1. It is wholly hid from the world; from the wicked and unregenerate world this life is altogether hid.The author of this life is hid, Jefus Chrift; for, "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not," that they cannot fee him. In all ages he has been hid; hid from ages and generations. Few under the Old Teftament beheld him in the types and facrifices of old The Jews, under the New Testament, who faw him in the flesh, yet in feeing they saw not; they took him but for the carpenter's fon. How few ftill are there of these that hear of Chrift, who know him in the power of his refurrection!—The subject of life is hid; for," He only is a Jew that is one inwardly; and circumcifion is that of the heart, whofe praise is not of men, but of God," Rom. ii. 29 The believer's life

of grace is in the hidden man of the heart, 1 Pet. iii. 4. The means of this life are hidden; for the believer may fay as Chrift did, "I have meat to eat, the world knows not of:" his life is maintained by the word and Spirit of God: now the word is a hidden word, not indeed as to the hiftory, but the mystery of it; nor as to the letter of it, but the operation of it upon the fouls of believers: hence the word of the gofpel is called hidden wisdom, 1 Cor. ii. 7. and ver. 4. it is faid, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” Natural wifdom, improved to its utmoft, cannot fee them; hence Auguftine once faid, Surgent indocti, et rapient cælum. Many learned wits, with all their learning, will drop into hell, when others take heaven by violence. But as the word, fo the Spirit is a hidden Spirit; hence compared to the wind,None knoweth whence it cometh, or whither it goeth; fo is every one that is born of the Spirit." It puzzles the learned to tell what the wind is; and how much more hid are the operations of the Spirit!--Again, the actings of this life are hid. O what hidden things are the pangs of the new birth, the work of conviction, the way how fin is a burden, the way how the foul receives Chrift, and refts upon him, the inward longings and defires of the foul after Chrift, the heart-embracings of the promise, and the out-pourings of the heart before the Lord, un

der

der the out pourings of the Spirit upon the foul! A perfon may be fitting at your fide, and you know not what a fweet work is upon his foul; it is like the white ftone and the new name, that no man knows but he that receives it.-Again, the privileges of this life are hidden privileges; the feal of the Spirit is a hidden privilege, when after they believe they are fealed with the holy Spirit of pro mife; the pardon of fin is a hidden privilege, intimations thereof are fecret; peace with God, and communion with God, are hidden privileges.-In a word, the comforts of this life are hidden;"Strangers intermeddle not with thefe joys."

2. It is partly hidden from believers themselves. Their life is hidden from themfelves.-Sometimes, thro' the remainders of fin in them; the fpark of grace is fo covered with the aes of corruption, as to be hid from their fight. Sometimes, through the temptations of Satan, when he fifts them as he did Peter; when the wheat is fifted, the chaff is uppermoft, and the wheat is hid. Sometimes, through the preffures of affliction, and winter-ftorms; then their life may be hid from them, as the life of the tree is hid in the root, during winter. And fometimes, through desertion, their life and comfort is hidden; when God hides his face, they are troubled; they may walk in darkness and have no light, Ifaiah 1. 10. Their life of righteoufnefs and grace both may be hid under the dark clouds of unbelief, doubts, and fears. And as to their life of glory, this more efpecially is hid from them in time; for, though they are now the fons of God, yet it does not appear what they fhall be, 1 John iii. 2.

2dly, The believer's life is hid in refpect of fafety; it is hid fo as it cannot be loft. Though they may lofe fight of their life fometimes; yet their life cannot be loft: it is well hid and fecured, as you fee, John x. 28, 29, 30. "I give unto them eternal life, and they fhall never perish, neither fhall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." And what can encourage a poor foul in troublous times more than this,

that

that he has a life that cannot be loft, a treasure that cannot be stolen, a better part that cannot be taken from him. Well, but how is this life fecured, where is it hid and kept in fafety? It is hid with Chrift in God. This leads me then,

III. To the third head, With whom it is hid: it is hid with Christ; and that in many refpects, which I only mention, and leave it to faith and spiritual under, ftanding to enlarge upon.

