LIBRARY OF CONGRESS . J J MKeM, tilfj.... # 1 : | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.* BIBLE PROOFS OF UNIVERSAL SALVATION; CONTAINING THE PRINCIPAL PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE THAT TEACH THE Final Holiness and Happiness OF ■ V BT J. W. HJNSOW, D.D. 101 chigago : a 7 PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 1877. Bthb LIBRARY (of congress [washington 3^- -* w Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by J. W. HANSON, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Printed by A. .W. Hall & Co. iJxriDEis:- Abraham's Promise - . 16 Adam's Punishment H __ . 6 Adam, the Promise to 15 Adam, Christ Cancels 5 y All are to be Righteous 104 All, Comfort for.. 88 All Destined for God 97 All Righteous ..95, 105 Anger, God's Limited _. 25 An Incident. _ 36 Antediluvians . 9 Anthem, The First Christmas 35 Astonished, The People 97 Attributes, God's, Unlimited 77 Baptist, John 36 Be Like God 38 Building of God, Sure 102 Cain's Punishment - 8 Christ Cancels Adam 99 Christ, God's Image _ 90 Christ's Mission Accomplished -.. 50 Comfort for All 88 Conditional Promise Fulfilled 86 Conquers, God's Word 30 Creator, God, the 68 .Damnation, Resurrection to - 58 Daniel 32 Deliverance, Universal 93 Deluge, The _ 9 Destined to God, AIL. ~ 97 Doctrine, Healthful 99 Doubts God, Man's Infirmity - 28 Every Soul Worth Saving 88 Fate of Amnon - 23 Fatherhood, Universal 40 Fathers, Gathered to 22 Final Consummation - 105 First Christmas Anthem -. - 36 ii INDEX. Gathered to their Fathers 22 Glad Tidings 92 Glory, God's.. 103 God, All in All 102 God, HatesSin 102 God, Be Like 1 38 God, Knowledge of, Gives Peace >_ 25 God, Man's Infirmity Doubts 28 God, the Creator 68 God's Anger Limited > _.. 25 God's Holiness 69 God's Image _ _ 90 God's Justice 70 God's Love 75 God's Love Unlimited 79 God's Mercy 69 God's Mercy Unlimited 27 God's Oath 80 God's Omnipotence __ - _ 74 God's Omniscience 73 God's Pleasure 80 God's Power 78 God's Purpose 80 God's Silence 6 God, A Universal Savior 103 God's Will 80 God's Wisdom 78 God's Word Conquers 30 God, What He will do 94 God, What He will not do x 94 Good Samaritan - 45 Gospel Leaven - 46 Gospel, The Word 85 Healthful Doctrine 99 Heaven's Joys Certain 89 Holiness, God's 69 Hope, Paurs - 92 Hosea 31 Image of God, Christ 90 Incident, An 36 Infirmity, Man's 28 Isaiah , 29 index. iii Jeremiah 31 Jewish Leaven 46 • Jesus, Meaning of. m 34 Jesus' Prayer for Murderers 46 Jesus' Wcrk Accomplished 89 John, the Baptist 36 Joys, Heaven's, Certain 89 Justice, God's •_ 70 Knowledge of God Gives Peace 25 Ijeaven, Gospel 46 Leaven, Jewish _ 46 Lord's Prayer 40 Lost Saved _ 47 Love, God's, Unlimited 79 Man's' Infirmity Doubts God . 28 Meaning of Name Jesus 34 Mercy, God's 69 Mercy, God's, Unlimited 27 Micah 32 Mission, Christ's Accomplished _. 50 Murderers, Jesus' Prayerfor 66 Must be Born Again... 88 Name Jesus, Meaning of.. 34 Nature of Punishment P 65 Ninety and Nine -. 49 No More Sorrow 100 Obedient, Promises to 19 Obedience, Universal — 28 Omniscience, God's -- 73 Omnipotence, God's - 74 Pardon, Universal . 98 Paul's Hope 92 Paul, Why Persecuted 104 Peace, Knowledge of God Gives. ._ - 25 People Astonished - - 98 Power, God's - 78 Prayer, Jesus', for Murderers 66 Prayer, The Lord's 40 Promise, Conditional, Fulfilled 88 Promises to Obedient — 19 IV INDEX. Promise to Adam 15 Prophets, Testimony of 27 Propitiation, Universal 100 Punishment, Antediluvians' 9 Punishment, Nature of 65 Purpose, God's 82 Refiner 33 Resurrect ion 56 Resurrection to Damnation ^ 58 Returns to God, The Spirit 23 Righteous, All 95, 90 Samaritan, The Good..! 45 Satan Destroyed 94 Saved, The Lost 47 Savior, God Universal : 103 Scholars, Testimony of _ _ 12 Silence, God's - - _ 6 Sin Burned, Sinners Saved 88 Sin, God Hates 102 Sin, Satan, etc., Destroyed 94 Sodom and Gomorrah 10 Sorrow, No More 100 Spirit Returns to God 23 Substance of Things Hoped For 89 Sure, Building of God 102 Testimony of Prophets 27 Their Works Follow Them 100 Things Hoped for 80 Threats to Wicked 21 Tidings, Glad 89 Universal Dominion 29 Universal Obedience Prophesied 100 Unlimited, God's Attributes 77 "What God will do 94 What God will not do 94 Wise Woman 32 Word Gospel 35 Wickedest Saved '. 89 Ye must be Born Again 68 UNIVERSAL SALVATION THE DOCTRINE OF THE BIBLE. The author of these pages proposes, in the brief- est and simplest manner of which he is capable, to set forth the leading Scriptural arguments in favor of the doctrine of Universal Salvation. He will not attempt to exhaust the subject, nor will he en- deavor to explain what are called "The Difficult Passages," that is, those that are popularly supposed to teach a different doctrine. Remanding that task — a perfectly easy one — to another volume, a proper companion to this, he will only attempt, in these pages, to present the prominent considerations that are contained in the Bible in support of the final redemption of all souls. In this important task he invokes the benediction of Almighty God ; praying that any word herein contained, that is false, may perish, fruitless, while whatever is in harmony with the Divine Oracles may bring forth many good re- sults in the promotion of truth and righteousness in the world. 