In verse 6, the planters of the gospel are " forbidden to preach the word in Asia"^ (that part of it jDeculiarly so called) ; and, verse 7, assaying to go with the same message into Bithynia, they are crossed by the Spirit in their attempts; but in my text are called to a place on which their thoughts were not at all fixed: — which call- ing and which forbidding were both subservient to His free determi- nation " who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will," Eph. i. 11.
And no doubt but, in the dispensation of the gospel throughout the world, unto this day, there is the like conformity to be found to the pattern of God's eternal decrees ; though to the messengers not made known aforehand by revelation, but discovered in the effects, by the mighty working of Providence.
Amongst other nations, this is the day of England's visitation, " the Day-spring from on high" having visited this people, and " the Sun of righteousness" arising upon us " with healing in his wings;"' — a man of England hath prevailed for assistance, and the free grace of God hath wrought us help by the gospel.
Now, in this day three things are to be done, to keep up our spirits unto this duty, of bringing down our souls by humiliation.
First, To take us off the pride of our own perfonnances, endea- vours, or any adherent worth of our own : " Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GoD, be it known unto you : be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel," — O house of Eng- land! Ezck. xxxvi. 82.
Secondly, To root out that atheistical corruption which dej)resses the thoughts of men, not permitting them, in the highest products of Providence, to look above contingencies and secondary causes; — though God "hath wrought all our works for us," Isa. xxvi. 12; and " known unto him are all his works from the beginning of the world," Acts XV. 18.
Thirdly, To show that the bulk of this people are as yet in the
' " F.o ipso t(Mn)ioro, (pioad omnos gontes pi';'c(licatio I'-vangolii mittebatur, qiiic- dam loca apostolis adirt; ]iroliil>('batiir ab eo, qui ' vult oiniies homines salvos fieri.'" — Prosp. Kp. ad JluHii. [cap. xv]. ^lis S' tTiXs/tTD fiovXv. — Horn. i. 5.
» Mai. iv. 2.
UNCHANGEABLE, FREE MERCY. 7
wilderness, far from their resting-place, like slieep upon the moun- tains, as once Israel, Jer. 1. 6, — as yet wanting help by the gospel.
The two first of these will be cleared by discovering how that all revolutions here below — especially every thing that concerns the dis- pensation of the gospel and kingdom of the Lord Jesus — are carried along according to the eternally fixed purpose of God, free in itself, taking neither rise, growth, cause, nor occasion, from any thing amongst the sons of men.
The third, by laying open the helpless condition of gospel -wanting souls, Avith some particular application ; to all which my text directly leads me.
The words in general are the relation of a message from heaven unto Paul, to direct him in the publishing of the gospel, — as to the place and persons wherein and to whom he was to preach. And in them you have these four things : —
1. The manner of it; it was by vision, — "A vision appeared."
2. The time of it, — " In the night."
3. The hringer of it, — " A man of Macedonia."
4. The matter of it, — ^help for the Macedonians, interpreted, verse 18, to be by preaching of the gospel.
A little clearing of the words will make way for observations.
1. For the manner of the delivery of this message, — it was by vision. Of all the ways that God used of old to reveal himself unto any in an extraordinary manner, — which were sundry and various, Heb. i. 1, — there was no one so frequent as this of vision. Wherein this did properly consist, and whereby it was distinguished from other ways of the discovery of the secrets of the Lord, I shall not now dis- cuss. In general, visions are revelations of the mind of the Lord concerning some hidden things, present or future, and not otherwise to be known. And they were of two sorts.
(L) Revelations merely by word^ or some other more internal species,^ without any outward sensible appearance; which, for the most part, was the Lord's way of proceeding with the prophets; — wliich transient light, or discovery of things before unknown, they called a vision.*
(2.) Revelations accompanied with some sensible aj^jxiritions, and that either, —
[1.] Of things; as usually, among the prophets, rods and pots,* wdieels and trees,^ lamps, axes, vessels, rams, goats, and the like, were presented unto them.
[2.] Of persons; and those, according to the variety of them, of three sorts.
' Isa. i. ]. s Amos i. 1. ' Nahtim i. 1; Obad. 1. * Jer. i. 11, 13. » Ezek. i. 5-7; Zech. i. 8, iu\ 9, 10, &c.; Dan. vii. S, 9.
8 A VISIOJS OF
1st, Of the second person of the Trinity; and this either, —
First, In respect of some glorious beams of his Deity; as to Isaiah, chapter vi. 1, with John xii, 41; — to Daniel, chapter x. 5, 6, — as afterward to John, E.ev. i, 13-15; to which you may add the appari- tions of the glory of God not immediately designing the second person, as Ezek. i