SECT II. REMARKS ON DEAN DIGBY'S LECTURES. THE HE 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 effentials of the chriftian doctrine, than having recourse to weak rabbinical modes of torturing meanings from Hebrew roots, I muft totally, in this refpect, differ from him how far juftly will appear. In his preface he fets out, as indeed do all the Hutchinfonians, with removing those impediments and ftumbling blocks which seem caft in their way; and who could imagine that the Hebrew points fhould be confidered as the greatest obstacle? and fuch 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 feventh 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 fome readers, that points were prodigious large characters; therefore the propriety of adding the epithet Small is evident. But this being granted, it remains ftill to prove that they are of modern invention, and that if they are, why to be rejected? It is not ftrange that perfons who are fond of their own dreams, and the phantafms of a fickly imagination, are, for the most part, inclined to exclude the ufe of points. But that men of learning fhould imagine that the Hebrew, after it had ceafed to be a living language, could have been preferved without an early invention of vowels and accents, is to me very furprifing. The improper use made of them is indeed justly to be cenfured; but why do the difciples of Hutchinfon totally exclude them? is it not to indulge themselves in the greater latitude? The above quotation recited perhaps from the Univerfal Hiftory, does not even corres pond 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 feminary of literature in Tiberias, of longer continuance than within four hundred years after the Nativity of Chrift; and as the Maforites are mentioned in both Talmuds. R. Afarias, and R. Gedeliah fay, 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 juft, who went out to meet Alexander the Great, was the laft of that venerable council, about three hundred years before Christ: and it is probable, that as the Keri and Cetib were their invention, that the vowel points were alfo. Nor can I poffibly conceive, how any language could have been left for a series of time fubject to a difcretional pronunciation, especially one liable to be perverted according to caprice or fancy. Nay, in that cafe I am perfuaded, the facred text would not have been tranfmitted down to us in the ftate of preservation we now find it. The most learned opponents of the antiquity of the vowel points, make conceffions in in no wife favourable to the Hutchinfonians, who totally reject them, tho' frequently obliged to use them. Calvin was fo much convinced of the vast utility of the points, that he faid, qui ergo puncta negligunt, vel prorfus rejiciunt, certe carent omni judicio & ratione" thofe who neglect, or altogether reject the points are certainly destitute of all judgment and reason. Mercer faid, that with great reluctance he ventured, at any time, to diffent from the pointed text; but notwithstanding, where he thought the fenfe required it, he thought himfelf proper in doing fo." 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 ipfæ, reliquis literis coævæ funt, nec punctarunt textum Maforethæ pro libitu, fed fecundum illam lectionem ufitatam, quam a majoribus habuerant."Altho' the points in ufe this day, were the invention of the Maforites, yet their founds 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 Maforites had ingeniously devifed, and faithfully expreffed the points; and that not merely according to their own private fentiments, but as the genius of the language required. It is alfo 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 impofed 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 facred text fhould become open to the perversion of men of innovating principles: men, who according to the famples 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 with, 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 Teftament, whether printed or |