Chapter X: Part 10

Labour, therefore, after self-acquaintance, since God has been pleased in his word, to furnish us with sufficient means to find out our estate; 1 John v. 17. These things I write unto you, says the apostle, that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God, and that ye may know that ye believe. It is a dishonour to the gospel of Christ, to abide always in darkness and doubtings, and to rest contented in so uncomfortable a frame. We are told in Rev. ii. 17. that those whose life is supported by this hidden manna, have also a white stone given them, with a new name in it, which no man knows, save he that receives it: that is, they have divine absolution and pardon of their sins, which was represented heretofore, in some courts of judicature, by the gift of a white stone; but surely, if my own name were written in it, I would use my utmost endeavours to read the inscription myself, though it may be a secret to the rest of mankind; then my God and Saviour shall have the honour of his pardoning love, and then my soul shall enjoy the consolation.

2d Caution. Though it be a hidden life in the sacred operations and the springs of it, yet the world ought to see the blessed effects of it. We must _hold forth_ to men _the word of life_; Phil. ii. 16. Let the world see that we live to God, and that by the secret power of his word in the gospel.

The christian life is no fantastic and visionary matter, that consists in warm imaginations, and pretences to inward light and rapture; it is a real change of heart and practice, from sin to holiness, and a turn of soul from earth toward heaven. It has been dressed up, indeed, like enthusiastic foolery, by the impious wits of men, and painted for a subject of ridicule and reproach. Thus the saints and holy martyrs have been clad in a fool’s-coat, or a bear’s-skin, but they are still men, and wise men too; they have been dressed up like devils, but they are still the sons of God. So secret piety has solid reason and scripture still on its side, whatever silly scandals have been cast upon it; there is no cause, therefore, to be ashamed of professing it. There is nothing in all the christian life, that a man needs to blush at. _We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty_, knavery, and uncleanness, when we began to be christians; 2 Cor. iv. 2. It is our glory that we are alive to God, and we should be ashamed of nothing that either exercises or maintains this life. None of the duties of worship, none of the practices of godliness, that render religion honourable among men, and make God our Saviour appear glorious in the world, should be neglected by us, whenever we are called to practise or profess them.

The effects of this hidden life should not all be secret, though the springs of it are so; for christians are commanded to make their _light shine before men, that others may glorify their Father which is in heaven_; Mat. v. 14, 15, 16. The lights of the world must not place themselves under a bushel, and be contented to shine there useless and alone; we must give honour to God in public. And though we are commanded to practise such secrecy and self-denial in our deeds of charity, as may secure us from all ostentation and pride, yet we must sometimes make it appear too, that we do good to men, that christianity may have the glory of it. We must feed the hungry, we must clothe the naked, we must love all men, even our enemies, and discover to the world that we are christians, by noble and sublime practices of every virtue and every duty, as far as it is possible, even by the best works, to discover inward religion.

[This sermon may be divided here.]

I proceed now to draw some inferences from the hidden nature of the spiritual life.

I. And my first inference would teach you not to rest satisfied with any externals: for they who put forth no other acts of life, but what the world sees, are no true christians.

We eat, we drink, and sleep; that is the life of nature; we buy and sell, we labour and converse; that is the civil life; we trifle, visit, tattle, flutter, and rove among a hundred impertinencies, without any formed, or settled design what we live for; that is the idle life; and it is the kindest name that I can bestow upon it. We learn our creed, we go to church, we say our prayers, and read chapters or sermons; these are the outward forms of the religious life. And is this all? Have we no daily secret exercises of the soul in retirement and converse with God? No time spent with our own hearts? Are we never busied, in some hidden corner, about the affairs of eternity; Are there no seasons allotted for prayer, for meditation, for reading in secret, and self-enquiries? Nothing to do with God alone in a whole day together? Surely this can never be the life of a christian?

Remember, O man, there is nothing of all the labours or services, the acts of zeal or devotion, that thou canst practise in public, but a subtle hypocrite may so nearly imitate the same, that it will be hard to discover the difference. There is nothing of all these outward forms, therefore, that can safely and infallibly distinguish thee from a hypocrite and false professor; for the same actions may proceed from inward motions and principles widely different. If you would obtain any evidence that you are a christian indeed, you must make it appear to your own conscience by the exercises of the hidden life, and the secret transactions between God and your soul. He was not a Jew of old, who was one outwardly in the letter only; nor is he a christian, who has mere outward forms; but a Jew or a christian, in the sight of God, is such a one as hath the religion in his heart, and in spirit, _whose praise is not of men, but of God_? Rom. ii. 28, 29.

