things, they cannot be moved or pronounced without vowels, which are, as Plato fays', the bond of letters, by which they are joined, and without which they cannot be coupled together: can it be thought, therefore, that the Hebrew language, the first, and most perfect of all languages, fhould be without them, which, if this was the cafe, would be the most imperfect of all the oriental languages? for notwithstanding what has been faid to the contrary, the Samarilan had its points, though differing from the Hebrew, as Jerom obferves", and fo a later writer" has obferved it has. The Syrians, Chaldeans, Arabs, and Perfians, had vowel-points likewife, as Hottinger affirms, and fo Dean Prideaux P. The invention of the Syriac vowel-points is indeed by some ascribed to Ephrem Syrus, who lived in the fourth century; and as for the Ethiopic lan-` guage, the vowels are incorporated into the confonants, and are a part of them, and fo must be ab origine, and coeval with them; and even those who are for cafting away the vowel-points, feem to be fenfible of a neceffity of fubftituting fomething in their room, the matres lectionis, as they call them, " to which fome add ; but these are not fufficient, being wanting in a great number of words; witnefs alfo the various methods of reading Hebrew, contrived by men; but why should they be at pains to find out a method of reading and pronouncing the Hebrew language, when there is such a plain one at hand, ready prepared for them, and of which Walton himself fays', that it is a most profitable and useful invention no man can deny ?

2. The nature and genius of the Hebrew language require points; without these the difference cannot be difcerned between nouns and verbs, in some instances 727, without many others: between verbs active, and verbs paffive, between fome conjugations, moods, tenfes, and perfons, Kal, Piel, Pual; imperatives and infinitives, are proofs hereof; nor can the Vau converfive of tenfes be obferved', which yet is ufed frequently throughout the Bible, and without which the formation of some of the tenses by letters would be useless. Morinus him. felf fays, "That without the points a grammar cannot be written, as Elias rightly obferves; for example, defcribe the conjugation Kal without points, "and immediately you will be at a ftand, and much more in Piel;" and Walton" alfo owns the use of them in the investigation of the roots. The pronunciation of fome letters depends upon the points, as has been observed.

Sophifta, p. 177.

• Thefaur. Philolog. p. 403.

m Præfat ad Reg. T. 8. fol. 5. L. » Petrus a Valla in Antiq. Eccl. Orient. p. 184. ▸ Connection, par. 1. b. 5. p. 55.

Prolegom. 8. f. 10.

3. The

4 Vide Fabritii Bibliothec. Gr. tom. 5. p. 320.

• Vide Cofrí, par. 2. c. 80.

Epift. Buxtorfio in Antiq. Eccl, Oriental. p. 392.

" Introduct Orient. Ling p 5.

3. The vowel-points are neceffary and useful to the more eafy learning, reading, and pronouncing the Hebrew language. What men well skilled in the language may be able to do is one thing, and what learners of it, and beginners in it can do, is another thing; men well verfed in it may choose to read without them; and fo a man that is master of Brachygraphy may choose to read what he has written in short hand, and to which he is used, rather than in long hand; but this is no proof of the perfection and propriety of his Brachygraphy. "A tongue, as Dr Lightfoot fays ", cannot first be learnt "without vowels, though at last skill and practice may make it to be read "without; grammar, and not nature, makes men to do this:" and a late learned writer has obferved", "That to talk of reading Hebrew without points, is a collufive way of fpeaking; we may do it when we have learnt the language, but not before; as it is a dead language we want inftructions either by word of mouth or by grammar. Points in Hebrew are like fcaffolds in building, when the work is finished we may take them down and throw them "afide, but not fooner with fafety." Dr John Prideaux, an opposer of the antiquity of the points, owns that "the tongue being toffed about by various "calamities, the points were added, that it might be the more accurately pre"served, and that by the Jews, to whom it ceafed to be vernacular; as also "that by others it might the more eafily be understood, and be more exactly "pronounced:" and elsewhere he says, "Let them be whose additions to the "text they may, they are so far from corrupting it, that they rather protect it "from corruption, and lead to a more easy reading and understanding of it;" and fo Walton, another opposer of the points, fays, "The Chriftian church "received their (the Maforetes) punctuation, not upon their authority, but " because it expreffed the true fenfe received in the church of God; and "withal because they faw it conduced much to the more eafy reading of the "text, and even to the true reading of it, as he owns:" and their great master and chief leader Capellus, having treated of the points and accents devised and added to the facred Hebrew text by the Maforetes, as he supposed, frankly owns, "That upon that account we now certainly owe much unto "them; or rather, fhould give thanks to God, who ftirred up these men to "it, and put them upon the study of it; for in that work they have certainly "laboured most fuccessfully, fo that now, by the help of these little marks,

