THE MANY MANSIONS deg.
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 of them counsel to live in unity and love
one another, as one that was going from them. By 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 afterwards, in
the 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, and particularly Peter. Peter
in the latter part of the foregoing chapter asked him whither 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 afterwards. 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. An house of public worship is an house
where God's people meet from time to time to attend on 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 cherubims.
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 most holy 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."
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 is
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 large, 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 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.
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 condition 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 in the beginning
of the world, he intended it for 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
an 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.
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 that 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 to 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 every one 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