5. Of the ^T'?'! ''li?, which are pleaded in the next place to this purpose, I shall speak afterward. The difference in them is in the consonants, not in the vowels; which yet argues not that there were no vowels when they were collected or disposed as now we find them. Yea, that there were no vowels in the copies from whence they were collected (if they were so collected) may be true, but that that col- lection was made any later, for the main of it, than the days of Ezra doth not appear. Now, whatever was done about the Scripture in the Judaical church before the times of our Saviour is manifest to have been done by divine authority, in that it is nowhere by him reproved, but rather the integrity of every word is by him confirmed. But of these things distinctly by themselves afterward we are to speak.
6. A sixth argument for the novelty of the j^oints is taken from their number; for whereas it is said all kinds of sounds may be ex- pressed by five vowels, we are in the present Hebrew punctuation supplied with fourteen or fifteen, which, as it is affirmed, manifests abundantly that they are not coevous or connatural to the language itself, but the arbitrary, artificial invention of men, who have not as-
39 •i INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT.
signed a sufficient difference in their force and sound to distinguish them in pronunciation. But this objection seems of small import- ance. The ground of it is an apprehension that we still retain ex- actly the true pronunciation of the Hebrew tongue ; which is evidently false. (1.) It is now near two thousand years since that tongue was vulgarly spoken in its purity by any people or nation. To imagine that the true, exact, distinct pronunciation of every tittle and syllable in it, as it was used by them to whom it was vulgar and natural, is communicated unto us, or is attainable by us, is to dream pleasantly whilst we are awake. Aben Ezra makes it no small matter that men of old knew aright how to pronounce Kamets Gadol. Saith he, bm YKipn Nnp^ D''i?nr NpnaiSi nnt^'o '•oan dj snni: '•jj'jn, — " The men of Tiberias, also the wise men of Egypt and Africa, knew how to read Kamets Gadol." (2.) Even the distinct force of one consonant, and that always radical, y, is utterly lost, so that the present Jews know nothing of its pronunciation. (8.) Nor can we distinguish now between 3n and ptJ, between 2 and !|, though the Jews tell us that the wise men of Tiberias could do so twelve hundred years ago; as also between x and _, .. and .,, ^i and ., ; nor is the distinct sound of Nnny so obvious unto us. (4.) The variety of consonants among many nations, and their ability to distinguish them in pronunciation, makes this of little consideration. The whole nation of the Germans dis- tinguish not between the force and sound of t and d; Avhereas the Arabic dal and dhsal, dad, ta, and da, manifest how they can distinguish those sounds. (5.) Nor are the Jewish b' t:'" D T f answered distinctly in any other language; to distinguish some of which good old Jerome had his teeth filed, by the direction of his Nicodemus.^ (6.) The truth is, the Hebrews have but ten vowels, five long and five short, or five great and five less; Sheva is but a servant to all the rest, and its addition to Segol and Pathakh makes no new vowels. To distinguish between Kamets Khatuph and Khatuph Kamets there is no colour. Seven only of them, as Morinus hath manifested out of R. JehudaChiug, one of the first grammarians among the Jews, namely, , . .. .,!Li 'i, they called, of old, kings, or the chief rulers of all the motions of the letters. So that indeed they have not so many figures to distinguish sounds by, with all their vowels, as have the Greeks. Besides the seven vowels, they have twelve diphthongs, and three of them, as to any peculiar sound, as mute as Sheva. It is true, Pliny tells us that Simonides Melicus found out two of the vowels, jj and w, as he did also two consonants, ^ and 4/; but surely he did so because he found them needful to answer the dis-
* " Vcni rursum Hierosolymam, et Bethlehem ubi labore pretii Bartemium Judoeum nocturnum habui prseceptorem ; timebat enim Judeeos, et exhibebat se naihi alium Nicodemum." — Hieron. Ep. ad Oceanum.
AEGUMENTS FOE THE NOVELTY OF HEBEEW POINTS EEFUTED. 395
tirict sounds used in that language, or he had deserved little thanks
for his invention.^ Speaking lately with a worthy learned friend^
about a universal character, which hath been mentioned by many,
attempted by divers, and by him brought to that perfection as Avill
doubtless yield much if not universal satisfaction unto learned and
prudent men, when he shall be pleased to communicate his thoughts
upon it to the world, we fell occasionally on the difference of apert
sounds or vowels: which when I heard him with good reason affirm
to be eight or nine, remembering this argument about the Hebrew
points, I desired him to give his thoughts in a few words the next