And therefore this happening about the time of Ezra (as hath been already shewn,) it must follow, that about that time, or a little after, the use of such vowel figures must have been introduced into the Hebrew language. Whether they were the same vowel points that are now used, or other such like signs to serve for the same purpose is not material; and therefore I shall raise no inquiry about it. Only I cannot but say, that since necessity first introduced the use of them, it is most likely, that no more were at first used than there was a necessity for; but that the augmenting of them beyond this to the number of fifteen, proceeded only from the over-nicety of the after-Masorites. Three served the Arabs, and five most other nations; and no doubt at first they exceeded not this number among the Jews. And it is most likely that the same profession of men, who thus invented the vowel points, were also the authors of all those other inventions which have been added to the Hebrew text for the easier reading and better understanding of it. The dividing of the law into sections, and the sections into verses, seems to have been one of the first of their works. Originally P every book of the Hebrew Bible was as written in one verse, without any distinction of sections, chapters, verses, or words. But when the public reading of the law was brought into use among the Jews, and some part of it read every sabbath in their synagogues, it became necessary to divide the whole into fifty-four sections, that it might thereby be known what part was to be read on each sabbath, and the whole gone over every year, as hath been afore observed. And, when the disuse of the Hebrew language among them made it necessary, that it should not only be read to them in the original Hebrew, but also interpreted in the Chaldee, which was then become their vulgar tongue, there was also a necessity of dividing the sections into verses, that they might be a direction both to the reader and the interpreter where to make their stop at every alternative reading and interpreting, till they had, verse by verse, gone through

p Elias Levita in Masoreth Hammasoreth.

the whole section. And, in imitation hereof, the like division was afterwards made in all the rest of the holy Scriptures. And a like necessity about the same time introduced the use of the vowel points, after they were forced to teach the Hebrew language by book, on its ceasing to be any longer vulgarly spoken among the people. And, sometime after, the accents and pauses were invented for the same purpose, that is, for the easier and more distinct reading of the text, for which they are necessary helps, as far as they supply the place of a comma, a colon, or a full stop (which Athnach, Revia, and Silluk, do:) but as for the musical use for which only the others were added to the Hebrew text, they are now wholly insignificant, it being long since absolutely forgot for what use they served.

III. These vowel points were for many ages only of private use among the Masorites, whereby they preserved to themselves the true readings of the holy Scriptures, and taught them to their scholars. But they were not received into the divinity schools till after the making of the Talmud: for there were two sorts of schools anciently among the Jews, the schools of the Masorites, and the schools of the Rabbi's. The former taught only the Hebrew language, and to read the Scriptures in it; the others to understand the Scriptures, and all the interpretations of them, and were the great doctors of divinity among them, to whom the Masorites were as much inferiour as the teachers of grammar schools among us are to the professors of divinity in our universities. And therefore, as long as these vowel points went no higher than the schools of these Masqrites, they were of no regard among their learned men, or taken any notice of by them. And this is the reason that we find no mention of them either in the Talmud, or in the writings of Ori gen or Jerome. But, sometime after the making of the Talmud (in what year or age is uncertain,) the punctuation of the Masorites having been judged by the Jewish doctors to be as useful and necessary a way for the preserving of the traditionary readings of the Hebrew Scriptures, as the Mishnah and Gemara, had been then found to be for the preserving of the

traditional rites, ceremonies, and doctrines, of their religion, it was taken into their divinity schools; and it having been there reviewed and corrected by the learnedest of their rabbi's, and so formed and settled by them, as to be made to contain and mark out all those authentic readings, which they held to have been delivered down unto them by tradition from Moses and the prophets, who were the first penmen of them, ever since that time the points in the Hebrew Scrip tures have been by the Jews held of the same authority for the reading of them, as the Mishnah and the Gemara for the interpreting of them, and consequently as unalterable as the letters themselves; for they reckon them both of divine original; only with this difference, that the letters, they say, were written by the holy penmen themselves, but the readings, as now marked by the points, were delivered down from them by tras dition only. However, they have never received them into their synagogues, but have there still continued the use of the holy Scriptures in unpointed copies; and so do even to this day, because they so received them from the first holy penmen of them.

