2. For the second, or time of this vision, I need say no more, than what before I intimated.
3. The bringer of the message, avrip tiq ^v MokeSwv eotwc, he was a man of Macedonia in a vision : the Lord made au appearance unto him, as of a man of Macedonia, discovering even to his bodily eyes a man, and to his mind, that he was to be conceived as a man of Macedonia. This was, say some,' an angel ; the tutelar angel of the place, say the popish expositors,^ or the genius of the place, according to the phrase of the heathens, of whom they learned their demonology ; perhaps him, or his antagonist, that not long before appeared to Brutus" at Philippi. But these are pleasing dreams : us it may suffice, that it was the appear- ance of a man, the mind of Paul being enlightened to appre- hend him as a man^ of Macedonia ; and that with infallible assurance, such as usually accompanieth divine revelations in them to whom they are made, as Jer. xxiii. 28. for upon it Luke affirmeth, ver. 10. they assuredly concluded, that the Lord called them into Macedonia.
4. The message itself is a discovery of the want of the Macedonians, and the assistance they required, which the Lord was willing should be imparted unto them. Their want is not expressed, but included in the assistance de-
• Mede. Apost. of later times " A Lapide, Sanctius in locum, &c.
" Plutarch, iu vit. Bruti. " Calvin, in locum. Dicebat se discernere, (nescio quo sapore, quern verbis cvplicare non poterat) quid interesset inter Deum revelantem, &c. Aug. confes.
10 A VISION OF
sired, and the person unto whom for it tliey were directed. Had it been to help them in their estates, they should scarcely have been sent to Paul, who, I believe, might for the most part say with Peter, ' Silver and gold have I none.'" Or had it been with a complaint, that they, who from a province of Greece, in a corner of Europe, had on a sudden been exalted into the empire of the eastern world, were now en- slaved to the Roman power and oppression, they might better have gone to the Parthians, then the only state in the world formidable to the Romans. Paul, though a military man, yet fought not with Nero's legions, the then visible devil of the upper world ; but with legions of hell, of whom the earth was now to be cleared.^ It must be a soul-want, if he be intrusted with the supplying of it. And such this was, help from death, hell, Satan, from the jaws of that devour- ing lion. Of this the Lord makes them here to speak, what every one in that condition ought to speak. Help for the Lord's sake; it was a call to preach the gospel.
The words being opened, we must remember what was said before of their connexion with the verses foregoing; wherein the preachers of the gospel are expressly hindered, from above, from going to other places, and called hither. Whereof no reason is assigned, but only the will of him that did employ them ; and that no other can be rendered, I am farther convinced, by considering the empty conjectures of attempters.
God foresaw that they would oppose the gospel, says our Beda. So, say I, might he of all nations in the world, had not he determined to send his effectual grace^ for the removal of that opposition ; besides, he grants the means of grace to despisers, Matt. xi. 21. They were not prepared for the gospel, says Oecumenius. As well, say I, as the Corinthians, whose preparations you may see, 1 Cor. vi. 9 — 11. or any other nation, as we shall afterward declare: yet to this foolish conjecture adhere the Papists and Arminians.^ God
" Acts iii. 6.
V Plutarch de defect, oracu.
Respoiis. ApoU. apud Euseb. Niceph.
2 A nullo dnro corde resistitur, quia cor ipsum emollit. Aug. Ezek. xxxri. 26. Dtui. i\x. 6. * Lapide. Sanctius in loc. Rotn. Script. Sviid. ar. 1.
UXCHAXGEABLE, FREE MERCY. 11
would have those places left tor to be converted by John, says Sedulius ; 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 observations :
I. The rule whereby all things are dispensed here below, especially in the making out of the means of grace, is the determinate will and counsel of God. Stay not in Asia, go not into Bithynia, but come to Macedonia, ' even so, O Father, for so,' &c.
II. The sending of the gospel to any nation, place, or per- sons, 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 gospel. * Come and help us.'