ADVERTISEMENT. The form in which the following discourse issues from the press, differs in several respects from that in which it was delivered from the pulpit. As originally composed and preached, it was considered to trench, in some of its parts, upon the subjects allotted to those brethren by whom the writer was to be succeeded. In that opinion, judiciously formed, and kindly expressed, the author deemed it at once his pleasure and duty to acquiesce. It was perhaps hardly necessary to mention a circumstance of so little importance. The apology, however, needed, may be sought in the desire of explaining the discrepancy to those who, having heard the sermon, may be disposed to read it. if LECTURE IV. THE UNFOLDING OF THE PROMISE IN THE CALL OF ABRAHAM;-WITH THE BLESSINGS SECURED TO HIM, AND TO HIS SEED, AND TO ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH, BY THE PROMISE, COVENANT, AND OATH OF GOD. BY THE REV. R. P. BUDDICOM, M.A., F.A.S. MINISTER OF ST. GEORGE's, Everton. GEN. xii. 1-3. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. EVERY portion of Holy Scripture is a part of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. While that Gospel is especially concentrated, according to the greatness of his majesty and the beauty of his love, in the New Testament, it is amply, though mysteriously, diffused over the pages of the Old. So that the science of salvation can no more be well understood, without a knowledge of Divine dealing with mankind recorded in the earlier Scriptures, than a student in geometry could fully enter into the steps and conclusions of may any advanced proposition in Euclid, if he were unacquainted with those by which it had been preceded. Rent as the inner vail of the temple now is, from the top to the bottom, by the death of Christ, so that every believer have entrance into the Holiest by his blood, he will see comparatively little of its wonders, without passing previously through the outward sanctuary ; and studying, as he goes, its mystic furniture, of history, type, prophecy, and ceremonial. The work of salvation has been carried on since the fall of man, when the whole scheme of redemption was originally enwrapped in a single promise; which has been gradually unfolding its blessed import, from that awful hour of human misery and divine compassion; and which is yet to be evolved, until its full and final import shall be exhibited in the glory of the Mediator, and the ineffable happiness of his Church. The various dispensations of Jehovah, Patriarchal, Levitical, and Christian, originate in the same design, belong to the same procedure, and are directed towards the same issue. They are all to be reckoned, therefore, as several parts and movements of one machine, meant and calculated, in the riches of Almighty power, unerring wisdom, and love unsearchable, to accomplish one great plan and purpose of his will. But as some portions of a vast machine press themselves more forcibly upon the eye of an examiner than others, both on account of their individual beauty, and high importance to the general design, so is it in the Holy Scriptures. Every part is momentous; but the dealings of God with Abraham, with his natural and fœderal posterity, to the present moment, as well as in their future restoration and blessedness, which the beaming lights of Scripture prophecy, enable us to see and realize with infallible certainty, are full of deep and thrilling interest, and vitally concern the faithful and expecting Church of God. To this high subject of historic recollection, of present interest, and of coming fulfilment, your attention is called in the present course of Lectures, wherein we mean to testify of the privileges, sins, miseries, judgments, and glory of God's chosen heritage. That subject cannot be indifferent to any man who feels his interest in Reve |