WITSIUS, Herman, a learned divine, was born on the 12th of February 1636, at Enckhuysen in North Holland. His father, a member of the municipal council of that place, was the author of some pious meditations, written in his native tongue. In 1650 he became a student in the university of Utrecht, where he distinguished himself by his rapid progress in different branches of learning. At the age of eighteen, he publicly recited a Hebrew discourse on the Messiah of the Jews and the Christians. He afterwards removed to Groningen, in order to attend the lectures of Desmarets. He was ordained a minister in 1657, and exercised his functions in different places till 1675, when he was appointed professor of divinity at Franeker. In 1680 he was nominated to a similar chair at Utrecht; and in 1685 he proceeded to London as chaplain of the Dutch embassy sent to congratulate the king on his accession to the throne. In 1698 he succeeded Spanheim as professor of divinity at Leyden; but this office he afterwards exchanged for the rectorship of the Theological College. He died on the 22d of October 1708, in the seventy-third year of his age.
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Witsius was a judicious, as well as a learned and pious writer; and some of his works continue to be held in much estimation. Of his more important publications we subjoin a notice. 1. Judaeus Christianizans circa Principia Fidei et

SS. Trinitatem: sive, Dissertatio de Principiis Fidei Judaeorum, &c. Traj. ad Rhen. 1661, 12mo. 2. De Oecono-mia Foederum Dei cum Hominibus libri iv. Leovard. 1677, 8vo. This treatise has frequently been printed. It was translated into English, and in that form has likewise passed through many editions. In Hervey’s Theron and Aspasia, it receives very high commendation. “The (Economy of the Covenants is a body of divinity, in its method so well digested, in its doctrine so truly evangelical, and, what is not very usual with our systematic writers, in its language so refined and elegant, in its manner so affectionate and animating, that I would recommend it to every student of divinity.” 3. Diatribe de septem Epistolarum Apocalyp-ticarum Sensu historicoac prophetico Franeq. 1678, 12mo.

4. Exercitationes Sacrae in Symbolum quod Apostolorum dicitur; et in Orationem Dominicam. Franeq. 1681, 4to.

5. Aegyptiaca et ∆ εχάφυλον : sive, de Aegyptiorum Sacro rum cum Hebraicis Collatione libri tres; et de decem Tribubus Israelis liber singularis. Accessit Diatribe de Legione Fulminatrice Christianorum sub imperatore Μ. Aurelio Antonino. Amst. 1683, 4to. In this valuable work, Witsius maintains, against Sir John Marsham and Dr Spencer, that the Jews did not borrow from the Egyptians any part of their religious rites and ceremonies. The Aegyptiaca are reprinted in the great collection of Ugolini, Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrarum, tom. i. The dissertation on the thundering legion was attacked by Larroque. 6. Miscellanea Sacra. Traj. ad Rhen. 1692-1700, 2 tom. 4to. The first volume, including thirty additional dissertations, was reprinted at Leyden in 1695. 7. Exercitationum

Academicarum, maxima ex parte historicocriticotheologi-carum, decas. Traj. ad Rhen. 1694, 12mo. 8. Meletemata

Leidensia. Lugd. Bat. 1703, 4to. A collective edition of his works appeared at Herborn, 1712—7, 6 tom. 4to. Besides his Latin treatises, he published several practical works in Dutch. He was the editor of a Latin version of Godwin’s Moses and Aaron, printed at Utrecht in 1690, and of Gataker’s Opera Critica, printed at the same place in 1698. (x.)