II. Inference. The life of a saint is a matter of wonder to the sinful world; for they know not what he lives upon. The sons of ambition follow after grandeur and power; the animals of pleasure pursue all the luxuries of sense; the miser hunts after money, and is ever digging for gold. It is visible enough what these wise men live upon. But the christian, who lives in the power and glory of the divine life, seeks after none of these, any farther than as duty leads him, and the supports and conveniencies of life are needful, in the present state of his habitation in the flesh. The sinner wonders what it is the saint aims at, while he neglects the tempting idols that himself adores, and despises the gilded vanities of a court, and abhors the guilty scenes of a voluptuous life. Christ and his children are, and will be, signs and wonders to the age they live in; Is. viii. 18. compared with Heb. ii. 13.

The men of this world wonder what a christian can have to say to God in so many retiring hours as he appoints for that end; what strange business he can employ himself in; how he can lay out so much time in affairs, which the carnal mind has no notion of. On the other hand, the saint, when he is in a lively frame, thinks that all the intervals of his civil life, and all the vacant seasons that he can find between the necessary duties of his worldly station, are all little enough to transact affairs of such awful importance as he has to do with God, and little enough to enjoy those secret pleasures, which the stranger is unacquainted with. The children of God pray to their heavenly Father in secret, and they feel unknown refreshment and delight in it; and they are well assured, that _their Father who seeth in secret will hereafter reward them openly_; Mat. vi. 6.

It is no wonder, that the profane world reproaches true christians as dull, lifeless creatures, animals that have neither soul nor spirit in them, because they do not see them run to the same excess in things of the lower life. Alas! they know not that the life of a christian is on high; they see it not, for it is hidden; and therefore they wonder we are not busily engaged in the same practices and pursuits as they are; 1 Pet. iv. 4. _They think it strange that we run not to the same excess of riot._ The world sees nothing of our inward labour and strife against flesh and self, our sacred contest for the prize of glory; they know nothing of our earnest enquiries after an absent God, and a hidden Saviour; and least of all do they know the holy joys, and retired pleasures of a christian, because these are things which are seldom communicated to others; and therefore the world grows bold to call religion a melancholy thing, and the christian a mere mope. But the soul who lives above, who lives within sight of the world of invisibles, can despise the reproach of sinners.

III. Inference. See the reason why christians have not their passions so much engaged in things of this life as other men have, because their chief concern is about their better life, which is hidden and unseen. They can look upon fine equipages, gay clothes, and rich appearances in the world, without envy; they can survey large estates, and see many thousands gotten in haste by those that resolve to be rich, and yet not let loose one covetous wish upon them; they have a God whom they worship in secret, and trust his blessing to make them sufficiently rich in the way of diligence in their stations: they hope they shall have blessings mingled with their mean estate, and no sorrows added to their wealth.

They can find themselves exalted by providence to high stations in the world, and not to be puffed up in countenance, nor swell at heart. If they are but watchful to keep their divine life vigorous they will distinguish themselves as christians, even in scarlet and gold, and that by a glorious humility. They know that all their advancements on earth are but mean and despicable things, in comparison of their highest hopes, and their promised crown in heaven. They can meet threatening danger, diseases, and deaths, without those terrors that overwhelm the carnal sinner; for their better life shall never die. They can sustain losses, and sink in the world, when it comes by the mere providence of God, without their own culpable folly, and bear it with a humble resignation of spirit, and with much inward serenity and peace; for the things which they have lost, were not their life; all these were visible, but their life is hidden; Phil. iv. 12. I know how to be abased, and how to be exalted; I know how to abound, and to suffer want; I can do all these things through Christ strengthening me: Christ, who is the principle of my inward life. O! that the christians of our day had more of this sublime conduct, more of these noble evidences of the life of christianity.

IV. Inference. How vain and needless a thing is it for a christian to affect popularity and to set up for a shew in this world. How vain is it for him to be impatient to appear and shine among men, for he has honours and treasures, joys and glories, that are incomparably greater, and yet a secret to the world. A christian’s true life is hidden, and he should not be too fond of public and gay appearances. The apostle Peter gives advice how the christian women should behave themselves not as the rest of the world do, who set themselves forth to public shew, with many ornaments of gold and pearl; but the believer should adorn herself with modesty, and with every grace, in _the hidden man of the heart_; 1 Pet. iii. 4.

How unreasonable is it for us who profess the christian life to be cast down, if we are confined to an obscure station in the world! Was not the Lord of glory, when he came down on earth to give us a pattern of the spiritual life, content to be obscure for thirty years together! Was he not unknown to men, but as a common carpenter, or a poor carpenter’s son! And in those four years of appearance which he made as a preacher, how mean, how contemptible were the circumstances of life which he chose? And shall we be impatient and fretful under the same humbled estate? Do we dislike so divine a precedent? Must we, like mushrooms of the earth, be exalted, and grow fond of making a public figure, when the King of heaven was so poor and lowly? We lose public honour and applause indeed, but perhaps our hidden life thrives the better for it, when we resist the charms of grandeur.

