis of order and le- gality. This " mystery of iniquity" was no personality, i. e. Antichrist, or any real or assumed type of Anti- christ (as Chrysostom), but all that mass of uncom- bincd and, so to speak, unorganized lawlessness which, though as yet seen only in detail and not revealed in its true proportions, was even then {i,£i]) aggregating and energizing, and would eventually {iv ti'J iavTov Kaipiij) find its complete development and organization in the person and power of Antichrist (Ellicott, note ad loc). See Antkiiuist.
Mystic Veils {dp^i^vpa, a folding door, because they opened in the mid(lle) were hanging veils used in Eastern churches to conceal tlie chancel from the cate- chumens and unbelievers. Tliey were also designed to conceal the eucharist at the time of consecration. As Christian churches were constructed after the type of the .Jewish Temple, the afflii^n/xt represents the veil wbicli separated the holy of liolies from other parts of the Temple.
Mystical ixtkhi-kktation, otherwise termed spir- itua/.fif/iiratire, is either tropological or anagogical, i.e. according to it words having a distinct literal sense receive eilhor a moral or heavenly reference. Some in- clude the allegorical under the mystical. The mystical
I differs from the literal sense in this, that the meaning cannot at once be derived from the words; but the lit- I eral sense being assumed from it, and from the things signified by it, the meaning wrapix-d up in the words 1 is disclosed.— Blunt, Diet. iJoct. and Ilistor. T/ieol. For ; examine, " Babylon" signifies literally a city of Chal- I djca, the habitation of kings who persecuted the He- I brews, and who were overwhelmed in idolatry and I wickedness. But John, in the Kevelation, gives the name of Babylon, mystically, to the city of Rome. So "Jerusalem" is literally a city of Juda-a, but mystically the heavenly Jerusalem, the habitation of the saints, etc. The "serpent" is literally or naturally a venomous rep- tile, but mystically the devil, the old serpent, etc.— Cal- met. See iNTEia-uiiTATiox. j Mystical Pantheism. See Tantiieism.
Mystical Table, a name applied by Chrysostom to the cnnimuiiion-taljle (q. v.). j Mystical Theism. See Tiieis.m.
Mysticism ( < ir. ^ivariKov), according to the strict meaning of the wonl, signifies a special knowledge and I understanding of the mysteries from which the un- initiated are excluded. " Mysticism," says Cousin, " is the belief that God may be known face to face, without anything intermediate. It is a yielding to the senti- ment awakened by the idea of the Infinite, and a sum- ming up of all knowledge and all duty in the contem- plation and love of him" (l/ist. de la Philos. 1st ser. vol. ii, le(;on 9, 10). ]\Iysticism, therefore, properly defined, is the science of the supernatural state of the human soul manifested in the body and in the order of visible things bj' equally supernatural effects. " Jlysticism," as one has well said, "despairs of the regular process of science; it believes that we may attain directly, without the aid of the senses or reason, ami by an immediate intuition, to the real and absolute principle of all truth, God. It finds God either in nature, and hence a physical and naturalistic mysticism ; or in the soul, and hence a moral and metaphysical mysticism." Thus mysticism should be divided into two distinct branches: esoter- ic, or inner mysticism, and exoteric, or outward mys- ticism. The first is the study of this supernatural ' state of the human soul, such as it has been described ' by saints and mystics. The obscure, unintelligible, and even absurd descriptions given by Mystics of these phenomena, reproduced even by modern theological writers, make mysticism synonymous with quietism (q. v.), and all forms of fanaticism and enthusiasm, etc. Thus, Bretschneider says, "Mysticism is the belief in a continuous, immediate action of God on the soul, produced by special religious exercises, the effect of which is to enlighten, sanctify, and strengthen the soul. It is therefore the faith in an inward light, the neglect of the written revelation, continence, contem- plation, etc." Wegscheider considers enthusiasm as a branch of mysticism, differing only in degree from fa- naticism : "Omnino mysticisnumi pra; se ferrc dicinitur ii, qui neglectis aiit repudiatis same rationis legibus sensibus acrioribus et phantasiiv ludibriis in religioiic describenda et coknda indulgentes immediatam (jiian- dam rerum divinarum percepiionem jactant. ^lysiicis- mus hand raro abit in fanaticimi errorem." According to Hase, the common and jjrincipal defect of mysticism is its rejection from the domain of religious life of all human knowledge and general laws, by which indeed it does not lose its intensity of feeling, but its liberty, and, becoming liable to every kind of error, is gradually more inclined to su]ierstilion. Under the influence of the strange fancies of tlie imagination, it leads to en- thusiasm; untler tliat of a strong will, to fanaticism; and under tliat of the recognition of a spiritual splicre, apart fr<im the medium of Inmian experimental knowl- edge, to tlieosophy. The writers of the rationali.-tic period give amjile evidence of llie confusion often made between mysticism and pietism. This error has in modern times been corrected, especially by the efforts