с brew Tongue before the invention of Points, there was the more care and ftudy used about it; the Jews having Times purpofely fet apart for the reading of the Law, ftudied it with that diligence and exactness, that they knew it as well as they did their own Names, or better, as Jofephus expreffes it, if that were poffible; and they ufed fo great accuracy both in their Pronouncing and Writing, that there could be no danger that any confiderable mistake should be occafioned by any defect in the Vowels before the Points were found out. This was a great part of the Jewish Learning, (as Bishop Walton obferves) the true reading of the Text, and they who were most accurate and exact therein, were honoured most amongst 'em, and had their Schools, and their Scholars and Difciples, whom they inftructed from time to time, till at length, in regard of their many Difperfions and Banishments, that the true Reading might not be loft with the Language, they began to affix Points to the Text, as well to facilitate the Reading, as to preferve it the better from any Alteration or Change. d e But this is an Objection which never could have been made but in the Western Parts of the World; for in the Eaft they commonly write yet without Points, as the Jews likewife write the Western Languages of the Countries where they live, without Points, in the Hebrew Character. The Samaritans ftill have no Points. And the Children of the Turks, Arabians, and Perfians, and generally of all the Mahometans, learn to read without them. 8 Ifaac Voffius fays, the Afiaticks laugh at the Europeans, because they cannot read as they do without Vowels. Schickard confefs'd, that he had known Children of seven h Confiderat. confidered, c. x. §. 8. Morin. Epift. 15. & 70. inter An Voff. de Sibyll. Orac. Years Years of Age, read the Pentateuch merely by ufe." Clenard, and Erpenius himself, who was fo famous for the Arabick, and other Eastern Languages, both of them declared, that they learned the Arabick only by their own study and diligence from Books without Points and Erpenius had attained to fuch accuracy in that Language, before he had read any Book with the Points, that Ifaac Cafaubon fo far approved of the Translation which he had then made, of the Arabick Nubian Geography into Latin, that he was very earnest with him to publish it. Ludovicus Capellus befides, gives an inftance from his own knowledge of one, who, when he had scarce been taught the Arabick Alphabet, made a great progrefs in that Tongue in four Months, only by his own industry, and without the help of Points. All these things confidered, it would be a strange Paradox to pretend, that there is no certainty in the ancient Eastern way of writing, and that no body can certainly know what their Authors meant, nay, that they did not know one another's meaning, as well as we do now in our manner of writing, before fome certain time, when the Points are fuppofed to be first found out. It must be acknowledged, that feveral words have different fignifications, according to the difference of the Points; but this Objection may as well be brought against the vulgar Latin, or against any Book in the Latin Tongue: For there is no regular Latin Verb, which, in the forming of it, has not fome words of different fignifications, according to the different Voices, and Moods and Tenfes: And Lego being both of the first and of the third Conjugation, Legere has fix different fignifications, and is thrice to be pronounced long, and thrice fhort; and yet all these Senses are easily distinguish'd by Chil dren, without Accents. Amare has alfo fix fignifi Lud. Capel, de Punct. Hebr. Antiqu. lib. ii. c. 27. §. 4, 5, 6. cations, cations, four from Amo, and two from Amarus. But fuch Inftances are fo obvious, and yet fo little obferved, that I know no Man that has thought them worth the mentioning; nor fhould I have done it, but upon this occafion. II. The change of the Old Hebrew Character into that now in ufe, is no prejudice to the Authority of the Hebrew Text; because this was but the writing over that, which was before in one Alphabet into another, the Language being ftill the fame: And this, if it were done with fufficient care (as we have all the reafon in the world to believe it was) could make no material mistakes; and we find it hath not, by the agreement between the Hebrew and the Samaritan Pentateuch ftill extant. III. The Keri and the Ketib or the difference in fome places between the Text and the Marginal Reading, is no prejudice to the Authority of the Scripture. For as the various Lections of the Bible are much fewer, confidering the