Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-THE MANY MANSIONS-IMPROVEMENT 5

 

IMPROVEMENT of what has been offered.

I. Here is encouragement for sinners that are concerned and exercised for the salvation of their souls, such as are afraid that they shall never go to heaven or be admitted to any place of abode there, and are sensible that they are hitherto in a doleful state and condition in that they are out of Christ, and so have no right to any inheritance in heaven, but are in danger of going to hell and having their place of eternal abode fixed there. You may be encouraged by what has been said, earnestly to seek heaven; for there are many mansions there. There is room enough there. Let your case be what it will, there is a suitable provision there for you; and if you come to Christ, you need not fear but that he will prepare a place for you; he’ll see to it that you shall be well accommodated in heaven.

But II. I would improve this doctrine in a twofold exhortation.

1. Let all be hence exhorted earnestly to seek that they may be admitted to a mansion in heaven. You have heard that this is God’s house; it is his temple. If David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah and in the land of Geshur and of the Philistines, so longed that he might again return into the land of Israel that he might have a place in the house of God here on earth, and prized a place there so much, though it was but that of a door-keeper, how great happiness will it be to have a place in this heavenly temple of God! If they are looked upon as enjoying a high privilege that has a seat appointed to them in kings’ courts or in apartments in kings’ palaces, especially those that have an abode there in the quality of the king’s children, then how great a privilege will it be to have an apartment or mansion assigned to us in God’s heavenly palace, and to have a place there as his children! How great is their glory and honor that is admitted to be of the household of God!

And seeing there are many mansions there, mansions enough for us all, our folly will be the greater if we neglect to seek a place in heaven, having our minds foolishly taken up about the worthless, fading things of this world. Here consider three things:

(1) How little a while you can have any mansion or place of abode in this world. Now you have a dwelling amongst the living. You have a house or mansion of your own or at least one that is at present for your use, and now you have a seat in the house of God; but how little a while will this continue! In a very little while, the place that now knows you in this world will know you no more. The habitation you have here will be empty of you; you will be carried dead out of it or shall die at a distance from it, and never enter into it anymore, or into any other abode in this world. Your mansion or place of abode in this world, however convenient or commodious it may be, is but as a tent that shall soon be taken down, but a lodge in a garden of cucumbers. Your stay is as it were but for a night. Your body itself is but a house of clay that will quickly moulder and tumble down, and you shall have no other habitation here in this world but the grave.

Thus God in his providence is putting you in mind by the repeated instances of death that have been in the town within the two weeks past, both in one house: in which death he has shown his dominion over old and young. The son was taken away first before the father, being in his full strength and flower of his days; and the father, who was then well and having no appearance of approaching death, followed in a few days: and their habitation and their seat in the house of God in this world will know them no more.

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-THE MANY MANSIONS-4

 

Another image of this was in Solomon’s temple. There were many mansions of different degrees of honor and dignity. There was the holy of holies, where the ark was the place of God’s immediate residence, where the high priest alone might come; and there was another apartment called the holy place, where the other priests might come; and next to that was the inner court of the temple, where the Levites were admitted: and there they had many chambers or mansions built for lodging-rooms for the priests, and next to that was the court of Israel where the people of Israel might come; and next to that was the court of the Gentiles where the Gentiles, those that were called the “Proselytes of the Gate,” might come.

And we have an image of this in houses built for the worship of Christian assemblies. In such houses of God, there are many seats of different honor and dignity, from the most honorable to the most inferior of the congregation.

Not that we are to understand the words of Christ so much in a literal sense, as that every saint in heaven was to have a certain seat or room or place of abode where he was to be locally fixed. ’Tis not the design of the Scriptures to inform us much about the external circumstances of heaven or the state of heaven locally considered; but we are to understand what Christ says chiefly in a spiritual sense. Persons shall be set in different degrees of honor and glory in heaven, as is abundantly manifested in Scripture: which may fitly be represented to our imaginations by there being different seats of various honor, as it was in the temple, as it is in kings’ courts. Some seats shall be nearer the throne than others. Some shall sit next to Christ in glory: Matt. xx. 23, “To sit on my right hand and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.”

