Observation II. God oftentimes suffers not his choicest semants to see the issue and accomplishment of those glorious things wherein themselves have been most emiinently engaged.
III. The third thing (that we may make haste) is his state and condition during the time which he lies under this dismission, in these words, " For thou shalt rest."
There is nothing of difficulty in these words, but what will natur- ally fall under consideration in the opening of the proposition which they hold out : which is, —
Obsei-vation III. The condition of a dismissed saint is a condition of rest : " Thou shalt rest until the end be."
What this rest is, and from what, with wherein it consists, shall be afterward explained.
IV. The last thing in the text is the utmost issue of all these dis- pensations, both as to his foregoing labour and his j^^'^sent dismis- sion, Siud following rest: " Thou shalt stand in thy lot," &c.
Here are two things considerable in these words.
1. The season of the accomplishment of what is here foretold and promised unto Daniel; and that is, " in the end of the days;" that is, when time shall be no more, when a period shall be put to the days of the world: — called "the last day, the great day, the day of
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judgment;" — that is, the season of the accompHshment of this pro- mise, " The day wherein God will judge the world by the man whom he hath ordained."
Observ^ation IV. There is an appointed, determinate season, luherein all things and persons, according to the will of God, ivill run into their utviost issxie and everlasting condition.
2. The thing foretold and promised; that is, that he should "stand in his lot."
Obsei-vation V. Tliere is an appointed lot for every one to stand in, and measured portion, which in the end they shall receive.
Observation VI. There is an eminent lot hereafter, for men of eminent employment for God here.
I shall not be able to handle all these several truths which lie in the words ; those only which are of most importance, and most suit- able, may briefly be handled unto you. And the first is, —
Obsei-vation I. There is an appointed season wherein the saints of the most eminent abilities, in the most useful employments, must receive their disraission.
Zech. i. 5, " Your fathers, where are they ? and the prophets, do they live forever?" Fathers and prophets have but their season, and they are not: they have their dismission. So old Simeon pro- fesseth, " Nunc Dimittis," Luke ii. 29 ; — Now, thou givest me a dis- mission. They are placed of God in their station, as a sentinel in his watch-tower; and they have their appointed season, and are then dismissed from their watch. The gTcat Captain of theu" salvation comes, and saith, Go thou thy ways : thou hast faithfully discharged thy duty; go now unto thy rest. Some have harder service, — some have harder duty than others. Some keep guard in the Avinter, — a time of storms and temptations, trials and gi-eat pressures; others in the sunshine, the summer of a more flourishing estate and con- dition. 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 inoment beyond the bounds which he hath set them, who saith to all his creatures. Thus far shall you go, and no farther. Oftentimes this dismission is in the midst of their work for which they seem to be most eminently qualified.
The three most eminent w^orks of God, in and about his children, in the days of old, were his giving his people the law, and settling them in the land of Canaan ; — his recovering them from the Baby- lonish captivity; — and his promulgation of the gospel unto them. In these three works he employed three most emment persons ; — Moses in the first, Daniel in the second, and John Baptist in the third ; and none of them saw the work accomplished wherein they were so
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eminently employed. Moses died the year Lefore tlie people entered Canaan : Daniel, some few years before the foundation of the temple ; and John Baptist in the first year of the baptism of our Saviour, when tlie gospel which he began to preach Avas to be published in its beauty and glory. They had all but their apjjointed 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 theii' ways to rest, and lie doAvn, till they stand in their lot at the end of the days. The reasons of which are, —
1. The general condition of their mortality doth requke that it should be so: " It is appointed to all men once to die," Heb. ix. 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 withal. The number of our months is with God ; he hath fixed our bounds, which we shall not pass. Our days are as the days of an hireling, that have a certain, prefixed, and determinate end. Their strength is not the strength of stones, neither is their flesh of brass, that they should endure for ever. See Job xiv. 10-12. 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 than this; for in the course of five thousand years, 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 merely of the work they had in hand.