Page:God's Promise to His Plantation.pdf/9

 From the appointment of a place for them, which is the first blessing, you may observe this note:

''The placing of a people in this or that Country is from the appointment of the Lord. ''

This is evident in the Text, and the Apostle speakes of it as grounded in nature, Acts 17. 26. ''God hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of our habitation. Deut''. 2 chap. 5. 9. God would not have the Israelites meddle with the Edomites, or the Moabites, because hee had given them their land for a possession. God assigned out such a land for such a posterity, and for such a time.

Wherein doth this worke of God stand in appointing a place for a people?

First, when God espies or discovers a land for a people, as in Ezek. 20. 6. he brought them into a land that he had espied for them: And that is, when either he gives them to discover it themselves, or heare of it discovered by others, and fitting them.

Secondly, after he hath espied it, when he carrieth them along to it, so that they plainly see a providence of God leading them from one Country to another: As in Exod. 19. 4. You have seene how I have borne you as on Eagles wings, and brought you unto my selfe. So that though they met with many difficulties, yet hee carried them high above them all, like an eagle, flying over seas and rockes, and all hinderances.

Thirdly, when he makes roome for a people