4. That the experience of all generations doth confirm God's faith- fulness in his promises; for it is said in the text, ' His faithfulness is unto all generations.' In the Hebrew it is, 'From generation to generation.'
408 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XCV.
The point may be amplified by two considerations : —
First, That some promises have been received by one generation, and fulfilled in another.
Secondly, That the same common promises have been fulfilled to the faithful in all ages.
First, That some promises have been received b}' one generation, and fulfilled in another, when the matter so required ; as, for instance, Israel's going out of Egypt: Gen. xv. 13, 14, 'And he said unto Abraham, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not tlieirs, ant\. shall serve them ; and they shall afflict them four hundred years : and also that nation whom they shall serve will 1 judge ; and afterwards they shall come out with great substance.' Compare now Exod. xii. 41, 'and it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the self-same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.' Thirty years were added, because of their fathers dwelling in Canaan ; but God kept touch to a day. So for the promise of tile Messiah and call- ing the Gentiles; that God fulfilled in due time, and sent a Saviour into the world : Gal. iv. 4, ' In the fulness of time God sent his son.' When the sceptre was gone from Judah, Gen. xlix. 10, when the crown was possessed by Herod, a tributary and foreigner, during the Roman monarchy, which at length Christ should utterly destroy. Dan. ii. 35, Nebuchadnezzar had a vision of an image of four different metals, the head of gold, arms and breasts silver, belly and thighs brass, and the feet part iron and clay. While he beheld the image, and surveyed it from head to loot, he saw a stone hewn out of the mountain without hands, which stone smote the image, not upon the head, breast, or belly, but upon the feet of iron and clay, upon which it vanished away, and the stone became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This vision Daniel expounded of four Gentile kingdoms, which should succeed one another with great extent of dominion. The first of the Babylonians, which then was ; the second of the Medes and Persians ; the third of the Grecians; the fourth of the Romans, which subdued all the others, and because possessed of the riches and glory of the former ; during this last kingdom was the stone hewn out of the mountain, and smote the iron feet. This stone was the kingdom of the God of heaven, which Christ set up. But not to trouble you with mysteries and nice debates, the apostle telleth us, Rom. xv. 8-10, ' Tliat Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers : and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy ; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. And again, it is said. Rejoice, ye Gentiles.' The event in all these cases afterwards did speak for itself ; so in all that is yet to come, we should depend upon the veracity of God ; as the calling of the Jews, the destruction of antichrist, a more ample effusion of gifts on the church, together with a dilation of its borders ; as the patriarchs 'all died in faith : ' Heb. xi. 13, ' Having not received the promises, but having seen them afar off", were persuaded of them, and embracetl them.'
Secondly, That the same common promises have been fulfilled to
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the faithful in all ages ; there is but one and the same way to eternal lite in necessary things, and the dispensations of God to every age are still the same ; and so in every generation the promises of God are still fultilled as if they were directed to that time only. God's faith- fulness hath been tried many ways and at many times, hut every age furnisheth examples of the truth of his promises. From the beginning of the world to the end, God is ever fulfilling the scripture in his pro- vidential government, which is double — external or internal.
[1.] External, in the deliverance of his people, the answers of prayer, and manifold blessings vouchsafed to believers and their seed. See Ps. xxii. 4, 5, ' Our fathers trusted in thee ; they trusted, and thou didst deliver them : they cried unto thee, and were delivered : they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.' The godly in former times trusted God, and trusted constantly in their troubles, and in their trusting they cried, and did never seek God in vain ; which should support us in waiting upon God, and to depend on his mercy and fidelity ; for they that place their full affiance in God, and seek his help by constant and importunate addresses, shall never be put to shame.