Christ has doubtless respect to these different degrees of glory in the text. When he was going to heaven and the disciples were sorrowful at the thoughts of parting with their Lord, he lets them know that there are seats or mansions of various degrees of honor in his Father’s house, that there was not only one for him, who was the Head of the Church and the elder brother but also for them that were his disciples and younger brethren.

Christ also may probably have respect not only for different degrees of glory in heaven but different circumstances. Though the employment and happiness of all the heavenly assembly shall in the general be the same, yet ’tis not improbable that there may be circumstantial difference. We know what their employment [is] in general, but not in particular. We know not how one may be employed to subserve and promote the happiness of another, and all to help one another. Some may there be set in one place for one office or employment, and others [in] another, as ’tis in the Church on earth. God hath set everyone in the body as it hath pleased him; one is the eye, another the ear, another the head, etc. But because God has not been pleased expressly to reveal how it shall be in this respect, therefore I shall not insist upon it, but pass to make some.

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-THE MANY MANSIONS-3

2. There are sufficient and suitable accommodations for all the different sorts of persons that are in the world: for great and small, for high and low, rich and poor, wise and unwise, bond and free, persons of all nations and all conditions and circumstances, for those that have been great sinners as well as for moral livers; for weak saints and those that are babes in Christ as well as for those that are stronger and more grown in grace. There is in heaven a sufficiency for the happiness of every sort; there is a convenient accommodation for every creature that will hearken to the calls of the Gospel. None that will come to Christ, let his condition be what it will need to fear but that Christ will provide a place suitable for him in heaven.

This seems to be another thing implied in Christ’s words. The disciples were persons of very different conditions from Christ: he was their Master, and they were his disciples; he was their Lord, and they were the servants; he was their Guide, and they were the followers; he was their Captain, and they the soldiers; he was the Shepherd, and they the sheep; [he was, as it were, the] Father, [and they the] children; he was the glorious, holy Son of God, they were poor, sinful, corrupt men. But yet, though they were in such different circumstances from him, yet Christ encourages them that there shall not only be room in heaven for him, but for them too; for there were many mansions there. There was not only a mansion to accommodate the Lord, but the disciples also; not only the head, but the members; not only the Son of God, but those that are naturally poor, sinful, corrupt men: as in a king’s palace there is not only a mansion or room of state built for the king himself and for his eldest son and heir but there are many rooms, mansions for all his numerous household, children, attendants, and servants.

3. It is further implied that heaven is a house that was actually built and prepared for a great multitude. When God made heaven at the beginning of the world, he intended it as an everlasting dwelling place for a vast and innumerable multitude. When heaven was made, it was intended and prepared for all those particular persons that God had from eternity designed to save: Matt. xxv. 34, “Come, ye blessed [of my Father, inherit the Kingdom] prepared for you [from the foundation of the world].” And that is a very great and innumerable multitude: Rev. vii. 9, “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes.” Heaven being built designedly for these was built accordingly; it was built so as most conveniently to accommodate all this multitude: as a house that is built for a great family is built large and with many rooms in it; as a palace that is built for a great king that keeps a great court with many attendants is built exceeding great with a great many apartments, and as a house of public worship that is built for a great congregation is built very large with many seats in it.

 4. When it is said, [“In my father’s house are many mansions”], it is meant that there are seats of various dignity and different degrees and circumstances of honor and happiness. There are many mansions in God’s house because heaven is intended for various degrees of honor and blessedness. Some are designed to sit in higher places there than others; some are designed to be advanced to higher degrees of honor and glory than others are; and, therefore, there are various mansions, and some more honorable mansions and seats, in heaven than others. Though they are all seats of exceeding honor and blessedness, yet some are more so than others.

Thus a palace is built. Though every part of the palace is magnificent as becomes the palace of a king, yet there are many apartments of various honor, and some are more stately and costly than others, according to the degree of dignity. There is one apartment that is the king’s presence-chamber; there are other apartments for the next heir to the crown; there are others for other children; and others for their attendants and the great officers of the household: one for the high steward, and another for the chamberlain, and others for meaner officers and servants.

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-THE MANY MANSIONS-2

 

Heaven is represented in Scripture as God’s dwelling-house; Ps. cxiii. 5, “Who is like [unto] the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high,” and Ps. cxxiii. 1, “Unto thee I lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.” Heaven is God’s palace. ’Tis the house of the great King of the universe; there he has his throne, which is therefore represented as his house or temple; Ps. xi. 4, “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven.”

