152 THE HIDDEN LIFE O? CHIEUSTYAN. nourished by that which he feels to support him. Now, what honour is to the ambitious, what money is to the covetous, what all the various delights of sense are to the men of carnal plea- sure ; that is God to the saint, that is ChristJesus to the chris- tian ; and thereforehe is ever desirous of such further manifesta- tions 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 springof his life, and derives fresh supplies from it eyery 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 God- headdwells bodily, shall be a hiding-place from thewind, and a covert from the tempest. The name of God in Christ, is tower; the righteous run into it, to hide themselves, and are safe; Prov. xviii. 10. Their life is in God, in the keeping of Christ, and they candefy deaths and dangers, whentheir faith is strong, and their thoughts are fixed above. ; They know themeaningof that tender anddivine language ; Is. xxvi.20. Come, my people, enter thou ivto thy chambers, and Shut thydoors about thee; hide thyself, as it were, for a little mo- ment, until the indignation be overpast. In a time of public ter- ror, 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 top. When the arrows of death fly thick around them by day, and the pestilence 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 dwelt atease in his secret place. He covers them from evil, or he gives them ëoúrage,'so the' arenot afraid: They place themselves under the pro- tection of his 'name ; they find shelter in his attributes : These are their secret chambers ; they hide within the curtains of his covenant, they wrap their souls, as it-were, in a sheet, or rather in* a volùme of promises ; that ancient volume that has secured the saints in all ages ; and though deathbe near them, theyknow that their better life issafe : Hegives his angels charge over them,' tokeep them on earth, or to bear them up to heaven, where their life is ; Ps. xci. 117 12. Thence it comes to pass that we see Christians, searching after God inordinances, and seeking for theLord Jesus Christ in sermons, inprayers, in the closet, and in the sanctuary ; for they live upon him. A holy soul pursues after the presence of his The bible, of old, waswritten on several sheets of parchment tacked to+ ¡loftier, and rolled up in a volume.
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