Besides, this is not a christian’s time for appearing, whilst Christ himself is absent and unseen. The believer’s shining-time is not yet come; but the marriage-day of the Lamb is hastening, and the bride is making herself ready. The general resurrection is our great shining-day: _When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory_: Col. iii. 4. and the christian is content to stay for his robes of light, and his public honours, till the dawn of that glorious morning. Nor shall we dare to be censorious of those who make a poor figure, and but mean appearance in the world; perhaps they are some of Christ’s hidden ones; they promise but little, and shew but little, either wit or parts, prudence or power, skill or influence; and perhaps they have but little too; but they know God, they trust in Christ, they live a divine life, and have glorious communications from heaven in secret daily, they make daily visits to the court of glory, and are visited by condescending grace. You see in all these instances, that popularity and shew are not at all necessary for a christian.

V. Inference. How exceeding difficult is it for those who are exalted to great and public stations in the world to maintain lively christianity! They have need of great and uncommon degrees of grace to maintain this hidden life. _How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!_ These are our Saviour’s own words; Mark x. 23. and he gave this reason for it, ver. 24. because it is so hard for those that have riches, not to trust in them, not to live entirely upon them, and make them their very life.

How hard is it for men in high posts of honour, to take due care that their graces thrive, while they are all day engaged, either in the fatigues of office, in state and pomp of their own, or in everlasting attendances on the will of some superior; so that they have few moments in a day, wherein they are capable of retiring, and holding any converse with themselves or with heaven. But O! how pleasant is it to such as are advanced in the providence of God, and have a value for their hidden life, to steal an hour of retirement from the burden of their public cares! How sweet is the recovery of a few minutes, and how well filled up with active devotion! The secret life of a christian grows much in the closet, and without a retreat from the world it cannot grow. Abandon the secret chamber, and the spiritual life will decay: Doubtless many of you can witness that you have found it so; and your own mournful experience echoes to the words of our ministry in this point.

There was an ancient philosopher, who, when he had lost his riches in a storm at sea, gave thanks to providence, under a heathen name; “I thank thee, fortune, that hast now forced me to retire, and to live within my cloak;” that is, upon the supports of philosophy, in meaner circumstances of life. How much more should the christian be pleased with a private station, who has the supports of the gospel to live upon, and to sweeten his retirements! How cautious should christians be, therefore, of the management of all the public affairs of their civil life, lest they do any that should hurt their secret or religious life! We should be still enquiring, “Will such sort of company to which I am now invited; such a gainful trade which I am ready to engage in; such a course of life which now lies before me; tempt me to neglect my secret converse with God? Does it begin to alienate my heart from heaven, and things unseen? then let me suspect and fear it.” Be afraid, christians, of what grieves the blessed Spirit of Christ, who is the principle of your life and may provoke him to retire from you. Be diligent in such enquiries, be very watchful and jealous of every thing that would call your thoughts outward, and keep them too long abroad. Christians should live much at home, for theirs is a hidden life.

VI. Inference. We may see here divine wisdom in contriving the ordinances of the gospel, with such plainness, and such simplicity, as best serves to promote the hidden life of a christian. Pomp and ceremony, gilded and sparkling ornaments, are ready to call the soul abroad, to employ it in the senses, and divert it from that spiritual improvement, which the secret life of a christian requires, and which gospel-institutions were designed for.

You see in the heathen world, and you see in popish countries, that the gay splendours of worship tempt the hearts of the worshippers to rest in forms, and to forget God; and we may fear the greatest part of the people lay under the same danger in the days of Judaism. I grant indeed, that where pompous and glittering rites of religion are of special divine appointment, and were designed to typify the future glories of a more spiritual church and worship; there they might hope for divine aids to lead their minds onward beyond the type, to those designed glories. But carnal worshippers are the bulk of any sect or profession. All mankind, by nature, is ready to take up with the forms of godliness, and neglect the secret power. We naturally pay too much reverence to shining formalities and empty shews. Set a christian to read the most spiritual parts of gospel, on one page of the bible, and let some scene of the history be finely graven, and painted on the opposite side; his holy meditations will be endangered by his eyes, fair figures and colours attract the sight, and tempt the soul off from refined devotion.

I cannot think it any advantage to christian worship, to have churches well adorned by the statuary and the painter; nor can gay altar-pieces improve the communion service. While gaudy glittering images attract and entertain the outward sense, the soul is too much attached to the animal, to keep itself at a distance; while the sight is regaled and feasted, the sermon runs to waste, and the hidden life withers and starves. When the ear is soothed with a variety of fine harmony, the soul is too often allured away from spiritual worship, even though a divine song attend the music. Our Saviour therefore, in much wisdom, and in much mercy, has appointed blessed ordinances for his church, with such plainness and simplicity, as may administer most support and nourishment to the secret life. Thus I have finished the remarks on the hidden life of a christian, considered as to its spiritual exercises in this present world.

