BERM. X.3 THE HIDDEN LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN. 169 themselves, and rise far above all that they heard, or saw, or could conceive ! Each of them surprized, like the queen of Sheba in the court of Solomon, shall confess with thankful astonishment and joy, that not one half of it was told them, even in the wordof God. " And was this the crown, shall the christian say, for which I fought on earth at so poor and feeble a rate ? And was this the prize for which I ranwith a pace so slow and lazy ? And were these the glories which I sought with so cold and indifferent a zeal in yondeK world ? O shameful indiffer- ence ! O surprising glories ! O undeserved prize and crown ! Had I imagined how bright the blessing was, which lay hidden in the promise, surely all my powers had been animated to a warmer pursuit. Could I have seen what I ought to have believed; had I but taken in all that was told me concerning this glorious and eternal life, surely I would have ventured through many deaths. 'to: secure the possession of it. O guilty negligence ! and criminal unbelief ! But thy sovereign mercy, O my God, has pardoned both, and made me possessor of the fair inheritance, Behold I bow at thy feet for ever, and adore the riches of overflowing grace. Amen, SERMON X. THE HIDDEN LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN. COL. iii. 3. Fpr ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. THE SECOND PART. If is to the christian converts who were at Colosse, that the apostle addresses himself, in this strange lan= guage: Ye are dead, and yet I tell you where your life is. This divine writer delights sometimes to surprise his readers, by joining such opposites, and uniting such distant, extremes. But can a dead person have any life in him ? Yes, and a noble one too, ye are dead to the world, and dead to sin, but yé have a life of another
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