A SERMON
Preached on Sunday Morning May 17th, 1863
By Mister JAMES WELLS
At the Surrey Tabernacle, Borough Road
Volume 5 Number 230
THIS being gathered one by one seems to stand in contrast to the way in which the Israelites were called out of Egypt. They were called out of Egypt as a nation, and there were but few among them that recognized the hand of Jehovah, either in the plagues brought upon Pharaoh or in the wonders by which they, the Israelites, escaped out of Egypt. So that one was led by another, and only a few among them knew the hand of the Lord, knew anything of that God who wrought these wonders. Hence it is that they afterwards demonstrated their ignorance of God in their setting up idols, and wishing again to return to Egypt; and of them the Lord said, “Forty years was I grieved with this generation: for they do always err in their heart; they have not known my ways.” But here, in salvation matters, it shall not be so. One shall not be led by another, nor a great many be led by a few; but they shall be called one by one: true religion is thus a personal matter, and each shall know the Lord for himself.
In noticing, then, our text, we have, first, the ingathering of the people; secondly, that to which they are ingathered; and third, the note of demand upon their attention. “You shall be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel” this last clause I call the note of demand upon their attention.
First, then, here is the ingathering of the people. Now the preceding part of the verse sets forth the beginning of this ingathering in a very striking way. “The Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel.” You observe that the river here, historically speaking, literally speaking, means the Euphrates. That is the river that distinguished the Babylonian empire, and that was one part of the world where the Israelites were in bondage. And the stream of Egypt carries our attention to another river, the Nile; that characterizes another part of the world in which the Israelites were in bondage. So that these Israelites in bondage were a type of the new-covenant people of God in their bondage; and. so the idea is, that wherever the people of God are, the atonement of Christ has extended to wherever they are, as the next verse explains, that I shall have presently to dwell upon. But the main idea is that of drying up the rivers; that is the idea, the drying up the rivers. We know that Babylon was taken by the Euphrates being turned from its channel; and there are several scriptures implying gracious promises under the idea of the river and the stream of Egypt being dried up. Let us, then, set out with that idea, that it is the drying up of the rivers; then, if we apply it spiritually, and properly, it stands like this; here is a sinner to whom the world is a river of pleasure, to whom this world is as streams of delight; here is a sinner that is at home in the rivers, the streams, the consolations, the advantages of this world. But by-and-bye, when that sinner becomes convinced of sin, it dries up the river Euphrates, it dries up the river of this world to that man; and that world that has hitherto been to that man a river of delight, and that has afforded him many streams of pleasure out of which he has drunk, drinking iniquity aa the ox drinks water, now this world becomes a parched land; it now becomes a wilderness of droughts; its waters now become bitter; he is just beginning to find out that in these waters are curses, that God has poured out the vials of his wrath upon this earth. And the sinner feels now that he wants something better; the world to him is dry ground; yes, he himself, the sinner in his own soul becomes like parched ground. Hence the promise, “I will pour waters upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring.” Now, it is thus that a sinner comes into such feelings that he wants something that this world cannot afford; the rivers and pleasures of this world with him are turned into plagues, and he feels that he is a sinner, that he has a Judge to meet, that he has death to meet, that he has a judgment day to meet, that he has eternity to meet, and, if mercy prevent not, that he has a hell to meet. And I will now try to describe to you as minutely as I can just what the feelings of such an one are, that you may judge whether you know anything of being taken hold of by the Lord, of being called by his grace, of being severed from this world, this world turned into a wilderness to you. Now, you will observe that the feelings of such people, spiritual feelings, are described figuratively thus. They are spoken of as being feeble in their knees; the feeble knees, the weak hands, the fearful heart, the blind eye, and the deaf ear, and the parched tongue, and that they are lame. Now, all this is just the feeling. First, such an one feels there is a burden he cannot stand under; there are the weak, feeble knees. He says, My sins, I should break down under them; I could not bear one of my sins; if one of my sins be laid to my account, that sin has against it all the force of God's holy law, and I should sink under that sin. And as to my being able to obey the law, and to keep up with its claims, I feel that the law is