DISCOURSE V. Before a Chapter of Royal-Arch Masons. HE THAT HATH AN EAR TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR, what the great high Priest of our profession hath promised, REVELATIONS II. 17. TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH WILL I GIVE TO EAT OF THE HIDDEN MANNA, AND I WILL GIVE HIM A WHITE STONE, AND IN THE STONE A NEW NAME, WRITTEN, WHICH NO MAN KNOWETH SAVING HE THAT RECEIVETH IT. THIS sublime promise has a peculiar significance to those who have been admitted within the vail of the masonic temple. WITH that caution which becomes me in addressing a mixed audience, I will take the liberty of explaining the passage, for the purpose of pointing out those motives which L it suggests to a patient perseverance in the ways of well doing. THOUGH this chapter of the Apocalypse, and the one preceding, be particularly addressed to the churches of Asia, yet the threatenings and the promises they contain are introduced with a solemnity which bespeaks them intended for the caution and encouragement of christians in general in all succeeding ages, so long as the vices they reprove and the virtues they commend shall be found in the world. "EYE hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit: for the spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of GOD."* These inconceivable glories are described to us in a way conformable to our narrow intellects. Were spiritual and heavenly joys represented as they really are, and defined by their own proper names and qualities, we should be utterly unable to comprehend them, and therefore very incompetent judges of their value. In * 1 Cor. ii. 9. 10. condescension, therefore, to our limited faculties, such metaphors are used in the holy scriptures in revealing to us "the hidden mysteries" of the future life, as are within the comprehension of the human mind, and, in some sort, accommodated to the feelings and wishes of the human heart. Among these is the promise of our text, which I shall now proceed to explain. WITHOUT quoting the various conjectures of commentators and critics into its meaning, all of which I shall take the liberty to reject as contradictory or inapplicable; I shall at once state what I conceive to be the import of the passage. I. THE first part of the promise has undoubtedly a reference to that miraculous provision made for the children of Israel in the wilderness by the immediate hand of GOD. The "hidden manna" alludes to that sample of this bread which was laid up before the Lord in the ark of the covenant:* and by it is intended "that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, that spiritul food with which the soul shall be amply supplied * Compare Exod. xvi. 33. Heb. ix. 4. |