was Saturday, before the institution of which day for their Sabbath they celebrated Sunday, and profaned Saturday by servile work. In regard to Exod. xvi. he observes, that "the elders that understood not when Moses commanded them to gather a double portion of manna on Friday must have been grown to dotage, if they had been accustomed to rest on Saturday." (P. 145.)

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The reason why God appointed Saturday to be the Jewish Sabbath is thought by him to be, that, this being the day immediately preceding Sunday, and the whole economy of Moses's law, as of a thing imperfect, pointing to "good things to come" (Heb. x. 1), it was necessary that their typical day of rest should be so placed as from thence they might look immediately unto that day of true rest that was to come at the rising of the Sun of Righteousness out of the grave. But besides this, the more special reason of God's appointing them Saturday for their Sabbath was, because Saturday was the first day of rest they had from Egyptian bondage," &c. (P. 220.)

And he conceives that "our Lord's Day, though according to the Jewish idiom it be called the first day (the first day of their week after that God had appointed them to observe another beginning of their week as well as year, than was in use before), yet is in reality the seventh day of the week, commencing that account from the creation, and the same day of the week whereon God rested." (P. 231.)

The duty of observing the Lord's Day, he enforces by the following narrative of a Divine judgment on the salmon-fishers at Berwick :

"Upon the bringing in the Book of Sports, common people began to follow their common callings on Sundays, of which Taylor, in his Penniless Pilgrimage, gives this notable instance (of the truth whereof I am very well assured, not only by the report of the inhabitants, but the necessity was laid on this traveller not to lie ; for if they who wagered with him could have catcht him therein, he would have had nothing for his travel save the labour). The story is this. When he came to Berwick-upon-Tweed, he found the inhabitants sadly dejected, by reason that the salmon-fishers, upon the publishing of the Book of Sports, presuming the next Lord's Day to lay their nets as they used to do on week days, had not since that day, for many weeks, caught one fin (though such incredible numbers of salmon used to come up that river every tide, as I have been credibly informed, that one fishmonger of that town paid many hundred pounds per annum for casks to pickle up salmon in); this they imputed to the hand of God, and sought the removal of this plague by solemn fasting and prayers; upon which, He that hears the cry of the tears of the penitent, took off the prohibition he had laid upon the fish to approach that river, so as the waterpoet at his return found their hearts filled with food and gladness. What might this profanation have come to, if God by miracle had not nipt it in the bud!" (Pp. 258-260.)

196. Pfeiffer, Augustus, D.D., a Lutheran Divine, Professor of Oriental Languages at Leipsic (born 1640; died 1698). Opera omnia Philologica. Ultraj. 1704. 2 vols. 4to.

See, in vol. i., Dubia Vexata S. Scripturæ, sive loca difficiliora Veteris Testamenti, Cent. i. Loc. iv.

197. VITRINGA, CAMPEGIUS, a learned Protestant Divine, Professor of Oriental Languages and Divinity at Franeker (born 1659; died 1722).-De Synagogâ Vetere libri tres: quibus tum de Nominibus, Structurâ, Origine, Præfectis, Ministris, et Sacris Synagogorum, agitur; tum præcipue, Formam Regiminis et Ministerii earum in Ecclesiam Christianam translatam esse, demonstratur: Cum Prolegomenis. Franeq. 1696. 4to. Pp. 1138.

A condensed translation of this erudite work has been pub. lished with the following title: "The Synagogue and the Church: Being an attempt to show that the Government, Ministers, and Services of the Church, were derived from those of the Synagogue. Condensed from the original Latin work of Vitringa, by Joshua L. Bernard, A.M., Curate of St Mary's, Donnybrook. Lond. 1842." 8vo, pp. 262. From that version the subjoined extracts are taken. Mr Bernard states that he "has added some explanatory remarks ;" but these are not distinguished in any way from what he found in the original.

"1.