Heaven is the house where God dwells with his family. God is represented in Scripture as having a family, and though some of this family are now on earth, yet in so being they are abroad and not at home, but all going home: Eph. iii. 15, “Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” Heaven is the place that God has built for himself and his children. God has many children, and the place designed for them is heaven; therefore the saints, being the children of God, are said to be of the household of God, Eph. ii. 19: “Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” God is represented as a householder or head of a family, and heaven is his house. 

Heaven is the house not only where God hath his throne, but also where he doth as it were keep his table, where his children sit down with him at his table and where they are feasted in a royal manner becoming the children of so great a King: Luke xxii. 30, “That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom;” Matt. xxvi. 29, “But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” 

God is the King of kings, and heaven is the place where he keeps his court. There are his angels and archangels that as the nobles of his court do attend upon him. 

Prop. II. There are many mansions in the house of God. By many mansions, it meant many seats or places of abode. As it is a king’s palace, there are many mansions. Kings’ houses are wont to be built very largely, with many stately rooms and apartments. So there are many mansions in God’s house.

 When this is spoken of heaven, it is chiefly to be understood in a figurative sense, and the following things seem to be taught to us in it. 

1. There is room in this house of God for great numbers. There is room in heaven for a vast multitude, yea, room enough for all mankind that are or ever shall be; Luke xiv. 22, “Lord it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.”

 It is not with the heavenly temple as it often is with houses of public worship in this world, that they fill up and become too small and scanty for those that would meet in them so that there is not convenient room for all. There is room enough in our heavenly Father’s house. This is partly what Christ intended in the words of the text, as is evident from the occasion of his speaking them. The disciples manifested a great desire to be where Christ was, and Christ, therefore, to encourage them that it should be as they desired, tells them that in his Father’s house where he was going were many mansions, i.e., room enough for them.

 There is mercy enough in God to admit an innumerable multitude into heaven. There is mercy enough for all, and there is merit enough in Christ to purchase heavenly happiness for millions of millions, for all men that ever were, are, or shall be. And there is a sufficiency in the fountain of heaven’s happiness to supply and fill and satisfy all: and there is in all respects enough for the happiness of all.

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-THE MANY MANSIONS-1

 

John xiv. 2.—In my Father’s house are many mansions.

 In these words may be observed two things,

 

1. The thing described, viz., Christ’s Father’s house. Christ spoke to his disciples in the foregoing chapter as one that was about to leave them. He told ’em, verse 31, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him,” and then goes to giving them counsel to live in unity and love one another, as one that was going from them. Which they seemed somewhat surprised and hardly knew what to make of it. And one of them, viz., Peter, asked him where he was going; verse 36, “Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou?” Christ did not directly answer and tell him where he was going, but he signifies where in these words of the text, viz., to his Father’s house, i.e., to heaven, and afterward, in verse 12, he tells ’em plainly that he was going to his Father. 

2. We may observe the description given of it, viz., that in it there are many mansions. The disciples seemed very sorrowful at the news of Christ’s going away, but Christ comforts ’em with that, that in his Father’s house where he was going there was not only room for him, but room for them too. There were many mansions. There was not only a mansion there for him, but there were mansions enough for them all; there was room enough in heaven for them. When the disciples perceived that Christ was going away, they manifested a great desire to go with him, particularly Peter. Peter in the latter part of the foregoing chapter asked him whether he went to that end that he might follow him. Christ told him that whither he went he could not follow him now, but that he should follow him afterward. 

But Peter, not content with Christ, seemed to have a great mind to follow him now. “Lord,” says he, “why cannot I follow thee now?” So that the disciples had a great mind still to be with Christ, and Christ in the words of the text intimates that they shall be with him. Christ signifies to ’em that he was going home to his Father’s house, and he encourages ’em that they shall be with him there in due time, in that there were many mansions there. There was a mansion provided not only for him, but for them all (for Judas was not then present), and not only for them but for all that should ever believe in him to the end of the world; and though he went before, he only went to prepare a place for them that should follow.

 The text is a plain sentence; ’tis therefore needless to press any doctrine in other words from it: so that I shall build my discourse on the words of the text. There are two propositions contained in the words, viz., I, that heaven is God’s house, and II, that in this house of God there are many mansions. 

