countenance. took liberally of the general stock of happiness which their mu tual labours produced. Serenity and joy appeared in every One office of kindness succeeded another. Business and relaxation had their proper hours assigned them. Now they were in action, then at rest: now employed in their several departments, and then enjoying the enlivening pleasures of social intercourse. Their table was richly spread with the bounties of Providence, and their cup ran over. Alike strangers to sickening intemperance and guilty mirth, they ate their food with relish, and drank their wine with cheerfulness. The friends of virtue and religion met a hearty welcome at their board, and indigence was liberally relieved by their hospitality. Their eyes pitied the distressed, and their hands clothed the naked: the widow, the fatherless, and stranger blessed them. The stated seasons of devotion they considered as the most useful and improving portions of time. With pleasure they assembled, with attention they listened to the doctrines and precepts of God's word, and, animated by one spirit, they addressed their prayers and praises to the great Author of all their enjoyments. Thus happily they passed their days, distributed in prudent proportions between action, study, recreation, and devotion. Following the simple dictates of nature, they acquired and preserved health; living on good terms with their neighbours, they secured to themselves peace; cultivating domestic affections, they enjoyed a flow of innocent and enlivening pleasure; improving their opportunities for contemplation and discourse, they grew in wisdom and virtue; and conversing daily with Heaven in the duties of religion, they were gradually prepared for the sublime services and joys of that better world. Such was the family we meant to describe, and whose story în many interesting particulars of it, it would have been both edifying and pleasing to relate. But we forbear.-Enough, methinks, has been said to kindle in our breasts an ardent desire to copy after their amiable example, and to partake of the rich pleasures they enjoyed. Would to God there were many such families as these! But we have another object in view by holding up this picture to our imagination: it is to assist us in our attempts to frame some conception of the blessedness of the future state. This figure, you see, our Saviour adopts in the text, and upon this figure we mean to ground the present dis course. sorrow. The apostles, to whom the words were more immediately addressed, may be considered as composing one family. Over this family our Saviour, in the character of an indulgent parent, presided. With them he from day to day associated, in all the ha→ bits of the most tender and familiar friendship; defending their persons, supplying their wants, assisting their labours, and, by his instructive and animating discourse, at once enlightening their understandings, and diffusing heavenly joy through their hearts. But he was now at the eve of his final departure from them. The tidings of this sad event with which he had just ac quainted them, filled their breasts with the deepest anxiety and With all the tenderness therefore of a dying parent, he administers seasonable consolation to them. Let not, says he, your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. So he leads their views forward to the world whither he was going, assuring them that they should by and by follow him to that blissful state, and there enjoy in the highest perfection, those domestic pleasures, of which they had here had some taste. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not sọ, I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you.-Words which, I need take no pains to prove to you, may with truth be considered as addressed to all his faithful disciples in every age and country, as well as the apostles. Heaven he compares to a house, to convey an idea of its beauty, convenience, and stability. This house he tells them was his Father's, that great Being to whom he stood related after a manner infinitely more glorious than any other, as he was his own, his only begotten, and well-beloved Son. A house built by his Father, in which he constantly resides, and where he displays his glories in the most perfect manner. In this house there are mansions, abiding places a, apartments for every one of the family, suited to their several capacities and conditions. Of these, mansions, he tells them, there are many, to intimate that the members of this family are numerous, and that provision is made for them all. And to prepare this happy place for them, and for all who stood related to him, was his object a Moyas. in going thither, as well as to receive himself the just reward of his sufferings. To all which he kindly adds, that if it were not so, he would have told them. They had ere this heard of heaven, framed some idea of it, and been firmly persuaded of its reality. And they might rest assured, such was his affection for them, and such the convincing proofs he had given them of it, that if they had been imposed upon in this matter, he would not have failed to undeceive them. Now, upon all these expressive circumstances in our Saviour's figurative description of heaven, assisted by a variety of other passages of Scripture; we might ground many positions respecting the nature, perfection, extent, and continuance of the heavenly blessedness. And from thence we might proceed to a particular examination of the evidence of a future state of happiness, to which that peculiar mode of language our Lord uses naturally leads us-A mode of language admirably expressive of his native simplicity and ingenuousness, and of the affectionate