Use 2. All men have but their seasons in any ivork; only God abideth in it for ever: in every undertaking let your eye still be on him, with whom is the fulness and the residue of the Spirit. Jere- miah's gi-eat bewailing of Josiah's death was doubtless made upon the account of his discerning that none would come after him to carry on the work which he had begun, but the wickedness of that people was to come to its height; — else God can raise up yet more Josiahs. Let him be eyed as the principal and only abiding agent in any gi-eat undertaking.
In the residue of the observations I shall be very brief The next is, —
Observation II. God oftentimes suffers not the choicest of his ser- vants to see the accomplishment of those glorious thi)igs wherein them- selves have been most eminently engaged.
The case of Moses is most eminently known. He had a large shai'e in suffering the persecutions which were allotted to the people: — forty years' banishment he endured in the wilderness, imder the reproach of Christ ; — forty years more spent in Avrestlmg with innu- merable difficulties, dangerous perils, mutinies, wars, and contentions. At the close, when he comes to look upon the land, — when the end of all that dispensation was to be wound up, and the rest and reward of all his toil and labour to be had, which formerly he had under- gone for twice forty years, — " Go thou thy ways," saith the Lord ; "thou shalt rest;" — take thy dismission; thou slialt not enter into the gx)0(l land; lie doA\ii here in the wilderness in peace.
John Baptist goes and ])reaches the drawing nigh of the kingdom
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of God, but lived only to point out Christ with his finger; cries, " Behold the Lamb of God; I must decrease," — and is cut off. David makes the great preparation for the temple ; but he shall not see so much as the foundation laid. Men must take their appointed lot. God will send l)y the hand of him whom he will send. Daniel must rest until the end be. It is said of some, they began to deliver Israel. The case of Zenibbabel was very rare, who saw the founda- tion and also the top-stone of the temple laid ; and yet the work of Jerusalem was not half finished in his days, as you may see, Zech. i. And this because, —
1. God oftentimes receives secret provocations from the choicest of his servants, which move him to take them short of their deskes. Those of his own whom he employs in great works, have great and close communion with him. God usually exercises their spirits in near acts of fellowship with himself: they receive much from him, and are constrained to unburden 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 souls in an especial manner, and is often- times 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. xx. 7, 8, 11. It will be a hard matter to find out wherein the failing was. He smote the rock with the rod, with some words of impatience, when he should only have spoken to it, — and this with some secret unbelief as to the thing he had in hand. God deals with others visibly, ac- cording to their outward actions ; but in his o^vn he takes notice of all their unbelief, fears, withdraAvings, as proceeding from a frame in no measure answering those gTacious discoveries of himself 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 than the best and utmost of what they can desire or aim 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 gieat, — their end glorious : at the very last step almost of their journey he takes off one and another, — lets them not see the things aimed at. This may be thought hard measure, strict se- verity, exact justice, — yea, as Job complains, " taking advantages against them;" but see Avhat 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, tenderness, and favour in the highest. Whilst you are labouring for a handful of first-fruits, he gives you ihofull
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harvest; whilst you are labouring for the figure here below, he gives you the substance above. Should you see the greatest work wherein any of you were ever engaged brought to perfection, yet all were but a few drops, compared with that fulness which he hath prepared for you. The Lord, then, doth it to witness 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 ; inasmvich as he takes them whom he will honour from the very door 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 kingdom of Christ shall come in most beauty and glory.