66

"we can far more eafily, and even more happily, be converfant in reading and "understanding the facred Hebrew text, than otherwife could have been done by us without this help." Why then should it not be attended to? And indeed I cannot fee how common people, men, women, and children, could be able to read it without points, when it was their mother tongue; their duty and intereft to read their Bible in it, for whofe fake it was written, and who had as great an intereft and concern in it as men the most learned have, it being the grand charter of their falvation; the Bible was not written for learned men only, but for thefe alfo, and therefore it was written, as it was proper it should be, in the most plain and easy manner.

4. The vowel-points and accents are useful and neceffary, to remove ambiguity and confusion in words and fentences, and that the true sense of them may be come at with eafe, by perfons of the lowest capacity and meanest ability, for whose fake, as observed, the Bible was written; and that they are of this use has been owned by the oppofers of them: fo Capellus, fpeaking of the accents, fays, "Certainly these little marks, when fitly and opportunely put, "are indeed of this ufe, that fometimes we lefs hesitate about, and more "expeditiously take in the mind and fenfe of the writer;" and fo Walton fays of the Maforetes", that "They pointed the text, not at their own will "and pleasure, but according to the true fenfe and received reading from the "facred writers to their times; hence the reading is made more easy, and the " text lefs obnoxious to ambiguity and corruption." Should it be faid, as it often is, that by attending to the connection of words, and to the context, the sense of a word in queftion may be foon and easily understood. Let it be observed; that all have not the fame natural parts and abilities, and the like acumen of wit, clearness of understanding, and critical judgment, as particularly the above perfons mentioned; and befides, the words in connection and in the context being unpointed, fome of them may be equally difficult to be understood, and the fenfe of them must be examined and fixed, ere the sense of the word in question can be determined; all which will require time, and perhaps after all, entire fatisfaction is not obtained: and if men who may be thought to be well verfed in the language, and men of parts and abilities, have been led into mistakes, through a neglect or want of the points, much more may perfons of mean and ordinary capacities. The authors of the several Greek verfions of the Bible, the Septuagint interpreters, Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus, were all Jews, excepting the laft, and he was a Samaritan, and may be allowed to have a confiderable share of knowledge of the Hebrew