spiritual, I am carnal, sold under sin; I cannot do that. There is his weak handedness. And fearful of heart; and here he is doubting and fearing; and he is come into a strange state of things now. Ah, he says, there was when I thought I could turn and come to God when I pleased; there was when I thought I could accept salvation when I pleased; there was when I thought I could obtain mercy when I pleased; but I have now found out the error; I have found out the delusion; all my holiness, all my righteousness, all my strength, all my wisdom, are dried up, and here am I not like a brand plucked out of the fire, but I seem to be like a brand in the fire: and his heart trembles, and he says, What if God should not have mercy upon me; what if Christ did not die for me; what if the Lord should not hear my prayers; what will become of me? This is the way the Lord gathers in his people. And then it is said of such that they are dim-sighted, blind. Ask such a one, Can you see your election of God? No; that is what I want to sec. Can you see that Jesus Christ died for you? No; that is what I want to see. Can you see that this God, who is the Christian's God, that the ancients sung, whose name they sung of so sweetly in various parts of the Holy Scriptures recorded, can you join with them and see that the Lord of hosts is with you, that the God of Jacob is your refuge? Ah, no, say you, I cannot see this; it is what I want to see, but I cannot see it. There was a time when I did not think religion consisted in seeing the Son of God; there was a time when I did not think religion consisted in seeing God; there was a time when I did not know that religion consisted in seeing the kingdom of God; there was a time when I did not know that religion consisted in seeing and understanding the way of eternal life. Thus, then, his knees are feeble, his hands are weak, and his heart is fearful, and his eyes are dim. And it is said he is deaf also. Is the gospel made a joyful sound to you? No; I listen to it, and can understand that it is a joyful sound, but my ear has not yet drunk in the tidings of mercy; my ear has not yet drunk in the tidings of my personal salvation; my ear has not yet drunk in the sweet assurance that this God is on my side; so that I am still, in that sense, deaf. And then there is the parched tongue; for such are dumb. Ah! the very mouth of prayer seems stopped. He has sought water, and there is none, and his tongue fails for thirst. Ah! he says, I am parched; I feel dried up, as it were, have no power to speak. Here I am, a poor creature. And then, again, they are represented as lame. Ah! he says, all my services are lame; every step I take is a kind of lame step; and so far from my walking uprightly, and walking as the law demands, I am a poor crippled creature. There is a little encouragement in the words that “the lame takes the prey.” Now, then, the Lord thus beats off the enemy from the channel of the river. Satan would have kept you, if he could, where you once were; for Satan sends out of his mouth, the serpent sends out of his mouth, rivers of pleasures for the sons and daughters of men, in order to keep them in his service, until he can drag them down into his dreadful abode. But in relation to the people of God, Satan is beaten back; and he is not able to make the world to you now, what it once was, because he is not able to make you now, what you once were. Hence, with all your dimness of sight you have now, nevertheless you may say, that whereas you were blind, now you see; that whereas the world was your home, now it is to you a wilderness; that whereas you were seeking nothing but the world, that you now desire to seek God, and that you trust you can say with the Psalmist, “Early will I seek you, O God: my soul thirsts for you; in a dry and thirsty land where no water is.” Now, then, my hearer, what know we of being brought into this drought, into this necessity? for you know there is a blessing upon such people, It is said, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness;” and that righteousness is the righteousness of faith, that makes everything right between us and God, for time and for eternity. And there is a great variety of ways in which the Lord will thus keep up within you a sight and sense of your need of his mercy. Where is there a Christian, then, that cannot understand that scripture in the 16th of the Revelation, “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared,” or, as our modern scholars, with greater propriety, render that scripture, “the way of the kings of the sunrising”? And so, when the Lord makes a sinner feel that that river of worldly pleasure in which he has delighted is cursed, the angel pours his vial upon it, makes it bitter, dries it up, and the poor sinner is driven from all his former plans; and this is to prepare the way for the kings of the sunrising, that is, the Sun of righteousness is rising upon the souls of such; for he that commanded the light to shine out of darkness, is now shining in your heart, in order to discover to you what and where you are; what a wretch you are in yourself, as well as in his own time to reveal to you his own glory and his salvation. Now, to prepare the way of the kings