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For, as an ancient tradition tells us, these same lands of the
Canaanites into which the children of Israel were brought, had been
formerly allotted to the children of Shem at the division of the world, and
afterward the descendants of Ham wickedly invading them with force and
violence took possession of them. And in this the righteous judgment of God
is shown, as He expelled from the land of others these who had wrongfully
taken possession of them, and restored to those others the ancient property
of their fathers which had been assigned to their ancestors at the division
of the world. And we can perfectly well see that this figure holds good in
our own case. For by nature God's will assigned the possession of our heart
not to vices but to virtues, which, after the fall of Adam were driven out
from their own country by the sins which grew up, i.e., by the Canaanites;
and so when by God's grace they are by our efforts and labour restored
again to it, we may hold that they have not occupied the territory of
another, but rather have recovered their own country.
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