5 THE SILENCE OF GOD. The first thought that astonishes the mind when the Scriptures are consulted on this great question, by one who has taken for granted that they teach endless torture, for any part of the human family, is THE SILENCE OF GOD. The Almighty Father of the human family would not fail, at the very beginning of human history, to announce to his children the penalty of sin. To conceal such a doom as that of endless torment from any would be cruel treachery towards those whom he had created, and who would have the right to know all the consequences of disobedience. And yet only limited consequences — temporal punish- ments — were threatened at the announcement of the law to Adam, or when the penalty of their sin was referred to, in the history of the earliest trans- gressors. If endless punishment were true, it would be stated as the threatened penalty of the original sin. ADAM'S PUNISHMENT. But Adam was neither before nor afterward told that he had incurred or should receive endless wo. Here is the law, and its penalty: And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying. Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely cat; bu of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou slialt not eat of it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Gen. ii: 15 — 17. Adam died as the penalty of his sin. How? This threatened death is not (1.) of the body, for physi- cal dissolution was the natural result of physical organization, and the death threatened was to be ADAM'S PUNISHMENT. 7 " in the day he sinned." His body did not die in that day. (2.) It was not eternal death for the same reason. He certainly went to no endless hell " in the day" of his transgression. It was (3.) a moral, spiritual death, from which recovery is feasible. Paul describes it: Having the understanding darkened, being alien- ated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts. Eph. iv: 18. You hath he quickened Who were dead in trespasses and sins. Eph. ii: 7. Jesus describes it in the parable of the Prodigal son: It was meet that we should make merry and be glad ; for this, thy brother, was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found. Luke xv: 32. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. I call heaven and earth to re- cord this clay against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing : therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. Deut. xxx \ 15 — 19. Adam died this kind of death and no other i4 in the day" he sinned. The death God threatened was in this life. The devil denied this penalty. If it was any different from that threatened, then the devil told the truth. This penalty is described in the language used toward Adam after he had sinned: And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hark- ened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which 1 commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou 8 CAIN'S PUNISHMENT. taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Gen. in: 17 — 19. Would all these consequences be so fully described, and the one of surpassing importance be concealed? Would God perpetrate a "snap judgment" on his poor deluded creatures? Impossible. Our first pa- rents died in trespasses and sins, as did the prodigal, "in the day" they sinned. The whole penalty to which Adam or any other should ever be liable was fully described, but not a word of endless punish- ment is there. CAIN'S PUNISHMENT. The case of Cain is equally explicit. What pen- alty did the first murderer experience? Here it is fully stated: And the Lord God said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not; Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth; And Cain said unto the Lord, my punishment is more than 1 can bear. Be- hold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth ; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that find- eth me shall slay me. Gen. iv: 19. Not a word of endless punishment for this great- est of crimes. "A fugitive and a vagabond in the earth," not torment in an endless hell, is the punish- ment of the ih-st murderer. His punishments were all temporal, and were so understood by him. Is it credible that in addition to all this an endless hell THE ANTEDILUVIANS. 