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THE
HIDDEN LIFE
OF
A
CHRISTIAN.
[SERM.
IX.
wrought at first?
how this
heavenly
breath,
this divine
life
.was
infused, which
changed a dead sinner into
a
living
saint
?
Our
Saviour himself compares this
work
of
the Spirit
to
the wind
;
John
iii.
8.
We
hear
the
sound,
we feel
and
see
the
effects
of
it,
but
we
know
not
whence
it
comes,
nor
whither
it goes
;
so is
every
one
that
is
born of
the Spirit.
Who
can
describe those
se-
cret
and almighty influences
of
the blessed
Spirit
on the
mind and
will
of
man, which work with such a sove-
reign,
and yet such
a
gentle,
and
con
-
natural
agency,
that
the believer himself hardly
knows
it,
but
by
the
gra-
cious
effects
of
it,
and
the blessed
alterations
wrought
in
his
soul.
It
is
this
glorious Agent, this
Creator,
this
blessed
Spirit,
who
is
the
uncreated principle of
this
life.
The
Spirit,
as
proceeding
from
our
Lord Jesus
Christ, begun
this
life
at
first
in
the
soul.:
and the same glorious unseen
power carries it
on
through:
all difficulties
and opposi-
tions,
arid
will
fulfil it in
glory.
.
Ì
must
acid.also,
that
Christ: himself, who
is
said to be
our
life
in
the
verse following
my.
text,
is
at
present
hidden
from
us
;
he dwells
in
the
unseen world, and the
Leavens
must
receive
him till
the
restitution of
all
things;
. .cts
iii.
2,1.
Christ Jesus
is
the
bread from
heaven;
John
vi.
°2,
33.
by
which
the believer
is
nourished;
he
is
the
hidden manna, the divine food
of
souls:
It
is
upon
him
the christian
lives
daily
and
hourly;
it
is
upon
the
blood
of
the Lamb,. which
is
carried
up to the mercy
-
seat,
that
the believer
lives
for
pardon and
peace with
God
:
It
is
upon
the righteousness
of
his
Lord and Head,
that
Le
lives for his
everlasting acceptance
before
the
throne;
it
is
upon
the grace and
strength of Christ,
that
he
rests
and depends
all
the
day,
when
he
is
called forth
to
encounter
the boldest temptations,
to
fulfil
the most
difficult duties, or to sustain the heaviest strokes of
a
painful providence. "
Surely, saith
the saint,
in
the
Lord
alone
have
I
righteousness and strength,
Is.
xlv.
24.
In the Lord
my
Saviour, whom the world
sees
not;
but
I
see him by
the
eye
of
faith."
I
shall
enlarge
farther
on
this
subject under the
second
doctrine.
Thus, whether
we
consider
the
spiritual
acts and
ex
-.
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