not be desireable unto you that you had done these things will it be bitternesse in the end that you so laid out your endevours Vse 3. All men have but their seasons in any worke onely God abideth in it for ever in every undertaking let your eye still be on him with whom is the fulnesse and the residue of the spirit Jeremiah's great bewailing of Josiah's death was doubtlesse made upon the account of his discerning that none would come after him to carry on the worke which he had begun but the wickednesse of that people was come to their height else God can raise up yet more Josiahs let him be eyed as the principall and onely abiding Agent in any great undertaking In the residue of the observations I shall be very brief The next is Obs. 2 God oftentimes suffers not the choicest of his servants to see the accomplishment of those glorious things wherein themselves have been most eminently engaged The case of Moses is most eminently known he had a large share in suffering the persecutions which were allotted to the people 40 yeers banishment he endured in the Wildernesse under the reproach of Christ 40 yeers more spent in wrestling with innumerable difficulties dangerous perils mutinies wars and contentions At the close when he comes to look upon the Laud when the end of all that dispensation was to be wound up and the Rest and Reward of all his toile and labour to be had which formerly he had undergone for tvvice 40 yeers Go thou thy wayes saith the Lord thou shalt rest take thy dismission thou shalt not enter into the good Land lie down here in the Wildernesse in peace John Baptist goes and preaches the drawning nigh of the kingdom of God but lived only to point out Christ with his finger cryes Behold the Lambe of God I must decrease and is cut off David makes the great preparation for the Temple but he shal not see so much as the foundation laid Men must take their appointed lot God will send by the hand of him whom he will send Daniel must rest untill the end be It is said of some they began to deliver Israel The case of Zerobbabel was very rare who saw the foundation and also the top-stone of the Temple laid and yet the work of Jerusalem was not halfe finished in his dayes as you may see Zach. chap. 1. Reason 1. God oftentimes receives secret provocations from the choicest of his servants which moves him to take them short of their desires Those of his own whom he employes in great workes have great and close communion with him God usually exercises their spirits in neer acts of fellowship with himself they receive much from him and are constrained to unburthen themselves frequently upon him now when men are brought into an intimacy with God and have received great engagements from him the Lord takes notice of every working and acting of their soules in an especiall manner and is oftentimes grieved and provoked with that in them which others can take no notice of let a man read the story of that action of Moses upon which the Lord told him directly he should not see the finishing of the work he had in hand nor enter into Canaan Numb. 20. 7 8 11. It will be a hard matter to finde out wherein the failing was he smote the Rock with the rod with some words of impatience when he should onely have spoken to it and this with some secret unbelief as to the thing he had in hand God deales with others visibly according to their outward Actions but in his own he takes notice of all their unbelief fears withdrawings as proceeeding from a frame in no measure answering those gracious discoveries of himselfe which he hath made unto them and on this account it is that some are taken off in the midst of their work 2 To manifest that he hath better things in store for his Saints then the best and utmost of what they can desire or ayme at here below He had a heaven for Moses and therefore might in love and mercy deny him Canaan He employeth some eminently their work is great their end glorious at the very last step almost of their journey he takes off one and another le ts them not see the things aymed at this may be thought hard measure strict severity exact justice yea as Job complains taking advantages against them see but what he calls them to in calling them off from their greatest Glories and Excellencies on the earth and all this will appear to be love tendernesse and favour in the highest Whilest you are labouring for a handfull of first fruits he gives you the full harvest Whilest you are labouring for the figure here below he gives you the substance above Should you see the greatest worke wherein any of you were ever ingaged brought to perfection yet all were but as a few drops compared with that fulnesse which he hath prepared for you The Lord then doth it to witnesse to the children of men that the things which are seen the best of them are not to be compared with the things that are not seen yea the least of them in as much as he takes them whom he will honour from the very doore of the one to bear them into the other The meanest enjoyment in heaven is to be preferred before the richest on earth even then when the Kingdome of Christ shall come in most beauty and glory Use 2. You that are ingaged in the work of God seeke for a reward of your service in the service it selfe Few of you may live to see that beauty glory which perhaps you aime at as the end of all your great undertakings for God whereinto you have been engaged God will proceed his own pace and calls on us to go along with him and in the mean time untill the determinate end come to wait in faith and not make haste Those whose mindes are so fixed on and swallowed up with some End though good which they have proposed to themselves do seldome see good dayes and serene in their own soules they have bitternesse wrath and trouble all their dayes are still pressing to the end proposed and commonly are dismissed from their station before it be attained There is a sweetnesse there is a wages to be found in the work of God it selfe men who have learned to hold communion with God in every work he calls them out unto though they never see the maine harvest they aime at in generall yet such will rest satisfied and submit to the Lords limitation of their time they bear their owue sheaves in their bosomes Seeing God oftentimes dismisses his choisest servants before they see or taste of the maine fruits of their endeavours I see not upon what account consolation can be had in following the Lord in difficult dispensations but only in that reward which every duty bringeth along with it by Communion with God in its