9 was in store for this first fratricide, and not a word said of the awful doom? THE ANTEDILUVIANS. Read the detailed account of the Flood and of multitudes of antecedent transactions for the long period of more than seventeen hundred years, and not an instance can be found in which any* other than temporal and limited consequences are described as the result of sinfulness. THE DEL UGE. The wicked people who were overwhelmed by the deluge were not threatened with endless punish- ment. Noah, the first great " preacher of righteous- ness," {Titus ii: 5,) did not say a word of it when he announced the flood. He threatened drowning, but said nothing of post mortem sufferings. Would he have spoken of this comparatively slight disaster, and conceal the enormous one of endless suffering, if he knew anything of it? And, behold, I. even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die. Gen, vi: 17. The earth also was corrupt before God; and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cat- tle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven ; and they were destroyed from the earth; and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. Gen. v : 11 — 13 ; 23. Just think of charging Gocl with describing the 10 SODOM AND GOMORRAH. height of the waters, the amount of the flood, the number of days, and all the small particulars of a limited penalty, and entirely overlooking the dread- ful fate in store for the millions destroyed! SODOM AND GOMORRAH. Nothing is said of endless punishment in connec- tion with the wicked people of Sodom and Gomor- rah. Then the Lord God rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven ; and he overthrew those cities and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and all that which grew upon the ground. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord, and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. Gen. xix: 24 — 28. The fire and brimstone that these people suffered were here, in this world. And that it was limited is evident from the following: For the punishment of the iniquity of the daugh- ter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. Lam. iv: 6. Jerusalem experienced a greater punishment than Sodom, as we know from the words of Jesus: Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time. No, nor ever shall be. Matt, xxiv : 21. All this shows that the suffering was in this world. The Sodomites never received a hint that they were exposed to endless punishment, nor is there any record that they ever went to such a doom. VARIOUS INSTANCES. The wicked whose character is described from Adam to Moses, a period of twenty-five hundred VARIOUS INSTANCES. 11 years, are never threatened with endless punish- ment, nor is it ever said to have been visited upon any. The builders of Babel, Joseph's brethren, Pharaoh, many wicked people are there threatened and punished, but not a word is said of endless punishment. Is it credible that for twenty-five hundred years God should have led men along to the brink of the grave, threatening them with all sorts of things, and entirely conceal this doom, which, if true, should have been reiterated to all from the cradle to the grave ? The punishments of sin are thus described two thousand five hundred years after Adam : It shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and statutes which I com- mand thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee : Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy, store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy cattle, and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when thoucomest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation and rebuke in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do. . . He shall smite thee with consump- tion, and with a fever, with blasting and mildew; etc. In the morning thou shalt say * 4 Would God it were even," and at even thou shalt say, " Would God it were morning." Deut. xxviii: 15 —29, 67. All through the Old Testament, subsequent to the enunciation of the law, the wicked who are spoken of are never threatened with any but tem- poral penalties. Abimelech is a case in point : Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren. Judges ix: 56. So with Ahithophel, the suicide: 12 THE TESTIMONY OF SCHOLARS. And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, h^ put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father. II. Sam. xvii: 23. Is it asked how this suicide was punished? Paul answers : Some men's sins are open beforehand, going be- fore to judgment. / Tim. v: 24. Hence Paul tells us that under the Law Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward. Heb. ii : 2. Now for four thousand years every wicked act was fully punished in this life. "Every transgres- sion and disobedience received a