Jonathan Edwards: Excerpt from his sermon, “Many Mansions”

Edwards preached it at the dedication ceremony for the new church building in his town of Northampton, MA, in December 1737.

Pews and seats had just been assigned in the new sanctuary. The town leaders used new criteria for assigning these seats, wealth being the foremost among them (for the first time in the town’s history). Edwards was something of a hierarchical guy, but he was nonetheless upset at his leading laymen for giving the best pews in church to the town’s wealthiest people, so he preached a sermon about how his people should care much more about their accommodations in heaven than about where they sit on Sunday morning.

Here’s a sample from “Many Mansions” and is based on John 14:

“Tis very little worth the while for us to pursue after honor in this world, when the greatest honor is but a bubble, and will soon vanish away. And death will level all. Some have more stately houses than others; some are in higher offices than others; and some are richer than others, and have higher seats in the meetinghouse than others. But all graves are upon a level. One rotting, putrefying corpse is as ignoble as another. The worms are as bold with one carcass as another…

if it be worth the while much to prize one seat before another in the house of worship, only because it is the pew or seat that is reckoned first in number, and to be seen here for a few days; how well it is worth the while to seek an high mansion in God’s temple above, and in that glorious palace that is the everlasting habitation of God and all his children. You that are pleased with your seats in this house, because you are seated high; or in a place that is looked upon honorable by those that sit round about, and because many sit behind you; consider how short a time you will enjoy this pleasure.”

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) in Works of Jonathan Edwards 19:745-746.

I dedicate today’s meditation to my earthly father, John E. Hoag, as today is his birthday, and I am thankful that he has taught me to live not for a pleasures on earth but awaiting our mansion in heaven. Happy Birthday, Dad!

Works of Mercy, or the several kinds of corporal Alms.

“The works of mercy are so many, as the affections of mercy have objects, or as the world hath kinds of misery. Men want meat, or drink, or clothes, or a house, or liberty, or attendance, or a grave. In proportion to these, seven works are usually assigned to mercy, and there are seven kinds of corporal alms reckoned.

1. To feed the hungry
2. To give drink to the thirsty.
3. Or clothes to the naked.
4. To redeem captives.
5. To visit the sick.
6. To entertain strangers.
To bury the dead

But many more may be added. Such as are:
8. To care for sick persons.
9. To bring cold and starved people to warmth and to the fire; for sometimes clothing will not do it; or this may be done when we cannot do the other.
10. To lead the blind in right ways.
11. To lend money.
12. To forgive debts.
13. To remit forfeitures.
14. To mend highways and bridges.
15. To reduce or guide wandering travellers.
16. To ease their labours by accommodating their work with apt instruments, or their journey with beasts of carriage.
17. To deliver the poor from their oppressors.
18. To die for my brother.
19. To pay maidens dowries, and to procure for them honest and chaste marriages.

Works of spiritual Alms and Mercy are:
1. To teach the ignorant.
2. To counsel doubting persons.
3. To admonish sinners diligently, prudently, seasonably, and charitably: To which also may be reduced, provoking and encouraging to good works
4. To comfort the afflicted.
5. To pardon offenders.
6. To succour and support the weak.
To pray for all estates of men, and for relief to all their necessities.

To which may be added:
8. To punish or correct refractoriness [resistance to authority].
9. To be gentle and charitable in censuring the actions of others.
10. To establish the scrupulous, wavering and inconstant spirits.
11. To confirm the strong.
12. Not to give scandal.
13. To quit a man of his fear.
14. To redeem maidens from prostitution.”

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), Lord Bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore in The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and Dying (1651), London: Rivington, 1838 edition, 230-231.

“To be able to enjoy fully the many good things the world has to offer, we must be detached from them. To be detached does not mean to be indifferent or uninterested. It means to be nonpossessive. Life is a gift to be grateful for and not a property to cling to.
 
A nonpossessive life is a free life. But such freedom is only possible when we have a deep sense of belonging. To whom then do we belong? We belong to God, and the God to whom we belong has sent us into the world to proclaim in his Name that all of creation is created in and by love and calls us to gratitude and joy. That is what the “detached” life is all about. It is a life in which we are free to offer praise and thanksgiving.”

Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) in Daily Meditation from the Henri Nouwen Society on 20 February 2012.

“Then let us remember that we are his stewards. Our time, our health, our strength, our talents, our all, are his, and his alone. Let us seek to remember this, and carry it out this year, and then what happy Christians shall we all be! It is a divine principle, “To him that hath shall more be given;” [Mark 5:24a] and as assuredly as we seek to make good use of that which is confided to us, more will be imparted. We shall be used of the Lord, and shall become increasingly happy in his own most blessed service. Brethren, we have only one life–one brief life; let us seek with renewed purpose of heart to consecrate that one life wholly to the Lord–day by day to live for God, and serve him with our body, soul, and spirit, which are his.”

George Mueller (1805-1898) in “The Secret of Effectual Service to God” in Friends Review: A Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal, vol. XIX (1865): 275-276.

“Two Desert Fathers had been living together as hermits for many years and had never gotten into a fight. One of them said to the other, “Why don’t we do like everybody else in the world and get into a fight?” The other fellow said, “O.K., how do you do it?” He said, “Well, fights start over possessions, owning something exclusively so that the other fellow can’t have it. Let’s look around and get ourselves a possession and then have a fight over it.” So he found a brick and said, “I will put this brick between us, and I will say, ‘This is my brick,’ and you will immediately say, ‘No, it’s mine,’ and then we will get into a fight.” So the man gets the brick and puts it down between the two of them and says, “This is my brick.” And the other says, “Well, brother, if it is your brick, take it.”

Two desert fathers story retold by Thomas Merton (1915-1968) and recorded in Why We Live in Community by Eberhard Arnold (Robertsbridge, UK: Plough, 1995) 65-66.

“What really starts fighting is possessions. People get into fights by preferring things to people. This is well developed in Christian theology, and therefore for us [who live together in community], the importance of detachment from things, the importance of poverty, is that we are supposed to be free from things that we might prefer people. You can extend that to any limits you like–wherever things have become more important than people, we are in trouble. This is crux of the whole matter [to why we live in community].”

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) a Trappist Monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, as recounted in Why We Live in Community by Eberhard Arnold (Robertsbridge, UK: Plough, 1995) 39-40.

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” Mark 8:34-38

“In our Gospel Jesus tells us forcibly what it means to be a believer in him, a true disciple. We are called to walk in his footsteps. We cannot live just for ourselves, just for worldly gain. Following Jesus means saying “no” to our worldly passions and saying “yes” to his call to give to others without counting the cost as he gave to us. We must remember that God’s call is always empowering. He cannot call us without giving us all we need to follow that call. Do I truly surrender my life to Jesus so he can use me as his disciple?”

Bill Adams in The Redemptorists of the Denver Province blogpost for 17 February 2012.

“Nothing is more generally known than our duties which belong to Christianity; and yet, how amazing is it, nothing is less practiced?”

George Whitefield (1714-1770) in the opening line to his sermon entitled, Christ the Only Rest for the Weary and Heavy Laden on Matthew 11:28

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

“Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.” He also said, “Contentment makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) as quoted by Rich Brott and Frank Damazio in Biblical Principles for Becoming Debt Free: Rescue Your Life & Liberate Your Future (Portland, OR: City Christian Publishing, 2005) 131.

Then [Jesus] said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. Luke 9:23-24

“The fullness of life, which is found only in community, comes at the cost of complete sacrifice.”

Basil Pennington in the introduction to Why We Live in Community by Eberhard Arnold (Robertsbridge, UK: Plough, 1995) x.