s law. How passive and unresisting were
they! They were oppressed, they were afflicted, and complained
not: when through false accusations and mistaken cruelty, they
were plundered and condemned to die, they went like a lamb to
the slaughter, and as a sheep before the shearer is dumb, so they
opened not their mouth. They were taken from the dungeon to be
slain; they were wantonly massacred, and every man was their
foe; and the cause of the sufferers who condescended to
examine? They had done no iniquity to merit this: for their
adherence to their faith, which we charged upon them as a crime,
we now see to be approved of by their God, as an acceptable
instance of unexampled perseverance in the cause of truth."[fn55]

Mr. Everett proceeds, p. 145, "If any thing needs be added, the
following observation is important, viz. that there is one passage
so clearly inapplicable to the Jewish nation, and so totally
incongruous with the rest of the interpretation, that Mr. English
passes it over without even the attempt of an explanation. It is
this: in a part of the prophecy which he puts into the mouth of the
Gentiles we read, "for [the Hebrew I must remind Mr. Everett
reads "by or through,"] the transgressions of MY PEOPLE was he
stricken," This Mr. English paraphrases "for [it should have been
"by or through"] the thoughtless crimes of my people he suffered.
But what the Gentiles could mean by "MY PEOPLE" he does not
say, and this difficulty is fatal to the whole interpretation.""

I will presently show Mr. Everett, that this formidable objection, so
emphatically announced, is after all a mere man in buckram; and I
am almost sorry that in doing this, I shall be obliged to expose one
more proof of Mr. Everett's having neglected the study of "the
beggarly elements," in order to devote himself, without distraction,
to the understanding of the delectable types and allegories of the
New Testament. Mr. Everett certainly is a scholar and a man of
talents, but he does not perfectly know, nor will [fn56] understand,
the contents of the Old Testament; and the above objection is a
proof of it.

He maintains, that the expression "my people," could not be used
by a Gentile, and that therefore my whole interpretation of the
prophecy in Isaiah, is fatally affected by his objection. I request
Mr. Everett to have the goodness to turn to the book of Ruth ch i.
16., where he will find this Gentile, "this Moabitish damsel" saying
to her mot