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THE HIDDEN
LIFE
OF
A
CHRISTIAN.
[SERAI,
X.
that
their better
life
is
safe
:
He
gives his
angels charge
over
them, to
keep.
them
on
earth, or
to
bear
them
up to
heaven, where
their
life
is;
Ps.
xci.
11,
12..
Thence
it comes
to pass
that
we see
christians, search-
ing
after
God
in
ordinances and
seeking
for the Lord
Jesus
Christ
in
sermons, in
prayers,
in
the
closet,
and
in the
sanctuary
;
for
they
live
upon
him.
A holy
soul
pursues
after'
the presence
of
his
God, and
his
Saviour,
with the
same zeal
of
affection
and' fervent
desire,
that
the
men
of
this world
indulge in
their pursuit
of
created
good
:
My
soulfollozvéth
hard
after
thee;
Ps. lxiii.
8.
Carnal
persons
are contented
to be
absent
from
God,
for
he
is
not
their
life
:
They can
satisfy themselves
with
a
shew
of
religion,
without the
power
of
it;
and
with
empty
forms
of
ordinances, without Christ
in
them,
-be-
,cause
they
are not
born
again,
their
life
is
not
spiritual.
The sinner
lives
upon
visible
creatures, and these awaken
his warmest affections.
A
saint
lives
upon hidden and
invisible
things,
upon the
hopes
of
futurity,
and upon
the
glories
that
are
concealed
in
the
promises; He
lives
,upon the righteousness and
the intercession
of
Jesus
his
Mediator,
upon the strength and grace
of
Christ,
who
is his
head
in heaven
;
upon the
word, the promise,
and
the
all-
sufficiency
of
a
God_;
and
therefore
these
are ob-
jects of
his
meditation and
his
desire.
I
proceed
now to
the three inferences for
our
consola-
tion.
Ist
Consolation.
If
our
life be
hidden
with
-God,
and
our
Lord
Jesus
Christ,
then it
is
in safe
hands.
The
wisdom
and
mercy
of God
have
joined
together,
to
ap-
point, shall
.I
say,
such
a secret repository
for
our spi-
ritual
life,
that
it might
be
for ever secure.
What
can
we
have,
or
what can
we
desire more for the safety
of
our
best
life,
than that God
himself should
undertake
to
re-
serve
it
in
himself for
us,
and
appoint
his own
eternal
Son, in
our
nature,
to
be
the
great Trustee
and
Surety,
for
his
exhibition
of
it
in
every
proper
season
?
Our
original
life was
hid
in
the first Adam
;
it
was
in-
trusted
with man,
poor,
feeble,
inconstant
man,
and
he
Jost
it:
He
was
of
the
earth, earthy, and
our
life with
him
goes down to
the
dust.
Our
new
life
is
intrusted
with
Christ;
it
is
.hidden in
God,
who
is
almighty and
unchangeable' :
and therefore
it
can
never be
lost.
The