regards he bore to those with whom he was thus familiarly discoursing. On these things we might, I say, with great profit and pleasure insist. But, waving the particular and accurate investigation of these important points, we will content ourselves with a general illustration of the metaphor before us, and the rather as this treatment of our text best comports with our intention in the choice of it. And so we will proceed to improve the subject. Let us, then, consider the state of the blessed under the idea of a Family. To this figure there is an allusion in other passages of Scripture besides our text. The people of God, you need not be told, are often described as his children and servants; and of him, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the whole family in heaven and in earth is named a. Now the ideas which this pleasing emblem suggests, we shall class under the following particulars the House in which this family dwells-the Members of which it is composed-their Employment and Pleasures -and the Continuation of their existence and happiness. I. Heaven is the House in which this family resides. a Eph. iii. 14, 15. are the ideas which first strike our minds when we speak of a house. And when we attentively consider the fair mansions of the great, while we are pleased and delighted with the proportion, elegance, and grandeur of these noble structures, we fail not to admire the skill of the architect. The effect leads us back to the cause, and we presume that a builder who had so happily succeeded, were he to exert his powers on a larger scale, a plan of still wider extent, he would give further proofs of his ability. So palaces the most superb, like those of which we read in ancient history, rise to our view, and we are struck with wonder and veneration. In such manner we may proceed in our attempts to frame some idea of that august edifice, which the great Parent of the universe has erected, at an infinite expence, for the entertainment of his family above. A sample he has given of his power and skill in the creation of this world, the mansion he has built for the residence of mankind during their abode on earth. What a pleasing employment to a contemplative mind to survey the wonderful building in all its parts, and the several parts in the relation they bear to the whole! When we go down to the foundations of this house, consider the superstructure raised thereon, examine the materials of which it is framed, and the manner they are arranged, enter into its several apartments, measure its prodigious extent, dwell on the innumerable beauties with which it is adorned, and then gaze on the magnificent covering cast over it; when we thus contemplate, I say, this house built for the residence of man, how are our minds overwhelmed with the most stupendous ideas of the power and skill of the great Architect! Hence then we may conclude with unquestionable truth, that the house he has erected for the everlasting reception and entertainment of his own proper family-the family he most tenderly loves-the family he has redeemed with the blood of his own Son; must be commodious, beautiful, and splendid beyond imagination. It is the House of God—the greatest of all Beings! It is the House of our Father-the best of all Beings! When infinite greatness and goodness unite to prepare a mansion for the residence of favourites, that mansion can want nothing to make it glorious in the highest degree.-Let us now enquire, ness. II. Who are the Members that compose this family? The Head of the family is the ever-blessed God, the fountain, centre, and essence of excellence, perfection, and happiWhat tongue can describe, what mind conceive his peerless glories? The most exalted seraph cannot comprehend them. When our imagination has wandered through the universe, collected every possible excellence, and attributed them. to one immense, omnipotent, and eternal Being; we shall even then have acquired but a faint idea of God. Such however is the character of him who deigns to be the Master of this august house, the Father of this illustrious family! To a mortal eye he is invisible, but not so to the happy spirits who compose his household above. Their intellectual sight is so refined, strengthened, and enlarged, as not to be hurt or dazzled by the full blaze of glories poured upon it from the Sun of righteousness. They see God: they know him, they converse with him after a manner the most pleasing, delightful, and rapturous. As Master of this great family he presides over their affairs with consummate wisdom and prudence, takes effectual care of their interests, prepares their table for them, and causes their cup to run over; assigns to every one his proper service, accepts their offices of duty and love, and rewards their obedience with infinite liberality and goodness. And as a Father, he is ever among them in all the habits of the most endearing familiarity, unbosoms his soul to them, assures them of his favour, enriches them with his bounty, and makes them happy beyond expression and imagination. The most perfect picture that can be drawn of an earthly parent, exhibits but a shadowy resemblance of his parental wisdom, faithfulness, and love. These qualities, in whatever degree they may be supposed to exist among any of his intelligent creatures, originate from him when he therefore in the character of a Father assembles his children about him, they will no doubt be displayed in all their transcendent perfection. : Christ is the Son of the living God a, his own, his only-begotten Son b, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person c. But it is in the relation he bears c Heb. i. 3. a Matt. xvi. 16. b Rom. viii. 32. John i. 14. |