1. The believer's life is fafely hid with Chrifl, in refpect of indiffolvable union. There is a clofe, fpiritual marriage-union between Christ and the believer: Chrift is in the believer, by his Spirit; whence it is faid, "Chrift in you the hope of glory :-and, He that is joined to the Lord, is one Spirit." The believer is in Chrift by faith; hence Chrift is faid to dwell in their hearts by faith. This union can never be diffolved; for he has faid, "I will betrothe thee unto me for ever." This union with Chrift, fecures the believer's life in Chrift; for it flows from a twofold gift of God, namely, his giving them to Chrift from eternity, and his giving Christ to them in time. God's giving them to Chrift in the covenant-tranfaction before time, John xvii. 6. This is the ground of their fœderal union with him. And then his giving Chrift to them, in the difpenfation of that covenant of grace in time, and making them to receive him, John vi. 44, 45. This is the ground of their actual union with him. And from this everlasting union flows an everlafting vital influence from this glorious Head. For,

2. Their life is hid with Chrift, in refpect of fafe cuftody, he having the believer's life a keeping. The Father has made him the keeper of their stock, their store, their life; for, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand;" and particularly has intrufted him with them and their life;" Thine they were, and thou gavest them me; as thou haft given him power over all flesh, that he fhould give eternal life to as many as thou haft given him," John xvii. 2.6-The believer alfo makes him the keeper of his life, faying, as it is, 2 Tim. i. 12, "I know whom I have believed; and I am perfuaded,

that

that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day." The believer commits his life, and every thing related to it, unto Chrift; and Chrift reckons himfelf obliged to keep it for him, as being both the Father's truflee and his.

3. Their life is hid with Chrift in respect of fæderal fecurity, whereby this life is well fecured to them in Chrift, as the Head of the new covenant.Their life is hid with Chrift; that is, with his finished work, whereby he hath fulfilled all righteousness, and fo fulfilled the condition of the covenant, and thereby fecured their eternal life. Their life of faith and hope here by the way is hid with Chrift; that is, with and in his death, refurrection, and exaltation; for," By him, we believe in God, who raifed him from the dead, and gave him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God," 1 Pet. i. 21. Their life is hid with him in his victory over fin, death, and the devil; for therein their life of triumph and victory for evermore is hid; "Thanks be to God, that giveth us the victory thro' Jefus Christ our Lord.” In a word, their life is hid with Chrift in his life; because he liveth, they fhall live alfo. Here their life is abfolutely fafe and fecure: their life being hid with Chrift fays, that their life is as fure and safe as the life of Chrift, that has fucceeded to his death. We ufe to fay, Such a thing is as fure as death; meaning death to come: but the believer's life is as fure as death paft and over; even as fure, as it is fure that Chrift was dead and is alive, and lives for evermore, having the keys of hell and death.

4. Their life is hid with Chrift, in respect of his mediatorial station and relation to them particularly.

(1.) Their life is hid with him as the Lord of their life, the Lord-treafurer, the Lord-difpenfer, who came to give life, and to give it more abundantly; and who' begins their spiritual life, by giving them the Spirit of life, whereby they are born again, and born to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, referved in heaven for them. The Spirit is the

earnest of the inheritance.

(2.) Their life is hid with Chrift, as the purchafer of it. He is the meritorious cause of it; he has pati

for

for it with the price of his own blood; "They are not redeemed with corruptible things, as filver and gold, but with the precious blood of Chrift, as of a Lamb, without blemish and without fpot."

(3.) Their life is hid with Chrift, as the root, where the fap is hid, in the winter time; hence, fays Christ, "I am the vine, ye are the branches," John xv. I.

(4.) Their life is hid with Chrift, as he is their reprefentative. He is gone to glory, and has taken pof, feffion of these manfions of glory for them, and in their room and ftead, John xiv. 23.; and there they fit together in heavenly places, Eph. ii. 6. hence they drop the anchor of their faith within the vail, whither the Forerunner is for us entered, Heb. vi. 12. Thus their life is hid with Christ.

In a word, our life is hid with him, as he is the Prince of life, with power and authority commanding life to the dead foul; as he is the tree of life, quickening all that take and eat; as he is the bread of life, enlivening and reviving all that feed upon him; "He that eateth this bread fhall live for ever;" and their life is hid with him, as he is the refurrection and the life, John xi. 25. "I am the refurrection and the life, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet fhall he live;" and as he is the God that quickens the dead. Hence,

IV. The fourth thing was to obferve, That this life is hid with Chrift in God. There is certainly fome depth here, that we have not yet looked into, even the fountain-head where this life is hid: it is hid with whom? With Chrift; in whom? In God; with Chrift in God: fo that both Chrift and the believer are hid together in God. May God open our eyes to fee what is here: tho' there be more than men or angels can tell, yet we may dip a little into it, as far as we have fcrip. ture ground to fet our feet upon, that we fink not out of fight into the depth. And,

I. A life hid with Chrift in God, is a life of fuch accep tance with God, as belongs t Chrift himfelf; "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved," Eph. i. 6.

Chrift,