1st Consolation. If our life be hidden with God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, then it is in safe hands. The wisdom and mercy of God have joined together, to appoint, shall I say, such a secret repository for our spiritual life, that it might be for ever secure. What can we have, or what can we desire more for the safety of our best life, than that God himself should undertake to reserve it in himself for us, and appoint his own eternal Son, in our nature, to be the great Trustee and Surety, for his exhibition of it in every proper season? Our original life was hid in the first Adam; it was intrusted with man, poor, feeble, inconstant man, and he lost it: He was of _the earth_, _earthy_, and our life with him goes down to the dust. Our new life is intrusted with Christ; it is hidden in God, who is almighty and unchangeable; and therefore it can never be lost. The second Adam is _the Lord from heaven_, a quickening Spirit; 1 Cor. xv. 45, &c. And _he that believeth on him, though he were dead in_ nature, _yet shall he live_ by grace, for _Christ is the resurrection and the life_: And if he be once made spiritually alive by Christ, he shall live for ever. This is the language of Christ himself; John xi. 25, 26. What an unreasonable thing is it then for a christian to fear what men or devils can do against him, for they cannot hurt his best life! It is above the reach of all the assaults of earth or hell. Our Lord Jesus teaches us not to be afraid of them who only can kill the body; for the soul is not in their reach; nor is it possible for them to prevent the body from partaking of its share, in the glorious life appointed for a christian at the great rising-day. We see here upon what firm grounds the doctrine of a christian’s perseverance is built, Christ is his life, _Jesus, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever_. The all-sufficient God, and his eternal Son, have undertaken for the security of it; John x. 28, 29, 30. _I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any 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._ God hath sworn by his holiness, that the seed of Christ shall endure for ever; Ps. lxxxix. 35, 36. and that his loving-kindness shall not be utterly taken away from his own children: And our Lord Jesus Christ doth little less than swear to the perseverance of his disciples, when he says; John xiv. 19. _Because I live, ye shall live also_: for, as I live, is the oath of God.