church after the times of the apostles; and endeavours to shew, by particular facts and testimonies, that the pretended miracles of the primitive church were all mere fictions, which the pious and zealous fathers, partly from a weak credulity, and partly from reasons of policy, believing some perhaps to be true, and knowing all of them to be useful, were induced to espouse and propagate, for the support of a righteous cause.

The publication of this treatise, as was expected, raised up immediately against the author a host of adversaries, charging him with desperate designs and pernicious consequences; with calumniating the holy fathers; misrepresenting their testimonies, and straining them to senses quite different from their own. And though our author had the satisfaction of finding that the truth, or high probability of his argument was acknowledged, by almost all enlightened and disinterested readers, yet these strenuous antagonists opposed it with the utmost vehemence. The most distinguished and applauded champions against it, were the two divines, Dodwell and Church; who signalized themselves with so much zeal, that the university of Oxford honoured them both with the degree of doctor of divinity. Dr. Middleton, therefore, determined particularly to examine the merit of their performances, not omitting, at the same time, to pay due respect to such other opponents as should advance any argument, which might afford opportunity either of instruction or entertainment to the reader. This was the design of that "Answer to all the Objections made against the Free Enquiry," which he resolved to compose; but he did not live to finish this undertaking, though he was engaged in it, more or less, till within a few days of his death. A few months after that event, a considerable part of this intended answer was published, under the title of "A Vindication of the Free Enquiry into the Miraculous Powers, &c. from the Objections of Dr. Dodwell and Dr. Church;" which, though in an unfinished state, is very correct and pertinent as far as it goes. While the author was proceeding with this work, he composed, and in 1750 published, "An Examination of the Lord Bishop of London's Discourses concerning the Use and Intent of Prophecy,' &c." The design of those discourses is to shew, that there is a manifest connection between the prophecies of every age, from the beginning of the world to the commencement of the gospel of Jesus Christ; which chain of

prophecies, delivered at different times, and reaching through several thousand years, is yet manifestly subservient to one and the same administration of Providence. This notion of prophecy the bishop laboured to inculcate, as the only notion of it which could supply any satisfactory argument for the truth of christianity. Dr. Middleton, however, controverts his lordship's fundamental principle with great spirit and ability, declaring such a notion of prophecy to be an imaginary and romantic scheme, of which he could not discover the least trace in any of the books of the New Testament; and, after drawing out a distinct account of what the evangelists and apostles have delivered on the subject, concludes from it, in direct opposition to the bishop, that the authority of the gospel, as far as it is grounded on prophecy, rests on those single and independent predictions, which are delivered here and there, in the law and the prophets, and not on any fanciful scheme of prophecy, deduced from Adam and the antediluvian world.

While our author was preparing his "Examination" for the press, the bishop published "An Appendix, or additional Dissertation, containing a farther Enquiry into the Mosaic Account of the Fall;" upon which Dr. Middleton added to his treatise some "Cursory Observations," tending to confirm his own opinion of that account, that by considering it as a moral fable, we get rid of every difficulty, and render it clear and consistent, as well as adequate to every use which christianity can require from it; and, on the contrary, that the historical sense cannot be defended, but by a series of suppositions, wholly arbitrary and precarious, void of all support from the text, and evidently condemned by our reason. This opinion struck at the very foundation of his lordship's scheme concerning the rise and progress of prophecy, which was grounded on the Mosaic account of the fall, considered as an historical narrative of facts, supposed to have been transacted in the manner in which they are described. As an interval of more than twenty years had elapsed, between the first publication of the bishop's discourses and our author's examination of them, his enemies were pleased to attribute the appearance of his work to various unworthy motives; and some of them to spleen and personal enmity. The author, however, explains the reason of his late attention to his lordship's discourses, by expressly declaring that he had but very lately read them, and that they might have passed

VOL. VII.

