SERM. X.] THE HIDDEN LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN.. 183 pleasure ; that is God to the saint, that is Christ Jesus to the christian; and therefore he is ever desirous of such further manifestations of God and Christ, that may invigorate his spiritual life, and give him- the pleasing relish of living. Then a man feels that he lives, when he is -near to the spring of his life, and derives fresh sup- plies from it every moment. Thence it is, that in every distress or danger, the saints fly toGod for refuge and relief: He is their great hiding- place ; Ps. xxxii. 7. And Christ Jesus is represented in prophecy under the same character; Is. xxxii. 2. This man, in whom the godhead dwells bodily, shall be a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tem- pest. The name- of God in Christ, is a strong tower ; the righteous run intò it, to hide themselves, and are safe ; Prove. xviii. 10. Their life is in God, in the keep= ing -of Christ, and they can defy deaths and dangers, when their faith is strong, and their thoughts are fixed above. They know the meaning of that tender and divine lan- guage ; Is. xxvi. 20. Come, my people, ,enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thy- self, as it were, for a little moment, until the indig- nation be over-past. In a time of public terror, and spreading desolation, they retire to their secret places of converse with God, and are secured, at least from the terror, if not from the destruction ,too. When the at- rows of death fly thick around them by day, and the pes- tilence walks through the streets in darkness, when a thousand fall at their side, and ten thousand at their right -hand, they make the Lord their . refuge, even the most high their habitation, and dwell at ease in his secret place. He covers them from evil, or he gives them cou- rage, so that they are not afraid: They place themselves: under the protection -of his name ; they find shelter in his attributes : These are their secret chambers ; they hide within thé curtains of his covenant, they wrap their souls, as it were, in a sheet, or rather in *a volume of promises; that ancient volume that has secured the saints in all ages and though death be near :them, the,: khow The bible. ofold, ú-as written on F:cvc.cï °l,eets of ;a,cútnerit together. and roiled ìtp in ävólume. :
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