186 / 514
17s
THE HIDDEN
LIFE
.OF
A-
CHRISTIAN.
[SEEM.
X.
[This sermon
may
be divided
here.,]
The
use
I
shall
make
of
this doctrine,
is,
to draw
four
inferences from
it
for
our
instruction, and three
for
our
consolation.
The
inferences for our
instruction
are such
as
these
:,
Ist, Instruction. What
a glorious person is the poor
-
est,
meanest christian? He lives
by
communion
with
God
the
Father
and the
Son
;
for
his life is
hid
with
Christ
in
God,
1
John
i.
3.
Truly- our
fellowship
is
with
the
Father, and
with
his
Son
Jesus
Christ. And
these
things write
we
unto
you,
that
your
joy
may
be
full;
the
joy that
you
may
justly
derive from
so
glorious an
advancement.
A
true christian
does not live upon the
creatures, but
upon
the infinite and almighty
Creator
;
upon
God
who
created all
things
by
Jesus
Christ.
Created
beings were
never
designee
to
be
his
life and
his
happiness;
they
are
too
mean and coarse a fare for
,a
christian to
feed
upon,
in
order
to
support
his
best
life
:
He
converses
with them
indeed, and
transacts
many affairs
that
relate
to
them
in this ,lower
world: While
he dwells
in
flesh
and
blood,
his
heavenly
Father
has
appointed
these to
be
a
great part of
his
business;
but
he does
not
make them
his
portion
and
his life.
They
possess
but
the lower de-
grees
of
his
affection
:
He
rejoices
in
the
possession
of
them,
as
though
he
rejoiced
not;
and
he weeps
for
the
loss
of
them, as
though
he
wept not
:
He
enjoys
the
dearest
comforts
of
life,
as
though
he
had them not;
and
buys with such a holy indifference,
as though
he
were
not
to
possess;
1
Cot.
vii.
29, 50.
for the fashion
of
them passes
away: But the
food
of
his life
is
infinite
and
immortal.
It
is
no
wonder
that
a
man
of
this world
lets
loose all the powers
of
.
his
soul in
the
pursuit
and
enjoyment of
creatures,
for they
are
his
portion
and
his
life.
But
it
is
quite
otherwise
with
a
christian
:.be
has
a
nobler
original,
and sustains
a
higher
character
:
His
divine
life
must have divine
food
to
support
it.
Let
our thoughts take
a
turn
to
some
bare
common,
or
to the
side
of
a
wood,
and
visit
the humble christian
there;
we
shall
find him
cheerful, perhaps,
at
his
din-
,
ner,
of
herbs,
with all
the circumstances
of
meanness
around
him
:
But
what
a
glorious
life be
leads
in
that
straw-cottage, and ,poor
obscurity,
!
The
great
and
gay