I proceed to consider, in what respects this life is hidden, as it is more usually called eternal life, or to be exercised and enjoyed in heaven.

And here we must confess, that we are much at a loss to say any thing more than the scripture hath said before us. _Life and immortality_, indeed, _are brought to light by the gospel of Christ_, in far brighter measures than the former ages and dispensations were acquainted with; 1 Tim. i. 10. But still, what the apostle says concerning all the blessings of the gospel, we may repeat emphatically concerning heaven, that eye hath not seen, that ear hath not heard, that it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive; nor indeed hath God himself revealed but a very small part of the things he hath prepared, in the future world, for them that love him; 1 Cor. ix. 10. _It doth not yet appear what we shall be_; the glory of that state is yet a great secret to us; 1 John iii. 2. We know much better what it is not, than what it is: we can define it best by negatives. Absence from the weaknesses, sins, and sorrows of this life, is our best and largest account of it, whether we speak of the separate state, or the heaven of the resurrection.

The veil of flesh and blood divides us from the world of spirits; we know not the manner of their life in the state of separation: we are at an utter loss as to their stations and residences; what relation they bear to any part of this material creation; whether they dwell in thin airy vehicles, and are inhabitants of some starry world, or planetary region; or whether they subsist in their pure intellectual nature, and have nothing to do with any thing corporeal, till their dust be recalled to life. We are unacquainted with the laws by which they are governed, and the methods of their converse: we know little of the businesses they are employed in, those glorious services for their God and their Saviour, in which they are favoured with assistant angels; and little are we acquainted with their joys, which are unspeakable and full of glory. The very language of that world, is neither to be spoken nor understood by us; St. Paul heard some of the words of it, and had a faint glimpse of the sense of them; but he could not repeat them again to mortal ears; nor had he power, nor leave to tell us the meaning of them; 2 Cor. xii. 4. For, _whether he was in the body, at that time, or out of the body_, he himself was not able to determine.

And as for the heaven of the resurrection; what sort of bodies shall be raised from the dust, for perfect spirits to dwell in, is as great a secret. A spiritual body is a mystery to the wisest divines and philosophers; where our habitation shall be, and what our special employment through the endless ages of immortality, are among the hidden unsearchables. The most that we know, is, that we shall be made like to Christ, and we shall be where he is, to behold his glory; 1 John iii. 2. and John xvii. 24.

If the eternal life of the saints be so much a secret at present, we may draw these two or three inferences from it.

I. Inference. How necessary is it for a christian to keep faith awake and lively, that he may maintain his acquaintance with the spiritual and unseen world! It is faith that converses with invisibles: _faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen_; Heb. xi. 1. It is faith that deals in hidden traffic, and grows rich in treasures that are out of sight. It is by faith in the Son of God, we live this spiritual life, by faith in an absent Saviour; Gal. ii. 20. _Whom having not seen we love; and though we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice_; 1 Pet. i. 8. Let the christian, therefore, maintain a holy jealousy, lest too much converse with the things of sense, dull the eye of his faith, or weaken the hand of it. Let him put his faith into perpetual exercise, that he may live within the view of those glories that are hidden from sense; that he may keep his hold of eternal life; that he may support his hopes, and secure his joys. Until we can live by sight, let us _walk by faith_; 2 Cor. v. 7.

Though the life of heaven be hidden, yet so much of it is revealed as to give faith leave to lay hold of it; and yet not so much, as to make the hand of faith needless. It is brought down by our Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel, within the view of faith, that we might live in expectation of it, and be animated to the glorious pursuit; but it is not brought within the reach of sense, for we are now in a state of trial; and this is not the proper time nor place for sight and enjoyment.

II. Inference. How little is death to be dreaded by a believer, since it will bring the soul to the full possession of its hidden life in heaven! It is a dark valley that divides between this world and the next; but it is all a region of light and blessedness beyond it. We are now borderers on the eternal world, and we know but too little of that invisible country. Approaching death opens the gates to us, and begins to give our holy curiosity some secret satisfaction; and yet how we shrink backward when that glorious unknown city is opening upon us! and are ready to beg and pray that the gates might be closed again: “O! for a little more time, a little longer continuance in this lower visible world!” This is the language of the fearful believer: But it is better to have our christian courage wrought up to a divine height, and to say, “_Open ye everlasting gates, and be ye lift up, O ye immortal doors_, that we may enter into the place where _the King of Glory is_.” There we shall see God, the great unknown, and rejoice in his overflowing love. We shall see him not as we do on earth, darkly, through the glass of ordinances; but inferior spirits shall converse with the Supreme Spirit, as bodies do with bodies; that is face to face; 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

