DISCOURSE V. BEFORE A CHAPTER 0» ROYAL-ARCH MASONS. HE THAT HATH AN BAR TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR, what the great high Priest of our profef fron hath promised, REVELATIONS 11. 17. TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH WILL I GIVE TO EAT OF THE HIDDEN MANNA, AND I WILL GIVE HIM THIS fublime promise has a peculiar fignificance to those who have been admitted within the vail of the mafonic temple. WITH that caution which becomes me in addreffing a mixed audience, I will take the liberty of explaining the paffage, for the purpofe of pointing out those motives which it fuggefts to a patient perfeverance in the ways of well doing. THOUGH this chapter of the Apocalypfe, and the one preceding, be particularly addreffed to the churches of Afia, yet the threatenings and the promises they contain are introduced with a folemnity which be, fpeaks them intended for the caution and encouragement of christians in general in all fucceeding ages, fo long as the vices they reprove and the virtues they commend fhall be found in the world. "EYE hath not feen, 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 fpirit: for the spirit fearcheth all things, yea the deep things of GOD." These inconceivable glories are described to us in a way conformable to our narrow intellects. Were fpiritual and heavenly joys reprefented as they really are, and defined by their own proper names and qualities, we should be utterly * 1 Cor. ii. 9. 10. unable to comprehend them, and therefore very incompetent judges of their value. In condefcenfion, therefore, to our limited faculties, fuch metaphors are used in the holy scriptures in revealing to us "the hidden myfteries" of the future life, as are within the comprehenfion of the human mind, and, in fome fort, 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 fhall take the liberty to reject as contradictory or inapplicable; fhall at once ftate what I conceive to be the import of the paffage. I 1. THE firft part of the promise has undoubtedly a reference to that miraculous provifion made for the children of Ifrael in the wilderness by the immediate hand of GOD. The "hidden manna" alludes to that fample 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 Compare Exod. xvi. 33. Heb. ix. 4. |