As to prior occupation, Michaelis says the original home of the Canaanites was Arabia; that Herodotus testifies that at first they dwelt near the Red Sea; Justin, that they had another country before they came to Palestine; and Abulfeda that they dwelt in Arabia. But in proof that they were in Palestine before Abraham was, Moses affirms (Gen. 12: 6) that when Abram first passed through, “the Canaanite was then in the land;” also that when Abram and Lot, being rich in cattle and “the land unable to bear them,” “the Canaanite and the Perizzite were then in the land” (Gen. 13: 7); and further still in his earliest account of the location of primitive families after the flood, he says――“The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon as thou comest to Gerar unto Gaza as thou goest to Sodom and Gomorrah,” etc. (Gen. 10: 19). This is the oldest known historic testimony, and unquestionably locates the Canaanites in the original land of Canaan.――――Moreover, it is said that Abraham went with his flocks and herds wherever he would as if lord of the country. It may be replied――So apparently did the Canaanites also. If Abraham dug wells, so did they; if he buried his dead there, so did they――with this incidental fact in their favor; viz. that Abraham bought ground of them and paid money for his cemetery at Macpelah. This special argument from prior possession can scarcely be sustained. But it may be maintained that Abram was there _very early_; and what is more, God’s first call to him to leave his native country named Canaan as his promised land; and every successive promise reaffirmed this gift. Abraham’s title to Canaan therefore rests on God’s right to give a perfect title. If the Lord of heaven and earth, the Great Creator of all lands in all the ends of the earth had not a right to give Canaan to Abraham and his posterity, then _he is not God_. Unquestionably he assumed this right and in the exercise of it pledged Canaan to the posterity of Abraham with perpetual reiteration and most solemn covenant. This fact is the more significant because it is the first step in a series of acts all of which aimed to reveal himself before the world of mankind as the true God and the Lord of the whole earth. With these ends in view he chose this people and made them his own; manifested himself among them and before all the world as their covenant-keeping God; gave them Canaan, and by manifold miracles helped them to gain possession of it. Nor is this argument weakened by the fact that by means of a special series of providences he led them down into Egypt to dwell there 430 years; suffering the Canaanites meanwhile to hold Canaan, not driving them out earlier because “the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full” (Gen. 15: 16). Here is suggested the real ground on which the edict for extirpating the Canaanites was made to rest. God suffered them to remain there until they had forfeited their title not to Canaan alone, but to life itself and to any further