184 THE HIDDEN LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN. [SERAI, X. that their better life is safe : He gives his angels charge over them, to keep. themon earth, or to bear them up to heaven, where their life is; Ps. xci. 11, 12.. Thence it comes to pass that we see christians, search- ing after God in ordinances and seeking for the Lord Jesus Christ in sermons, in prayers, in the closet, and in the sanctuary ; for they live upon him. A holy soul pursues after' the presence of his God, and his Saviour, with the same zeal of affection and' fervent desire, that the men of this world indulge in their pursuit of created good : My soulfollozvéth hard after thee; Ps. lxiii. 8. Carnal persons are contented to be absent from God, for he is not their life : They can satisfy themselves with a shew of religion, without the power of it; and with empty forms of ordinances, without Christ in them, -be- ,cause they are not born again, their life is not spiritual. The sinner lives upon visible creatures, and these awaken his warmest affections. A saint lives upon hidden and invisible things, upon the hopes of futurity, and upon the glories that are concealed in the promises; He lives ,upon the righteousness and the intercession of Jesus his Mediator, upon the strength and grace of Christ, who is his head in heaven ; upon the word, the promise, and the all-sufficiency of a God_; and therefore these are ob- jects of his meditation and his desire. I proceednow to the three inferences for our consola- tion. Ist Consolation. If our life be hidden with -God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, then it is in safe hands. The wisdom and mercy of God have joined together, to ap- point, shall .I say, such a secret repository for our spi- ritual life, that it might be for ever secure. What can we have, or what can we desire more for the safety of our best life, than that God himself should undertake to re- serve it in himself for us, and appoint his own eternal Son, in our nature, to be the great Trustee and Surety, for his exhibition of it in every proper season ? Our original life was hid in the first Adam ; it was in- trusted with man, poor, feeble, inconstant man, and he Jost it: He was of the earth, earthy, and our life with him goes down to the dust. Our new life is intrusted with Christ; it is .hidden in God, who is almighty and unchangeable' : and therefore it can never be lost. The
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