Prop. I. Heaven is God’s house. A house of public worship is a house where God’s people meet from time to time to attend to God’s ordinances, and that is set apart for that and is called God’s house. The temple of Solomon was called God’s house. God was represented as dwelling there. There he had his throne in the holy of holies, even the mercy seat over the ark and between the cherubim's. 

Sometimes the whole universe is represented in Scripture as God’s house, built with various stories one above another: Amos ix. 6, “It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven;” and Ps. civ. 3, “Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters.” But the highest heaven is especially represented in Scripture as the house of God. As to other parts of the creation, God hath appointed them to inferior uses; but this part he has reserved for himself for his own abode. We are told that the heavens are the Lord’s, but the earth he hath given to the sons of men. God, though he is everywhere present, is represented both in Old Testament and New as being in heaven in a special and peculiar manner. Heaven is the temple of God. Thus we read of God’s temple in heaven, Rev. xv. 5. Solomon’s temple was a type of heaven; it was made exceeding magnificent and, costly partly to that end, that it might be the most lively type of heaven. 

The apostle Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews does from time to time call heaven the holy of holies, as being the antitype not only of the temple of Solomon, but of the holiest place in that temple, which was the place of God’s most immediate residence: Heb. ix. 12, “He entered in once into the holy place;” verse 24, “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself.” Houses, where assemblies of Christians worship God, are in some respects figures of this house of God above. When God is worshipped in them in spirit and truth, they become the outworks of heaven and as it were its gates. As in houses of public worship here, there are assemblies of Christians meeting to worship God, so in heaven, there is a glorious assembly or Church, continually worshipping God: Heb. xii. 22, 23, “But ye are come unto mount Sion, [and unto] the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, that are written in heaven.”

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light - APPLICATION-21

 

5. Consider what a doleful company that will be that be left after this extraordinary time of mercy is over. We have reason to think that there will be a number left. We read that when Ezekiel’s healing waters increased so abundantly, and the healing effect of them was so very general; yet there were certain places, where the water came, that never were healed: Ezek. xlvii. 9-11, “And it shall come to pass, that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and everything shall live whither the river cometh. And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.

 But the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.” And even in the apostles’ times, when there was such wonderful success of the gospel, yet wherever they came, there were some that did not believe: Acts xiii. 48, “And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord; and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.” And chap. xxviii. 24, “And some believed, and some believed not.” So, we have no reason to expect but there will be some left amongst us. ’Tis to be hoped it will be a small company. But what a doleful company will it be! How dark and awful will it look upon them! 

If you shall be of that company, how well may your friends and relations lament over you, and bemoan your dark and dangerous circumstances! You would not be one of them, make haste, delay not and look not behind you. Shall all sorts obtain, shall everyone press into the kingdom of God, while you stay loitering behind in a doleful undone condition? Shall everyone take heaven, while you remain with no other portion but this world? Now take up that resolution, that if it is possible you will cleave to them that have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before them. Count the cost of a thorough, violent, and perpetual pursuit of salvation, and forsake all, as Ruth forsook her own country and all her pleasant enjoyments in it. Don’t do as Orpah did, who set out, and then was discouraged, and went back: but hold out with Ruth through all discouragement and opposition. When you consider others that have chosen the better part, let that resolution be ever firm with you: “Where thou goest, I will go; where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”

 

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light - APPLICATION-20

 

3. Consider the great encouragement that God gives you, earnestly to strive for the same blessing that others have obtained. There is great encouragement in the word of God to sinners to seek salvation, in the revelation we have of the abundant provision made for the salvation even of the chief of sinners, and in the appointment of so many means to be used with and by sinners, in order to their salvation; and by the blessing which God in his word connects with the means of his appointment. There is hence great encouragement for all, at all times, that will be thorough in using of these means. But now God gives extraordinary encouragement in his providence, by pouring out his Spirit so remarkably amongst us, and bringing savingly home to himself all sorts, young and old, rich and poor, wise and unwise, sober and vicious, old self-righteous seekers and profligate livers: no sort is exempt. There is now at this day amongst us the loudest call and the greatest encouragement and the widest door open to sinners, to escape out of a state of sin and condemnation that perhaps God ever granted in New England. Who is there that has an immortal soul so sottish as not to improve such an opportunity, and that won’t bestir himself with all his might now? How unreasonable is negligence, and how exceeding unseasonable is discouragement, on such a day as this! Will you be so stupid as to neglect your soul now? Will any mortal amongst us be so unreasonable as to lag behind, or look back in discouragement when God opens such a door? Let every single person be thoroughly awake! Let everyone encourage himself now to press forward and fly for his life!