of the sunrising, what is meant by that, the people of God being there called kings, why are they called kings? Well, the first Adam was a king; he reigned as a king; but by sin we lost our royalty; but by salvation we recover our royalty, or, rather, acquire a better royalty than that which we lost. And therefore, if you are beginning to come into the light of God's eternal salvation, then you will, by-and-bye, be personally and manifestly where you are now in God's own designation of you, a king and a priest to God. To prepare the way, and your way was never prepared to come to God until the Lord thus dealt with you. When you became convinced of your state, the world, self-righteousness, false doctrines, and all those things included, the whole of it is included, of course, in it, all Satan's delusions. Let Satan have deluded you in what form or shape he may, the whole is dried up; and now the way is open for you to come to God. Before this, it was not convenient. No; the time is not yet come to build the house of the Lord; the time is not yet come to go to any expense about the house of the Lord; the time is not yet come for me to be religious; the time is not yet come for me to care about God; time enough for that by-and-bye. Your way was not prepared. But now, when the Lord steps in, and makes you feel there is nothing worth living for apart from his mercy and his salvation, your way is prepared now; you do not want the matter delayed now. But the Lord will delay it somewhat, and the Lord will, in his dealings with you (and I speak now to the young ones, the little ones), the Lord will in his dealings somewhat seem to say thus to you: I waited for you, not that I expected you to come before I made you come, but I waited your time; that is, the time that was appointed for you; and now you must wait my time; and “blessed are all they that wait for him.”
Here, then, is the ingathering. And is it not so? If you come, for instance, to false religions, how completely they are dried up! Why, all false religions, that is, all religions that are not vital, living, free-grace religions, they are all dry to me; they are all dry ground to me; they are all mere sand and dust to me; they are all nothing. What I want is God himself as my life, and light, and salvation, in his love and mercy in his dear Son, in his sworn, immutable covenant. Nothing else will do for the really thirsty, for the man to whom the world is thus turned into a wilderness. And if you are thus brought to know what you are, and brought to thirst for God, you may expect, if all false religions, the Babylonish, the mystic Babel religions, the religions of confusion of tongues, are all dried up, you may expect a little opposition. You know you read in the 16th of the Revelation, that as soon as ever these kings of the east rose, as soon as ever the Lord said to these kings of the sunrising, “Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people but the Lord shall arise upon you, and his glory shall be seen upon you.” Here is discriminating and effectual grace. You must expect some opposition; for immediately it is added, “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs.” One came from the mouth of the dragon. That is to show that where Satan can tyrannize over this child of light, over this king of the sunrising, he will. Another came from the mouth of the beast. The beast means the main body of the people; for all by nature are members of the wild beast. Yes, my hearer, insulting as it may seem, though I mean it not so, but in all solemnity, men themselves, m the Holy Scriptures, while in a state of nature, are called wild beasts, as in Peter's vision, and a great many other scriptures. And therefore, when Satan can tyrannize over you, he will; and then the main body of the people, you will meet opposition from every beast of the field. A man that is alien from God's truth, a man that has never known his own poverty or wretchedness, if he come in contact with you, it cannot be to help you, but to oppose you. And from the mouth of the false prophet: so, there will be a false religion. There is tyranny, persecution, and delusion, one came from the mouth of the false prophet. And these “go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” And so, the end of Satan's delusions will be to bring everyone led by him under the destructive yet righteous judgments of the great God. Oh, my hearer, if self, if the world, if your righteousness, supposed righteousness, your holiness, and your strength, if all these with you be dried up, and you can see eternity looking you in the face, and you can hear the footsteps, as it were, of the Judge, “Behold, the Judge stands before the door;” and if your soul is brought into this solemn solitude before God: if you are brought no farther than this, then, I say, take courage, for it means nothing against you, this dealing of the Lord with you, but it means everything for you. It does not mean that your Maker is against you, for if he meant to destroy you, you would have gone sleeping on; you would have gone on, contented with the rivers of this world, the pleasures of this world, the advantages of this world, the gain of this world, and you would have gone no