Hebrew language; yet thefe, especially the feventy interpreters, neglecting the points, and tranflating without them, what grofs fenfes have they put upon the text? fometimes directly contrary to what is intended, sometimes what is very abfurd, and even wicked and blafphemous, or nearly fo; take an instance of each, God is angry every day, Pfal. vii. 11. the Greek verfion is, does not bring on anger, or is not angry every day, the word be differently pointed, is used for God, and for the negative not. The paffage in Isa. xxiv. 23. then the moon fhall be confounded, and the fun afhamed, when the Lord of Hofts fhall reign, &c. which, with others, Dr Lowth reprefents ", as fo grand and magnificent, and fo coloured, that no translation can exprefs, nor any altogether obfcure; and yet this is most miferably obfcured in the Greek version of it, and a sense given extremely low, mean, and abfurd; the brick fhall waste, and the wall fhall fall when the Lord reigns. &c. nas differently pointed fignifies the moon, and a brick, and nan the fun and a wall, the authors of this version have abfurdly taken the latter fense. Lam. iii. 33. it is be, that is, God, doth not willingly affli&t; the Greek verfion is, he doth not answer from his heart, cordially and fincerely, thereby charging God with infincerity and diffimulation; yet the three letters may unpointed, fignify, to answer, as well as to afflict; in Kal it fignifies the former, in Piel the latter; which is the true fenfe here, and to be diftinguished by the points, and how have the fame interpreters, by changing points and letters, fpoiled the famous prophecy of the Meffiah in Ifa. ix. 6. where, inftead of everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, they tranflate, I will bring upon the princes peace; though the paffage is otherwife produced by Clemens of Alexandria, more agreeable to the Hebrew text; which fhews that the Septuagint version is not in the fame state now it formerly was. The learned Vitringa has observed, that "The Greek interpreter of Alexandria, who came forth "under the name and number of the Seventy, not being expert in the Jeru"falem reading, has often in his unhappy and unlearned verfion, fo deformed "the prophet (Isaiah's) difcourfe, in the more obfcure places, that Ifaiah cannot "be known again in Isaiah :" and through negligence or difufe of, or want of the points, the Greek interpreters have made mistakes, where one would think it was almost impoffible they should; thus differently pointed, or without any points, may fignify fons, or builders. They have taken the word in the first fenfe in 1 Kings v. 18. and contrary to the context and plain sense of the words, VOL. III.

w De Sacr. Poef. Heb. Prælect. 6. p. 69, 73.

4 B

Pædagog. 1. 1. c. 5. See alfo Eufeb. Demonftrat. Evangel. 1. 7. c. 1. p. 336, 337.

read

y Præfat. ad Comment. in Ifaiam, vol. 1, p. 5.

read, Solomon's fons and Hiram's fons bewed them, the ftones. The fame word confifting of the fame letters, as differently pointed, has two or three fenses, and sometimes half a dozen, and even eight or ten, as the word 27. How difficult therefore muft it be to attain unto, and fettle the true sense, as in fuch and fuch a place, at least to common perfons; and for these the Bible was originally written, as well as for learned men.

5. It will be difficult to affert and maintain the perfpecuity of the fcripture, laying afide the vowel-points accents; and make it to comport with the wifdom of God to deliver out his laws, the rule ef man's conduct both towards himself and one another, and doctrines defigned to make men wife unto falvation, and to instruct them in matters of the greatest moment for time and eternity to deliver thefe, I fay, in ambiguous words, that admit of various fenses, and at best give a fenfe difficult to attain unto by men of the deepest learning, and of the greateft capacity. It is the part of a wife law-giver to express his laws, and of a king to publish his edicts, and of a teacher to give forth his doctrines and inftructions in the clearest manner, in the plaineft terms, in words the most easy to be understood; and not in ambiguous language capable of admitting divers fenfes, and fuch as is contrary to what is intended; and can it be thought that God, our law-giver and king, and who by his word propofes to teach men to profit, and to lead them by the way they should go, would act otherwife?

6. Nor fhall we be able, 1 fear, to support the infallibility of the fcripture, that part of it the Old Testament, as a fure rule of faith and practice, when by taking away or laying afide the points, it becomes flexible, and may be turned as a nofe of wax to any thing to ferve a purpose, to countenance any doctrine or practice agreeable to the different taftes and inclinations of men; fince hereby it will admit of different fenfes, and fo in confequence must be uncertain, and not to be depended on: and, I fear it is this wantonnefs of spirit that has led many to throw away the points and accents, that they might be under no reftraint, but at full liberty to interpret fcriptures as their fancy inclines, and their intereft leads; but if the points give the true fense and mind of the Holy Spirit in the facred writings, which has been owned by fuch who have oppofed the divine original of them, why should they be laid aside, to make way for any fenfe the fancy of men may impose upon them? Walton in fo many words affirms', that "they (the Maforetes) "exprefs in their punctuation the true fenfe of the Holy Ghoft, which was " dictated

Prolegom Polyglott, 3. f 51.