still unregarded by him, had they not been accidentally recommended to his perusal by a conversation, in which they were urged in contradiction to something advanced on the subject of prophecy, which he took to be both reason able and important. Such a declaration, from a person whose veracity has not been impeached, is not to be contradicted by vague surmises, precarious reports, or malevolent insinuations. Within a few months after the publication of the treatise last mentioned, our author's constitution began to break very rapidly, and he was attacked by a slow hectic fever and a disorder in his liver, which produced evident symptoms of approaching dissolution. In these circumstances he went to London, for the advice of his friend Dr. Heberden, in whose medical skill he had the greatest confidence; but finding, after a stay of several days at the doctor's house, that his case was hopeless, he retired to his villa at Hildersham, where he died on the 28th of July, 1750, in the 67th year of his age. In the latter part of his life, he had been presented by Sir John Frederick to a small living in Surrey; his acceptance of which was severely animadverted upon, in a piece published after his death, by his old antagonist Dr. Church. According to our views of things, we cannot acquit him of blame in this proceeding; but, like too many of his brethren, whose consciences will permit them to give their assent and consent to articles which they cannot approve, he appears to have satisfied himself with considering subscription to be a measure merely political.

That Dr. Middleton was a very learned and ingenious divine, will not be disputed by any one. That he was also an ardent lover of truth, as well as steady and disinterested in the pursuit of it, may be fairly concluded from the circumstances of his life above related, the sacrifices which he must have made by adopting and avowing sentiments that cut off at once all his hopes of preferment, and the firmness with which he encountered the utmost rage and malice of fierce bigots, and hypocritical zealots. That he was a sincere believer in the christian religion, his own express and repeated declarations sufficiently prove, as well as his concise, but admirable exposure of one of its most artful and malignant enemies, in his "Letter to Dr. Waterland," and his devoting many of his learned enquiries to its service. But notwithstanding all this evidence, the generality of his clerical brethren, and his reverend ad

versaries in particular, were not ashamed to persist in pronouncing him a confirmed deist. This clamour and senseless charge of infidelity he constantly despised and derided, as a mere calumny, and the effect of pure malice; comforting himself, as he assures us, with the reflection, that, under all the attempts to depress his character, and all the suspicions of those who were strangers to it, they who knew him best, and whose esteem he most valued, continued still to treat him with all the usual marks of their friendship, as believing him incapable of harbouring any thought, or pursuing any design which could be injurious to virtue and true religion. His faith, he acknowledges, was not of that kind which can easily digest incredibilities, but only a principle grounded on the perception of truth, and claiming no other merit, than that of being a slave to his reason; to whose dictates it paid an absolute submission. Confined within these just limits, however, it produced the noblest fruits, in a life spent in temperance, study, and the search of truth; and which, in other respects, likewise, was as exemplary and agreeable to the rules of the gospel, as that of the most zealous of all his orthodox opponents. As a writer, Dr. Middleton has few rivals for spirit, perspicuity, correctness, and elegance. The strain of his polemical pieces, indeed, has been sometimes censured, as savouring too much of an ungovernable resentment, and a contemptuous arrogance. The charge, however, has been greatly aggravated; and, if we may believe his solemn assurances, it never was his custom to shew a contempt of any man, who had not justly deserved it of him by some unprovoked and contemptible attack upon himself. According to the account given of him in the "Biographia Britannica," as to his person he was of a proper middle stature, and a thin habit; his eye was very lively, but small; he was a little out-mouthed; of a manly complexion; and, to use the painter's phrase, there was a very expressive motion in every feature, though his whole deportment was composed to gravity. The character he formed for himself as the most eligible was, to make the scholar agreeable by polishing him with the gentleman, and to give weight to the man of sense, by uniting him to the man of virtue." Dr. Middleton, a little time before his death, had formed a design of drawing up an exact history of his works, with the occasions and circumstances of them; but he did not live to execute it. There were also found among his papers

some materials for a Life of Demosthenes, correspondent to that of Cicero. In the year 1752, his "Miscellaneous Works" were published, in four volumes, quarto, including several posthumous pieces, chiefly relating to ecclesiastical history and biblical criticism. Of this collection a second edition was published in 1755, in five volumes, octavo. Biog. Britan. Brit. Biog. The Author's Miscellaneous Works, passim.-M.

