170 THE HIDDEN LIFE OP A CHRISTIAN. [sERM. IX. kind than that which belongs to the sinners of this world : your life is spiritual and holy; theirs is sinful, and en= gaged in the works of the flesh : Your life is heavenly, and seeks the things which are above theirs is derived from the earth, and grovels in the dust: Your life is everlasting, for your souls shall live for ever in a glori- ous state, and your bodies shall be raised from death into equal immortality, and a partnership of the same glory; but their best life its only a temporal one, and when that is at an end, all their joys and their hopes are.for ever at an end too, and their eternal sorrows begin. But this life of a christian is a hidden life. That was the first doctrine I raised from the text. Both the ope- rations and the springs of it, area secret to the world, and the future glories of it, when it is most properly called eternal life, are still a greater secret, and much more ,unknown : Yet, saith the apostle, I can acquaint you where the springs of it lie, and whence all the future glories of it are to be derived ; they are hidden in God, 'with our Lord Jesus Christ. Now by giving so short a hint, in a word or two, where this our life is hid, he has said something greater, and brighter, and more sublime, concerning it, than if he had shewn us, from a high mountain, at noon -day, all the kingdoms of this world, with all the dazzling glories of them, and then pointed downward, there your life is." Let this therefore be the second doctrine, and the subject of our present meditations, that the life of a christian is hidden with Christ in God. It is hidden in God, as the first original and eternal spring of it, and entrusted-with Christ as a faithful Mediator; it iS' hid in God, where our Lord Jesus Christ is, and he is ap- pointed to take care of it, for us; for he, also is, called our life, rer. 4. The method I shall take for the improvement of this truth is, to explain these words of the apostle more at large, and then deduce sonie inferences from them.. The first enquiry will arise, in what respect the chris- tian "s life is said to be hidden in God ? And, Secondly, What is meant by its being hidden with Christ ? I. First, In What respect is the life of a. christian said to be hidden in God ?
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=