Vitringa regards the Fourth Commandment as a law for rest merely, and not for any other kind of worship (Book i. Part ii. ch. ii. p. 292). His interpretation of the words mikra kodesh, in Lev. xxiii. 3, has already been mentioned above, vol. i. p. 19. He maintains that there is no foundation in Scripture for what Josephus and other Jewish writers affirm as to Moses having appointed assemblies to be held on the Sabbath-day for the reading and hearing of the law (see above, i. 116, 118; ii. 69). Not only is proof wanting, but many facts.concur to show that there could not be, in the time of Moses, anything similar to the synagogue. In the entire five books of Moses, there is not one precept, not one injunction, in reference to prayer. There are instances of individuals offering up prayer; there are forms of prayer and thanksgiving; but there is not any one express command enjoining public prayer. 2. We have, recorded, the institution of the priestly office, the separation of the Levites for Divine purposes; and yet the duties of the priests are altogether confined to the tabernacle: and the Levites (instead of being distributed amongst the people, and located in the different cities and villages, for the purpose of mi

nistering in the various congregations), are ordered to dwell by themselves in forty-eight cities; the cities of the other tribes being, in many instances, far distant from any city of the Levites. Their duties, too, have all reference to the tabernacle, the priests, the sacrifices; without as much as an incidental mention of duties similar to those to be fulfilled in the synagogue. 3. The children of Israel are commanded to hear the law read to them once every seven years (Deut. xxxi. 11, 12). Now, is not this a presumptive argument against the existence of the synagogue, either in the time, or even in the intention of Moses ? If there was the weekly reading of the law, where the necessity for reading it once in every seven years at the feast of tabernacles?" (Pp. 30, 31.) Of the words rendered "synagogues of God," in Ps. lxxiv. 8 (above, i. 38, and the note), it is said: "On looking to the original, we shall find that they signify literally, the places of meeting God' (i. e. the places where Jehovah promised to meet his people), and thus, strictly speaking, are applicable only to the Temple. The Hebrew noun being in the plural number does not interfere with this interpretation; for two plural nouns are used to designate the Temple in this very Psalm, and one of them the noun under consideration." (P. 39.)

"We must, then," it is concluded from the whole discussion, "look for the origin of the synagogue to the times subsequent to the Babylonish captivity; and upon examining the records of these times, we shall find a perfect model of the synagogue, anything like which we in vain seek for in the history of the earlier periods." (ib.) In the eighth and ninth chapters of the book of Nehemiah, "we have a perfect model of the synagogue. 1. The pulpit of wood, elevated above the people. 2. The reading of the law by Ezra and the other doctors. 3. The explanation of the law. 4. Praise and thanksgiving. 5. The people answering, Amen." (Pp. 39-41.) "There are many circumstances which prove that after the Babylonish captivity there was a revival of religion amongst the Jews, and therefore justify us in looking to this period for the origin of the synagogue." (P. 41.) Those enumerated are: 1. The number of copies of the Scriptures in these times (1 Macc. i. 56; xii. 9); 2. The number of scribes (Ezra vii. 6; 1 Macc. vii. 12); and, 3. The public reading of the law (Neh. viii. 18; xiii. 1).

In the chapter where the discourses delivered in the early Christian Church are compared with those delivered in the synagogue, Vitringa notices, among other points of resemblance, that in the former, as in the latter, the discourses were highly allegorical. "Those of our Lord were evidently so; the Epistles of the Apostle Paul prove that this mode of explaining Divine truth was not laid aside by his Apostles; whilst the Epistle of Barnabas, abounding as it does with allegories, gives a fair specimen of the writing, and of course the preaching, usual in these times; and though in all probability Barnabas was not the author of the Epistle, still it ita venerable monument of Christian antiquity; and we may

fairly consider it as a model of ancient writing, and (if men preached as they wrote) of ancient preaching." (P. 196.)

