' Calvin, in locum. "Dicebat se discernere (nescio quo sapore, quem verbis ex- plicare non poterat) quid interesset inter Deum revelantem," &c.— Aug. Coiifes. ' Acts iii. 6. * Plutarch de Defect. Oracu.
T(jv Ss o'ofi.oy 'TtfoXiviii kol) oho)i TfiXiv aC^i; iKicr^ai.
Respons. Apoll. apud Euseb. Niceph.
' " A nullo duro corde rebistitur, quia cor ipsum emollit." — Aug., Ezek. xxxvi. 26; Dent. xxx. 6.
J 0 A VISION OF
besides, lie grants the means of grace to despisers, Matt. xi. 21. — They were not prejmred for the gospel, says Oecurnenius. As well, say I, as the Corinthians, whose preparations you may see, 1 Cor. vi. 9-1 1 ; or any other nation, as we shall afterward declare : yet to this foolish conjecture adhere the Papists and Arminians.^ — God would have those places left for to be converted by John, says Sedu- lius; yet the church at Ephesus, the chief city of those parts, was planted by Paul, says Ignatius and Irenaeus.^ — He foresaw a, famine to come upon those places, says Origen, from which he would deliver his own ; and therefore, it seems, left them to the power of the devil. More such fancies^ might we recount, of men unwilling to submit to the will of God ; but upon that, as the sole discriminating cause of these things, we rest, and draw these three obsen^ations : —
I. The ride whereby all things are dispensed here below, — espe- cially in the making out of the means of grace, — is the determinate will and counsel of God. Stay not in Asia, go not into BithjTiia, but come to Macedonia. "Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight."
II. The sending of the gospel to any nation, place, or persons, rather than others, as the means of life and salvation, is of the mere free grace and good pleasure of God. " Stay not in Asia," &c.
III. No men in the world want help, like them, that want the gos- pel. "Come and help us."
I. Begin we with the first of these: The rule whereby, &c. All events and effects, especially concerning the propagation of the gos- pel and the Church of Christ, are, in their greatest variety, regulated by the eternal purpose and counsel of God."*
All things below in their events are but the wax,^ whereon the eternal seal of God's purpose hath left its own impression; and they every way answer unto it. It is not my mind to extend this to the generality of things in the world, nor to show how the creature can by no means deviate from that eternal rule of providence whereby it is jfuided ; — no more than an arrow can avoid the mark, after it hath received the impression of an inieiring hand, — or well-ordered wheels not turn according to the motion given them by the master-spring, — or the wheels in Ezekiel's vision® move irregularly to the spirit of life that was in them. Nor yet, secondly, liow that, on the other
' Lapide. Sanctius in loc. Eom. Script. Svnd. ar. 1.
' 'Tfiiif fitf t>u* iffri roiovroi, vTO Toiuivhi Taihiurut ffroix^iuhvTis, WccvXav Ten XpiffTt-
fiipou. — Iffiiat. li])ist. ad J'^pli.; Iioii., lil>. iii. c:ip. .'$.
' " Qui causani qua^ sit voluntatis divinai, aliquid niajus eo qua^iit." — Au/^. "Voluntas Dei nuUo niodo caiisain liabet." — Aqnin. p. q. 12, a. .').
' ei'ix -ra^Tu* ufxh, Si fis a. Toivrx xa) iffTi, xai liaftivu. — TllfOplirast. apud ricuUl.
de Provid.
* " Providentia est ratio ordiuis rerum ad fincm."— Tli. p. q. 22, a. 1,6. « Ezek. i.
UNCHANGEABLE, FREE MERCY. 11
side, dotli no way prejudice the liberty of second causes/ in their actions, agreeable to the natures they are endued withal. He who made and preserves the fire, and yet hinders not but that it should bum, or act necessarily agreeable to its nature; by his making, pre- serving, and guiding of men, hindereth not, yea, effectually causeth, that they work freely, agreeable to their nature. Nor yet, thirdly, to clear up what a sti'aight line nms through all the darkness, con- fusion, and disorder in the world,^ — how absolutely, in respect of the first fountain and last tendency of things, there is neither deformity, fault, nor deviation, every thing that is amiss consisting in the trans- gression of a moral loile, which is the sin of the creature,^ the first cause being free : — as he that causeth a lame man to go, is the cause of his going, but not of his going lame; — or the sun exhaling a smell from the keimel, is the cause of the smell, but not of its noisomeness; for from a garden his beams raise a sweet savour. Nothing is amiss but what goeth off from its own rule; which he cannot do who will do all his pleasure,* and knows no other rule.
But omitting these things, I shall tie my discourse to that which I chiefly aimed at in my proposition ; viz., to discover how the great variety which we see in the dispensation of the means of grace, pro- ceedeth from, and is regulated by, some eternal purpose of God, un- folded in his Avord. To make out this, we must lay down three things.
1. The wonderful variety in dispensing of the outward means of salvation, in respect of them unto whom they were granted, used by the Lord since the fall ; — I say, since the fall, for the grace of jare- serving from sin, and continuing with God, had been general, univer- sally extended to every creature ; but [as] for the grace of rising from sin, and coming again unto God, that is made exceeding various, by some distinguishing purpose.