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
performance thereof A thing which is neither prescribed in the Rules nor followed in the practise of men wise only with that cursed politie which God abhors to have a minde suited unto all seasons and tempers so as to compasse their own selfish ends is the utmost of their aime Now in both these did this gift of God shine in this deceased Saint 1 He ever counted it his wisdom to look after the name of God and the testification of his will in every dispensation of providence wherein he was called to serve for this were his wakings watchings enquiries when that was made out he counted not his businesse half done but even accomplished and that the issue was ready at the doore not what saith this man or what saith that man but what saith the Lord that being evident he consulted not with flesh and bloud and the wisdom of it whereof perhaps would he have leaned to it he was as little destitute as any in his Generation I mean the whole wisdom of a man The Name of God was as land in every storm in the discovery whereof he had as happy an eye at the greatest seeming distance when the clouds were blackest and the waves highest as any 2 Neither did he rest here what Israel ought to do in every season was also his enquiry some men have a wisdome to know things but not seasons in any measure surely a thing in season is no lesse beautifull then a word in season as apples of gold in pictures of silver there are few things which belong to civill affairs but are alterable upon the incomprehensible variety of circumstances These alter and change the very nature of them and make them good or bad that is useful or destructive He that will have the garment that was made for him one yeer serve him and fit him the next must be sure that he neither increase nor vvane Importune insisting on the most usefull things without respect to alterations of seasons is a sad signe of a narrovv heart He of vvhom vve speak vvas vvise to discern the seasons and performed things vvhen both themselves and the vvayes of carrying them on vvere excellently suited unto all coincidences of their season And indeed vvhat is most wisely proposed in one season may be most foolishly pursued in another It had been vvisdom in Joshua not to have made any compact but to have slain all the Gibeonites but it vvas a folly sorely revenged in Saul vvho attempted to do the same He vvho thinks the most righteous and sutable proposals or principles that ever vvere in the vvorld setting aside generall rules of unchangeable Righteousnesse and Equity compassing all times places wayes and forms of Government must be perform'd as desirable because once they were so is certainly a stranger to the Affairs of humane kinde Some things are universally unchangeable and indispensable amongst mem supposing them to live answerable to the generall principles of their kinde as that a Government must be without which every one is the enemy of every one and all tend to mutuall destruction which are appointed of God for mutuall preservation that in Government some do rule and some be in subjection that all rule be for the good of them that are ruled and the like principles that flow necessarily from the very nature of political society Some things again are alterable dispensable meerly upon the account of preserving the former principles or the like if any of them are out of course it is a vacuum in nature politick for which all particular elements instantly dislodge and transpose themselves to supply and such are all forms of Government amongst men which if either they so degenerate of themselves that they become directly opposite or are so shattered by providential Revolutions as to become uselesse to their proper end may and ought to be changed and not upon other accounts but now for other things in Government as the particular way whereby persons shall be designed unto it the continuance of the same persons in it for a lesse or a greater proportion of time the exercise of more or lesse power by some sorts or the whole body of them that are ruled the uniting of men for some particular ends by bonds engagements and the like occasional emergencies the universal disposal of them is roll'd on prudence to act according to present circumstances 2 Love to his people This was the second qualification wherein Daniel was so eminent And our deceased friend not to enter into comparison with them that went before had cleerly such a proportion as we may heartily desire that those who follow after may drink but equall draughts of the same cup that as his pains labour travel Jeopards of his life and all that was dear to him Relinquishment of Relations and contentments had sweetnesse and life from this motive even intensenesse of Affection to his people the people of whom he was and whose prosperity he did desire needs no further demonstration then the great neglect of self and all self-concernments which dwelt upon him in all his tremendous undertakings vicit amor patriae or certainly he who had upon his brest and all his undertakings self-contempt so eminently engraven could not have persisted wrestling with so many difficulties to the end of his dayes It was Jerusalem and the prosperity thereof which was preferr'd to his chief joy Neither 3 Did he come short in Righteousnesse in the administration of that high place whereto he was called nay then this there was not a more eminent stone in that Diademe which he had in the earth If he lay not at the bottom yet at least he had a signall concurrence in such Acts of Justice as Antiquity hath not known and Posterity will admire Neither was it this or that particular act that did in this bespeak his praise but a constant will and purpose of rendring to every one his due I shall not insist upon particulars in these and sundry other personall Qualifications between the persons mentioned a Parallel may lie 2 As to Employment that of Daniel was mentioned before it was the receiving and holding out from God Visions of signal providentiall Alterations disposing and transposing of States Nations Kingdoms and Dominions what he had in Speculation was this mans part to follow in Action he was an eminent instrument in the hand of God in as tremendous Providentiall Alteration as such a spot of the World hath at any time received since Daniel foresaw in generall them all and this not as many have been carried along with the stream or led by outward motives and considerations far above their own principles and desires but seeingly and knowingly he closed with the minde of God with full purpose of heart to serve the will of the Lord in his Generation And on this account did he see every mountain made a plain before-hand by the Spirit of the Lord and staggered not at the greatest difficulties through unbelief
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