There shall we behold Christ our Lord in the dignity of his character as Mediator, in the glory of his kingdom, and the all-sufficiency of his godhead; and we shall be for ever with him. There shall we see millions of blessed spirits, who have lived the same hidden life as we do, and passed through this vale of tears, with the same attending difficulties and sorrows, and by the same divine assistances. They were unknown, and covered with dust as we are, while they dwelt in flesh, but they appear all-glorious and well known in the world of spirits, and exult in open and immortal light: We shall see them, and we shall triumph with them in that day; we shall learn their language, and taste their joys: we shall be partakers of the same glory, which Christ our life, diffuses all around him, on the blessed inhabitants of that intellectual world.

III. Inference. How glorious is the difference between the two parts of the christian’s life, _viz._ the spiritual life on earth, and the perfection of eternal life in heaven; when all that is now hidden shall be revealed before men and angels! Come now, and let us take occasion from this discourse, to let loose our meditations one stage beyond death and the separate state, even to the morning of the resurrection, and the full and public assembly of all the saints. O what an illustrious appearance! What a numerous and noble army of new creatures! Creatures that were hidden in this world among the common herd of mankind, and their bodies hidden in the grave, and mingled with common dust, rising all at once, at the sound of a trumpet, into public light and glory; the same persons, indeed, that once inhabited mortality, but in far different equipage and array. The christian, on earth, is like the rough diamond among the common pebbles of the shore; in the resurrection-day the diamond is cut and polished, and set in a tablet of gold. All that inward worth and lustre of holiness and grace, which are now hidden, shall be then visible and public before the eyes of the whole creation. Then the saints shall be known by their shining, _in the day when the Lord makes up his jewels_; Mal. iii. 17. When the spirits of the just made perfect in all the beauties of holiness, shall return to their former mansions, and become men again; when their bodies are raised from the dust, in the likeness of the body of our blessed Lord, how shall all the saints shine in the kingdom of their Father, though in the kingdoms of this world they were obscure and undistinguished! They shall appear, in that day, as the meridian sun breaking from a long and dark eclipse; and the sun is too bright a being to be unknown; Mat. xiii. 43.

What is there in a poor saint here, that discovers what he shall be hereafter? How mean his appearance now! how magnificent in that day? What was there in Lazarus on the dung-hill, when the dogs licked his sores, that could lead us to any thought what he should be in the bosom of Abraham? What is there in the martyrs and confessors, described in Heb. xi. those holy men, with their sheep-skins, and their goat-skins upon them, wandering in deserts, and hidden in dens and caves of the earth? What was there in these poor and miserable spectacles that looks like a saint in glory? or that could give us any intimation what they shall be in the great rising day?

_Now are we the sons of God_, but _it does not yet appear what we shall be_; 1 John iii. 2. We can shew no pattern of it here below. Shall we go to the palaces of eastern princes, and borrow their crowns and sparkling attire, to shew how the saints are drest in heaven? Shall we take their marble pillars, their roofs of cedar, their costly furniture of purple and gold, to describe the mansions of immortality? Shall we attend the chariot of some Roman general, with all the ensigns of victory, leading on his legions to triumph, and fetch robes of honour, and branches of palm to describe that triumphant army of christian conquerors? The scripture makes use of these resemblances, indeed, in great condescension, to represent the glories of that day, because they are the brightest things we know on earth. But they sink as far below the splendours of the resurrection, as earth is below heaven, or time is shorter than eternity.

What is all the dead lustre of metals, and silks, and shining stones, to the living rays of divine grace springing up, and shooting into full glory? Faith into sight, hope into enjoyment, patience into joy and victory, and love into its own perfection? Then all the hidden virtues and graces of the saints, shall appear like the stars at midnight, in an uncloudy sky. Then shall it be made known to all the world, these were the men that wept and prayed in secret; it shall be published then in the great assembly, these were the persons who wrestled hard with their secret sins, that sought the face of God, and his strength, in their private chambers, and they are made more than overcomers through him that hath loved them. The poor trembling christian who lived this hidden and divine life, but scarce knew it himself nor durst appear among the churches on earth, shall lift up his head, and rejoice amidst the church triumphant; and the hidden seed of grace, that was watered with so many secret tears, shall spring up into a rich and illustrious harvest. This is the day which shall bring to light a thousand works of hidden piety, for the eternal honour of Christ and the saints; as well as the _hidden things of darkness_, to the sinners’ everlasting confusion; Mat. xxv. and 1 Cor. iv. 5.

