John Owen · 5 of 157
Sermon I. Acts xvi. 9. · Part 1
Sermon I. A vision of unchangeable, free mercy, in sending the to undeserving sinners.
“And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.” — Acts xvi. 9.
The kingdom of Jesus Christ is frequently in the Scripture compared to growing things, — small in the beginning and first appearance, but increasing by degrees unto glory and perfection. The shapeless stone cut out without hands, having neither form nor desirable beauty given unto it, becomes a great mountain, filling the whole earth, Dan. ii. 35. The small vine brought out of Egypt quickly covers the hills with her shadow, — her boughs reach unto the sea, and her branches unto the river, Ps. lxxx. 8. The tender plant becomes as the cedars of God; and the grain of mustard-seed to be a tree for the fowls of the air to make their nests in the branches thereof. Mountains are made plains before it, every valley is filled, and the crooked paths made straight, that it may have a passage to its appointed period; — and all this, not only not supported by outward advantages, but in direct opposition to the combined power of this whole creation, as fallen and in subjection to the “god of this world,” the head thereof. As Christ was “a tender plant,” seemingly easy to be broken; and “a root out of a dry ground,” not easily flourishing, yet liveth for ever; so his people and kingdom, — though as a “lily among thorns,” as “sheep among wolves,” as a “turtledove” among a multitude of devourers, — yet stands unshaken, at least unshivered.
The main ground and foundation of all this is laid out, verses 6–9 of this chapter, — containing a rich discovery how all things here below, especially such as concern the gospel and Church of Christ, are carried along through innumerable varieties and a world of contingencies, according to the regular motions and goings forth of a free, eternal, unchangeable decree: as all inferior orbs, notwithstanding the eccentrics and irregularities of their own inhabitants, are orderly carried about by the first Mover.
In verse 6, the planters of the gospel are “forbidden to preach the word in Asia” (that part of it peculiarly 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 calling and which forbidding were both subservient to His free determination “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 .
Amongst other nations, this is the day of England’s visitation, “the Dayspring from on high” having visited this people, and “the Sun of ” arising upon us “with healing in his wings;” — a man of England hath prevailed for assistance, and the free 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 brining down our souls by humiliation.
First, To take us off the pride of our own performances, endeavours, 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 England! Ezek. xxxvi. 32.
Secondly, To root out that atheistical corruption which depresses 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 wilderness, far from their resting-place, like sheep upon the mountains, as once Israel, Jer. l. 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 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, 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 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 bringer 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 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 apparitions, and that either, —
[1.] Of things; as usually, among the prophets, rods and pots, 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 ; and this either, —
First, In respect of some glorious beams of his Deity; as to Isa. vi. 1, with John xii. 41; — to Dan. x. 5, 6, — as afterward to John, Rev. i. 13–15; to which you may add the apparitions of the glory of God not immediately designing the second person, as Ezek. i. 1.
Secondly, With reference to his humanity to be assumed; as to Abraham, Gen. xviii. 1, 2; — to Josh. v. 13–15, etc.
2dly, Of angels; as unto Peter, Acts xii. 7; — to the women, Matt. xxviii. 5; — to John, Rev. xxii. 8, etc.
3dly, Of men; as in my text.
Now, the several advancements of all these ways in dignity and pre-eminence, according as they clearly make out intellectual verity, or according to the honour and exaltation of that whereof apparition is made, are too fruitless a speculation for this day’s exercise.
Our vision is of the latter sort, accompanied with a sensible appearance, and is called ὅραμα. There be two words in the New Testament signifying vision, ὅραμα and ὀπτασία, coming from different verbs, but both signifying to see. Some distinguish them, and say that ὀπτασία is a vision, — καθ’ ὕπαρ, an appearance to a man awake; ὅραμα, — καθ’ ὄναρ, an appearance 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, ὅραμα, Matt. xvii. 9. So that I conceive Paul had his vision waking; — and the night is specified 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 , from Exod. xii. 11, against the factors for that monstrous figment of transubstantiation.
