MYSTERY. A Word which comes from the Greek, Mysterion, and which in this Language signifies properly a Secret. And this is derived from Myo, I shut up, and Stoma, the Mouth, as much as to say, our Mouths should be shut about these Matters. Or it may be derived from the He brew, Satar, to hide, whence Mystar, a Thing concealed. Denudare amici mysteria, desperatio animæ, says the wise Man, Ecclesiasticus xxvii. 16. When a Man has betrayed the Secret of his Friend, he is unworthy of any Credit for the Time to come. Ei, qui revelat mysteria, & ambulat fraudulenter, — ne commiscearis. Have no Correspondence with him that betrays the Secrets of his Friends, and who walks deceitfully, Prov. xx. 19.
All Religions true or false have their Mysteries, that is, certain Things that are not to be divulged, or exposed indifferently to every Body; certain Secrets, which are known only to those who have been initiated into that Religion. The Pagans had their Mysteries, but they were Mysteries of Iniquity, shameful Mysteries, that were concealed only because they would have rendered their Religion contemptible, ridiculous, and odious. If Men of Sense and Honour had known what was practised in the secret Mysteries of certain false Deities, they would have abhorred them. Daniel discovered the Secrets of the Babylonian Priests, who made the People believe, that Bel could eat, and that the Dragon was a God. The sacred Books often speak of the infamous Mysteries of Astarte, Adonis, Priapus, wherein a Thousand infamous Actions were committed, and where the most shameful Crimes were concealed under the Veil of Religion. Baruch speaks of Prostitutions that Baruch vi. 42, 43.were practised in Honour of Venus at Babylon. The whole Religion of the Egyptians was mysterious. But these pretended Mysteries were invented afterwards, to conceal the Folly and Vanity of it. They could not vindicate, for Example, the Adoration that they paid to Brutes but by saying, that the Gods had sometimes concealed themselves under these Shapes. In the Maccabees Mention is 1 Macc. vi. 7. 2 Macc. vi. 7.made of the Mysteries of Bacchus, and of the Ivy that was imprinted upon every one that was initiated therein, and of the Garlands of Ivy that were wore by those that assisted at these Ceremonies. Asa King of Juda would 1 Kings xv. 13.not suffer the Queen his Mother to continue to preside over the Mysteries of Priapus. No Doubt can be made but that they gave mysterious and secret Reasons for the Worship that was paid to Moloch, and for the human Sacrifices that were offered to him. ‘Twas perhaps a perverse Imitation of Abraham’s intended Sacrifice of his Son Isaac. The Phœnicians assign a Reason not unlike this, for those cruel Sacrifices that they made to Hercules and to Saturn. See Porphyry in Eusebius’s Preparatio Evangelica.
The Religion of the Jews was full of Mysteries. The whole Nation was a Mystery, according to St. Austin1. It represented the People of Christ, and the Christian Religion. Whatever happened to them, whatever they put in Practice, all that was commanded or forbidden them, 1 Cor. x. 11.was figurative according to St. Paul. Their Sacrifices, their Priesthood, their Purifications, their refraining from certain Sorts of Food, included Mysteries which have been explained by Jesus Christ and his Apostles. The Passage over the Red-Sea was a Symbol of Baptism. The brazen Serpent was a Mystery that represented the Cross and Death of Christ. Sarah and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael, denoted the two Covenants. The Tabernacle and its Vessels insinuated the Worship that God was to receive in the Christian Church. The Priesthood of Aaron has been admirably explained by St. Paul of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, and of that of his Church. St. Barnabas has unfolded the Secrets contained in the Prohibition of certain Foods. Jesus Christ himself has discovered the Mystery to us, of Jonas’s being confined for three Days in the Whale’s Belly. And that of lifting up the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness. That of Manna that represented the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. That of the Union of Adam and Eve, which contained the Mystery of the Christian Marriage. That of the Temple of Jerusalem, to be destroyed and rebuilt in three Days, prefigured his Death and Resurrection. The Reprobation of the Jews, and the Adoption of the Gentiles, was intimated in an hundred Passages of Scripture; for Example, by Agar and Sarah, by Ishmael and Isaac, by Ephraim and Manasseh, by Saul and David, by David and his Brethren, by Absalom and Solomon, and even by Moses and Aaron, who were not permitted to enter into the Land of Promise.