farther. But now you feel that without mercy and without Christ you must perish. This is the way the Lord encourages his people. There are a great many scriptures, as you are aware, upon this point; space forbids me naming more than one. The Savior says, “You are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” And how came that to pass? “I have chosen you out of the world.” Oh, those of you that can look back, whether you were brought gradually, or whether you were arrested very suddenly; whether you have been drawn along from gentle conviction to gentle conviction, from gentle manifestation to gentle manifestation, descending like dew upon the soul, or whether you were arrested at once, brought into captivity, brought into the house of mourning, bound hand and foot, and then mercy came, and gave you a conspicuous deliverance, let it be whichever way it may, the Lord help you to look back and see it was nothing else but the Lord coming and saying, Come, my son, you are mine; I have chosen you to eternal life; I have chosen you to eternal salvation; I have chosen you to be a citizen of heaven; I have chosen you to be a son of the most high God; I have chosen you to be a saint; I have chosen you to be an heir of God, a joint-heir with Christ; I have chosen you to know me, and to serve me, and to walk with me; I have chosen you, and you are mine, and I am yours, and so the matter is settled. And the next verse to our text gives a very beautiful and encouraging representation, and that will come in this part, I think, very nicely “It shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria,” including, you see, the Babylonian empire, “and the outcasts in the land of Egypt,” mystically understood, whatever lands of captivity they are in, “and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.” The great trumpet! I must say a word or two to you here upon the great trumpet, because there is something in it so delightful. The great trumpet, of course, refers to the trumpet of jubilee under the Old Testament dispensation; and that trumpet was to sounded on the great day of atonement, as you learn from the 25th of Leviticus; and if you go back to the 16th of Leviticus, you will see what the day of atonement was, and I must say just a word or two upon that, because it is so encouraging. You will recollect, friends, that there were two sacrifices appointed, the two goats; the one was to be slain, and when that one was slain, and accepted, and the priest had sprinkled the altar with the blood, and had marked the path between the altar and the mercy-seat with the blood seven times in each case, to denote perfection, and had sprinkled the mercy-seat, when the priest had done all this, had done these two things, atoned for sin, and by blood opened the way of access to God, beautifully prefiguring what the apostle says, “We have boldness by the blood of Jesus to enter into the holy of holies,” now, after this was done, then the sins were confessed on the head of the other goat, and that goat was sent away into a land of forgetfulness, never again to be thought of. What I wish you to notice here is this, that the sin could not be ceremonially carried away until it was atoned for; it must first be atoned for. And then come the other three ideas. First, confessing sin: so, each Christian is brought by faith to confess his sin. Second, the forgiving of the sin is implied in the goat taking it away: and third, the forgetfulness of the sin is implied in this. So, my hearer, if your sin (I told you, just now, I would try and be personal all through my discourse), if your sin were not atoned for, you would not have been brought into such a sense of your state as to confess your real condition before God. Second, if your sin were not atoned for entirely, and a way opened by the same atoning blood of access to God, then your sins could not be forgiven. And third, it your sins were not atoned for, and this way by blood not opened to God, then your sins could not be forgotten. But as it is now, here you may confess them, and the Lord will not turn that confession against you, but in your favor; and here is mercy, and here is forgetfulness. So, then, “blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes not iniquity.” Look at that again, that the sin could not be taken away until it was first atoned for. Is not this encouraging? Now, the great trumpet, then, is thus to be blown. “And they shall come which, were ready to perish;” ready to perish with sin and guilt; ready to perish with sinfulness, helplessness, solitude, wretchedness. Ah, he says, I must die; I must be lost. No; the glorious trumpet sounds out the precious truth that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin, and consequently that you may confess your sins yourself; that your sins are forgiven for his name's sake; and that they are forgotten for his name's sake. “I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions, and will not remember your sins.” Oh, what a glorious gospel! I think it is a beautiful type, these two sacrifices; at least, they are so in my eyes, and I trust they are in your eyes as well. My hearer, what should we do with a fiery law? what should we do with the burning majesty