4. Consider how earnestly desirous they that have obtained are that you should follow them and that their people should be your people, and their God your God. They desire that you should partake of that great good that God has given them and that unspeakable and eternal blessedness that he has promised them. They wish and long for it. If you do not go with them and are not still of their company, it won’t be out of their willingness, but your own. That of Moses to Hobab is the language of every true saint of your acquaintance to you, Numb. x. 29, “We are journeying unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it to you: come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.” As Moses, when on his journey through the wilderness, following the pillar of cloud and fire, invited Hobab, whom he had been acquainted with and nearly allied to out of the land of Midian, where Moses had formerly dwelt with him, to go with him and his people to Canaan, to partake with them in the good that God had promised them; so do those of your friends and acquaintance invite you, out of a land of darkness and wickedness, where they have formerly been with you, to go with them to the heavenly Canaan. The company of saints, the true church of Christ, invite you. The lovely bride calls you to the marriage supper. She hath authority to invite guests to her own wedding, and you ought to look on her invitation and desire as the call of Christ the bridegroom; for it is the voice of his Spirit in her: Rev. xxii. 17, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come.” There seems to be a reference to what had been said, chap. xix. 7-9, “The marriage of the Lamb comes, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” ’Tis with respect to this her marriage supper that she, from the motion of the Spirit of the Lamb in her, says, Come. So that you are invited on all hands; all conspire to call you. God the Father invites you: this is the King that has made a marriage for his Son; and he sends forth his servants, the ministers of the gospel, to invite the guests. And the Son himself invites you: ’tis he that speaks, Rev. xvii. 17, “And let him that heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst, come; and whosoever will let him come.” He tells us who he is in the foregoing verse, “I Jesus, the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star.” And God’s ministers invite you, and all the church invites you, and there will be joy in the presence of the angels of God that hour that you accept the invitation.

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light - APPLICATION-19

 

Let the following things be here considered:—

 1. That your soul is as precious as theirs. It is immortal as theirs is and stands in as much need of happiness and can as ill bear eternal misery. You were born in the same miserable condition that they were, having the same wrath of God abiding on you. You must stand before the same Judge; who will be as strict in judgment with you as with them; and your own righteousness will stand you in no more stead before him than theirs, and therefore, you stand in the absolute necessity of a Saviour as they. Carnal confidences can no more answer your end than theirs; nor can this world or its enjoyments serve to make you happy without God and Christ more than them. When the bridegroom comes, the foolish virgins stand in as much need of oil as the wise, Matt. xxv. at the beginning.

2. Unless you follow them in their turning to God, their conversion will be a foundation of eternal separation between you and them. You will be in different interests and in exceeding different states, as long as you live; they the children of God, and you the children of Satan; and you will be parted in another world; when you come to die, there will be a vast separation made between you: Luke xvi. 26, “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you, cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.” And you will be parted on the day of judgment. You will be parted at Christ’s first appearance in the clouds of heaven. While they are caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, to be ever with the Lord, you will remain below, confined to this cursed ground, that is kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. You will appear separated from them while you stand before the great judgment-seat, they are being at the right hand, while you are set at the left: Matt. xxv. 32, 33, “And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.” And you shall then appear in exceeding different circumstances. 

While you stand with devils, in the image and deformity of devils, and in ineffable horror and amazement, they shall appear in glory, sitting upon thrones, as assessors with Christ, and as such passing judgment upon you, 1 Cor. vi. 2. And what shame and confusion will then cover you, when so many of your contemporaries, your equals, your neighbors, relations, and companions, shall be honored, and openly acknowledged and confessed by the glorious Judge of the universe and Redeemer of saints, and shall be seen by you sitting with him in such glory, and you shall appear to have neglected your salvation, and not to have improved your opportunities, and rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, the same person that will then appear as your great Judge, and you shall be the subjects of wrath, and, as it were, trodden down in eternal contempt and disgrace! Dan. xii. 2, “Some shall rise to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” And what a wide separation will the sentence then passed and executed make between you and them! When you shall be sent away out of the presence of the Judge with indignation and abhorrence, as cursed and loathsome creatures, and they shall be sweetly accosted and invited into his glory as his dear friends and the blessed of his Father! 

