VITRINGA, CAMPEGIUS, D.D., successively professor of Oriental languages and of theology at Leyden, and professor of theology at Franeker, was born at Leuwarden t6th May 1659, and died at Franeker 3rst March 1722. His great work is his Commentarius in librum Pro,het. yesaix, 2 vols. fol., of which the first edition was published at Leuwarden in 1714-2o ; after his death an im proved edition was carried through the press by Schultens, Basil. i7p. Besides this great work Vitringa published a commentary on Zechariah 1734, and on the Apocalypse 1705, and two volumes of Observationes Sacra, of which several editions have appeared ; the last in 1723, edited by Werner, has a life of the author prefixed. He wrote also De Synagoga vetere libb. Franek. 1696, Weissenfels 1726, an abridged translation of which, by the Rev. J. L. Bernard, appeared Lond. Vitringa had previously published two relative treatises, Arch/synagog-us obss. novis Oust. Franek. 1685, and De deem viris otiosis, Franek. 1687. Among his Biblical works may be also mentioned his Ilypotyposis Hist. et Chronol. sac. a AL C. fugue ad /nem seee. 1, of which three editions have ap peared, All Vitringa's writings are highly valu able. His son, whose name was also Campegius, and a professor at Franeker, has left a volume of Dissertationes Sacra, Franek. 1731, which show learning and ability, and occasion regret that the author s early death prevented the harvest of which they give the promise. He was born 23d March 1693, and died 1th Jan. 1723. Another son, Horaz, who died at the age of eighteen in 1696, distinguished himself by his strictures on the treatise of Vorst, de Hebraismis N. T.—NV . L. A.
VOW (117) is represented by a Hebrew word which signifies to promise,' and may therefore be defined as a religious undertaking, either, r. Posi tive, to do or perform ; 2. or Negative, to abstain from doing or performing a certain thing. The morality of vows we shall not here discuss, but merely remark that vows were quite in place in a system of reli,gion which so largely consisted of doing or not doing certain outward acts, with a view of pleasing Jehovah and gaining his favour. The Israelite, who had been taught by perform ances of daily recurrence to consider particular cere monies as essential to his possessing the divine favour, may easily have been led to the conviction, which existed probably in the primitive ages of the world, that voluntary oblations and self-imposed sacrifices had a special value in the sight of God.
And when once this conviction had led to cone sponding practice, it could not be othen,vise than of the highest consequence that these sacred promises, which in sanctity differed little from oaths, should be religiously and scrupulously observed. Before a vow is taken there may be strong reasons why it should not be made ; but when it is once assumed, a new obligation is contracted, which has the greater force because of its voluntary nature : a new element is introduced, which strongly requires the observance of the vow, if the bonds of morality arc not to be seriously relaxed. The writer may be of opinion that total abstinence is in itself not a virtue nor of general obligation, but he cannot doubt that breaking the pledge,' when once taken, is an act of immorality that cannot be repeated without undermining the very foundations of char acter : whence it obviously appears that caution should be observed, not only in keeping, but also in leading men to make pledges, vows, and pro mises.
Vows, which rest on a human view of religious obligations, assuming as they do that a kind of re compense is to be made to God for good enjoyed, or consideration offered for good desiderated, or a gratuity presented to buy off an impending or threatened ill, are found in existence in the antiqui ties of all nations, and present themselves in the earliest Biblical periods (Gen. xxviii. 20 ; Judg. xi. 3o ; I Sam. i. ; 2 Sam. xv. 8). With great propriety the performance of these voluntary un dertakings was accounted a highly religious duty (Judg. xi. 35 ; Eccles. v. 4, 5). The words of the last vow are too emphatic, and in the present day too important, not to be cited : 'Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay ' (comp. Ps. lxvi. r3, seq. ; lxxvi. I ; CXVi. 18). The views which guided the Mo saic legislation were not dissimilar to those just ex pounded. Like a wise lawg,iver, Moses, in this and in other particulars, did not attempt to sunder the line of continuity between the past and the present. He found vows in practice ; he aimed to regulate what it would have been folly to try to root out (Dent. xxiii. 21, seq.) The words in the 22d verse are clearly in agreement with our re marks: If thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee.'—J. R. B.