SERM, xi (tgE HIDHEN LIFE OF A CFIRISTIAfst 173 v furnish themwithvital powers that shall be incorruptible and everlasting. Thus the life of the saints is hidden in the almightiness of God, as well as in his wisdom and goodness. Thus it is contained in the all sufficience of the divine nature, and each part of it is ready to be produced into'act, in everyproper season. 2. The life of a christian is hidden in the purposes of the divine will. And. in this sense, the whole gospel; with all its wondrous glories and mysteries, is said to be hid in God, Eph. iii. 9. When St. Paul preached among the gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, he made all men see something of that mystery, which from the beginning of the world had been hid in God. And if this be compared with Eph. i. 9. we shall find that this mys- tery of the will, or good- pleasure ofGod, was that which he eternally purposed in himself. There is not one dead sinner awakened, and called in- to this divine and spiritual life here, or that shall ever be possessed of life eternal hereafter, but it was contain- ed in the eternal secret purpose, and merciful design of God, before the world began. For it is a very mean conceit, and a disgraceful opinion concerning the great, God, to imagine that he should 'exert his power to work life in souls, 'here in time, -by any new purposes, or sudden designs, occasioned by any works or merit of theirs, which he had not formed and decreed in himself, long before .he made man. This doctrine would repre- sent God as a mutable being; but we know that he is un- changeable. There is nothing new in God and his im- mutability is that perfection of his nature which secures the performance of this divine purpose, and the life of every christian. 3. I might add, in the third place, that the life of a christian is hidden in the unknown engagements of the Father to his Son Jesus Christ the-Mediator. That sa- cred 'and divine transaction betwixt the Father and the Son, is often intimated in the holy scriptures, and some of the promises of that covenant are there represented, Ps. lxxxix. 19, 28, 29, 56, &c. f have laid help ,upon one that is mighty; my mercy will I keep for him for ever, andmy cotenant shall stand fast with. Trim : his seed kill i-make to endure for ever, and his throne as 4
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