Let our thoughts take a turn to some bare common, or to the side of a wood, and visit the humble christian there; we shall find him cheerful, perhaps, at his dinner of herbs, with all the circumstances of meanness around him: But what a glorious life he leads in that straw-cottage, and poor obscurity! The great and gay world shut him out from them with disdain: He lives, as it were, hidden in a cave of the earth; but the godhead dwells with him there. The high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, comes down to dwell with the humble and contrite soul; Is. lvii. 15. God, who is the spring of life, comes down to communicate fresh supplies of this life continually. _He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God_; 1 John iv. 16. He is not alone, for the Father is with him; John xvi. 32. The Father and the Son come and manifest themselves unto him, within the walls of that hovel, in so divine a manner, as they never do to the men of this world, in their robes and palaces: John xiv. 22, 23. And that he may have the honour of the presence of the blessed Trinity, his _body is the temple of the Holy Ghost_; 1 Cor. iii. 16. and vi. 19. O! the wonderful condescensions of divine grace, and the surprizing honours that are done to a humble saint! How is this habitation graced! Heaven is there, for God and Christ are there; and who knows what heavenly guards surround him! what flights of attending angels? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent down to minister unto them that shall be heirs of salvation? Heb. i. 14. But our Lord Jesus Christ is now unseen, God and angels are unseen; the christian’s company belong to the invisible world: He lives a hidden, but a divine life; his life is hid with Christ in God. IId Instruction. See how it comes to pass that christians are capable of doing such wonders, at which the world stands amazed. The spring of their life is almighty; it is hid in God. It is by this divine strength they subdue their sinful natures, their stubborn appetites, and their old corrupt affections: It is by the power of God, derived through Jesus Christ, they bend the powers of their souls unto a conformity to all the laws of God and grace; and they yield their bodies as instruments to the same holy service, while the world wonders at them, that they should fight against their own nature, and be able to overcome it too. And as they deny themselves in all the alluring instances of sinful pleasure, under the influence of almighty grace, so they endure sufferings, in the sharpest degree, from the hands of God, without murmuring. And when they have laboured night and day, and performed surprizing services for God in the world, they are yet contented to submit to smarting and heavy trials from the hands of their heavenly Father, without being angry at their God: they know he loves them, and he designs all things shall work together for their good.