rally be supposed that the sacred language of this people, and their peculiar knowledge of it, could not be considered as deserving of attention or respect, while they themselves were objects of contempt. But as the light of truth, after a long night of intellectual darkness, began again to dawn on the Christian world, prejudices began gradually to give way. Scriptural truth and scriptural learning were diligently sought after: Christian Doctors condescended to learn Hebrew from Jewish teachers, and, in doing so, must have experienced painful mortifications. By the perverted labours of many ages, the Jewish Rabbis had degraded, as far as it was possible, the religion of their people, and whatever was connected with it. Measuring the moral attributes of the Divinity by the standard of their own circumscribed intellects and depraved affections, they had lost, in a great measure, the knowledge of the true God. Their religious worship consisted in an endless routine of senseless, superstitious ceremonies: the unchangeable laws of justice and mercy were made, by their sophistries, to tolerate, if not to enjoin, the indulgence of every evil passion and vicious habit: their Holy Scripture they had converted into a text-book of cabalism and absurdity.

Instead of subjecting the Scriptures to the laws of rational criticism, the Jewish Doctors held, and taught it as a fundamental principle, that the Hebrew text, such as they exhibited it, was absolutely perfect. This species of perfection or infallibility was extended even to the Masoretic punctuation and accents. They admitted, indeed, various readings, distinguished by

the terms Keri and Chetib,-the one followed in the service of the synagogue, the other in the writing of the text. As to these readings, the matter of inquiry was not which of them, in any particular passage, was genuine,-both were to be held equally good and equally genuine ;-but the matter to be inquired into was the design of the Divine Spirit in causing the variation. The different readings had proceeded either from Moses and the other inspired writers, or, which was reckoned authority at least equally good, had been transmitted by tradition, and sanctioned by the men of the Great Synagogue. In both cases they were of Divine authority, and were entitled to peculiar reverence, as affording sure indication that under them some profound mystery lay concealed. "There is not," they were accustomed to say, a single letter in the Holy Books, upon which great mountains do not depend." There were mysterious reasons for particular letters being found in certain places, such as in the beginning, middle, or end of sections or sentences. Even the form of the Hebrew characters contained, they said, profound mysteries,'

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As a specimen of what was esteemed learning and wisdom by the Jewish teachers, we may select a part of their comments upon the word 2, the first word of the book of Genesis. To the question, Why is 2 beth the first letter of the Holy Scriptures? they give the following answers. Because this letter is open only in front, and shut up on all the other sides; by which we are taught that we are not at liberty to inquire, by looking either backward, upward, or downward, as to any thing that preceded the creation of the world, but must attend only to what took place after that period, by looking in a straight-forward direction. Then again, the letter beth was

the discovering of which displayed the extent of rabbinical learning and wisdom.

The puerile and superstitious fancies of the Jews are scarcely deserving of notice, if they had not exercised an injurious influence in bringing Hebrew learning into general discredit and contempt. It may seem strange, but it was certainly true, that on the revival of learning, many who applied themselves to the study of Hebrew, became deeply infected with the foolish notions of their Jewish teachers. From this it was inferred that a Hebrew scholar was necessarily a person of weak and distempered intellect, and that there was truth in the often quoted sarcasm of the poet :

preferred to the letter Naleph, as being a letter of good omen, the first letter of the word 2, which signifies blessing : whereas aleph is the first letter of the word 778, malediction or cursing. Besides, it was usual to write it in a larger size than the other letters, to commemorate the magnitude and sublimity of the work of creation. In fine, by transposing the letters which compose the first word of the Pentateuch, they formed 8, the first day of the month Tisri, (the Hebrew month corresponding, in part, to our month of September); and they from this concluded it as proved that the world was created, or that the work of creation was begun on that day. How faithfully this mode of interpretation was imitated, may appear from Drisenius, a learned Hebraist of the last century, who accounts for mem final being used in a particular word, (270, Isa. ix. 6,) instead of mem medial, by saying that the form of the letter indicates the entire coherence, the completeness, the perfection, the uninterruptedness, of the government and peace predicted by the prop het.-Frommanni Opuscula.

"For Hebrew roots, although they're found

To flourish most in barren ground,

He had such plenty, as suffic'd

To make some think him circumcis'd."

In these lines Butler expressed the feeling of contempt for Hebrew learning, at the time generally, and from the circumstances already mentioned, but too justly entertained. Of our own countrymen, Henry Ainsworth, and Hugh Broughton, may be mentioned in particular, as persons whose minds seem, by their Hebrew studies, to have become tainted with Jewish prejudices; nor have we, perhaps, even at the present day, got entirely rid of the evil. It discovers itself, if we mistake not, in Hutchinsonianism; and in the various other allegorizing and mystifying modes of interpreting Scripture, to which devout men, of more fancy than judgment, are fondly attached. It is not necessary, however, in order to the acquiring of Hebrew knowledge, or to the making a proper use of it, to renounce reason and common sense. The connection of Jewish prejudices and superstitions with true Hebrew learning, is like that of the unintelligible jargon of the Schoolmen with sound logic and philosophy: the influence of the connection, in both cases, was also considerably similar, and might be pointed out in a variety of particulars; but such a speculation would here be out of place. Suffice it to say, that what Bacon had the honour of performing on behalf of general knowledge, has been done also on behalf of Hebrew learning, by various learned men, whose labours entitled them to respect and gratitude. Ludovicus Capellus, professor of theology and philo

logy at Saumur, reduced the Masoretic punctuation and accents to their true value, and opened the way for the application of sound criticism to the Hebrew text. (Critica sacra, &c. 1650. Commentaria et Notae criticae in Vetus Testamentum, 1689.) John Buxtorf, his son, Carpzovius, Le Clerc, and other continental scholars, contributed much to the right interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures; and we have to reflect with pleasure on the eminently useful services, in the same cause, of our countrymen, Kennicott and Lowth. The Collation of Kennicott overturned from the foundation the superstitious notions long prevalent respecting the absolute integrity of the Masoretic text, and, in point of utility, will continue of high value : of Lowth, it has been said with justice,—and it would be difficult to imagine higher praise, that he was worthy of translating and illustrating the prophecies of Isaiah.

During the course of the last hundred years, Hebrew learning has been assiduously cultivated in Germany. Immense stores of general learning and knowledge have, in that country, been employed in the critical illustration of the Hebrew Scriptures; but, in many cases, it must be regretted, not under the direction and influence of sound Christian principles. By the operation of laws and established customs, freedom of inquiry among the Germans had long been fettered; and unnatural restraints, whether moral or physical, are usually followed by dangerous eruptions. Stillness and storm, slavery and anarchy, superstition and infidelity, are, respectively, causes and consequences. Assuming a form suited to the circumstances of

a 2