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SERM.
X.]
THE HIDDEN
LIFE
OF
A
CHRISTIAN.
}8l
in despair
;
be
cast
down,
and
not
be
destroyed;
because
I
believe
that
the
life
of Jesus
must
be
made manifest
in
my
mortal
flesh,
and
he which
raised up the
Lord
Jesus,
shall wise
us
up also
by
Jesus, and shall
present
us
with
you,
2
Cor.
iv.
14.
IIId
Instruction.
See
whither
a
dead
sinner must
go
to
attain
spiritual
and
eternal
life,
and whither
a
decay-
ing dying
christian
mustgo
for the
recruit of
his
fainting
life
too
:
it
is
to
God
by
Jesus
Christ, for
it
is
all
hidden
with
Christ
in
God.
In
vain shall
a
man
who is
dead
in
trespasses and
sins,
.toil
and labour, and hope
to
attain
life
any
other
way,
God
is
the
spring
of
all
life,
and
he has
betrusted it
to
the
hands
of Jesus Christ:
I
ant
the
way,
the
truth,
and
the
life, says
our
Saviour
;
John
xiv. 6.
No
man
can
have
life
without
coming to the living
Father;
and
no
man cometh to the
Father
but
by me.
Seneca and
Plato,
with
their moral lectures, and
the writings
of
hu-
man
philosophy, may give
a
man new garments, may
make
his
outward
life
appear
much
better
than
before;
they
may
teach
him in
some
measure, to govern his pas-
sions
too, and
subdue
some
of
the
fleshly
appetites; but
they
cannot
raise
him
to
the
love
of
God,
to
the
hatred
of
every
sin,
to the well-
grounded
hopes
of
the favour
of
God, the blessed
expectation
of a
holy
immortality,
and
a
preparation
for heaven.
They
cannot
give
the
man
a
new life
:
He must,be born
again
of
the
Spirit
of
Christ,
or he
can
never become
a
living.christian.
And
in
vain would the
poor
backsliding christian,
with
his withering decaying
graces,
recruit'
and
renew his di-
vine
life,
without applying himself
afresh to
Jesus Christ:
While
he forgets
Christ, he must
go on to
wither and
decay
still.
There
is
nothing
in
earth
or heaven
can
supply the
utter
absence
of
our Lord Jesus
Christ.
When
the
stream
of
spiritual
life
ebbs
or runs
low,
it
is
not
to be
quickened, recovered, or increased,
but
by
new
supplies from the
fountain
which
is
on high.
Re-
member, O
degenerate
christian, remember
wbence.
it
was
you
derived
your
first
life,
when
you
were once
dead in
trespasses and
sins
;
fly
to the Saviour
by new
exercises
of
faith
and dependence, mourning,
in
all humility,
for
your unwatchful
walking,
and your absence
from
the
Lord. Commit
your soul
afresh
to his care,
exert your
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