S7G INTEGRITY AND PUllITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT.
withstanding any entanglements tliat men by their conjectures may put upon the persuasion of the antiquity of the points, I can as soon believe the most incredible figment in the whole Talmud as this fable. But this is not my business. Let it be granted that such persons there were. On the supposition under considera- tion, I am only inquiring what is the state and condition of the present Hebrew pointing, and what weight is to be laid thereon. That the reader, then, may a little consider what sort of men they were who are assigned in these Prolegomena as the inventors of this artifice of punctuation, I shall take a brief view of the state of the Jews after the destruction of the temple down to the days in- quired after.
That the Judaical church-state continued not only de facto, but, in the merciful forbearance of God, so far that the many thousands of believers that constantly adhered to the Mosaical worship were accepted with God until the destruction of the temple; that that destruction was the ending of the world that then was by fire, and the beginning of setting up solemnly the new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, — I have at large elsewhere declared, and may, God assisting, yet further manifest in my thoughts on the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews. From the time between the be- ginning of Christ's preaching to the utter desolation of the city and temple, an open, visible rejection of that church, as such, was made. Thereon an utter separation of the true Israel from it ensued ; and the hardened residue became ""SyN? and i^^C."!) ^^, — a people not in covenant or delight, but of curse and indignation. What their state was for a season onwards, both civil and religious, many have de- clared. I shall only insist on the heads of things. In general, then, they were most remote from accepting of the punishment of their sin, or considering that God was revenging upon them the quarrel of his covenant to the utmost, having broken both his staves, " Beauty and Bands." So far were they from owning their sin in selling of their Messiah, that, seeing an end put to all their former worship thereupon, there is nothing recorded of them but these two things, whicli they wholly, in direct opposition unto God, gave them- selves up unto: — 1. They increased in rage and madness against all the followers of Christ, stirring up persecution against them all the world over. Hereunto they were provoked by a great number of apostates, who, when they could no longer retain their Mosaical rites with the profession of Christ, being rejected by the churches, fell back again to Judaism or semi- Judaism. 2. A filthy lusting and desire after their former worship, now become abominable and a badge of infidelity, that so their table might become a snare unto them, and what had been for their safety might now become the
ORIGIN OF THE HEBREW POINTS. S77
means of their utter ruiu and hardening. Of the former, or their stirring up of persecution, all stories are full of examples and in- stances. The latter, or their desires and attempts for the restoration of their worship, as conducing to our present business, must be fur- ther considered.
For the accomplishment of a design to restore their old religion, or to furnish themselves with a new, they made two desperate at- tempts. The first of these Avas by arms, under their pseudo-Messiah, Barchochab, in the days of Hadrian. Under the conduct and influ- encings of this man, to whom one of the chief Rabbins (Akiba) was armour-bearer, in the pursuit of a design to restore their temple and worship, they fell into rebellion against the Romans all the world over. In this work, after they had committed unheard-of outrages, massacres unparalleled, murders, spoils, and cruelties, and had shaken the whole empire, they were themselves in all parts of the world, especially in the city Bether, where was the head of their rebellion, ruined with a destruction seeming equal to that which befell them at Jerusalem in the days of Vespasian and Titus.
That the rise of this war was upon the twofold cause mentioned, namely, their desire to retain their former worship and to destroy the Christian, is evident. For the first, it is expressed by Dio Cas- sius: Hist. Rom. lib. Ixix., in Vita Had., 'Eg ds ra 'iipog6Xv/ji,a 'xoXiv avrou dvTi rrjc, xaraaxaipi'iSrig oixidavTog, rjv xai AlXiav KanriruXivav ojyojJjacSi x.ai sg rbv rou ^eou to-tov, vabv ru Aif srepov dvavnysipovrog, ToXsfiog oure fiixpog OUT oXiyovpoviog Ixiv^drj. 'lovBaToi yap, dsivov ri 'Zoiou,U/ivoi rovg dXXo^v- >.ovi rivdg sg r^v voXiv 6pu)V otxiadrivai, xai rd 'npd dXkorpia, h a^rp ibpu&rivar x.r.x. It was the defiling of the soil whereon the temple stood (which God suffered on set purpose to manifest their utter re- jection, and that the time was come wherein he would be no more worshipped in that place in the old manner) that put them in arms, as that author declares at large. And for the latter, Justin Martyr, who lived at that time, informs us of it : Apol. ii. ad Anton. Pium., Kal ydp h rw vuv yiysvrifisvw 'lovBa'/xu -roXs/O/W Bap^o^iZag 6 Trjg loudaluv d'TToffrddiug dpyr,ysTng Xpiffnavoug fi6vovg iig rifMupiag dstvdg, i'l [/jTI dpvoTvro 'ijjffoDu 'S.pterhv xai l3Xac>(p7}/j:.oTsv, sx'sXsvsv d'7rdys(j0ai. His fury was in an especial manner against the Christians, whom he commanded to be tortured and slain, unless they would deny and blaspheme Jesus Christ. See Euseb. Chron. ad an. Christi 136. And this war they managed with such fury, and, for a while, success, that after Hadrian had called together against them the most experienced soldiers in the world, particularly Julius Severus out of England, and had slain of them five millions and eighty thousand in battle, with [while ?] an infinite number besides, as the historian speaks, by famine, sickness, and fire, were consumed, he found himself to have sustained so much