MIEL, JOHN, an eminent painter, was born in 1599, at Vlaenderen in Flanders. He was first a disciple of Gerard Segers, and was much distinguished for his proficiency in the art. For further improvement he went to Italy, and entered the school of Andrea Sacchi at Rome. Being employed by the painter on a picture in the Barberini palace, he gave way to his natural turn, and made some figures in the grotesque style, which so much irritated Andrea, that he discharged him from his service. Miel then took a resolution to pursue in earnest the nobler branch of the art, and visited Lom bardy in order to study the works of Corregio and the Caracci. Returning to Rome, he painted in the gallery of Monte Cavallo for pope Alexander VII. Moses striking the rock, and adorned several chapels in Rome with history-pieces which are performances of merit, though somewhat deficient in grace and grandeur. His excellence, in fact, lay in inferior subjects, such as carnivals, beggars, gypsies, rural scenes, and especially hunting pieces, in which his figures of animals are touched with great truth and spirit. His colouring is clear and brilliant, and his small works exhibit great delicacy and beauty of pencil. He was admitted into the academy of St. Luke in Rome, and his reputation caused him to be invited to Turin by Charles Emanuel duke of Savoy, who kept him five years in his service, and decorated him with the order of St. Maurice. He died at Turin in 1664, and was buried in the cathedral of that city. Some of the finest works of this master were to be seen in the grand saloon of the duke's palace de la Venerie, representing the chace of various animals, with a great number of figures. Others are in the imperial collection at Vienna, and in different cabinets. Miel etched several of his own designs. D'Argenville. Pilkington's Dict.-A.

MIERIS, FRANCIS, one of the most celebrated painters of the Dutch school, was born in 1635, at Leyden, where his father was a goldsmith and jeweller. He studied under

Vliet, Gerard Douw, and Vanden Tempel, but it was the second of these masters whose style and manner he chiefly adopted, and whose principal scholar he is reckoned. His works were portraits, conversations, and scenes in common life, in all which his imitation of nature was so perfect as to excite the greatest admiration. With all the delicate finish of Gerard Douw, he had a better choice of subjects, and a more correct and enlarged taste of design. His colouring is also more clear, and his touch more forcible and spirited. In giving the representation of different kinds of stuffs he was unparalleled; and his pictures immediately bore that value, which the imitative branch of the art, when executed in the highest perfection, will ever command, as addressing itself to the common judgment. His usual recompence for working was at the rate of a ducat an hour; but several of his pieces rose to a price much beyond that estimate. His carelessness and intemperance however kept him indigent. He was imprisoned for debt; and when urged by his creditors to procure his liberation by the exertion of his talents, he replied that the view of bolts and bars would make the pencil drop from his hand. Having once in a fit of intoxication fallen into a sewer, whence he was extricated by a cobler and his wife, who took him home and put him to bed, he repaid their kindness two years after by a picture, which the woman sold to a burgomaster for eight hundred florins. One of his finest pieces was a picture of a young lady fainting, a physician attempting to recover her, and an old woman standing by. Three thousand florins were in vain offered for it by the grand duke of Tuscany, who procured several of the other works of Mieris, which are regarded as some of the most curious in the Florentine gallery. This artist died at Leyden in 1681, at the age of 46. Francis Mieris had two sons, the older of whom, John, who gave promise of equalling his father's excellence, though in a higher department of the art, died at Rome in 1690. The younger was

WILLIAM MIERIS, brought up under his father, and eminent in a similar walk of painting, though judged not to have attained his degree of excellence. His pictures, however, are highly valued; and his modellings in clay and wax shew great talents in that branch of art. He died in 1741, in his 85th year. His son, Francis Mieris, the younger, adopted the family manner and style of painting, but with inferior success. He was also a writer, and

published several works relative to the history and antiquities of the Low Countries, and the lives of their sovereigns. D'Argenville. Pilkington.-A.