of unsullied, infallible holiness? what should we do with divine justice? and what should we do with divine integrity? How should we meet these solemn perfections of the most high God, to be in harmony with them, but by the sacrificial perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ? The trumpet sounds this out. Then, again, there is something else, and a great many other things, I will just name one or two more, in this sounding out of the trumpet; that each Israelite was to have an inheritance that was originally given to him. And so, it is by the gospel; we are settled, as Ezekiel words it, after our old estates. “I will settle you after your old estates.” And so, according to the blessing given us in Christ before the world was, as those estates are settled upon us, we become settled upon them. And so, “Forever,” said David, “your word is settled in heaven;” that is, in the Christian's heaven; and Christ is the Christian's heaven; and forever the Lord's word is settled in Christ Jesus; his promise is there, and that is heaven; and Christ is the Christian's heaven; and forever the Lord's word is settled in Christ Jesus; his promise is there, and that is heaven yea, and it never was forfeited yet. And not only so, the people were to live also, it is true only for one year, but then a limited time may be a type of unlimited time, they were to live upon the spontaneous growth of the year. The Lord blessed the preceding year, and then they were to live upon the spontaneous growth the next year. And is it not so? Are not the promises spontaneous? Do not the waters of life spring up spontaneously? does not the tree of life bear fruit spontaneously? and does not the Holy Spirit, as the heavenly wind, blow spontaneously? and does not the Savior come leaping and skipping over the hills willingly? and does not God our Father dwell with us in his mercy according to his good pleasure? The great trumpet! Much more could I say upon this; but this, perhaps, will suffice just to see how encouraging it is. Let this world, let sin be turned into a burning fire; let self-righteousness and all creature confidence be burned up; let the sinner be brought into this parched state, and then he is prepared to listen to the joyful sound; he is prepared to listen to what Christ has done; and “blessed are the people that know the joyful sound;” they shall walk in God's approbation, being exalted in God's righteousness.
Next, that to which they are ingathered. They are gathered into their own land, into elevation, into indissoluble unity, into consecration, and into eternal continuation; that is what they are gathered into. Ezekiel: “I will bring them into their own land;” their own land, a land they never lost. What is their own land? The inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away. That is the land that God gave to Christ; Christ never lost it. Adam lost his land, the Jews lost their land; you and I have lost our land through sin; this world is our land, at least, we would have it so. But here is a land which Christ never lost. It was given to him before the world was, and he had to reach that land by putting away our sin. Why, Adam and the Jews could not keep the land that was given to them; whereas Christ not only kept the land but removed every mountain. “Who are you, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain.” This is the land to which he brings our souls, a land that was never lost, a land that never can be lost, a land that never shall be lost, a land that never shall be defiled; no adversary nor enemy there,
“A land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign,”
Also, they are gathered into elevation. “I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel.” This elevation is sometimes spoken of under the figure of one mountain, called the Mount Zion, the height of Zion. When it is said they shall be “one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel,” you must understand, once more let me remind you, that what was topography or locality with the literal Jew is spirituality with the spiritual Jew, the Christian. Hence, when I read in Ezekiel and other scriptures of their being one nation upon the mountains of Israel, I go to the 2nd of Ephesians, there I get an explanation; “Raised up and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” And is it not an exaltation? Ah! here is the poor raised out of the dust, here is the beggar raised from the dunghill, and made to inherit the throne of glory. Brought, then, into high relationships, high advantages, high privileges, a glorious standing. Thus they are gathered into the land that was never lost, and thus have an order of things above the world, Christs kingdom above the world; thus they dwell on high, their place of defense is the munitions of rocks; bread there shall be given them, and water shall be sure. They are also gathered in not only to this land that was never lost, and never can be, and into this elevation, but also to indissoluble unity. “One king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.” The first Israel did become two nations; the first Israel did divide under Rehoboam into two kingdoms, and out of them they became scattered. But these people