Secondly, To root out that atheistical corruption, which depresses the thoughts of men, not permitting thera in the highest products of Providence, to look above contingen- cies, 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 shew that the bulk of this people are as yet in the wilderness, far from their resting place, like sheep upon the mountains, 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 dispensation of the gospel and kingdom of the Lord Jesus, are carried along, according to the eter- nally 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 gos- pel-wanting souls, with 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 thera 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 bringer of it. * A man of Macedonia.'
4. The matter of it. Help for the Macedonians, inter- preted, ver. 10. to be by preaching of the gospel.
A little clearing of the words will make way for observa- tions.
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 properlv consist, and
8 A VISION OF
whereby it was distinguished from other ways of the dis- covery of the secrets of the Lord, I shall not now discuss. 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:
(1.) 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; which transient light, or discovery of things before unknown, they called a vision."
(2.) Revelations accompanied with some sensible appa- ritions, and that either,
[1.] Of things, as usually among the prophets, rods and pots,P wheels 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.
1st. Of the second person of the Trinity : and this either,
(1st.) In respect of some glorious beams of his Deity, as to Isaiah, chap. vi. 1. with John xii. 41. ; to Daniel, chap. x. ver. 5, 6. as afterward to John, Rev. i. 13 — 15. to which you may add the apparitions of the glory of God, not imme- diately designing the second person, as Ezek. i.
(2dly.) With reference to his humanity to be assumed, as to Abraham, Gen.xviii. 1, 2. to Joshua, chap. v. 13 — 15, &c.
2dly. Of angels, as unto Peter, Acts xii. 7. to the woman, Matt, xxviii. 2. to John, Rev. xxii. 8, 8cc.
3dly. Of men,"" as in my text.
Now the several advancements of all these ways in dig- nity and pre-eminence, according as they clearly make out intellectual verity, or according to the honour and exaltation of that whereof apparition is made, is too fruitless a specu- lation' for this day's exercise.
Our vision is of the latter sort, accompanied with a sen- sible appearance, and is called opojua. There be two words in the New Testament signifying vision, opojua, and oirraaia, coming from different verbs, but both signifying to see. Some distinguish them, and say that oTrraaia is a vision, koO
"> Tsa. i. 1. " Amos i. 1. ° Nahuni i. 1. Obrid. i.
P Jer. i. 11. 13. 1 Ezck. i. 5— 7. Zech. i. 8. iii. 9, 10, &c.
Dan. vii. 8, 9. "■ Zecli. ii. 1.
• Vi(i. Aqiiin. 2. 9. (]. 174. nrt. 3, 4. Scot, in dist. tort.
UNCIIAXGEABLE, FREE MERCY. 9
vtrap, an appearance to a man awake ; opafia kuO' ovap, an ap- pearance to a man asleep, called sometimes a dream, Job xxxiii. 15. like that which was made to Joseph, Matt. ii. 19. But this distinction will not hold, our Saviour calling that vision, which his disciples had at his transfiguration, when doubtless they were waking, opafxa, Matt. xvii. 9. So that I conceive Paul had his vision waking ; and the night is spe- cified as the time thereof, not to intimate his being asleep, but rather his watchfulness, seeking counsel of God in the night, which way he should apply himself in the preaching of the gospel. And such I suppose was that of latter days, whereby God revealed to Zuinglius a strong confirmation of the doctrine of the Lord's supper, from Exod. xii. 11. against the factors for that monstrous figment of transubstantiation.