Thus the spiritual life of christians, which was concealed in this world, shall appear in the other in full brightness; and they themselves shall be amazed to see what divine honours Jesus the Judge shall cast upon their poor secret services and sufferings.

But in what supreme glory shall their life display itself, when both parts of the human compound are rejoined after so long a separation! This is life eternal indeed, and joy unspeakable. How gloriously shall the perfections and honours, both of body and mind, unfold themselves, and rise far above all that they heard, or saw, or could conceive! Each of them surprized, like the queen of Sheba in the court of Solomon, shall confess with thankful astonishment and joy, that not one half of it was told them, even in the word of God. “And was this the crown,” shall the christian say, “for which I fought on earth at so poor and feeble a rate? And was this the prize for which I ran with a pace so slow and lazy? And were these the glories which I sought with so cold and indifferent a zeal in yonder world? O shameful indifference! O surprizing glories! O undeserved prize and crown! Had I imagined how bright the blessing was, which lay hidden in the promise, surely all my powers had been animated to a warmer pursuit. Could I have seen what I ought to have believed; had I but taken in all that was told me concerning this glorious and eternal life, surely I would have ventured through many deaths to secure the possession of it. O guilty negligence! and criminal unbelief! But thy sovereign mercy, O my God, has pardoned both, and made me possessor of the fair inheritance. Behold, I bow at thy feet for ever, and adore the riches of overflowing grace.” _Amen._

SERMON X.
_The Hidden Life of a Christian._
COL. iii. 3.—For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
THE SECOND PART.

It is to the christian converts who were at Colosse, that the apostle addresses himself, in this strange language: Ye are dead, and yet I tell you where your life is. This divine writer delights sometimes to surprize his readers, by joining such opposites, and uniting such distant extremes. But can a dead person have any life in him? Yes, and a noble one too, ye are dead to the world, and dead to sin, but ye have a life of another kind than that which belongs to the sinners of this world: your life is spiritual and holy; theirs is sinful, and engaged in the works of the flesh: Your life is heavenly, and seeks the things which are above; theirs is derived from the earth, and grovels in the dust: Your life is everlasting, for your souls shall live for ever in a glorious state, and your bodies shall be raised from death into equal immortality, and a partnership of the same glory; but their best life is only a temporal one, and when that is at an end, all their joys, and their hopes are for ever at an end too, and their eternal sorrows begin.

But this life of a christian is a hidden life. That was the first doctrine I raised from the text. Both the operations and the springs of it, are a secret to the world, and the future glories of it, when it is most properly called eternal life, are still a greater secret, and much more unknown: Yet, saith the apostle, I can acquaint you where the springs of it lie, and whence all the future glories of it are to be derived; they are hidden in God, with our Lord Jesus Christ. Now by giving so short a hint, in a word or two, where this our life is hid, he has said something greater, and brighter, and more sublime, concerning it, that if he had shewn us, from a high mountain, at noon-day, all the kingdoms of this world, with all the dazzling glories of them, and then pointed downward, “there your life is.”

Let this therefore be the second doctrine, and the subject of our present meditations, that the life of a christian is hidden with Christ in God. It is hidden in God, as the first original and eternal spring of it, and entrusted with Christ as a faithful Mediator; it is hid in God, where our Lord Jesus Christ is, and he is appointed to take care of it for us; for he also is called our life; verse 4.

The method I shall take for the improvement of this truth, is, to explain these words of the apostle more at large, and then deduce some inferences from them.

The _first_ enquiry will arise, in what respect the christian’s life is said to be hidden in God? And, _secondly_, What is meant by its being hidden with Christ?

I. _First_, In what respect is the life of a christian said to be hidden in God?

The word God is taken in scripture, either in general for the divine nature, which is the same in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; or, in particular, for the person of the Father. And I do not see any absolute necessity to determine, precisely, which was the meaning of the apostle in this place. The three particulars by which I shall endeavour to explain it, will include both. The life of a christian is hidden in God; that is, in the all-sufficiency of the divine nature, in the purpose of the divine will, and in the secret engagements of the Father to his Son Jesus Christ, in the covenant of redemption.

1. The christian’s life is hidden in the all-sufficiency of the divine nature. And there are immense stores of life, of every kind, hidden in God, in this sense. This whole world of beings, that have, and have not souls, with all the infinite varieties of the life of plants, animals, and angels, were hidden in this fruitful and inexhaustible fund of the divine all-sufficiency, before God began to create a world. All things were then hidden in God; for of him are all things, and from him all things proceeded; Rom. xi. 36. Now this all-sufficiency of God consists in those powers and perfections, whereby he is able to do all things for his creatures, and ready to do all for his saints; these are most eminently his wisdom, his almightiness, and his goodness.

