God Ruling the Nations for the Most Glorious End

A true Copy of Record, Examined, by

GEORGE WYLLYS, Sec'ry.

DEUTERONOMY, xxxii. 8.

When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

JUST thoughts of Deity are sublime and exalted thoughts; such are the sentiments of the great legislator and judge of Israel, in my text, while he has in full view the attributes and character of that being who is over all.

Moses had seen much of the glory of his Maker in Egypt, at the red sea, in the Arabian deserts, especially on Mount Sinai, where his infinite majesty, his awful and endearing glories, beamed forth conspicuous in giving the law. More was then seen of God than ever had been seen before.

This great man having sustained the toils and burdens of an eminent public station forty years; and having conducted the chosen tribes to the borders of the promised land; the divine poem out of which my text is taken, was put into his mouth, and designed for the benefit of the people of God, in every age of the world.

p. 6The burden of the song is the infinite rectitude, greatness and glory of God; the exceeding depravity and perverseness of sinful man, the wisdom and blessedness of obedience, and the folly and misery of rebellion against heaven.

In the fourth verse the prophet speaks of the eternal Being in most becoming language. "He is a rock, his work is perfect, all his ways are judgment, a God of truth, without iniquity, just and right is he."

And in my text three points of doctrine meet our view, and demand our serious attention.

p. 6I. All nations of the earth are at the absolute disposal of the Most High, to be divided and separated at his pleasure.

II. His express will that mankind should live on equal terms, as brethren.

III. That all the nations of the earth shall be subservient to his own peculiar nation and kingdom.

These thoughts, with their application, may improve the present hour.

I. All nations of the earth are at the absolute disposal of the Most High.

"When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance." Here God appears inhabiting eternity, and having in his own infinite mind a most glorious and perfect plan, relating to all the future inhabitants of the world; the situation, numbers, p. 7rise and fall, of the various states and empires that were to overspread the earth.

God determined all these things, in his boundless wisdom and goodness, before he began to operate in his providence; that point in the vast round of eternity cannot be conceived of, when he had not so decreed.

He saw all his works, and all the works and ways of men, the whole business and result of the world, as clearly before he began to create, as he will at the consummation of all things.

What God has determined shall be done, is often in sacred scripture, spoken of in a past tense, as already done; instances in the prophets are many; and the manner of expression is designed to impress our minds with a sense of the divine immutability.—"My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure." "He ruleth in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the world, and none can stay his hand."

What is past we all know to be certain, and what God has determined and foreknown is equally certain. So when future scenes of glory and blessedness to mankind, were opened to saint John, scenes that require many ages for their accomplishment, he that sat on the throne said, "It is done: I am alpha and omega, the begining and the end." [Rev. 21.]

If any stumble at this part of the divine character, let them remember God is incomprehensible: if any would thence infer that there is no freedom of will, or moral agency in men; no desert of praise or blame; p. 8let them look into their own bosoms, and consult the certain feelings of their own hearts.

p. 8The divine decrees and certain foreknowledge, are necessary to the perfection of Deity, and perfectly consistent with the entire freedom and moral agency of intelligent creatures; and if men or angels cannot explain all that is connected with these doctrines, it only verifies that we cannot "by searching find out God, or the Almighty unto perfection." We know not what it is to be God, to think as God thinks and decree as he decrees.

The divine Being in his wise fixed purpose, "divided to the nations their inheritance, and separated the sons of Adam," long "before he had formed the earth or the sea or the highest part of the dust of the world."

But before the days of Moses he had in part unfolded his infinitely wise and good purposes, in the movements of his Providence. The world was created and the human kind to replenish it: The garden of Eden was given to them as their inheritance in the days of innocence but for rebellion against heaven they were soon turned out of it.

Nothing but sacred history looks back to this early period, there we find mankind multiplied and spread abroad on the earth, in how many tribes or nations we are not informed; but may argue from the long period of time before the flood, about seventeen hundred years: And the longevity of the people, that a great part of the world might be inhabited.

p. 9No doubt the numerous children of Adam were before the flood separated in many divisions and dilated far and wide on the face of the earth.

After the deluge we find the small remains of mankind on the mountains of Ararat, which divide the present empire of Persia from Circassian Tartary, on the north: whence they first moved south-east and lived together in one growing family or tribe about an hundred years.—From whence they journeyed westward as far as the river Euphrates; near the place where the garden of Eden was situate, in quest, it is supposed, of the ancient paradise, but found it was wholly demolished by the flood. Yet vainly fond to build something in imitation of it. They had also the same disposition natural to the nations ever since, viz. to hold together as long as possible and extend one general empire: But he who saw fit to separate the sons of Adam, laid the grand foundation of it, in his Providence, at this time.