,r;RM. Ig,' TITE iTIDDE:N LTFE-OF A CHR,:STIAIS. 151 bravery of it, with all the bustleand business, the en- tertainments 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 lie lives a real, a substantial, a divine life, a-kin to God and an- gels, and quite of a different nature fromwhat 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 respects 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 pleasure. The first is represented as the labour and service : the last, as the great, though unmerited, reward: Gal. vi. 8. He that soweth to the Spirit, and fulfils the duties of the spiritual life, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting., The one is the life of holiness and inward peace, though mingled with many defects, and surrounded with a thou- sand disadvantages and trials : the other,, is the same life of holiness and peace, having surmounted every dif- ficulty, shining and exulting in full joy and glory Secondly, We come to consider, in what respects this life may be called 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 inferences from the considera- tion 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 and hidden 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 christian, when he first entered into cove- nant with God, through Christ the Mediator, and be- gan this happy life ? Who can tell the inward workings L4
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