The ordinance of the Passover is also declared to be everlasting, "and this day [i. e. the feast of the Passover] shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever." Ex.ch.xii. 14. see also v. 15.—in v. 17. it is said "ye shall observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever."
The ordinance of the day of atonement, is declared to be a perpetual institution, "It shall be a statute for ever unto you," Lev. ch. xvi. 29. "It shall be a Sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever." v. 31. "and this shall be an everlasting statute unto you." v. 34.
The feast of offering the first fruits of the year, is declared Lev. ch. xxiii. 14. "to be a statute for ever throughout your generations, in all your dwellings."
The feast of the Pentecost, is also declared in the same ch. of Lev. 21. to "be a statute for ever, in all your dwellings throughout your generations." See also v. 41.
The ordinance of the Sabbath is pronounced a perpetual institution, "Verily my sabbath ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you, throughout your generations—Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant: It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever." Ex. xxxi. 13—17.
As it is clearly evident from such passages as the above, that the law of Moses was intended to be a perpetual rule for the Israelites "throughout all their generations," as long as they should exist, Mr. Everett, in order to get rid of their force, has thought proper to annihilate the Jewish nation with a stroke of his pen. He maintains p. 350. of his work, that no such nation exists as the Jewish nation! This unexpected stroke was to me a confounding one—not on account of its force—but on account of its amazing effrontery.
The Jews not a nation! ask the histories of mankind; ask all writers who give an account of the different nations and peoples into which the race of Adam is divided! and Mr. Everett will find that they all consider the Jews as "a distinct and peculiar people." "But, says Mr. Everett, p. 350, if they are a nation, we can be told whereabouts they dwell, and what cities they inhabit." Undoubtedly Mr. Everett can be told all this if he will take the trouble to ask their chiefs; and if he does he will be surprised to learn that the Jews, in cities and countries that can be named and pointed out, amount probably to ten millions of people, governed by their own law, so far as relates to their religion and intercourse with each other, and yet Mr. Everett maintains that the Jewish nation does not exist. [fn79]
But I have a solemn answer from immortal lips to give to Mr. Everett's assertion, which he may possibly, if he be a religious man, hearken to, and tremble.
"Thus saith Jehovah, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night; which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; JEHOVAH OF HOSTS is his name; if those ordinances depart from before me saith Jehovah, then the seed of Israel shall cease being A NATION before me FOR EVER.
Thus saith Jehovah, if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I also will cast off all the seed of Israel, for all that they have done saith Jehovah." Jer. ch. xxxi. 35, 36, 37.