Death and life are two words of a solemn and important sound. They carry so much of force and moment in them, as must awaken mankind to attention; and therefore the Spirit of God often uses them as metaphors, to express things unseen and spiritual, and to describe the state both of saints and sinners: So that all who are alive on the face of the earth, in the language of scripture, are said to be dead too, but in different senses. Those who are in a state of nature, and under the power of sin, unpardoned and unsanctified, are dead in trespasses and sins; yet they live the life of brutes in the lusts of the flesh, or the life of devils in the lusts of the mind; Eph. ii. 1, 2. Those who are recovered from the fall, and brought into a state of grace by the gospel of Christ, are said to be dead also; that is, they are dead to sin; Rom. vi. 11. and they are crucified, and so dead to the world; Gal. vi. 14. The delights of sin are hateful to them, so that they allure them not to forsake their God; and the lawful enjoyments of life are so far tasteless to the saints, in comparison of the things of heaven, that they have much less influence, than once they had, to tempt them away from God, and from the practice of holiness. It is in this sense the christian Colossians are said to be dead in my text. But they have another, a new life, and that of a different kind; such as is mentioned in this verse, and which is hid with Christ in God; and it is this hidden life shall be the chief subject of my discourse. These latter words of the text afford two plain and easy propositions or doctrines. I. That the life of a christian is a hidden life.—II. That it is hid with Christ in God. Let us meditate on them in order. Doctrine I. A christian’s life is a hidden life.—Here we shall, _First_, Consider what is this life, which is said to be hidden. And, _Secondly_, In what respects it is so. _First_, What is this life of a christian which is said to be hidden? Not the animal life, whereby he eats, drinks, sleeps, moves and walks; this is visible enough to all about him. Not the civil life, as he stands in relation to other men in the world, whether as a son, as a father, a master, or a servant, a trader, a labourer, or an officer in the state: For all these are public, and seen of men.