when the Gospel which he began to preach was to be published in its beauty and glory They had all but their appointed seasons though their abilities were eminent who like unto them and their employment excellent what like it in the earth yet at their seasons they must go their ways to rest and lie down till they stand in their lot at the end of the dayes Reas. 1. The generall condition of their mortality doth require that it should be so It is appointed to all men once to die Heb. 9. 27. There is a stable law fixed concerning the sons of men that is not upon the account of any usefulness here to be dispensed withall The number of our moneths are with God he hath fixed our bounds which we shall not passe our dayes are as the dayes of an hireling that have a certain prefixed and determinate end their strength is not the strength of stones neither is their flesh of brasse that they should endure for ever See Job 14 10 11 12. This I say requires that there should be an appointed season for their Employment for it is so for their lives and yet there is more in it then this for in the course of 5000 yeeres God hath exempted two persons by his Sovereignty from the condition of mortality who walked with him in their generations So that the bounds fixed to them were not upon the account of their lives but meerly of the work they had in hand 2 God doth it that he may be the more eminently seen in the carrying on his own works which in their season he commits to them Should he leave his work always on one hand it would seem at length to be the work of the Instrument only Though the people opposed Moses at the first yet it is thought they would have worshipped him at the last and therefore God buried him where his body could not be found Yet indeed he had but the lot of most who faithfully serve God in their generations despised whilest they are present idolized when they are gone I do not know of any great work that the Lord carried out the same persons to be the beginners and enders of He gave them all their seasons that his power and wisdome might the more evidently appear in carrying it from one hand to another 3 God makes room as it were in his Vineyard for the budding flourishing and fruit-bearing of other Plants which he hath planted Great Employments call for great exercise of graces Even in Employments in and about providentiall things there is the exercise of spirituall grace as much Faith and Prayer as much communion with God walking before him and wrestling with him may be used in casting down of Armies as in setting up of Churches God exerciseth all the graces of his in the work he calleth them out unto He principles them by faith and fellowship with himself for their Employment and therefore He gives each individuall but his appointed season that others in whose hearts he hath lodged the same spirit wherewith they are endued may come forth and shew the fruits thereof Daniel lieth down in the dust in rest and peace and why so the spirit of prophecie is poured out on Haggai and Zeâ—hariah c. they must also carry on this work and beare my name before my people Consider the use of this Vse 1. of Exhortation unto all that are imployed in the work of God especially such as with eminent Abilities are engaged in eminent Employments you have but your alotted season for your work your day hath its close its evening your night cometh wherein none can work The grave cannot praise the Lord death cannot celebrate him it 's the living the living that are fitted for that worke Isa. 38. 18 19. It is true men may alot you your season and all in vain but your Times are in the hand of God that which he hath appointed out unto you shall stand be you never so excellent never so usefull yet the dayes of your service are as the dayes of an hireling that will expire at the appointed season be wise then to improve the time that is in your hands this is the praise of a man the onely praise whereof in this world he is partaker that he doth the will of God before he fall asleep that he faithfully serves his generation untill he be no more For a dying man to wrestle with the rebukes of God and the complaints of his own conscience for meeting with the end of his dayes before he hath attained the midst of his duty is a sad condition You have your season and you have but your season neither can you lye down in peace untill you have some perswasion that your worke as well as your life is at an end what ever then you finde to do do it with all your strength for there is neither wisdome nor power in the grave whither you are going Ecclesiast 9. 10. Some particular Rules may direct you herein 1 Compare yonr selves with the Saints of God who were faithfull in their generations and are now fallen asleep What a deal of work did Josiah do in a short season what a Light did John set up in a few yeares with what unwearied paines and industry did our deceased friend serve his generation It is said of Caesar that he was ashamed of his own sloth when he found that Alexander had conquered the Eastern world at the age wherein he had done nothing Behold here one receiving his dismission about the age of 40 yeares and what a world of work for God and the Interest of the Lord Christ did he in that season and how well in the close hath he parted with a temporall life for him who by his death procured for him an eternall life And now Rest is sweet unto this labouring man Provoke one another by examples 2 Be diligent to passe through your work let it not too long hang upon your hands Your appointed season may come before you bring it to the close yea search out work for God You that are intrusted in power trifle not away your season Is there no oppressed person that with diligence you might relieve is there no poor distressed Widow or Orphane whose righteous Requests you might expedite and dispatch are there no stout offenders against God and man that might be chastized are there no slack and slow Counties and Cities in the execution of Justice that might be quickened by your example No places destitute of the Gospel that might be furnished and supplyed by your industry and wisdome can you not finde out something of these or the like nature to be dispatched with vigour and diligence nay do not innumerable particulars in each kinde lye upon your hands And is not your performance of them such a sacrifice as wherewith God is not well pleased your time is limited and appointed you know not how soon you may be overtaken with it and would it
