II. The promises of a multitudinous seed and rapid increase of the seed of Abraham, though in the first instance given to the fathers unconditionally, and therefore will assuredly be fulfilled, were nevertheless made conditional on Israel's obedience. It is with this, as with all the other great promises, given to the Jewish nation. They were conditional as far as any particular generation of Jews are concerned, who may either enjoy them if in obedience, or forfeit them through disobedience; but they are unconditional to the nation because God abides faithful, and in the end all His plans and purposes in and through them will be fulfilled. For this very reason He has preserved them as a people in spite of all their sin and disobedience. Now at the very commencement of Israel's history--long before there was any likelihood of a schism among the tribes--Moses, speaking in the name of God of the whole nation, says: "_If ye walk in My statutes and keep My commandments to do them, ... I will have respect unto you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and will establish My covenant with you_" (Lev. xxvi. 3-9). On the other hand, he solemnly forewarns them that if they shall "corrupt themselves" and fall away from the living God, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it, ... and Jehovah shall scatter you among the peoples, _and ye shall be left few in number among the nations whither Jehovah shall lead you_" (Deut. iv. 25-27). This is repeated with solemn emphasis in Deut. xxviii. 62: "_And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude_." In the light of the Word of God, therefore, and apart from all the absurdities involved in the Anglo-Israel theory, the very fact that the British and American races are so numerous and powerful among the nations precludes the possibility of their being Israel, for when out of Palestine and in dispersion Israel was to become "few in number," and oppressed and downtrodden among the nations.