He then shows the vast importance of the points of the Hebrew Bible; contending that he who reads without the points is like one who rides a horse without a bridle, and knows not whither he goes. He also contends that his book is required and opportune, on account of such men as Capellus and Dr Walton having recently published the dangerous doctrine that the Hebrew points were not divine in their origin, but were added to the sacred text by the Masorites of Tiberias, about five hundred years before the birth of Christ. After this, he most elaborately refutes the opinions respecting the human and novel origin of the points, alleging that, with one exception, there is not a single Jewish writer, who makes the least mention of the Hebrew punctuation being invented by the Masorites, A.D. 500. He contends that the time and the place, when and where the points are said to have been invented, are exceedingly improbable; and that the Masorites, to whom they are attributed, were unequal to the task, they being a set of magical and monstrous sots—a company of blind and crafty fools, bewitching and bewitched with traditions. In the second part of his work, on the Hebrew points, Samuel Wesley proceeds to prove that the points are at least as old as Ezra, that they are of divine original, and therefore of divine authority. In confirmation of this, he appeals to the testimonies of Jews and Christians, and answers all sorts of objections. It is almost impossible to give any adequate outline of this most learned production. Perhaps it is not too much to say, that there is no book of modern times in which so much learning is condensed into so small a space. It shows, incontestably, that Samuel Wesley was a most able Hebrew scholar, and, though at this time only thirty years of age, had gone through a course of learned reading to which but few scholars of the present age will apply themselves. Gildon, in his “History of the Athenian Society,” remarks that Wesley “has taken notice of all which can be raised against the opinion he defends;” that he had “given himself for many years to the study of the Hebrew and original tongues, and to Rabbinical learning in general;” and that his “performance was quite equal to the nobleness of the subject.” “He has executed his task,” continues Gildon, “with a great deal of strength of judgment, force of argument, and profoundness of skill. It was the saying of a great man, that he would easily tell the progress any one would make in science if he knew but the value he had for it; and no man could have a greater esteem for any knowledge than this divine (Wesley) had for this.” He considered it “the chief and obligatory study of men of his character, who were to give the true and genuine sense of Scripture to the souls they directed, under the pain of woe at the last tribunal. His treatise is accurate and elaborate, and abundantly satisfactory; and it were to be wished that the same great man would oblige the world with