Antiquity of it, and the vaft numbers of Copies, which have been tranfcribed in all Ages and Countries, than thofe of any other Book: fo many of them may be easily reconciled, and the occafion of them as eafily difcovered. Some of them were occafioned by the likeness of several of the Hebrew Letters, which were not easily to be distinguish'd in Books written in fuch small Characters, as St. Jerome complains, were used in writing the Hebrew Bibles of his time. Others happen'd from Abbreviations, and fome might proceed from Marginal Gloffes. It muft likewife be obferv'd, that all the words we meet with in the Margin of the Hebrew Bibles, are not to be look'd upon as various Lections, for divers of them were placed there, by the Jews, out of fuperftition, because they fcrupled to pronounce certain Hieron, Proam, in Ezech. Comment. lib. 8. words, words, and therefore appointed others to be read in their stead. Thus the Water of their Feet is the Hebrew Marginal Reading, 2 Kings xviii. 27, which is omitted by our Tranflators, Isa. xxxvi. 12. tho' the Keri be the fame in both places. But when the Jews were dispersed into divers Countries, their Dialect or manner of Pronunciation must needs be different, and as the fame words were pronounced differently, fo they would in time be differently written, which gave one chief occafion to the various Lections in the Old Teftament; for from the emulation between the Schools of the Jews at Babylon and thofe at Jerufalem, there arofe a fet of various Lections under the Title of the Eastern and the Western Readings, but it is acknowledged, that they are of no moment, and that as to the fenfe, it is much at one which reading is admitted, for they concern Matters of Orthography, rather than of Orthodoxy, as Buxtorf speaks; the words are the fame, but differently written and pronounced, as is visible by the " Catalogues of both Readings. Thus, when the Gileadites faid Shibboleth, and the Ephraimites Sibboleth, they differed only in Pronunciation, Judges xii. 6. and the Jews of Palestine and of Europe, who follow the Western Readings, yet do not altogether reject the Eastern; but in fome Editions have printed them both. The different Readings of Ben Afcher and Ben Naphtali had the fame Original, the Eaftern Jews following the one, and the Western obferving the other, but these concern the Points and Accents only, and not either the Words or Letters. There is no ancient Book in the World, of which we can be certain, that we rightly understand it, if it be neceffary to the right understanding of a Book, that it be without various Lections; for what Book m Vid. Walt. Proleg. 8. §. 28. Apud. Druf. De rectâ Lectione Ling. Sanct. c. 50. Polyglot, Tom. 6. Id. Proleg. iv. §. 9. is there without 'em, or what Book of the fame bignefs, and of any Antiquity, has fo few various Lections as the Bible? and what Book can be transcribed or printed, but it is liable to have Mistakes made in it? IV. No difference between the Hebrew Text and the Septuagint, and other Verfions, or between the feveral Verfions themselves, is any Prejudice to the Authority of the Scriptures, nor can prove that the Hebrew Text was ever different in any thing material from what it is now. The Translation of the Septuagint, as it hath been obferv'd from St. Jerom, and others, is in many places rather a Comment or Paraphrase, than a strict Verfion, and gives the Sense, rather than the Words of the Hebrew Text. Many times there is fuppofed to be a Difference, where there is none, for want of a fufficient Knowledge of the Original, as P Dr. Pocock has fhewn in divers Inftances, and Bishop Pearfon in others, befides what has been written by Ifaac Voffius to this purpose: And one very skilful in the Oriental Tongues, had undertaken to fhew the Agreement between Hebrew and the Septuagint throughout, and had made à confiderable Progrefs in the Work, as Bp. Walton informs us. Sometimes Differences proceed from the Miftakes of Tranfcribers, as it must needs happen in Books, of which fo many Copies have been taken in all Ages; and from the Rafhnefs of Criticks in making unneceffary Alterations, or by inferting into the Text fuch Notes, as were at first plac'd only for Explication in the Margin. Thus it happen'd to St. Ferom's Annotations, in his own Life-time, as he complains. In some things of less confequence, the Translators might be mistaken, or they might follow a different Copy. 9 • Id. Prolegom. ix. §. 12. & x. §. 8. Pocock Append. ad Port. Mof. c. 1, 2, 3, 4. tuag. Edit. Cantab. If. Voff. de lxx. Interpret. Epift. ad Syn. & Fretell. Pearf. Præf. ad Sep- The |