IV. All those criticisms in the Masorah, that are upon the points, were made by such Masorites as lived after the points were received into the divinity schools of the Jews. For this profession of men continued from the time of Ezra, and the men of the great synagogue to that of Ben Asher and Ben Naphthali, who were two famous Masorites, that lived about the year of our Lord 1030, and were the last of them: for they having, after many years labour spent herein, each of them published a copy of the whole Hebrew text, as correct as they could make it, the eastern Jews have followed that of Ben Naphthali, and the western Jews have followed that of Ben Asher; and all that bath been done ever since, is exactly to copy after them, both as to the points and accents, as well as to the letters, without making any more corrections or Masoritical criticisms or observations upon either. These

q Buxtorfius pater in Præfatione ad Tiberiadem. Buxtorfius filius de Antiquitate Punctorum, part 1, c. 15. Zacutus in Juchasin. Shalsheleth Haccabala, Zemach David, Elias Levita, &c.

Masorites, who were the authors of the Masorah that is now extant, were a monstrous trifling sort of men, whose criticisms and observations went no higher than the numbering of the verses, words, and letters, of every book in the Hebrew Bible, and the marking out which was the middle verse, word, and letter, in each of them, and the making of other such poor and low observations concerning them, as were not worth any man's reading, or taking notice of, whatever Richard Simon the Frenchman may say to the contrary.

V. These vowel points having been added to the text with the best care of those who best understood the language, and having undergone the review and corrections of many ages, it may be reckoned, that this work hath been done in the perfectest manner that it can be done by man's art, and that none who shall undertake a new punctuation of the whole can do it better. However, since it was done only by man's art, it is no authentic part of the holy Scriptures; and therefore these points are not so unalterably fixed to the text, but that a change may be made in them, when the nature of the context, or the analogy of grammar, or the style of the language, or any thing else, shall give a sufficient reason for it: and that especially, since, how exactly soever they may have been at any time affixed to the text, they are still liable to the mistakes of transcribers and printers, and, by reason of their number, the smallness of their figures, and their position under the letters, are more likely to suffer by them than any other sort of writing

whatsoever.

VI. It doth not from hence follow, that the sacred text will therefore be left to an arbitrary and uncertain reading. For the genuine reading is as certain in the unpointed Hebrew books, as the genuine sense is in the pointed: the former indeed may sometimes be mistaken or perverted, and so may the latter; and, therefore, whether the books be pointed or unpointed, this doth not alter the case to one who thoroughly knows the language, and will honestly read the same. Ignorant men may indeed mistake the reading, and ill men may pervert it; but those who are knowing and

honest can do neither; for, except the Bible, no other Hebrew book is pointed, unless some few of late by modern hands. All their Rabbinical authors are unpointed; and all their other books, to which the moderns have, in some editions, added points, were originally published without them, and so they still are in the best editions; and yet this doth not hinder, but that every one, who understands the Hebrew language, can rightly read them, and rightly understand them. Were I to make my choice, I would desire to have the Bible with points, and all other Hebrew books without them. I would desire the Bible with points, because they tell us how the Jews did anciently read the text. And I would have all other Hebrew books without them, because in such they rather hinder and clog the reading, than help it, to any one that thoroughly knows the language. And all that undertake to point such books, may not always do it according to the true and genuine reading; as we have an instance in the pointed edition of the Mishnah, published in octavo by Manasseh Ben Israel at Amsterdam. And therefore it is much better to be left free to our own apprehensions for the genuine reading, than be confined by another man's to that which may not be the genuine reading. Indeed, to read without vowels may look very strange to such who are conversant only with the modern European languages, in which often several consonants come together without a vowel, and several vowels without a consonant, and several of both often go to make up one syllable; and therefore, if in them the consonants were only written, it would be hard to find out what may be the word. But it is quite otherwise in the Hebrew; for in that language there is never more than one vowel in one syllable, and in most syllables only one consonant, and in none more than two; and therefore, in most words, the consonants confine us to the vowels, and determine how the word is to be read, and, if not, at least the context doth. It must be acknowledged, that, there are several combinations of the same consonants, which, as placed in the same order, are susceptible of different punctuations, and