150 ,THE HIDDEN LIF£ OF A emus-1IAN. Ç' In stripes above measure, in prisons frequent, in deaths often He was beaten with rods, he was stoned, he suffered shipwreck, in perpetual perils by land and sea, in weariness, in painfulness, iñ watchings and fastings, in hunger andthirst, in cold and naked- ness. One would thins his bones were iron, and his flesh were "brass. He was invisibly supported by Christ the spring of hi$ life. Read his wondrous virtues and self-denial; Phil, iv. 11, 12, 13. I know how to be abased and how to abound ; I can be full, and be hungry ; I can possess plenty, and I can suffer want : I can do all things through Christ strengthening me. This was thefountain of his life and strength, I acknowledge, says he, in another place, that I am nothing, I have no sufficiency of myself to think so much as one good thought : But áll my sufficiency is- ofGod, in whom my life ishid; 2 Cor, iii. 5.' Andwithwhat a devout zeal does he ascribe his life to Christ, in that glorious amassment of spiritual paradoxes ! Gal, ii. 20, f' I amcruci- fled with Christ, nevertheless I live : yet, pot I, butChrist liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who lovedme, and gave himself for me." Therefore I can be delivered to death daily for Jesus Christ's sake ? troubled and perplexed, and yet not in despair ;; be cast down, and not be destroyed; because I believe that the life ofJesus must be made manifest in my mortal flesh, and hé which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also byJesus, 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 decaying dying christian must go for the recruit of his fainting life too ; it is tq Godby Jesus Christ, for it is all hidden withChrist in God. It?vain shall a man ivho is dead in trespasses and sins, toil and labour, and hope to attain life any other way. God is the- spring ofall life, and he has trusted it to the hands of Jesus Christ : I am the way, the truth andthe life, says our . Saviour ; John xiv. 6. No man can have lifewithout coming to the living Father ; and no man cogneth to the. Father but by me, Seneca and Plato, with their moral lectures, and the writings of human philosophy, may give a man new garments, may make his out- ward life appear much better than before ; they may teach him, in some measure to govern his passions too, and subdue someof the fleshly appetites ; but they cannot raise him to the love of God, to the hatred ofevery sin, tothe well groundedhopes of the favour of God, the blessed expectation ofaholy immortality, and a preparation for heaven. Theycannot give the man a new life I-le must be born again of the Spirit of Christ, or he cannever become a living christian. And in vain would the poor backsliding christian, with
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=