When you, with all that vast throng of wicked and accursed men and devils, shall descend with loud lamenting's and horrid shrieks into that dreadful gulf of fire and brimstone, and shall be swallowed up in that great and everlasting furnace, while they shall joyfully, and with sweet songs of glory and praise, ascend with Christ, and all that beauteous and blessed company of saints and angels, into eternal felicity, in the glorious presence of God, and the sweet embraces of his love; and you and they shall spend eternity in such a separation and immensely different circumstances! And that however you have been intimately acquainted and nearly related, closely united and mutually conversant here in this world; and how much soever you have taken delight in each other’s company! Shall it be so after you have been together a great while, each of you in undoing yourselves, enhancing your guilt, and heaping up wrath, that their so wisely changing their minds and their course, and choosing such happiness for themselves, should now at length be the beginning of such an exceeding and everlasting separation between you and them? How awful will it be to be parted so!

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light - APPLICATION-18

 

 

The use that I shall make of what has been said is to move sinners to this resolution, with respect to those amongst us that have lately turned to God and joined themselves to the flock of Christ. Through the abundant mercy and grace of God to us in this place, it may be said of many of you that are in a Christless condition, that you have lately been left by those that were formerly with you in such a state. There are those that you have formerly been conversant with that have lately forsaken a life of sin and the service of Satan, and have turned to God, and fled to Christ, and joined themselves to that blessed company that is with him. They formerly were with you in sin and in misery, but now they are with you no more in that state or manner of life. They are changed and have fled from the wrath to come; they have chosen a life of holiness here and the enjoyment of God hereafter. They were formerly your associates in bondage and were with you in Satan’s business, but now you have their company no longer in these things. Many of you have seen those you live with, under the same roof, turning from being any longer with you in sin to being with the people of Jesus Christ. Some of you that are husbands have had your wives, and some of you that are wives have had your husbands; some of you that are children have had your parents, and parents have had your children; many of you have had your brothers and sisters; and many your near neighbors and acquaintance and special friends; many of you that are young have had your companions: I say, many of you have had those that you have been thus concerned with, leaving you, forsaking that doleful life and wretched state that you still continue in. God, of his good pleasure and wonderful grace, hath lately caused it to be so in this place that multitudes have been forsaking their old abodes in the land of Moab, and under the gods of Moab, and going into the land of Israel, to put their trust under the wings of the Lord God of Israel. Though you and they have been related, and have dwelt together, or have been often together and intimately acquainted with one another, they have been taken and you hitherto left. O let it not be the foundation of a final parting! But earnestly follow them; be firm in your resolution in this matter. Don’t do as Orpah did, who, though at first, she made as though she would follow Naomi, yet when she had the difficulty of it set before her went back: but say as Ruth, “I will not leave thee; but where thou goest, I will go: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” Say as she said and do as she did. Consider the excellency of their God and their Saviour, and the happiness of their people, the blessed state that they are in, and the doleful state that you are in. 

You who are old sinners, who have lived long in the service of Satan, have lately seen some that were with you, that have traveled with you in the paths of sin these many years, that with you enjoyed great means and advantages, that have had calls and warnings with you, and have with you passed through remarkable times of the pouring out of God’s Spirit in this place, and have hardened their hearts and stood it out with you, and with you have grown old in sin; I say, you have seen some of them turning to God, i.e., you have seen those evidence of it in them, whence you may rationally judge that it is so. O let it not be a final parting! You have been thus long together in sin, and under condemnation; let it be your firm resolution, that, if possible, you will be with them still, now they are in a holy and happy state, and that you will follow them into the holy and pleasant land. 

You that tell of your having been seeking salvation for many years, though, without doubt, in a poor dull way, in comparison of what you ought to have done, have seen some that have been with you in that respect, which was old sinners and old seekers, as you are, obtaining mercy. God has lately roused them from their dullness, and caused them to alter their hand, and put them on more thorough endeavors; and they have now, after so long a time, heard God’s voice, and have fled for refuge to the Rock of Ages. Let this awaken earnestness and resolution in you. Resolve that you will not leave them. 

