PART t. SERMON Ix. 135 a new life ; Eph. ii. 1, 5. which is called being risen with Christ, in the verses before my text ; Col. iii. 1. And this very spiritual life, as the effect of our symbolical resurrection with Christ, is the subject of several verses ofthe 6th chapter to the Romans, whence I cannot but infer the same to be designed here, viz. that the christian who isdead to sin, is risen withChrist, and alive to God ; as Rom. vi. 11. All the life that he lived before, with all the shew and bravery of it, with all the bustle andbusiness, the enter- tainments and delights of it, was but a mere dream, a fancy, the picture of life, a shadow and emptiness, and but little above the brutes that perish. Now he lives a real, a substantial, a divine life, a-kin to God and angels, and quite of a different nature from what the men of this world live. - There is this difference indeed which the scripture makes between the spiritual life and the eternal. The first chiefly res- pects the operations of the soul, for the life of the body is not immortal here: the second includes soul and body too, for both shall possess immortality hereafter. The first is attended with many difficulties and sorrows ; the second is all ease and plea- sure. The first is represented as the labour and service: the last, as the great, though unmerited, reward; Gal. vi. S. Ile that soweth to the Spirit, and fulfils the duties of the spiritual life, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Theone is the life of holiness and inward peace, though mingled with many defects, and surrounded with a thousand disadvantages and trials : the other, is the same life of holiness and peace, having surmounted every difficulty, shining and exulting in full joyand glory. Secondly, We come to consider, in what respeét this life may becalled a hidden life. And here I shall distinguish that part of it, which is more usually called the spiritual life, and is exercised in this world, from that which is more frequently called life eternal, and belongs rather to the world to come : and then I shall make distinct infe- rences from the consideration of each. Now let us consider wherein the spiritual life is said to be hidden. I. The acts and exercises of it are secret and unknown to the public world. The saint is much engaged in the important andhidden concerns of his divine life; and his converse is with God and Christ, who dwell in the world of invisibles. Who knows the secret transactions between God and the soul of a christiau, when he first entered into covenant withGod, through Christ the Mediator, and began this happy life ? Who can tell the inward workings of his spirit towards Jesus Christ his Lord in the first efforts of his faith, and embraces of our Saviour ? Who was acquainted with the secret sorrows of his soul, whenhe was first set a mourning for his pastsins, and humbled himself in
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