Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/240

 the glory of God: when all our words and deeds shall be ''in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks unto God even the Father thro' him''.

5. Now this is the grand device of Satan, to destroy the first work of God in the soul, or at least, to hinder its increase, by our expectation of that greater work. It is therefore my present design, first, to point out the several ways whereby he endeavours this: and, secondly, to observe how we may retort these fiery darts of the wicked one: how we may rise the higher by what he intends for an occasion of our falling.

I. 1. I am, first, To point out the several ways whereby Satan endeavours to destroy the first work of God in the soul, or at least, to hinder its increase, by our expectation of that greater work. And 1. He endeavours to damp our joy in the Lord, by the consideration of our own vileness, sinfulness, unworthiness, added to this, that there must be a far greater change than is yet, or we cannot see the Lord. If we knew we must remain as we are, even to the day of our death, we might possibly draw a kind of comfort, poor as it was, from that necessity. But as we know, we need not remain in this state, as we are assured, there is a greater change to come, and that unless sin be all done away in this life, we cannot see God in glory: that subtle adversary often damps the joy we should otherwise feel in what we