166 TRE HIDDEN LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN. [SEAM. IX. continuance in this lower visible world !" This is the language of the fearful believer : But it is better to have our christian courage wrought up to a divine height, and to say, " Open ye everlasting gates, and be ye lift up, O ye immortal doors, that we may enter into the place where the king of glory is." There shall we see God, the great unknown, and re- joice in his overflowing love. We shall see him not as we do on earth, darkly, through the glass of ordinances; but inferior spirits shall converse with the Supreme Spi- rit, as bodies dowith bodies; that is face to face, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. There shall we behold.Christ our Lord in the dignity of his character as Mediator, in the glory of his king- dom,, and the all -sufficiency of his godhead ; and we shall be for ever with hire. There shall we see millions of blessed spirits, who have lived the same hidden life as we do, and passed through this vale of tears, with the same attending difficulties and sorrows, and by the same divine assistances. They were unknown; and covered with dust as we are, while they dwelt in flesh, but they appear all-glorious and well-known in the world of spi- rits, and exult in open and immortal light : We shall see them, and we shall triumph with them in that day; we shall learn their language, and taste their joys,: we shall be partakers of the same glory, which Christ our life, diffuses all around him, on the blessed inhabitants of that intellectual world. III. Inference. How glorious is the difference be- tween the two parts of the christian's life, viz. the spiri- tual life on earth, and the perfection of eternal life in heaven ; when all that is now hidden shall be revealed before men and angels ! Come now, and let us take occasion from this dis- course, to let loose our meditations one stage beyond death and the separate state, even to the morning of the resurrection, and the full and public assemblyof all the saints. O what an illustrious appearance ! What a nu- merous and noble army of new creatures ! Creatures that were hidden in this world among the common herd of mankind, and their bodies hidden in the grave, and mingled with common dust, rising' all at once, at the
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