SERMON I.x. The Hidden Life -of a Christian. Cot. iii. 3. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ ioGod. THE FIRST PART. DEATH and life are two words of a solemn and important sound. They carry so much of force and moment in them, as must awaken mankind to attention ; and therefore the Spirit of God oftenuses them as metaphors, to express things unseen and spiritual, and to describe the state both of saints and sinners : So that all who arealive onthe face of the earth, in the language of scripture, are said to be dead too, but in different senses. Those who are in a state of nature, and under the power of sin, unpar- doned and unsanctified, are dead in trespasses and sins ; yet they live the life of brutes hi the lusts of the flesh, or the life of devils in the lusts of the mind ; Eph. ii. 1, 2. Those who are recovered fromthe fall, and brought into a state of grace by the gospel of Christ, aresaid to bedeadalso ; that is, they are dead to sin ; Rom. vi. 11. and theyarecrucified, and sodead to the world ; Gal. vi. 14. The delights ofsin are hateful to them, so that they allure themnot to forsake their God ; and the lawful enjoyments of life are so far tasteless to the saints, in comparison of the things of heaven, that they have much less influence, than once they had, to tempt them away from God, and from the practice ofholiness. It is in this sense the christian Colossians aresaid to be dead in my text. But they have another, a new life, and that of a dif- ferent kind ; such as ismentioned in this verse, and whichis hid withChristin God : and it is this hidden life shall be the chief subject ofmy discourse. These latter wordsof the text afford two plain and easypro- positions or doctrines. I. That the life of a christian is a hidden life. II. That it is hid with Christ in God. Let us meditate on them in order. Doctrine 1. 'A christian's life is ahidden life. Here we
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