SPENCER, JoHN, D.D., a learned English divine, was born in Kent, 1630, and graduated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he took successively the deg' ees of B.A. (1652), B.D. (1659), and D.D. (1663), and of which he became I Fellow. and afterwards Master. In 1677 he was made Dean ot Ely. Having previously published some works of minor interest, he in 1685 gave to the world the great work which has made his name fa mous : De Legibus Hebraorzem Ritualibus, et earzem Ratiozzibus, tres libri. This was afterwards enlarged, especially by the addition of a fourth book ; and still farther improved by Chappellow, who pub lished a new edition with the author's last additions and corrections, in 2 vols. fol., 1727. This is usually regarded as the best edition, although that by Pfaff, 2 vols. fol., Tiibingen 1732, is, in some respects, more desirable, as it contains a disserta tion by the editor on the life of Spencer, the value of his work, its errors, and the authors who have written against it. The work is preceded by PY0.• legomena, in which the author shows that the Mosaic laws were not given by God arbitrarily, but were founded on reasons which it is desirable and profitable to search into, so far as the obscurity of the subject permits. The work itself is divided into three (in the second edition into four) books. The first book treats of the general reasons of the Mosaic laws, with a dissertation on the Theocracy.
The second considers those laws to which the cus toms of the Zabeans, or Sabcans, gave occasion, with a dissertation on the apostolic decree, Acts xv. The third discusses the laws and institutions to which the usages of the Gentiles furnished the occasion, in eight dissertations :—r. Of the rites generally transferred from Gentile customs to the law ; 2. Of the origin of sacrifice ; 3. Of purifica tions ; 4. Of N ew Moons ; 5. Of the Ark and Cheru bim ; 6. Of the Temple ; 7. Of the origin of Urim and Thummim ; 8. Of the Scape-goat. Thefourth book treats of the rites and customs which the Jews borrowed from the Gentiles, without, so far as ap pears, any divine warrant ; with a dissertation on phylacteries. The great error of this learned and admirable work is its derivation, to an undue extent, of the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish law from the idolatrous nations around ; but the error is one of excess, not of principle ; for much that was in corporated in Judaism had been in existence from the earliest ages. The author, after a life of the closest study, died May 27, 1695, aged 65 years (see Gen. Dic. Hist. and Crit. vol. ix.; and Pfaff's ed. of De Legibus).—I. J.