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.