but being stedfast in faith he gave glory to God And to compleat the Parallel as Daniel's Visions were still terminated in the Kingdom of Christ so all his actions had the same aime and intendment This was that which gave life and sweetnesse to all the most dismall and black engagements that at anytime he was called out unto All made way to the comming in of the promised glory It was all the vengeance of the Lord and his Temple A Davidicall preparation of his paths in bloud that he might for ever reign in Righteousnesse and Peace but be he so or so the truth of our Proposition is confirmed towards him There is an appointed season when the Saints of the most eminent abilities in the most usefull Employments shall receive their dismission c. I shall briefly open the rest of the words and so take up the proposition again which vvas first laid dovvn 2 Then there is the term allotted to him in this state of his dismission untill the end be Three things may be here intended in this vvord end untill the end be 1 The end of his life Go thou thy wayes to the end of thy life and dayes but this we before disallowed not consenting that Daniel received a dismission from his Employment before the end of his life and pilgrimage 2 The end of the World Go thy wayes to the end of the World till then thou shalt rest in thy grave but neither yet doth this seem to be peculiarly intended in these vvords The vvords in the close of the text do expresly mention that calling it the end of the dayes and in so fevv vvords the same thing is not needlesly repeated besides had this expression held out the vvhole time of his abode in the state of rest here signified it must have been Go thou thy wayes for thou shalt rest untill the end be So that Thirdly the end here is to be accommodated unto the things whereof the Holy Ghost is peculiarly dealing with Daniel and that is the Accomplishment of the great Visions which he had received in breaking the Kingdomes of the World and setting up the Kingdome of the holy One of God Daniel is dismissed from further attendance in this service he shall not see the actuall Accomplishment of the things mentioned but is dismissed and laid aside unto the end of them The vvord untill in the Scripture is not such a limitation of time as to assert the contrary to vvhat is excepted upon its accomplishment untill the end doth not signifie that he should not rest after the end of the things intimated no more then it is affirmed that Michal had children after her death because it is said that untill her death she had none 2 Sam. 6. 23. this then is that end that he is dismissed unto the appointed season for the accomplishment of those glorious things which he had foreshovvn Obs. God oftentimes suffers not his choicest servants to see the issue and accomplishment of these glorious things wherein themselves have been most eminently engaged 3 The third thing that vve may make haste is his state and condition during the time vvhich he lies under this dismission in these vvords for thou shalt rest There is nothing of difficulty in these vvords but vvhat vvill naturally fall under consideration in the opening of the proposition which they hold out which is Obs. 3. The condition of a dismissed Saint is a condition of Rest Thou shalt rest untill the end be What this rest is and from what with wherein it consists shall be afterwards explained 4 The last thing in the Text is the utmost issue of all these dispensations both as to his fore-going labour and his present dismission and following Rest Thou shalt stand in thy lot c. Here are two things considerable in these words The season of the accomplishment of what is here foretold and promised unto Daniel and that is in the end of the dayes that is when time shall be no no more when a period shall be put to the dayes of the World called the last day the great day the day of Judgement that is the season of the accomplishment of this promise the day wherein God will judge the world by the man whom he hath ordained Obs. There is an appointed determinate season wherein all things and persons according to the will of God will run into their utmost issue and everlasting condition 2 The thing foretold and promised that is that he should stand in his lot Obs. There is an appointed lot for every one to stand in and measured portion which in the end they shall receive 2 There is an eminent lot hereafter for men of eminent employment for God here I shal not be able to handle all these several Truths which lie in the words those only which are of most Importance and most suitable may briefly be handled unto you and the first is There is an appointed season wherein the Saints of the most eminent abilities in the most usefull Employments must receive their dismission Zach. 1. 5. Your Fathers where are they and the Prophets do they live for ever Fathers and Prophets have but their season and they are not They have their dismission so old Simeon professeth Nunc Dimittis Luke 2. 29. Now thou givest me a dismission they are placed of God in their station as a Centinel in his Watch-tower and they have their appointed season and are then dismissed from their Watch The great Captain of their salvation comes and saith Go thou thy wayes thou hast faithfully discharged thy duty go now unto thy rest Some have harder service some have harderduty then others some keep guard in the Winter a time of storms and temptations trials and great pressures others in the sun-shine the Summer of a more flourishing estate and condition yet duty they all do all attend in the service all endure some hardship and have their appointed season for their dismission And be they never so excellent at the discharging of their duty they shall not abide one moment beyond the bounds which He hath set them who saith to all his creatures thus far shall you go and no further Oftentimes this dismission is in the midst of their work for which they seem to be most eminently qualified The three most eminent works of God in and about his children in dayes of old were 1 His giving his people the Law and setling them in the land of Canaan 2 His recovering them from the Babylonish Captivity and 3 His promulgation of the Gospel unto them In these three works he employed three most eminent persons Moses in the first Daniel in the second and John Baptist in the third and neither of them saw the work accomplished wherein they were so eminently employed Moses died the yeer before the people entred Canaan Daniel some few yeers before the foundation of the Temple and John Baptist in the first yeer of the Baptisme of our Saviour