shall not become two nations; a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation; they shall never fall to pieces, nor be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. Christ the center of unity, his royalty founded in his priesthood; as his priesthood is perfect, the reign of his grace accords therewith. Let sin abound where it may, grace in its sovereign reign has abounded much more, reigning through the righteousness of Jesus unto eternal life. Then they are gathered in not only to their own land, to elevation, infallible unity, but they are also gathered into consecration. I know not in all the Bible upon the subject of consecration a more lovely chapter than that 37th of Ezekiel. “Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols that is, not as they stand in Christ. You may defile yourself with them ignorantly in yourself, but not as you stand in Christ if you are a Christian. “Nor with their detestable things;” you may have them about yourself, but you have none in Christ. “Nor with any of their transgressions.” And I am sure you have very many transgressions in you, all of us; there is not a just man upon the earth that does good and sins not; and they defile us daily; yet they cannot defile us as we stand in Christ; precious faith presents us there free from transgression. “But I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned;” that is, the world, and self, and the law; we sin in self, sin in the world, and sin in the law; and salvation comes in and saves them from all that. “And will cleanse them;” so the 15th of the Acts, “purifying their hearts by faith, so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.” Now I tell you this morning that is my religion. I can stand free from idolatry only by faith in Christ; I dare not say that my heart never goes after idols of some sort or another. I can stand free from detestable things only as I stand in Christ; I dare not say I have none in myself, no detestable things in myself. I can stand free from transgression only as I stand in Christ; I dare not say I have none in myself, for I should be a liar, said the apostle, if I were to say so; and salvation alone can save me from wherever I have sinned. And so, “I will cleanse them,” cleanse them in the blood of the Lamb, purified by the truth. So, after this order of dwelling in this land, after this order of elevation, after this order of indissoluble unity, after this order of consecration by faith in Christ, as to you that know not your own hearts, all this is like Arabic to you; you cannot understand it; you call it all sorts of evil names, perhaps; but if God should ever open your eyes, you will recognize these very things which you think now dangerous as essential to your salvation. “So,” after this glorious order, “shall they be my people, and I will be their God.” What do you say to this, my hearer? Why, I think I hear a man that knows what his own heart is, saying, Well, if that is the manner, I do not see why I should not hope to be a Christian; I do not see why I should not hope to be a child of God, and hope to go to heaven. I do not see why, if that is the manner, if it is Jesus that stands between me and all these idols, and detestable things, and transgressions, and sins; if this be the way, if it be by faith in him, and the law does not demand a single thing of the creature there, it is all God's work from first to last, I do not see why I should not hope. “So,” after that order, “they shall be my people.” Another thing is it not important that, if we profess to be Christians, we should test ourselves whether we are Christians after the manner that God has said his people shall be? There is the order. I have laid the manner of it before you. Is that our state? Is that the order of things into which we have been both driven and drawn? Is that where we are meeting the Lord, and the Lord meeting us? If so, then we are children of Israel; then we are gathered, to be scattered from the Lord no more forever.
Now then, just one more point, and then, as usual, without finishing my subject, I must close. Now these people that are thus gathered in, shall they continue in? Hear you the word of the Lord. “And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt.” I think the servant Jacob there means the Lord Jesus Christ; I think so; 37th of Ezekiel; Jacob means “to supplant;” and one interpretation that our dictionaries give of the word “supplant” is “to displace.” And I am sure Jesus Christ has displaced the devil, and displaced sin, and displaced death, and displaced the curse, and he will by-and-bye supplant and set aside all our tribulations. So that Jacob there, if it does mean Christ, which I think it does, you see there is a kind of uniqueness in that clause, as though there was something that agreed with itself, and nothing else, nothing else with it. “My servant;” as though Jacob was the only servant. And so there never was a servant before, never will be again, and never will be one needed again, like Christ Jesus the Lord. “The land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt.” Take it spiritually; we know that Abraham dwelt in a free-grace land; we know that Isaac dwelt in a yea and amen promise land.