ing to their Maturity. Whereas in Proportion as People were more removed, the greater was the Forgetfulness or Neglect of them: So that when they were to be reviv'd, Men were oblig'd to go back to the Source from which they originally flow'd. Volumes thod of study. 4. and tion which Propbane I ONLY touch flightly upon thefe Objects, 3d and 4th great as they are, because I have in another of the MePlace treated of them more at large. BUT another Object infinitely more concerning ought to draw our Attention. For principally though prophane Hiftory exhibits to us only the Connec a People abandon'd to all the Follies of a fuperftitious Worship, and deliver'd up to all History has the Extravagances incident to human Nature, fince the Fall of the first Man: It displays negion. vertheless copiously the Grandeur of God, his Power, his Juftice, and above all, that admiTable Wisdom with which his Providence conducts the Universe. a IF the full Conviction of this laft Truth, according to Cicero's Remark, rais'd the Roman People above all other Nations of the Earth: One may in like manner affirm, that nothing more raises the Value of Hiftory above all other Knowledge, than that in it are found imprefs'd, in almoft every Page, the precious Traces, and fhining Difplays of this great Truth, that God difposes all Things like a fovereign Mafter; determines the Fate of Prin Pietate ac Religione, atque hac una Sapientia quod Deorum immortalium Numine omnia regi gubernarique per fpeximus, omnes gentes natio- a 2 ces God bas fbewn a ces and the Continuance of Empires; and b for the Injustice and Crimes of a finful Na tion, transfers the Government to a foreign People. Ir must be own'd that in comparing the careful, the beneficent, the fenfible Manner more par- in which God once govern'd his peculiar PeoConcern for ple, and that with which he conducted the ticular bis own People. But not to reft of the Nations, one might have, almoft allowably, faid that these were ftrange and indifferent to him. He regarded the holy Nation of the Jews as his proper Domain and Heritage. He there refided as a Master in his House, or a Father in his Family. Ifrael was his Son, his Firft-born. He was delighted to form this Son from his moft tender Infancy, and to make his Inftruction his own peculiar Care. He disclos'd himself to him by his Oracles Govern'd him by Men miraculously rais'd for that Purpose: And protected him by a Display of the most aftonishing Wonders. On Sight of so many glorious Privileges who wou'd not cry out with the Prophet, "Judah "is his Sanctuary, and Ifrael his Dominion. NEVERTHELESS this fame God, tho' forgot the Negleft by the Nations, and appearing as if he had forNations, got them, exercised always a fovereign Domi of other nion over them, which, tho' it lay hid behind the Vail of ordinary Events, and a Management purely human, was not either less real or lefs divine. The Earth is the Lords and the Fulness thereof, fays the Prophet, the b Regnum a Gente in Gentem transfertur propter Injuftitias, & Injurias, & Contumeli as, & diverfos Dolos. Ecclus, 10, World World and they that dwell therein. This whole World he no more neglected than he did the Jews, though it was govern❜d by him in a less obvious Manner. And it would be injurious to his Holiness to think of him as only the Master of one Family, and not of all Nations. at the Dif THIS important Truth is discover'd by go- He prefided ing backwards to the most distant Antiquity, perfion of and the Origin of prophane Hiftory, I mean men after to the Dispersion of the Defcendents of Noah the Deluge. into the different Countries of the Earth in which they establish'd themselves. Liberty, Chance, the Views of Intereft, a Tafte for one Country above another, and the like Motives were, to outward Appearance, the fole Caufes of the different Choices which Men made in thefe Removes. But Scripture acquaints us, that amidst all the Confufion and Disorder which follow'd upon the fudden Change of the Language of the Defcendents of Noah, God prefided invifibly in their Counfels and Deliberations; that nothing was done there but by his Order; that it was he who conducted and placed all Men in the different Regions of the Earth according to the Rules of his Mercy and Justice. The Lord fcatter'd them abroad from thence upon the Face of the Earth. Ir is true that God had then his particular Regards for a People whom he was one Day to Joyn in fo ftrict an Alliance with himself. The Ancients themselves by the Teftimony of Pindar (Olymp. 1) bad retain'd fome Idea that the Difperfion of Men was by Od. no means the Effect of Chance, but He mark'd out the Place deftin'd for their Habitation, and deliver'd it into the Hands of a laborious People, who, by Cultivation and all manner of Embellishments, were to improve the future Inheritance of Ifrael. He committed it then to a like Number of Families, with that of thofe to which it was to be transferr'd in the Fulness of Time; and he permitted not one Nation, that was not under the Curfe pronounced by Noah against Charaan, to enter into a Heritage which was referv'd intire for the Ifraelites. Quando divi. debat Altiffimus Gentes, quando feparabat filios Adam, conftituit Terminos populorum juxta numerum filiorum Ifrael. But this particular Regard of God for his future People, is by no means contrary to that which he had for all other People, attefted clearly from the Paffages of Scripture just now quoted, which inftruct us that the whole Succeffion of Ages is present to him, that every Thing falls out by his Order, and that from Age to Age all Events are only the Results of his Wifdom and CounEccli. 39 fel. Ex quo feculum eft, in feculum infpicit. IT is therefore to be confidered as an inconbas fix'd teftable Principle, and as the Base and Founthe Fate of dation to the Study of prophane History, that pires, whe-the Establishment, the Continuance, and Dether with ftruction of Kingdoms and Empires, whether regard to in the general Plan of the Universe known laid for the only to God (who carries on with wonder 24. God alone all Em bis Plan Govern ment of the Uni d When the moft High divided the Nations, and feparaverfe, or of red the Sons of Adam, he afbis own figned the Bounds of the Peo ple according to the Number of the Children of Ifrael, [which he had in his View.] The Senfe given by fome to this Paffage. ful of more particularly the with re ful Order and Harmony all its Parts;) or in People, the particular one, regarding the People Ifrael, and ftill more the Meffiah and Establishment of the Church (his great, his gard to the governing, and ever-prefent Defign) were bis Son and from all Eternity conducted, and predeter-the Eftamined by divine Providence. Notum eft a fe-bliment. culo domino opus fuum. GOD has vouchfafed in his Scriptures to exhibit to us one Part of the Tranfactions of fo many Nations of the Earth with his own People; and this Little which he has given us of them, diffuses a Light over the History of thofe Nations of which only the Surface and the Shell are known to us, without the Dif coveries and Affiftance which are to be had from Revelation. It is Revelation which brings to Light the fecret Thoughts of Princes, their fenfelefs Projects, their foolish Pride, their impious and cruel Ambition; which opens to us the true Caufes and the hidden Springs of Victories and Defeats, of the Growth and Decay of Nations, of the Elevation and Ruin of States; and, which is the principal Fruit of Hiftory, it is from Revelation that we learn the Opinion which God had of Princes and Empires, and confequently the Ideas which we ought to form of them. Reign of of the Church. rais'd up To pass over in filence the Kingdom of Powerful Egypt which at firft ferv'd as it were for a Kings Cradle to the holy Nation; which afterwards to punifo became a cruel Prison, a burning Furnace to protect Is the fame Nation, and next the Scene of the rael. moft aftonishing Miracles that had been wrought by God in Favour of Ifrael: To a 4 speak |
