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THE HIDDEN LIFE
OF
A
CHRISTIAN.
[SEAM.
IX.,
alai
is
proton,ed
into
glory.
The
same life
of
piety and
inward
pleasure,
which begins on
earth,
is
fulfilled
in
heaven;
and it:may
be
called the
spiritual, or the eter-
nal
life,
according
to
different respects
;
for
it
is
the
same
continued
life
acting
in
different stations or
places,
and running through
time
and
eternity:
1
John
v. 11,
12,.
I
ternal
life
is
in
the
sun,
and
he
that hath
the
Son,
bath
this
lite
it
is
begun in
him, he
is
already
possessed
of it
iñ
some
degree..
As
the
life
of
the child
is
the same with
that
of
the
full-
grown
man;
as
the same
vital
principles and
powers
fun
through
the several successive stages
of
infancy,
youth
and
manhood;
so
the
divine
life
of
a saint, begun
On
earth,
runs.through this
world,
through death, and
the separate
state of souls; it
appears
in
full
-grown
per
-
fe.lion,
in
the
final
heaven, when.
the
whole
saint
shall
stand complete
in
glory.
Thus
the
spiritual
life
of a
christian
is
eternal
life
begun; and
eternal
life is
the spi-
ritual
life
made perfect,
If
we
would describe
this
life in
short,
it
may be
re.
presented
thus
:
It
is
a
life
of
faith,
holiness and
peace;
a
life
of
faith,
or dependance upon
God
for
all
that
we
want;
a
life
of
holiness, rendering
back
again
to
God,
in
a,
way
of honour
and
service,
whatsoever
we
receive
from
hire
in
a way
of mercy; and
a
life
of
peace
in
the
comfortable
sense
of
the
favour of
God, and
our accept.
ance
with
him
through
Jesus
Christ.
All
these
begin on
earth,
and
in
this
sense
faith
itself,
as
well
as
peace and
holiness, shall abide
in
heaven:
we
shall for
ever
be
de-'
pendants,
for
ever happy and
for ever holy.
In-
a
state
of nature
the man lived such a sinful and
carnal
life,
that
was
more
properly
called
death
;
but
when
he
becomes
a
believer, a
true
christian,
he
is
new
created,
2
Cor.
v.
17,
new -Dorn,
John
iii.
3.
raised
from the dead,
and
quickened
to
a
new life,
Eph.
ii.
1,
5.
,which
is
called being risen
with
Christ,
in
the
verses
before
my
text,
Col. iii.
1.
And this very
spiritual
life,
as the effect
of
our
symbolical
resurrection
with
Christ,
is
the
subject
of
several verses
of
the 6th chapter
to the
Romans,
whence
I
cannot
but infer
the same
to be
de,
signed here,
viz.
that
the
christian
who
is
dead
to
sin,
is risen
with
Christ, and
alive to
God;
as
Rom. vi.
11.
4.11
the life
that
he lived before, with all
the
show
nad