point are explicit,--"Ye are the children of
the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers,
saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the
earth be blessed."[352] Expressing the sentiment, that their fathers had
entered into Covenant engagements with God, in which they were
recognised, Moses, and all Israel, on the shores of the Red Sea, thus
sang,--"The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation:
he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my _father's_ God,
and I will exalt him."[353] And in language acknowledging explicitly
obligation to obedience that had been transmitted by the deeds of
parents or ancestors engaged to God's service, the Psalmist offers
praise--"O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant and the son of
thy handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the
sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. I
will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his
people."[354]

Finally. Because the Lord himself always views his Church as bound by
the Covenant engagements thereof, competent to its circumstances, made
in all earlier periods. By the covenant which he made with his servant
Abraham, and once and again renewed to him, he held his people bound. At
the ratification of that covenant the scene was impressive. It is thus
described,--"I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees,
to give thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, whereby
shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, Take me an
heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram
of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon. And he took
unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece
one against another: but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls
came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was
going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great
darkness fell upon him.... And it came to pass, that, when the sun went
down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp
that passed between those pieces. In the same day the Lord made a
covenant with Abram."[355] The lamp of fire was an emblem of God's
gracious presence as a Covenant God. The smoking furnace symbolized the
people of Israel who were to be tried in the iron furnace of affliction
in Egypt. These were not then bo