PREFACE. IT may be necessary to observe, that the first of these Sermons was not preached during the regular course, but on the preceding Commencement-Sunday: as it, however, embraces the beginning of the subject, it has been introduced into the series. The plan of this course follows no consecutive order of events; it is simply intended to illustrate certain historical particulars recorded in the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian Dispensations. The first is more especially devoted to a consideration of the question-whether the Mosaic enactments were deduced from an Egyptian source, or whether they were genuine remains of Patriarchal institutions and customs, to which, indeed, other institutions required by the existing circumstances of the Israelites were annexed. The second is an inquiry into the nature and object of these, and into the effect which the study and practice of them may have had on the subsequent writings and genius of the nation. 運營 From this cursory examination of the Mosaic Law the third Sermon enters into a comparison of the Patriarchal and Levitical priesthoods, selecting for the former that of Melchisedek, whose office and individual character are elicited, as far as possible, from the Scriptures and other records of antiquity. In the fourth, the history of the Baptist, as the herald of the new covenant, is investigated; and the difference which subsisted between his baptism and that long before in use among the Jews, and between his ministry and that of our Saviour is discussed.com The fifth exclusively relates to some particulars connected with the Messiah's nativity and Mission, and to the superiority of his economy over the preceding. ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, Nov. 6, 1826. |