You that are in your youth, how many have you seen of your age and standing that have of late hopefully chosen God for their God and Christ for their Saviour! You have followed them in sin, and have perhaps followed them into the vain company; and will you not now follow them to Christ? 

And you that are children, there have lately been some of your sort that has repented of their sins, and have loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and trusted in him, and are become God’s children, as we have reason to hope: let it stir you up to resolve to your utmost to seek and cry to God, that you may have the like change made in your hearts, that their people may be your people, and their God your God. 

You that are great sinners, that have made yourselves distinguishingly guilty by the wicked practices you have lived in, there are some of your sort that has lately (as we have reason to hope) had their hearts broken for sin, and have forsaken it, and trusted in the blood of Christ for the pardon of it, and have chosen a holy life, and have betaken themselves to the ways of wisdom: let it excite and encourage you resolutely to cleave to them and earnestly to follow them.

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light, IMMEDIATELY IMPARTED TO THE SOUL-17

 

V. Our resolutions to cleave to and follow those that are turning to God, and joining themselves to his people, ought to be fixed and strong, because of the great difficulty of it. If we will cleave to them and have their God for our God, and their people for our people, we must mortify and deny all our lusts, cross every evil appetite and inclination, and forever part with all sin. But our lusts are many and violent. Sin is naturally exceeding dear to us; to part with it is compared to plucking out our right eyes. Men may refrain from wonted ways of sin for a little while, and may deny their lusts in a partial degree, with less difficulty; but ’tis heart-rending work, finally to part with all sin, and to give our dearest lusts a bill of divorce, utterly to send them away. But this we must do if we would follow those that are truly turning to God. Yea, we must not only forsake sin but must, in a sense, forsake all the world: Luke xiv. 33, “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh, not all he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” That is, he must forsake all in his heart, and must come to a thorough disposition and readiness actually to quit all for God and the glorious spiritual privileges of his people, whenever the case may require it; and that without any prospect of anything of the like nature, or any worldly thing whatsoever, to make amends for it; and all to go into a strange country, a land that has hitherto been unseen; like Abraham, who is called of God, “went out of his own country, and from his kindred, and from his father’s house, for a land that God should show him, not knowing whither he went.” 

Thus it was a hard thing for Ruth to forsake her native country and her father and mother, her kindred and acquaintance, and all the pleasant things she had in the land of Moab, to dwell in the land of Israel, where she never had been. Naomi told her of the difficulties once again. They were too hard for her sister Orpah; their consideration of them turned her back after she was set out. Her resolution was not firm enough to overcome them. But so firmly resolved was Ruth, that she broke through all; she was steadfast in it, that, let the difficulty be what it would, she would not leave her mother-in-law. So people need to be very firm in their resolution to conquer the difficulties that are in the way of cleaving to those who are indeed turning from sin to God. 

Our cleaving to them and having their God for our God and their people for our people depends on our resolution and choice, and that is in two respects. 

1. The firmness of resolution in using means in order to it, is the way to have means effectual. There are means appointed in order to our becoming some of the true Israel and having their God for our God, and the thorough use of these means is the way to have success; but not slack or slight use of them. And that we may be thorough, there is need of the strength of resolution, a firm and inflexible disposition and bent of mind to be universal in the use of means, and to do what we do with our might, and to persevere in it. Matt. xi. 12, “The kingdom of heaven suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” 

2. A choosing of their God and their people, with full determination and with the whole soul, is the condition of a union with them. God gives every man his choice in this matter: as Orpah and Ruth had their choice, whether they would go with Naomi into the land of Israel or stay in the land of Moab. A natural man may choose deliverance from hell; but no man doth ever heartily choose God and Christ, and the spiritual benefits that Christ has purchased, and the happiness of God’s people, till he is converted. On the contrary, he is averse to them; he has no relish in them; and is wholly ignorant of their inestimable worth and value of them. 

Many carnal men do seem to choose these things but do it not really: as Orpah seemed at first to choose to forsake Moab to go into the land of Israel. But when Naomi came to set before her the difficulty of it, she went back; and thereby showed that she was not fully determined in her choice and that her whole soul was not in it as Ruth’s was.