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SERM.
X.]
THE HIDDEN
LIFE
OF
A
CHRISTIAN..
183
pleasure
;
that
is
God
to
the
saint,
that
is
Christ Jesus
to
the
christian;
and
therefore
he
is
ever desirous
of
such further manifestations
of God
and Christ,
that
may
invigorate
his
spiritual
life,
and
give him-
the pleasing
relish
of
living.
Then
a man feels
that
he lives,
when
he
is
-near
to the
spring of
his
life,
and derives fresh
sup-
plies from
it
every moment.
Thence
it
is,
that
in every
distress or danger, the
saints
fly
to
God
for refuge and
relief: He
is
their
great
hiding-
place
;
Ps.
xxxii.
7.
And
Christ
Jesus
is
represented
in
prophecy
under
the same
character; Is.
xxxii.
2.
This
man,
in
whom
the godhead
dwells bodily,
shall
be
a
hiding-place
from the wind,
and
a
covert
from
the
tem-
pest.
The
name-
of God
in
Christ,
is
a strong tower
;
the righteous run intò
it,
to hide themselves,
and
are
safe
;
Prove. xviii.
10.
Their
life
is
in
God,
in
the
keep=
ing -of Christ, and they can
defy
deaths and dangers,
when their
faith
is
strong, and their thoughts
are
fixed
above.
They
know
the meaning
of that tender
and divine
lan-
guage
;
Is. xxvi.
20.
Come,
my people,
,enter
thou into
thy
chambers,
and
shut
thy doors about thee;
hide
thy-
self,
as
it
were,
for
a
little
moment,
until
the
indig-
nation
be
over-past.
In a
time
of
public terror, and
spreading desolation,
they
retire
to
their secret
places
of
converse with God, and are secured,
at
least
from
the
terror,
if
not
from
the destruction
,too.
When
the
at-
rows
of
death
fly
thick
around
them
by
day,
and
the pes-
tilence
walks
through the streets
in
darkness,
when
a
thousand
fall
at
their
side,
and ten
thousand
at
their
right
-
hand, they make the
Lord
their
.
refuge, even
the
most
high
their habitation, and dwell
at
ease in
his
secret
place.
He
covers them from
evil,
or
he gives
them
cou-
rage,
so
that
they
are not afraid: They
place themselves:
under the protection
-of
his
name
;
they
find
shelter
in
his
attributes
:
These are their secret
chambers
;
they
hide within thé curtains
of
his
covenant, they wrap
their
souls,
as
it were,
in
a
sheet, or
rather in
*a
volume
of
promises; that
ancient
volume
that
has secured the
saints
in
all ages
and though
death
be
near
:them,
the,: khow
The bible. of
old,
ú-as
written
on
F:cvc.cï
°l,eets of
;
a,cútnerit
together.
and roiled
ìtp in
ä
vólume.
: