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We have already stated in the preceding books that God, desiring not
only that the human race might be able by their similarity of nature to
associate with one another, but also that they might be bound together
in harmony and peace by the ties of relationship, was pleased to derive
all men from one individual, and created man with such a nature that
the members of the race should not have died, had not the two first
(of whom the one was created out of nothing, and the other out of
him) merited this by their disobedience; for by them so great a sin
was committed, that by it the human nature was altered for the worse,
and was transmitted also to their posterity, liable to sin and subject
to death. And the kingdom of death so reigned over men, that the
deserved penalty of sin would have hurled all headlong even into the
second death, of which there is no end, had not the undeserved grace
of God saved some therefrom. And thus it has come to pass, that
though there are very many and great nations all over the earth, whose
rites and customs, speech, arms, and dress, are distinguished by
marked differences, yet there are no more than two kinds of human
society, which we may justly call two cities, according to the
language of our Scriptures. The one consists of those who wish to
live after the flesh, the other of those who wish to live after the
spirit; and when they severally achieve what they wish, they live in
peace, each after their kind.
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