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752
THE.
BIDDEN LITE
OP
A
CHRISTIAN.
[BERM.
IX.
of
his
spirit
towards
Jesus Christ
his
Lord
in the first
efforts
of
bis faith, and embraces
of
our Saviour
?
Who
was
acquainted
with
the secret sorrows
of
his soul,
when
he
was
first
set.a
mourning
for
his
past
sins,
and hum-
bled
himself
in
bitterness before
God
?
Or
who
can
express the surprizing
delight,
and secret satisfaction
he
felt
at
heart,
when
God
communicated to
him
the
first
lively
hópe,of
forgiveness
and
divine salvation
?
O
the
un-
known
joys
of
such an
hour
which some
christians have
experienced,
when
a
divine beam
of
light shone into
their
souls,
and revealed
Jesus Christ
within them, as
St.
Paul
speaks:
when they
saw
his
all
-
sufficiency
of
righteousness and
grace, to
answer
their
infinite
ne-
cessities; and
when
they
durst
believe in
him as
their
Saviour
!
And'
as
the beginnings
of
this life
are hidden
from the
world,
so
the
exercises and progress
of
it are a
secret
too. While the
world
is
following
after
idols and vanity,
the
christian,
in his
retired
chamber,
breathes
after.
his
God
and
his
Redeemer, and
gives a loose to his warm
est
affections,
in
the
pursuit of
his
Almighty
Friend,
and
his
best
beloved.
'While
the
nien
of
this world
are
vex,
ing
their
spirits, and
fretting
under
present disappoint-
ments,
he dwells in
a
lonesome corner,
mourning
for
his
sins and follies.
And
at
another
time, while the
children
of
vanity grow proud
in
public,
and boast
of
their large
possessions and inheritances, he rejoices
in'
secret,
in
the hope
of
glory,
and takes
divine delight
in the fore
-
thought
of
his
better inheritance
among
the
saints:
his
conversation
is
in heaven
;
Phil.
iii.
20.
I might run through
'all
the exercises
of
the sanctified
affections,
and the various parts
of
divine worship, and
of
the
conduct
of
a
saint
among the children
of
men.
With
what humble fear does he
entertain
the
mention
of
the
name
of
God
?
With
what deep
self
-
abasement, and
inward
adoration? At
the
presence
of
sin how
is
his
an-
ger stirred
?,
and
his
holy
watchfulness when temptations
appear?
how does he
labour
and
wrestle, fight and
strive, lest
he be
overcome
by
the secret
enemies
of
his
soul
And
as his
bitterness
of heart
is
unknown
to the
world,
so
a
stranger intermeddles
not
with
his
joy,
Prov.'
xiv.
O.
He
feeds on the same
provision
which
his
Lord