Although the antiquity of the vowel-points still found advocates in Joseph Cooper {Dormts J/osuicce Claris, sice Legis Septimentum, etc. [Lond. 1673], Samuel Clarke (-4?« Exercitation concerning the Original of the Chap- ters and Verses in the Bible, etc. [ibid. 1698]), White- field (-4 Dissertation on the IJebreiu Vowel-points [Liv- erpool, 1748]), and Dr. Gill (,4 Dissertation concerning the Antiquity of the JJebrew Language, I^etlers, Vowel- points, and Accents [Lond. 1767]), who published learn- ed dissertations in defence of Dr. Owen and against Wal- ton, yet it must be admitted that Walton's works de- cided the battle in England in favor of the anti-vowellists.
On the Continent. Wasmnth, with his \'indici(v Hebr. Script. (Rostock, 1664), and others entered the lists in support of Buxtorf, whose adherents in Switzerland exalted his views to a confessional article of belief in the Formula Consensus, art. iv, can. ii, so that a law was enacted in 1678 that no person should be licensed to preach the Gospel in their churches nidess he pub- licly declared that he believed in the integrity of the Hebrew text and in the divinity of the vowel-points and accents ("codicem Hebr. Yet. Test, turn quoad con- sonas tuin quoad vocalia sive puncta ipsa sive puncto- rum saltern potestatem OtoirvivcTTov esse").
An intermediate course, proceeding on the assump- tion that there had been a simpler system of vowel- marks, either by three original vowels or by diacritic points, was opened up by Rivetus {Isagoge sen Ditro- dur/io (jeneralis, Vet. et Noci Test. [Leyd. 1627], viii, 15, 104), Hottinger, and others, and was pursued espe- cially by J. D. Miciiaelis ( Von deni A Iter der hebr. Vocale, in Orient. BibL, ix, 82 sq., 88 sq.), Trendelenburg (in Eichhorn's Repertor. xviii, 78 sq.), Eichhorn, Jahn, Ber- thold, and others (comp. Diestel, Gesch, des alien Test, in der ch-istl. Kirche [Jena, 1869], p. 253, 334 sq., 401, 451,566, 570, 595 sq.).
The controversy, which so vehemently raged for more than three centuries, may now be regarded as ended. Modern research and criticism have confirmed the ar- guments urged by Levita against the antiquit}^ of the present vowel-signs. It is now established beyond ques- tion, from the discovery of ancient MSS., that there were two systems of vocalization contrived almost si- multaneously, the earlier or first system developed by Acha, or Achai, of Irak (Babylon), cir. A.D. 550; the later or second system by Mocha of Tiberias, about 570,
VOWLER
823
VUEZ
See Ginsburg, Leinta's Massoreth ha-Massoreth (Lond. 1867), p. 44 sq. ; Pick, The Vowd-poinis Controversy, iu the Presbyterian Quarterly and Princeton Review, Jan. 1877 ; Schnedermaiin, Die Coiitroverse des Ludovicus CappeUus mit den Biixtorfen iiber das Alter der hehr. Punctation (Leips. 1879); Kaut7.ic\\, Johannes Buxtorf der Aeltere (Basle, 1879). (B. P.)
VoTwler, .Tames, a clergyman of the Church of England, studied at Exeter College, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1750. In 1754 he became curate of St. Agnes', and died, in the midst of his usefulness, in July, 1758. See Christian Observer, Jlarch, 1877, p. i'o'2.
Vowles, James, an English Wesleyan missionary, was a native of Bath. He was piously trained, con- verted in his tifteenth year, was received into the min- istry and sent to Jamaica, West Indies, in 1829 ; was stationed at Port Antonio, attacked by fever on Aug. 10, 1830, and died on the IGth, in the twenty-fourth year of his age. His talents were respectable, and his amiable disposition endeared him to all. See English Wesleiinn Minnies, 1831.
Vredenbei'gh, Joiix Sciiureman, a clergyman of the Reformed (Dutch) Church, was born in New Bruns- wick, N. J., March 20, 1776, the son of a respectable merchant. He graduated at Queen's College in 1794, studied theology with Ur. John H. Livingston, was li- censed to preach in 1798 or 1800 (?), and became pastor of his only charge, the Reformed (Dutch) Church of Raritan or Somerville. N. J., June, 1800. Here he min- istered until Oct. 4, 1821, when he was suddenly called to his reward in heaven. The Church had been di- vided before his settlement, but under his ministry it was united, and grew with steady increase in strength and numbers until his death. Then came the great harvest. He had been engaged for three successive days in pastoral visitation with an elder, and was so cheered by its results that, despite fatigue, he insisted on tinishing his round on the third day. He bade fare- well to a lady of his congregation and her husband who were just about going on a mission to the heathen. They sang together the hymn " Blest be the tie that binils," and then he offered a prayer so sweet and melt- ing that it seemed to carry them up to the gate of heav- en. That midnight the bridegroom's cry was heard, and he went out to meet him. He died of epilepsy, leaving his widow with her eleven children. Her great- est anxiety was " How shall I train them for heaven?" Mrs. Vredenbergh was a daughter of the celebrated Rev. James Caldwell. D.D., of Elizabeth, N. J., the he- roic martyr of the Revolution, "and was a babe in her mother's arms when Tory hands took that mother's life." Nobly did this rare woman fulfil her trust as a minister's wife, and as the mother of her fatherless chil- dren. Iler husband's funeral drew crowds of weeping friends to the impressive scene. Immediately a won- derful revival of religion began, which lasted two years, and added to the Church fellowship three hundred and sixty-eight souls. It reached all classes of the commu- nity, and its subjects, as a body, with very few excep- tions, led consistent Christian lives.