MIGNARD, NICHOLAS, a French painter of reputation, born in 1608 at Troyes, was the son of an officer in the army. An early disposition for the art of design caused him to be placed as pupil with the best painter in Troyes, whom he soon surpassed. He afterwards improved himself by the study of the antiques and paintings at the palace of Fontainebleau; and then visiting Italy, passed two years in that country. He returned to Avignon, at which city he had distinguished himself by his performances in his way to Rome, and had contracted a matrimonial engagement. His residence there for a number of years, has caused him to be known by the name of Mignard of Avignon, by way of distinction from his brother, Mignard the Roman. When cardinal Mazarine, in 1660, accompanying Louis XIV. in his journey to meet the Infanta of Spain, passed through Avignon, he sat for his portrait to Mignard, who obtained so much reputation by the work, that he was invited to court. For some years he was much employed as a portrait-painter by the royal family and persons of rank; nor did he neglect the higher branch of the art. Several considerable historical pieces came from his hand, and some of the apartments in the Tuilleries were decorated with his designs. He was admitted into the Academy of Painting, of which he became professor, and at length director. He died in 1668. This master had a poetical cast of invention, but without much fire or originality. He coloured agreeably, and composed with harmony: the airs of his heads are graceful, but the want of expression renders his pieces somewhat insipid. Many of his portraits and some of his historical pieces have been engraved. He himself etched some plates from Annibal Caracci. D'Argenville. ` Pilkington.

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Paris, brought him a great length in his new profession, but he found that the school of Italy was still wanting to form his taste. He visited Rome in 1636, and found there his fellow-student at Vouet's, Du Fresnoy, with whom he formed an intimacy that was dissolved only by death. They studied together in the day, often contenting themselves with bread and water, and returned at night to a common apartment. a common apartment. Mignard copied the works of Raphael, Michael Angelo, the Caracci, and other great masters, and endeavoured to unite their several excellencies. He had, however, more talent than genius; and though he executed many works in the highest department of painting, he chiefly excelled as a portrait-painter. In that capacity he was employed by many persons of the highest distinction in Italy, among whom were two popes, several princes and cardinals, and a doge of Venice. He married the daughter of an architect at Rome, who being young and beautiful served him as a model for his goddesses. After a residence of twenty-two years in Italy, he was recalled to Paris by Louis XIV. with whom he became the favourite artist. He painted that monarch ten different times, and pleased him as much by his flattery as his pencil.

At the last time of the king's sitting he said to Mignard, "You find me aged:" "It is true, sire," he replied, "I see the traces of some more campaigns on your majesty's forehead." One of his greatest works was the cupola of Val-de-Grace, which he painted in fresco with a vast number of figures of saints of large dimensions. Moliere wrote a poem in praise of this piece, as a return for his portrait presented by the artist. Mignard was in habits of friendship with the principal French wits of his time, and was generally be loved for his social qualities. A rivalry prevailed between him and Charles le Brun, attended with mutual dislike; and as he was ambitious and intriguing, he was able to give much uneasiness to that great painter, his superior in genius. The king, in 1687, ennobled Mignard; and after the death of le Brun in 1699, he had his places of first painter, and director of manufactures, and of director and chancellor of the academy. He died in 1695, at the age of 85, practising his art to the last.

Mignard was a great colourist, soft and harmonious in his tints, and rich and elegant in composition. He wanted fire and expression, and sometimes was deficient in correctness. His

works both in portrait and history were very numerous, and many of the palaces and hotels in Paris and its vicinity were decorated by his hand. The engravings from his pieces amount to 147, many by the most eminent masters. D'Argenville. Pilkington.-A.