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, — ἀνήρ τις ἦν Μακεδὼν ἑστὼς, he was a man of Macedonia in a vision. The Lord made an 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 appearance of a man, the mind of Paul being enlightened to apprehend him as a man of Macedonia; and that with infallible , such as usually accompanieth divine revelations in them to whom they are made, as Jer. xxiii. 28, — for upon it Luke affirmeth, verse 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 desired, and the person unto whom for it they 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 enslaved 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 entrusted with the supplying of it. And such this was, — help from death, hell, Satan, from the jaws of that devouring 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 connection 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 Œcumenius. 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 — God would have those places left for to be by John, says Sedulius; yet the church at Ephesus, the chief city of those parts, was planted by Paul, says Ignatius and Irenæus. — 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, 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;” etc.
III. No men in the world want help, like them that want the gospel. “Come and help us.”
I. Begin we with the first of these: The rule whereby, etc. All events and effects, especially concerning the propagation of the gospel 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 guided; — no more than an arrow can avoid the mark, after it hath received the impression of an unerring 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, how that, on the other side, doth 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 burn, or act necessarily agreeable to its nature; by his making, preserving, 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 straight line runs through all the darkness, confusion, 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 of a moral rule, 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 kennel, 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, proceedeth from, and is regulated by, some eternal purpose of God, unfolded in his word. 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 preserving from sin, and continuing with God, had been general, universally 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.
2. That this outward dispensation being presupposed, yet in effectual working upon, particular persons, there is no less variety; for “he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy.”
3. Discover the rules of this whole administration.
1. For the first, The promise was at first made unto Adam, and by him doubtless conveyed to his issue, and preached to the several generations which his eyes beheld proceeding from his own loins; but yet by the wickedness of the old world, all flesh corrupting their ways, we may easily collect that the knowledge of it quickly departed from the most; — sin banishing the love of God from their hearts, hindered the knowledge of God from continuing in their minds. After many revivings, by visions, revelations, and , it was at length called in from the wide world, and wholly restrained to the house, family, and seed of Abraham, with whom alone all the means of grace continued for thrice fourteen generations. They alone were in Goshen, and all the world besides in thick darkness; — the dew of heaven was on them as the fleece, when else all the earth was dry. God “showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation,” Ps. cxlvii. 19, 20. The prerogative of the Jews was chiefly in this, that to them were committed the oracles of God, Rom. iii. 1. To them pertained “the , and the glory, the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises,” Rom. ix. 4. But when the fulness of time came, the Son of God being sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, drew all men unto him; and God, who had before winked at the time of their ignorance, then called them every where to , commanding the gospel to be preached to the universality of reasonable creatures, and the way of salvation to be proclaimed unto all; — upon which, in few years, the sound of the gospel went out into all nations, and the Sun of righteousness displayed his beams upon the habitable parts of the earth. But yet once more this light, by Satan and his agents, persecutors and seducers, is almost extinguished, as was foretold, 2 Thess. ii., — remaining but in few places, and burning dim where it was, — the kingdom of the beast being full of darkness, Rev. xvi. 10. Yet God again raiseth up reformers, and by them kindles a light, we hope, never to be put out. But, alas! what a spot of ground doth this shine on, in comparison of the former vast extents and bounds of the Christian world! Now, is all this variety, think you, to be ascribed unto chance, as the philosopher thought the world was made by a casual concurrence of atoms? or hath the idol free-will, with the new goddess contingency, ruled in these dispensations? Truly neither the one nor the other, no more than the fly raised the dust by sitting on the chariot wheel; — but all these things have come to pass according to a certain unerring rule, given them by God’s determinate purpose and counsel.
2. Presupposing this variety in the outward means, how is it that thereupon one is taken, another left? The promise is made known to Cain and Abel; — one the first murderer, the other the first martyr. Jacob and Esau had the same outward advantages; but the one becomes Israel, the other Edom, — the one inherits the promises, the other sells his right for a mess of pottage. At the preaching of our Saviour, some believed, some blasphemed; — some said he was a good man; others said, nay, but he deceived the people. Have we not the word in its power this day, and do we not see the like various effects, — some continuing in impenitency, others in sincerity closing with Jesus Christ? Now, what shall we say to these things? What guides these wheels? who thus steers his word for the good of souls? Why, this also, as I said before, is from some peculiarly distinguishing purpose of the will of God.
3. To open the third thing proposed, I shall show, — (1.) That all this variety is according to God’s determinate purpose, and answereth thereunto; (2.) The particular purposes from this variety proceedeth.
(1.) Eph. i. 11, “He worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will.” As a man may be said to erect a fabric according to the counsel of his will, when he frameth it before in his mind, and maketh all things in event answer his preconceived platform, — all things (especially τὰ πάντα, all those things of which the apostle there treateth, gospel things) have their futurition and manner of being from his eternal purpose: — whence also is the idea in the mind of God of all things, with their circumstances, that shall be; that is, the first mover, continuing itself immovable, giving to every thing a regular motion, according to the impression which from that it doth receive: “For known unto him are all his works from the beginning of the world,” Acts xv. 18.
If any attendants of actions might free and exempt them from the regular dependence we insist upon, they must be either contingency or sin; but yet for both these we have, besides general rules, clear, particular instances. What seems more contingent and casual than the unadvised slaying of a man with the fall of the head of an axe from the helve, as a man was cutting wood by the way side? Deut. xix. 5; yet God assumes this as his own work, Exod. xxi. 13. The same may be said of free agents and their actions. And for the other, see Acts iv. 27, 28, — in the crucifying of the Son of God’s love, — all things came to pass according as his counsel had before deter — mined that it should be done. Now, how in the one of these liberty is not abridged, the nature of things not changed in the other, sin is not countenanced, belongs not to this discourse. “The counsel of the Lord,” then, “standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart unto all generations,” Ps. xxxiii. 11. “His counsel standeth, and he will do all his pleasure,” Isa. xlvi. 10. For he is the Lord, and he changeth not, Mal. iii. 6. With him is neither variableness nor shadow of turning, James i. 17. All things that are, come to pass in that unchangeable method in which he hath laid them down from all eternity.
(2.) Let us look peculiarly upon the purposes according to which the dispensations of the gospel, both in sending and withholding it, do proceed.
[1.] For the not sending of the means of grace unto any people, whereby they hear not the joyful sound of the gospel, but have in all ages followed dumb idols, as many do unto this day. In this chapter of which we treat, the gospel is forbidden to be preached in Asia and Bithynia; — which restraint, the Lord by his providence as yet continues to many parts of the world. Now, the purpose from whence this proceedeth, and whereby it is regulated, you have, Rom. ix. 22, “What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?” compared with Matt. xi. 25, 26, “Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent. Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight;” and with Acts xiv. 16, — he “suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.” Now, God’s not sending the truth, hath the same design and aim with his sending the efficacy of error; viz., “that they all may be damned” who have it not; “there being no other name under heaven, whereby they may be saved,” but only that which is not revealed unto them; — God, in the meantime, being no more the cause of their sins, for which they incur damnation, than the sun is the cause of cold and darkness, which follow the absence thereof: or he is the cause of a man’s imprisonment for debt, who will not pay his debt for him, though he be no way obliged so to do. So, then, the not sending of the gospel to any people, is an act regulated by that eternal purpose of God whereby he determineth to advance the glory of his justice, by permitting some men to sin, to continue in their sin, and for sin to send them to their own place; — as a king’s not sending a pardon to condemned malefactors is an issue of his purpose that they shall die for their faults. When you see the gospel strangely, and through wonderful varieties and unexpected providences, carried away from a people, know that the spirit which moves in those wheels is that purpose of God which we have recounted.
[2.] To some people, to some nations, the gospel is sent. God calls them to repentance and acknowledgment of the truth, — as in my text, Macedonia: and England, the day wherein we breathe. Now, there is in this a twofold aim. 1. Peculiar, towards some in their conversion. 2. General, towards all, for . And therefore it is acted according to a twofold purpose, which carries it along, and is fulfilled thereby.
First, His purpose of saving some in and by Jesus Christ, effectually to bring them unto himself, for the praise of his glorious grace. Upon whomsoever the seal of the Lord is stamped, that God knows them, and owns them as his, to them he will cause his gospel to be revealed. Acts xviii. 10, Paul is commanded to at Corinth, and to preach there, because God had much people in that city. Though the devil had them in present possession, yet they were God’s in his eternal counsel. And such as these they were for whose sake the man of Macedonia is sent on his message. Have you never seen the gospel hover about a nation, now and then about to settle, and scared and upon wing again; yet working through difficulties, making plains of mountains and filling valleys, overthrowing armies, putting aliens to flight, and at length taking firm root like the cedars of God? Truly if you have not, you are strangers to the place wherein you live. Now, what is all this but the working of the purpose of God to attain its proposed end, of gathering his to himself? In the effectual working of grace also for conversion and salvation, whence do you think it takes its rule and determination, in respect of particular objects, that it should be directed to John, not Judas, — Simon Peter, not Simon Magus? Why, only from this discriminating counsel of God from eternity, to bring the one and not the other to himself by Christ. “The Lord added to the church such as should be saved,” Acts ii. 47. The purpose of saving is the rule of adding to the church of believers. And Acts xiii. 48, “As many believed as were ordained to eternal life.” Their fore-ordaining to life eternal gives them right to faith and belief. The purpose of God’s is the rule of dispensing saving grace.
Secondly, His purpose of leaving some inexcusable in their sins, for the farther manifestation of his glorious justice, is the rule of dispensing the word unto them. Did you never see the gospel sent or continued to an unthankful people, bringing forth no fruits meet for it? it is so sent, see Isa. vi. 9, 10; — which prophecy you have fulfilled, John xii. 37–41; in men described, Jude 4, and 1 Pet. ii. 8. But here we must strike sail, the waves swell, and it is no easy task to sail in this gulf. The righteousness of God is a great mountain, easy to be seen; but his judgments are like the great deep: who can search into the bottom thereof? Ps. xxxvi. 6. And so I have, I hope, discovered how all things here below, concerning the promulgation of the gospel, are, in their greatest variety, straightly regulated by the eternal purposes and counsel of God.
The uses of it follow.
Use 1. To discover whence it is that the work of reforming the worship of God, and settling the almost departing gospel, hath so powerfully been carried along in this nation; — that a beautiful fabric is seen to arise in the midst of all oppositions, with the confusion of axes and hammers sounding about it, though the builders have been forced oftentimes, not only with one hand, but with both, to hold the weapons of war; — that although the wheels of our chariots have been knocked off, and they driven heavily, yet the regular motions of the superior wheels of providence have carried on the design towards the resting-place aimed at; — that the ship hath been directed to the port, though the storm had quite puzzled the pilots and mariners:— even from hence, that all this great variety was but to work out one Certain fore-appointed end, proceeding in the tracts and paths which were traced out for it from eternity; which, though they have seemed to us a maze or labyrinth, such a world of contingencies and various chances hath the work passed through, yet, indeed, all the passages thereof have been regular and straight, answering the platform laid down for the whole in the counsel of God. Dan. ix. 1, makes his for the restoration of Jerusalem; verse 23, an angel is sent to tell him, that “at the beginning of his supplication the commandment came forth,” — viz., that it should be accomplished. It was before determined, and is now set on work; but yet what mountains of opposition, what hinderances lay in the way! Cyrus must come to the crown by the death or slaughter of Darius, — his heart be moved to send some to the work: in a short time Cyrus is cut off. Now, difficulties arise from the following kings:— what their flattering counsellors, what the malignant nations about them conspired, the books of Nehemiah and Ezra sufficiently declare. Whence, verse 25, the angel tells Daniel, that from “the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, in troublesome times;” that is, it shall be seven weeks to the finishing of Jerusalem, and to Messiah the Prince sixty-two weeks; — seven weeks, that is, forty-nine years; for so much it was from the decree of Cyrus to the finishing of the wall by Nehemiah: of which time the temple, as the Jews affirmed, was all but three years in building, John ii. 20. During which space, how often did the hearts of the people of God faint in their troubles, as though they should never have seen an end! And therefore, ever and anon they were ready to give over, as Hag. i. 2. But yet we see the decree was fixed, and all those varieties did but orderly work in an exact method for the glorious accomplishment of it.
