SECKENDORF
498
SECRET DISCIPLINE
1870 and completed in 1877, Up to March 30. 1878, 70G6 Bibles and 10,094 New Testaments with Psalms have been distributed. Comp. The Bible of Every Land, but more especially the Annual Rejwiis of ike British and Foreign Bible Society, which are the only sources for the more recent versions published since the prepa- ration of The Bible of Every Lund. (B. P.)
Seckendorf, Vitus Louis von, a noted German statesman of the Reformation period, was born at Au- rach, a town of Franconia, Dec. 20, IG'iG. The great progress in his studies made in his youth coming to the ears of Ernest the Pious, duke of Saxe-Gotha, this prince brought him to Gotha to be educated with his children. After remaining two years, he went in 1642 to Strasburg ; and, returning to Gotha in 1G46, was made honorary librarian to the duke. In 1651 he was made aulic and ecclesiastical councillor ^ and in 1663 council- lor of state, first minister and sovereign director of the consistory. The year after, he went into the service of Maurice, duke of Saxe-Zeist, as councillor of state and chancellor. He remained with him until his death, in 1681, and led a life of retirement, writing many works. Frederick III, elector of Brandenburg, made him council- lor of state and chancellor of the University of Halle, dig- nities which he did not long enjoy. He died at Halle Dec. 18, 1692. The work of his held in the highest esti- mation for its utility is Commentarius Historiciis et Apo- loyeticus de Lutheranismo (Lips. 1688-92), written in ref- utation of jNIainibourg's llistoire da Luiherunisme. See the literature referred to in Herzog, Eeal-Encyklojy, s. v.
Seeker, Thomas, an eminent English prelate, was born in 1693 at Sibthorpe, Nottinghamshire. He be- longed to a family of Dissenters, but was influenced (by his own views and bj' the divisions and disturbances at that period prevailing among the Dissenters) to con- form. He therefore never practiced medicine, for which he had studied at London, Paris, and Leyden, but entered Exeter College, Oxford, in 1721. Li De- cember, 1722, bishop Talbot ordained him deacon, and not long after, priest. He was presented by the bishop with the rectory of Houghton le Spring in 1724, where he remained until 1727, when he removed to Durham. In July, 1732, Grafton, lord chamberlain, appointed him chaplain to the king. He was instituted to the rectory of St. James's, May 18, 1733, and was consecrated bishop of Bristol Jan. 19, 1735, In May, 1737, Dr, Seeker was translated to the bishopric of Oxford; in December, 1750, was promoted to the deanery of St, Paul's; and confirmed archbishop of Canterbury April 21, 1758, He died in London, Aug. 3, 1768, His works comprise Sermons, Lectures, and Charges (Loud, 1811, 6 vols,), last edition with a memoir by bishop Porteous,
Second Coining of Chkist, See Advent, Sec-
ONI>; Mll.l-KNNIUM.
Second Marriage. In the early Church, not only did the more strict Novatians and Montanists es- teem a second marriage unlawful, but tliat error was up- held b\- several councils {Cone. Nic. c, 8 ; ,4 ncyran. c, 19 ; Laodic. c, 1 ; Neoccesar. c, 3 ; Constit. Aposf. lib. iii, c. 2 ; Athenag. Legat. ; Theophil. Ant, A d A utol. lib. iii ; Iren. Adv. Ihnr. lib, iii, c, 19), When the severity of this principle was relaxed with regard to lay members of the Clmrch, it was still retained with reference to the clergy (Tertull, De Monog. c, 11; Ad Uxor, lib, i, c, 7 ; De Panit. c, 9). At length this law was rendered nu- gatory by the enforcement of celibacy among the clergy. See Divorce, Maukiage.
Secondary, a clerk who, if learned and expert in music, was eligible for promotion, by the dean, to the place of vicar. He was the canon's personal attendant, and sat in the secondary row of stalls: hence his name. At Chichester the secondary sang the dailv mass of requiem in the Lady-chapel, It was also a teclmical term for a cathedral dignitary of second rank and posi- tiou — a minor canon, precentor.
Second-first Sabbath (2a/3/3arov SivTepo-irpu}-
roi> ; Vidg, Sabbatum secundum privium ; A, V, " second Saljbath after the first") is an expression occurring only in Luke vi, 1, and apparently coined for the occasion, as the compound adj. ^tvTEpo-izpiijroQ is found nowhere else in all the range of Greek literature. The learned have therefore been greatly divided, or, rather, in doubt, as to its meaning, since it is in itself quite vague and ambiguous. Tlie earliest opinion is that of Epiphanius (H(eres. i, 30, 51), followed by Isidore of Pelusium (iii, 1 10), Suidas (s. v. 2a/3/3a7-o)'), Theophy lact {ad loc), and cited among later writers by Petavius (i, 61) and Scal- iger {Emend. Tempi, vi, 551), viz. that the Sabbath thus indicated was that which immediately succeeded the Paschal festival; for (argue they) the "morrow after the Sabbath" [i. e, Passover] (rs'wj^n n^riBp, i, e. airb SevTEpag tov Hac^a) is the point from which the law orders the seven weeks to be reckoned till Pentecost. Hence all the weeks and Sabbaths of that interval are designated from this name ("itj'STI miED, opiS-^toe rov Spdyparoc, numerus maiiipuli, i, e, the number of the omer, or first-fruits presented as a wave-offering). This is the view embraced by most moderns, quoted in detail by Wolf {Curce in N. T. i, 619 sq,, where several arbitrary opinions by various authors are likewise enu- merated) ; see also Kcicher {Analect. ad loc). Rtiss {Har- mon. Erangel. p. 639 sq.). Marsh {Xotes to Michaelis's In- trod. ii, 61 ). The circumstances of Luke's narrative indicate that the day in question was not (as usually reckoned) the first Sabbath after the second day of un- leavened bread, for tliat usually fell within the Passover week ; whereas our Lord, on the occasion referred to, had evidently left Jerusalem at the close of the entire festival, and was on his way back to Galilee. Nor would this have been a natural and appropriate term for such a day, since that would rather have been a " first after the second" {TrpioTo-SsvTfpog), if, indeed, it could have been called second at all, seeing it either was simply, or else preceded, the first Sabbath of the series of seven between Passover and Pentecost, It seems rather to have been the first of that series, but the second after the beginning of the Paschal week; which circumstance affords a simple and apposite ex- planation of the compound name. That the incident in our Lord's history occurred at that season is evident from the fact that the grain stood ripe, but unreaped,iii the fields; and a comparison of the evangelical narra- tives makes it apparent likewise that the " feast" which John states (v, 1) that Jesus attended that year at Je- rusalem was the Passover. If this collocation is cor- rect, the Sabbath in question could not well have been the one occurring during the Paschal week, as that is preoccupied by John's account (in the same chapter) of the cure at the pool of Bethesda. The only mode of escaping this conclusion is by the unnatural supposition that the former " Sabbath" was merely the Passover- day itself, which, as some claim, is metaphorically thus named in a few cases (Lev. xxiii, 11,15; comp. Josh, v, 11). See Mayer, Commentar, ad loc. , Hase, I^eben Jesu, p. 142 ; Methodist Quarterly Revieiv, 1850, p. 492 , also the monographs De Sabbato Deuteroproto, by Miiller (Rost, 16(i5), Goloner (Viteb, s, a,), Van Til (L, B. 1708), See Passover; Pentecost; Sabbath,