The following passage has a bearing on the arguments of those who see in the prophecies of Isaiah (lvi. 3-8; lxvi. 23) an indication that the Sabbath is an institution of Christianity :—“ When the writers of the Old Testament designate the worship of the New Dispensation by expressions borrowed from the worship of their times, it is not that they would have us conclude that the Christian Church was to be in these points similar to the Jewish; no, they used these expressions in order that they might be understood by the people amongst whom they lived: for instance, when Israel was in bondage to the elements of the world, that mode of worship which consisted in the offering of sacrifices was the one chiefly known and received; when, then, the prophets were about to predict that God should be worshipped throughout the whole world, they could not declare such an event to the people of their day more clearly than by some such description as the following:-That sacrifices should be offered by all people; that all nations should go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord; that Sabbaths, New Moons, and Festal Days, should be observed with all diligence, &c. This way of speaking is simple and natural, and of course merely means that God should be worshipped throughout all the earth with a suitable worship, without any reference to its form. This appears from an evident example: Isaiah and David, when predicting that Christian magistrates would give honour to the Messiah, are accustomed to describe this event by saying, that kings and queens would be in subjection to his kingdom. Now, if any one would infer from this, that the civil polity under the New Dispensation was to be conformable to the form of government of the Jews, he would be far indeed from the mind of the prophets: they merely wished to intimate that the magistrates and princes of the Gentiles would be converted to the religion of Jesus, without any reference to a form of government; and they designated all by the name of kings, because this was the usual form of government amongst Eastern nations. And, similarly, when the prophets predict that 'Sabbaths,' "New Moons,' 'the Feast of Tabernacles,' shall be observed in the kingdom of Christ (Isa. lvi. 4; lxvi. 23; Zach. xiv. 16); when the Apostle Paul tells us, that the Feast of the Passover' is to be kept by Christians (1 Cor. v. 8); they do not mean that the Church of the New Dispensation is to be tied down to the observance of Feasts, and New Moons, and Sabbaths; the Apostle tells us quite the contrary (Heb. iv. 9, 11, 16; Col. ii. 16). Such expressions mean that the Church of the New Dispensation should worship God, with a worship similar in kind, but not in form, to that which was offered to him on Sabbaths, New Moons, &c. Thus the Sabbath was intended for rest; the New Moons and Festivals were consecrated to joy and gladness-the former in thanksgiving to Jehovah as the true Author of light; the latter in remembrance of various mercies conferred upon the Jewish nation. But now that the Church is to keep a constant rest from sin and evil deeds; now

that she praises God, and rejoices in him, as the Author of spiritual light and the bestower of all spiritual mercies; she, in this sense, keeps the Sabbath, and keeps the feast, but then without reference to any form of worship under the Mosaic Law."

221.)

(Pp. 218

Mr Bernard throws into the appendix the substance of what Vitringa, in the chapter above mentioned, says of the Sabbath, in answer to the argument that the words, "Remember the Sabbathday to keep it holy," imply that the Jews were to abstain from all work in order that they might have more leisure to devote themselves to the worship of God. 'Granting this," he replies, "still it fails to prove the institution of public worship on the Sabbath-day. An Israelite, either alone or in his family, could fulfil the spirit of the commandment, by passing the day in prayer, in meditation, or in other religious exercises. But further, the letter, the primary intention of the commandment has no reference whatever to religious worship. This is abundantly evident from various passages of the Old Testament, and first from the commandment itself: The sacred Lawgiver says, 'Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy;' then follows the way in which it is to be kept holy, 'In it thou shalt do no manner of work,' &c.; and, finally, the reason for the command is assigned, God rested from his work which he had made.* So that the commandment, in fact, amounts to this: Man is to cease from his work on the Sabbath-day, because on that day God rested from his; and by this cessation from work, the day is hallowed. In accordance with this, we find, that whenever the hallowing of the Sabbath-day is commanded in Scripture,† cessation from work is invariably mentioned as the observance of the commandment; 'Ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people' (Exod. xxxi. 14). And again, to take a passage from one of the Prophets: Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath-day: neither do ye any work; but hallow ye the Sabbath-day, as I commanded your fathers' (Jer. xvii. 22–24). And that the hallowing of the day should consist in cessation from work, will not appear strange to any one who considers the manner

6

*If the Commandment in Deut. v. 15 be preferred, the reason which it assigns may be paraphrased thus-"Seeing that the Lord thy God hath delivered thee from grievous slavery in Egypt, it is fit that thou shouldst give to thy slaves a weekly day of rest, and shouldst also repose in it thyself, in commemoration of thy deliverance from unceasing toil."

"And not only the hallowing of the Sabbath, but the hallowing of any other day: thus, when it is said (Exod. xii. 17), the first day shall be proclaimed holy,' there is added the way in which it is to be kept holy, Ye shall do no servile work therein.'"

Vitringa observes that the only precept in Exod. xvi. as to Sabbath-keeping is, that no man should go out to gather manna (i. e. to work. This injunction seems to be the one referred to in the Fourth Commandment, Deut. v. 12, "Keep the Sabbath-day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee."