7. After they were come to Mysia--where, as being part of Roman Asia, they were forbidden to labor (Ac 16:8).
      they assayed--or attempted
      to go into--or, towards.
      Bithynia--to the northeast.
      but the Spirit--speaking as before.
      suffered them not--probably because, (1) Europe was ripe for the labors of this missionary party; and (2) other instruments were to be honored to establish the Gospel in the eastern regions of Asia Minor, especially the apostlePeter (see 1Pe 1:1). By the end of the first century, as testified by PLINY the governor, Bithynia was filled with Christians. "This is the first time that the Holy Ghost is expressly spoken of as determining the course they were to follow in their efforts to evangelize the nations, and it was evidently designed to show that whereas hitherto the diffusion of the Gospel had been carried on in unbroken course, connected by natural points of junction, it was now to take a leap to which it could not be impelled but by an immediate and independent operation of the Spirit; and though primarily, this intimation of the Spirit was only negative, and referred but to the immediate neighborhood, we may certainly conclude that Paul took it for a sign that a new epoch was now to commence in his apostolic labors" [BAUMGARTEN].

JFB.