There are inconceivable riches of goodness and grace in God, which are employed in furnishing out life for all his saints; and all the unknown preparations of future glory are the effects of his grace. Eph. ii. 4.—_God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ_; and he did it for this purpose, _that in the ages to come, he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus_; ver. 7. Not all the goodness that appears in the rich provision he hath made for all the natural world of creatures, nor all the overflowing bounties of his providence, since the first creation, are equal to those unsearchable treasures of mercy and goodness, which he hath employed for the spiritual welfare, and eternal life and happiness of his own chosen children; and in the secret of this grace were all the blessings of his covenant hidden from eternity.

The divine wisdom is another part of his all-sufficiency. There are in God infinite varieties of thought and counsel, riches of knowledge, and wisdom unsearchable; and he hath made these abound in his new creation, as well as in the old; in the supernatural, as well as in the natural world. Eph. i. 8. _He hath abounded towards us_, sinners, in this work of salvation, _in all wisdom and prudence_. What surprizing wisdom appears in the vital powers of an animal, even in the life of brutes that perish? What glorious contrivance, and divine skill, to animate clay, and make a fly, a dog, or a lion of it? What sublime advances of wisdom to create a living man, and join these two distinct extremes, flesh and spirit, in such a vital union, that has puzzled the philosophers of all ages, and constrained some of them to confess and adore a God? And what a superior work of divinity, is it, to turn a dead sinner into a living saint, here on earth? and then to adorn a heaven, with all its proper furniture, for the eternal life and habitation of his sons and his daughters? What divine skill is required here? What immense profusion of wisdom, to form bodies of immortality and glory, for every saint, out of the dust of the grave, and the ashes of martyred christians? Our spiritual and our eternal life are hid in the wisdom of God.

The power of God is his all-sufficience too. The power that quickens and raises a soul to this divine life, must be almighty; Eph. i. 19, 20. It is the same exceeding greatness of his power that works in us who believe, which wrought in our Lord Jesus Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right-hand in heavenly places. It is the same powerful word _that commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that shone into our hearts_, when he wrought the knowledge of Christ there; 2 Cor. iv. 6. and when he commanded us, who lay among the dead, to awake, and arise, and live. Was it not a noble instance of power, to spread abroad these heavens of unknown circumference, with all the rolling worlds of light in them, the planets and the stars? And the same hand is mighty enough, if these were not sufficient, to build a brighter heaven, fit for the saints to live in during all their immortality, and to furnish them with vital powers that shall be incorruptible and everlasting. Thus the life of the saints is hidden in the almightiness of God, as well as in his wisdom and goodness. Thus it is contained in the all-sufficience of the divine nature, and each part of it is ready to be produced into act, in every proper season.

2. The life of a christian is hidden in the purposes of the divine will. And in this sense, the whole gospel, with all its wondrous glories and mysteries, is said to be hid in God; Eph. iii. 9. When St. Paul preached _among the gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ_, he made all men see something of that mystery, which from the beginning of the world had been hid in God. And if this be compared with Eph. i. 9. we shall find that this mystery of the will, or good-pleasure of God, was that which he eternally purposed in himself.

There is not one dead sinner awakened, and called into this divine and spiritual life here, or that shall ever be possessed of life eternal hereafter, but it was contained in the eternal secret purpose, and merciful design of God, before the world began. For it is a very mean conceit, and a disgraceful opinion concerning the great God, to imagine that he should exert his power to work life in souls, here in time, by any new purposes, or sudden designs, occasioned by any works or merit of theirs, which he had not formed and decreed in himself, long before he made man. This doctrine would represent God as a mutable being; but we know that he is unchangeable. There is nothing new in God; and his immutability is that perfection of his nature which secures the performance of this divine purpose, and the life of every christian.

3. I might add, in the third place, that the life of a christian is hidden in the unknown engagements of the Father to his Son Jesus Christ the Mediator. That sacred and divine transaction betwixt the Father and the Son, is often intimated in the holy scriptures, and some of the promises of that covenant are there represented; Ps. lxxxix. 19-28, 29-36, &c. _I have laid help upon one that is mighty; my mercy will I keep for him for ever, and my covenant shall stand fast with him: his seed will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven._ Then when _the covenant of peace was between them both_, as it is expressed in Zech. vi. 13. then did the Father promise that he should have _a seed to serve him_; Ps. xxii. 30. and this must be a living seed, and they must be raised up from among dead sinners, and they shall be made living saints in the world of grace, and in the world of glory.

Many of these promises are transcribed as it were, into the covenant of grace, and they are written down in scripture for our present consolation and hope; and many others are, doubtless concealed from all but Jesus the Mediator; they are hidden from men and angels, and reserved to be known, by surprizing accomplishment, in the future bright ages, beyond the date of time, and to entertain the long successions of our eternity. Now the truth and faithfulness of God are those attributes of his nature which secure this covenant, and all the divine engagements of it; both those which are revealed to the children of men, and those that are known only to the Son and the Father: But it is sufficiently evident, that all the degrees and powers of the spiritual and eternal life of the saints, with all the graces, glories and blessings that shall ever attend them, are hidden and laid up in these sacred engagements and promises.

