SECT II. REMARKS ON DEAN DIGBY'S LECTURES, THE purity of the author's intention, and the goodness of his character is such, as entitle him to every indulgence; I will not therefore say, that by yielding to his fancy, he has purposely broached any new theory inimical to religion. But as there are better and more folid arguments to vindicate the essentials of the christian doctrine, than having recourse to weak rabbinical modes of torturing meanings from Hebrew roots, I must totally, in this respect, differ from him; how far justly will appear. In his preface he sets out, as indeed do all the Hutchinfonians, with removing those impediments and stumbling blocks which seem cast in their way; and who could imagine that the Hebrew points should be confidered as the greatest obstacle ? and such indeed they are-but they must be got out of the the way. "The points are certain small cha racters of modern invention, forged by the Maforite Jews about the seventh century." Now if it had been faid that the points were certain characters of modern invention modern invention being so prolific in monster productions-it might be thought by some readers, that points were prodigious large characters; therefore the propriety of adding the epithet Small is evident. But this being granted, it remains still to prove that they are of modern invention, and that if they are, why to be rejected ? It is not strange that persons who are fond of their own dreams, and the phantasms of a fickly imagination, are, for the most part, inclined to exclude the use of points. But that men of learning should imagine that the Hebrew, after it had ceased to be a living language, could have been preserved without an early invention of vowels and accents, is to me very surprising. The improper use made of them is indeed justly to be cenfured; but why do the disciples of Hutchinfon totally exclude them? is it not to indulge themselves in the greater latitude? The above quotation recited perhaps from the Universal History, does not even correfpond pond with the opinion of Aben Ezra, who imagined the Maforites to have been the Sapientes Tiberiadis, who, in the year of our Lord five hundred and fix, added the marginal notes to the Bible; which opinion is refuted, as there was no seminary of literature in Tiberias, of longer continuance than within four hundred years after the Nativity of Christ; and as the Maforites are mentioned in both Talmuds. R. Afarias, and R. Gedeliah say, with greater probability, that the Maforites were Haggai Malachi and others, who continued their deliberations on reforming the facred text for forty years. For Simeon, the just, who went out to meet Alexander the Great, was the laft of that venerable council, about three hundred years before Chrift: and it is probable, that as the Keri and Cetib were their invention, that the vowel points were alfo. Nor can I possibly conceive, how any language could have been left for a feries of time subject to a discretional pronunciation, efpecially one liable to be perverted according to caprice or fancy. Nay, in that cafe I am perfuaded, the sacred text would not have been tranfmitted down to us in the state of preservation we now find it. 66 in no wise favourable to the Hutchinfonians, who totally reject them, tho' frequently obliged to use them. Calvin was so much convinced of the vast utility of the points, that he faid, qui ergo puncta negligunt, vel prorfus rejiciunt, certe carent omni judicio & ratione:" those who neglect, or altogether reject the points are certainly desti tute of all judgment and reason. Mercer faid, that with great reluctance he ventured, at any time, to dissent from the pointed text; but notwithstanding, where he thought the sense required it, he thought himself proper in doing so." The great Walton, tho' no advocate for the great antiquity of the vowel points, faid, " licet puncta hodierna a Maforethis inventa fint, ipforum tamen fonus five vocales ipsæ, reliquis literis coævæ funt, nec punctarunt textum Masorethæ pro libitu, sed secundum illam lectionem ufitatam, quam a majoribus habuerant."Altho' the points in use this day, were the invention of the Masorites, yet their sounds or their vowels, were coeval with their letters: Neither did they point the text according to their own caprice, but agreeably to the accustomed mode of reading, which they had received from their ancestors. Capellus Capellus, who was Buxtorf's greatest opponent, acknowledges, that the Masorites had ingeniously devised, and faithfully expressed the points; and that not merely according to their own private sentiments, but as the genius of the language required. It is also further argued, that the Maforites cenfured many words for their irregularity in their vowels and accents, and confequently they must be of a more ancient date. As for my part I am no friend to the vowels and accents, when arbitrarily used and imposed on us by Jewish Rabbies, who would monopolize to themselves the interpretation of fcripture. But it appears to me equally the fame grievance, if giving up the points, the sacred text should become open to the perversion of men of innovating principles: men, who according to the samples they have given us of their own works, are by no means equal to the task of interpreting the fcriptures, with any degree of certainty. But it is my hearty wish, that in this enlightened age, men of known abilities, found understandings, and honeft hearts, might be appointed under the aufpices of one of the Universities, to revise the various copies of the Old Testament, whether printed or |