just recompense of reward." Would God have an endless hell and keep it a secret from the world for four thousand years ? Would he keep sinners for four thousand years from a hell he had made, and then use it as a prison for other sinners no worse ? No ; the silence of God for forty centuries *is a demonstration that he had no such place reserved for any of his children. If God all the time he was threatening these lim- ited consequences of sin, intended to inflict a doom compared to which all these are as nothing, then he deceived the people, for this is the full statement of the law : These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses. Lev. xx vi : 46. The laws of Moses enumerate many forms of punishment, many different penalties, but never lisp a hint of endless wo. THE TESTIMONY OF SCHOLABS. That endless punishment is not revealed in th« law, the wisest theologians of all creeds agree: THE TESTIMONY OF SCHOLARS. 13 Warburton : In the Jewish Republic, both the rewards and punishments promised by heaven were temporal only. Such as health, long life, peace, plenty, and dominion, etc. Diseases, premature death, war, famine, want, subjections, and captivity, etc. And in no one place of the Mosaic Institutes is there the least mention, or intelligible hint, of the rewards and punishments of another life. — Div. Leg, vol. Hi. — Jahn : We have not authority, therefore, decidedly to say, that any other motives were held out to the ancient Hebrews to pursue the good and avoid the evil, than those which were de- rived from the rewards and punishments of this life. Archaeology p. 398. — Milman: The law-giver (Moses) maintains a profound silence on that fun- damental article, if not of political, at least of re- ligious legislation — rewards and punishments in another life. He substituted temporal chastise- ments and temporal blessings. On the violation of the constitution followed inevitably blighted har- vests, famine, pestilence, defeat, captivity; on its maintenance, abundance, health, fruitfulness, vic- tory, independence. How wonderfully the event verified the prediction of the inspired legislator! How invariably apostasy led to adversity — repent- ance and reformation to prosperity! Hist. Jews, vol. i. — Dr. Campbell: It is plain that. in the Old Testament the most profound silence is ob- served in regard to the state of the deceased, their joys and sorrows, happiness or misery. If, then, the penalties of sin are limited in dura- tion, we can understand this reticence, even though those penalties should continue in the future state, but if God meant all the time he was thus declaring temporal consequences, to inflict endless torment, he was deceiving his children — an impossible sup- position. Were endless punishment true, the Garden of Eden should have sighed the awful tidings from all its leaves, it should have been thundered from the 14 THE TESTIMONY OF SCHOLARS. rocky pulpit of Sinai, and have been shrieked into the ears of every transgressor from Adam down. Would a good being, a Father, would a decent be- ing, any one better than a demon, sum up and particularize a score of trivial penalties, and con- ceal the one that should be mentioned most of all? Would a wicked human king threaten three months' imprisonment, say, for crime, and then behead the criminal, when convicted, all the time concealing from him this capital penalty? Is it supposable that God would stay to talk about drought, and fever, and scab, and itch, when he had intended to burn, or even to imprison in an endless hell? Such a supposition is too enormous for the human mind to cherish. The silence of God for four thousand years, the fact that he never hinted at such a doom, demon- strates that it was not then impending, and if not then, under the severe dispensation of Moses, it is impossible that it should be found in the milder message of the Gospel of the grace of God. Kow all Christians admit that the people in the times of the Old Testament accepted the doctrine of the resurrection. Is not the fact that nothing is said to the contrary prima facie evidence that the resurrection state was by them regarded as one in which all was to be well? Is not the silence of the Scriptures concerning any evil fate there, a powerful argument in behalf of the New Testament doctrine of the resurrection, that all there are equal to the angels ? But let us proceed to some of the most striking of the positive declarations teaching universal sal- vation. We adduce first: THE PROMISE TO ADAM. 15 THE PBOMISE TO ADAM. While we would not claim that God gave to Adam a distinct declaration that our first parent under- stood to mean universal salvation, we are certain that he gave him the germ of that sublime result when he announced the consequences of the warfare