II. This leads me to the _second_ enquiry; and that is, what is meant by these words, _with Christ_, in my text? and how the christian _life is hid with Christ_?

If I would branch this into three particulars also, I should express them thus:

1. Our life is hidden with Christ, as he is the great Treasurer and Dispenser of all divine benefits to the children of men. This is the high office to which the Father hath appointed him; and this is the character that he sustains; and he is abundantly furnished for the execution of this great trust. In this sense, all the stores of life and blessing, that ever shall be bestowed on the sinful race of Adam, are laid up in the hands of Christ, the Son of God.—_It hath pleased the Father, that in him all fulness should dwell_; Col. i. 19. _And he was full of grace and truth, that of his fulness we might receive grace for grace_; John i. 14-16. That is, a variety of graces and blessings answerable to that rich variety, with which our Lord Jesus Christ, the High-treasurer of heaven, was furnished from the hand of the Father. And to this purpose, perhaps, John v. 26. may be interpreted, compared with ver. 21. _As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; that as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son may quicken whom he will._

The blessed Spirit itself, as it is the great promise of the New Testament, and the glorious gift of God to men, was communicated to the Son, and by him bestowed upon us; for he went to heaven to receive the promise of the Spirit from the Father, and he shed it forth upon the apostles and the believers; Acts ii. 33. It is this Spirit who gave miraculous gifts to them heretofore, that is the immediate principle, or worker, of divine life in dead souls now: And it is by this same Spirit, that he shall raise our dead bodies from the grave; Rom. viii. 11. He is the spring of our spiritual and eternal life; and he is dispensed to us from the Father, by the hands of the Son.

And here it is proper to take notice of the special manner wherein the Lord Jesus Christ is the treasurer, or keeper of life, and all divine benefits for the saints, and becomes the dispenser thereof to his people: He is ordained to stand in the relation of a head to them, and they are his body, his members. Thus our life is hidden with Christ, as he is the vital head of all his saints. Their life is hid with Christ, as the spirits and springs of life, for all the members in the natural body are said to be contained in the head. _Christ is the head of his own mystical body_; Eph. iv. 14-16. _from whom the whole body, fitly joined together_, maketh increase to its own edification: it is the same vital spirit that runs through head and members.——_He that is joined to the Lord, is one Spirit_; 1 Cor. vi. 17. and therefore partakes of the same life.

Thus you see, that though the life of a christian is hidden in God, in the all-sufficiency of his nature, and the purposes of his will; yet our Lord Jesus Christ, as Mediator, is entrusted to keep it for him, and dispense it to him.

2. Our life is hid with Christ, as he is our forerunner, and the possessor of life, spiritual and eternal, in our name. And this may be described in a variety of instances, according to the various parts, as well as the several advancing degrees of our spiritual life, and the perfection of it in life eternal. When his human nature was first formed complete in holiness, it was a pledge and assurance, that we should be one day completely holy too; for, as is the head so must the members be. In the original sanctification of his spirit, flesh, and blood, we may read the certain future sanctification of every believing soul, with its body too; See John xvii. 19. and Heb. ii. 11.

Again; when his body was raised from the dead, it was a pledge and pattern of our being raised from a death in sin, unto the spiritual life of a saint, as well as a certain assurance of the resurrection of our bodies into future glory. The first is evident from Eph. ii. 6. _When we were dead in sin, he hath quickened us together with Christ._ And Rom. vi. 4. _As Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we must also walk in newness of life; for we are planted in the likeness of his resurrection_; ver. 5. And in 1 Cor. xv. 12, &c. the apostle builds his whole argument of the resurrection of the bodies of saints who are dead, from the rising of our Lord Jesus Christ out of his grave: _For Christ being risen from the dead_; ver. 20. _is become the first-fruits of them that slept_. And as all that are united to Adam, by having him for their head must die; so all who are one with Christ, and have him for their head, shall be made alive: which seems to be the meaning of the 22d verse: _As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive._

When he ascended into the heavens, it was not merely in his own name, but in ours too, to take possession of the inheritance for the saints in light. Heb. vi. 20. Our hope enters within the vail, whither Jesus the forerunner is for us entered. And when he sat down at the right-hand of God in the heavenly places, it was as the great exemplar of our future advancement, and thereby gave us assurance, that we should sit down there too: and therefore the apostle, in the language of faith, anticipates these divine honours, and applies them to the Ephesians beforehand: _God hath raised us up together_, says he, _with Christ, and hath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus_.