MIGNON or INJON, ABRAHAM, a celebrated painter of flowers and fruit, was born at Frankfort in 1639. He was placed as a pupil with James Murel, a flower-painter in that city, with whom he worked till the age of 17, when he accompanied his master to Holland. He was there allowed to receive the instructions of David de Heem of Utrecht, a famous artist in the same walk, under whom he soon arrived at the highest degree of perfection. The exactness of his representations, the brilliancy of his colouring, the delicate bloom of nature thrown over every object, the taste and skill of the grouping, and the elegant choice of subjects, rendered him in his time unrivalled in this pleasing though inferior branch of the art, and he has perhaps been surpassed only by Van Huysum. His flower and fruit pieces are generally accompanied by appropriate insects, exquisitely painted, with drops of dew rolling from the leaves, so as to produce an absolute illusion. He was exceedingly careful to choose the best and most perfect specimens for his imitation, and was never wearied in studying nature. His assiduity shortened his days, and he died in Holland in 1679, at the age of 40. Mignon brought up two daughters to his own. art, and has been already mentioned as the instructor of Sybilla Merian. His works bore a high price, and were purchased by strangers from various countries. They are to be found in the principal cabinets, public and private. D'Argenville. Pilkington.-A.

MIGNOT, STEPHEN, a learned French ecclesiastic in the eighteenth century, was a native of Paris, where he was born in the year 1698. He was admitted to the degree of doctor by the faculty of the Sorbonne, and rendered himself eminent for his acquaintance with the Sacred Scriptures, the fathers, ecclesiastical history, and canon law. When upwards of sixty years old, he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres. He died in 1771, about the age of 73. He was the author of "A Treatise on Commercial Loans," 1767, in four volumes, 12mo.; "The Rights of the State and of the Prince, with Reference to the Estates of the Clergy," 1755, in six volumes, 12mo.; "The History of the Contest between Henry II, and St. Thomas of

Canterbury," 1756, 12mo.; "The Reception of the Council of Trent in Catholic Countries," 1767, in two volumes, 12mo.; "a Paraphrase on the Book of Psalms," 1755, 12mo.; "A Paraphrase on the Book of Wisdom," 1754, in two volumes, 12mo.; "A Paraphrase on the New Testament," 1754, in four volumes, 12mo.; "An Analysis of the Truths of the Christian Religion," 1755, 12mo.; "Reflec tions on the Preliminary Information requisite for an Acquaintance with Christianity," 12mo.; and "A Memoir relating to the Liberties of the Gallican Church," 1756, 12mo. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M.

MILLAR, JOHN, professor of law in the university of Glasgow, and a valuable writer on political topics, was born in 1735 in the parish of Shotts, Lanerkshire, of which parish his father was minister. On the removal of his father to Hamilton, he was sent to reside with an uncle who had been a writer to the signet in Edinburgh, but was retired to a small family estate not far from Glasgow. John received his grammar education at the school of Hamilton, whence, in 1746, he was removed to the college of Glasgow. His first destination was to the church; but the freedom of his enquiries having inspired him with a disinclination to fetter himself by subscription to articles of faith, and the consciousness of talents having probably opened larger prospects to him than the Scotch church could realize, he turned his thoughts from the pulpit to the bar, and his father acquiesced in the change. He was already considered as one of the most acute and well-informed of the university students, and had acquired the esteem of the celebrated Dr. Adam Smith and other professors. After he had finished his studies at Glasgow, he passed two years in the family of lord Kames as tutor to his son, and derived much information and improvement from the society of that eminent lawyer and speculatist. At this time he also contracted an acquaintance with David Hume, to whose metaphysical opinions he became a convert, though he ma terially duf red with him upon political topics. That philosopher gave a convincing proof of his esteem for Mr. Millar by entrusting to him the coucation of his nephew, the present professor of Scotch law in the university of Edinburgh.

In 1760 Mr. Millar passed his examination as advocate, and began to practice at the bar. He was regarded as a rising young lawyer, when he thought proper to terminate his pro