The Prophecies concerning the Person, the Coming, the Characters, the Death and Passion of the Messiah, are to be found in a Multitude of Places in the Old Testament, but after a figurative and mysterious Manner. The Actions, the Words, the Life of the Prophets, were a continual and general Prophecy, which was concealed from the Eyes of the People, and sometimes from the Prophets themselves, and was not explained and discovered, till after the Birth and Death of Jesus Christ; and these Mysteries were dispensed in so wonderful an Œconomy, and by so wise a Providence, that the first served as a Foundation for the second, and the succeeding gave new Light to those that went before. They still improved in Clearness and Evidence, and the Holy Ghost dispensed them by Measure, and in due Degrees. Daniel is more explicite than the Prophets before him; Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, speak of the Coming, of the Death, and of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, and of the Calling of the Gentiles, after a more plain and distinct Manner than the other Prophets before them.
The Mysteries of the Christian Religion, as the Incarnation of the Word, his hypostatical Union, with his human Nature, his miraculous Birth, his Death, Resurrection, Ascension, his real Presence in the Eucharist, the Predestination and Reprobation of Men, the Grace of Jesus Christ, and the Manner of its Operation in our Hearts, the Virginity of the Virgin Mary, both before and after her bringing forth, the Resurrection of the Dead: In a Word, the Articles of Faith contained in the Apostles Creed, and the Mysteries revealed to us both in the Old and New Testament, are the Objects of the Faith of all true Christians.
The Word Mystery is also taken for Secrets of an higher Order, and which are Supernatural; as those the Knowledge of which God has reserved to himself, and of which he has sometimes communicated the Knowledge to his Prophets and Friends. Thus Daniel gives to God the Name of Revealer of Mysteries: Dominus Regum, & revelans mysteria. He tells King Nebuchadnezzar, that there is none but God that reigns in Heaven, who can reveal hidden Mysteries, and Things to come. And our Saviour says to his Disciples in the Gospel of St. Matthew, that they are happy because God has revealed to them the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. St. Paul often speaks of the Mystery of the Gospel, of the Mystery of the Cross of Christ, of the Mystery of Christ which was unknown to former Ages, of the Mystery of the Resurrection to come, &c. Mystick Babylon, the great Harlot, had written upon her Forehead, Mystery, to shew that she did not represent any particular City, nor any Woman, but a corrupted and idolatrous People.
Lastly, the Word Mystery in the Greek is equivalent to Sacramentum in Latin. It expresses the Sacraments and Mysteries of the Christian Church, and chiefly the Eucharist, which is the most sacred and the most sublime of all our Mysteries. In Scripture Sacramentum is put barely for a Secret2, a Thing that is hidden: But it is often put for Mystery in the New Testament. God has made known unto us the Mystery of his Will; his Incarnation, his Coming, his Gospel; Sacramentum voluptatis suæ. St. Paul says, that the Mystery of the Vocation of the Gentiles was revealed to him; and speaking of Christian Marriage, he says, it is a great Mystery in Jesus Christ and his Church. Sacramentum hoc magnum est, (the Greek says Mysterium magnum) ego autem dico in Christo & in Ecclesiâ.
These then were called Mysteries, the Doctrine of the Gospel, the Tenets of Christianity, and the Sacraments of the Church; not only because they included Secrets which had not been known, if the Son of God and his Holy Spirit had not revealed them to Believers, but also because they were not revealed indifferently to every Body. The Advice of Jesus Christ to his Apostles was in this Case put in Practice; Give not that which is holy unto the Dogs, neither cast ye your Pearls before Swine. They preached the Gospel only to those, who seriously desired to be instructed in it; nor did they presently discover to ‘em all the Mysteries of Religion, but in Proportion as they became capable to receive them, and when they had intirely resolved to be baptized. The Preachers in their Sermons, and the Ecclesiastical Writers in their Books, did not fully express themselves upon all the Mysteries. They said enough to be understood by the Faithful, but the Pagans could not comprehend their Discourses. This wise Precaution continued a long while in the Church. The Pagans also put in Practice the same Reserve, in Respect of many of the shameful and ridiculous Mysteries of their false Religion. But the Secrecy that was observed concerning our Mysteries, was chiefly founded upon their superior Excellence and Sublimity, which made them inaccessible to the human Understanding, unless it was assisted by the Light of Faith.
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