SERM. THE HIDDEN LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN. 149 power ofsin, unpardoned and ilnsanctified, are dead in trespasses and sins ; yet they live the life of brutes in the lusts ofthe flesh, or the life of devils in the lusts of the mind, Eph. ii. 1, Q. Those who are recovered from the fall, and brought into a state of grace by the gospel of Christ, are said to bedead also ; that is, they are dead tò sin, Rom. vi. 11. and they are crucified, and so dead to the world, Gal. vi. 14. The delights of sin are hateful to them, so that they allure them not, 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 liad, to tempt them away from God, and from the practice of holiness. It is in this sense the christian Colossians are said to be dead in my text. But they have another, a new life, and that ofa different kind; such as is mentioned in this verse, and which is hid with Christ in God : and it is this hidden life shall be the chief subject of my dis- course. These latter words of the text afford two plain and easy propositions or doctrines. I. Thatthe life of a christian is a hidden life. II. That it is hid with Christ in God. Let us medi- tate on them in order. Doctrine I. A christian's life is a hidden life. Here we shall, First, Consider what is this life, which is said to be; hidden. And, Secondly, In what respects it is so. First, What is this life of a christian which is said to be hidden Not the animal life, whereby he eats, drinks, sleeps, moves and walks ; this is visible enough to all about him. Not the civil life, as he stands in relation to other men in the world, whether as a son, as a father, a master, or a servant, a trader, a labourer, or an officer in the state: For all these are public, and seen of men. But the hidden life is that whereby he is a christian indeed ; his spiritual life, wherein he is devoted to God, and lives to the purposes of heaven and eternity. And this is the same life, which, in other parts of scripture, is called eternal; for the life of grace survives the grave, L3
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