n
to another, because of the unrighteous dealing and wickedness committed
therein.(3)

We discover this important truth in going back to the most remote
antiquity, and the origin of profane history; I mean, to the dispersion of
the posterity of Noah into the several countries of the earth where they
settled. Liberty, chance, views of interest, a love for certain countries,
and similar motives, were, in outward appearance, the only causes of the
different choice which men made in these various migrations. But the
Scriptures inform us, that amidst the trouble and confusion that followed
the sudden change in the language of Noah's descendants, God presided
invisibly over all their counsels and deliberations; that nothing was
transacted but by the Almighty's appointment; and that he alone guided(4)
and settled all mankind, agreeably to the dictates of his mercy and
justice: "The Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of the
earth."(5)

It is true indeed that God, even in those early ages, had a peculiar
regard for that people, whom he was one day to consider as his own. He
pointed out the country which he designed for them; he caused it to be
possessed by another laborious nation, who applied themselves to cultivate
and adorn it; and to improve the future inheritance of the Israelites. He
then fixed, in that country, the like number of families, as were to be
settled in it, when the sons of Israel should, at the appointed time, take
possession of it; and did not suffer any of the nations, which were not
subject to the curse pronounced by Noah against Canaan, to enter upon an
inheritance that was to be given up entirely to the Israelites. _Quando
dividebat Altissimus gentes, quando separabat filios Adam, constituit
terminos populorum juxta numerum filiorum Israel._(6) But this peculiar
regard of God to his future people, does not interfere with that which he
had for the rest of the nations of the earth, as is evident from the many
passages of Scripture, which teach us, that the entire succession of ages
is present to him; that nothing is transacted in the whole universe, but
by his appointment; and that he directs the several events of it from age
to age. _Tu es Deus conspector seculorum. A seculo usque in seculum
respicis._(7)

We must therefore consider, as an indisputable principle, and as the basis
and foundation of the study of profane history, that the providence of the
Almighty has, from all eternity,