180 THE HIDDEN LIFE Or A CHRISTIAN. CSERM X. formed surprising services for God iñ the world, they are yet contented to submit to smarting and heavy trials from the hands of their heavenly Father, without being angry at their God ; they know he loves them, and he designs all things shall work together for their good. Besides all this, they bear dreadful persecutions, cruel mockings, and scourgings, and tortures, from the hands of men, and go through all the 'sorrows of martyrdom. What noble instances and miracles of this kind did the primitive age furnish us with, so that their tormentors Were amazed ? They saw not the secret springs of divine life which supported them ; they knew not the grace of God, and the power of Christ, by which the christians were upheld in all their labours and their sufferings. The spring of their life was almighty, but it was hidden -from the eyes of men : It was concealed' and reserved with Christ in God. Read the labours and the sufferings Of St. Paul; Cor. xi. 23. In stripes above measure, in prisonsfre- quent, in deaths often: He was beaten with rods, he was stoned, he suffered shipwreck, in perpetual perils by land and sea, in weariness, in painfulness, in watch- ings and fastings, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness. One would think his bones were iron, and his flesh was brass. He was invisibly supported by Christ the spring of his life. Read his wonderous vir- tues and self-denial; Phil. iv, 11, 12, 13. I know how to be abased, and how to abound; I can be full, and be hungry; I,can possess plenty, and I can suffer want; I can do all things through Christ strengthening me. This was the fountain of his life and strength: Iacknowledge, says he, in another place, that I am nothing, I have no sufficiency of myself to think so much as one good thought: But all my sufficiency is of God, in whommy life is hid; 2 Cor. iii. 5. And with what a devout zeal does he ascribe his life to Christ, in that glorious amassment of spiritual para- doxes ! Gal. ii. 20. I am crucified with Christ, never- theless I live; yet, not I, but Christ liveth in me : and the lifewhich I now live in the flesh, I live by thefaith of theSon of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Therefore I can be delivered to death daily for Jesus Christ's sake; troubled andperplexed, and yet not 5
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