between man and evil. After Adam had sinned, the first promise was given: I will put enmity between thee (the serpent,) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. Gen. Hi: 15. This was an announcement of the destruction of Satan, the tempter and enemy of man, inasmuch as a wound on the head of a serpent indicates his de- struction, while a wound on the heel of man is not irremediable. What is the serpent? It is ex- plained as follows: Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. From whence come wars and fighting amongst you? come they not hence, even of the lusts that war in your members? James, i: 14; iv: 1. But Satan and his works, the lusts and sins of mankind, are to be destroyed: Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who, through fear of death, were, all i heir life-time, subject to bondage. Heb. ii: 14, 15. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. I. John, Hi: 8. So Denth and Hell were cast into the lake of fire. Bev. xx : 14. And the apostle exulted over their destruction: Oh Death where is thy sting? Oh Grave where is thy victory ?. I. Cor. xv : 55. 16 THE ABRAHAMIC PROMISE. The promise to Adam was fulfilled in Christ, who came to vanquish the vanquisher, and who placed in operation those means that will result in delivering man from all his foes, death, hell, the devil, and the works of the devil. The original promise to Adam contained in embryo the idea of universal deliverance through Christ, THE ABBAHAMIC PBOMISE. How can any believer in the Bible escape the con- clusion that the reconciliation of all men to God is taught in the promise to Abraham ? Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee ; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thoushalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee; and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Gen, xii: 1 — 3 And the Angel of the Lor called unto Abrahan out of heaven the second time and said, By myself I have sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this i hing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is pon the sea shore : and thy eed shall possess the gate of his ene- mies : and n thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed ; because thou hast obeyed my voice. Gen, xxii : 15 — 18. Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. Acts Hi: 25, 26. I. It is a Universal Promise, Every human being who ever lived or ever shall live is ncluded in " all the nations families and kindreds of the earth." THE ABRAHAMIC PROMISE. 17 II. The blessing is Christian Salvation. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. Gal. in : 16. III. It consists in a Gospel Blessing. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel to Abraham, saying: In thee shall all nations be blessed. Gal. Hi: 8. IV. It is Salvation from Sin, through faith. Know ye therefore, that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture fore- seeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, say- ing, In thee all nations shall be blessed. 80 then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Gal. Hi: 7, 8, 9. It included the murderers of Christ. But ye denied the Holy One, and the Just, and de- sired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead: whereof we are witnesses. Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. Acts Hi : 14, 15: 25, 26. V. It is to be fulfilled in the resurrection. And now I stand and am judged for. the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? Acts, xxvi: 6. 8. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec. Heb. vi: 19, 20. VI. It has been attested by the Oath of God. For 18 THE ABRAHAMIC PROMISE. when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, say- ing, surely, blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, wil- ling more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the vail: whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec. Heb. vi: 13 — 20. "VII. Marts unbelief vrill not prevent its fulfilment. For what if some did not believe? shall their unbe- lief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar: as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. Bom Hi: 3 — 5. If we believe not. yet he abide th faithful : he cannot deny himself. II Tim. ii: 13. VIII. Man's disobedience will not always exist. And this I say, that the covenant that was con- firmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty ye irs after, can not disan- nul, that it should make the promise of none effect. GaL Hi: 17. IX. All the conditions ar° to be complied with, and it is so certain that it is spoken of as already ac- complished. And the Lor I said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which 1 do; seeing that Abra- ham shall surely become a