Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/244

 designed of God to be a balance both against inward and outward sufferings: ''to lift up the hands that hang down and confirm the feeble knees''. Consequently, whatever damps our joy in the Lord, proportionally obstructs our holiness. And therefore so far as Satan shakes our joy, he hinders our holiness also.

7. * The same effect will ensue, if he can by any means either destroy or shake our peace. For the peace of God is another precious means of advancing the image of God in us. There is scarce a greater help to holiness than this, a continual tranquility of spirit, the evenness of a mind stayed upon God; a calm repose in the blood of Jesus. And without this, it is scarce possibly to grow in grace, and in the vital knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For all fear (unless the tender, filial fear) freezes and benumbs the soul. It binds all the springs of spiritual life, and stops all motion of the heart toward God. And doubt, as it were, bemires the soul, so that it sticks fast in the deep clay. Therefore in the same proportion as either of these prevail, our growth in holiness is hindered.

8. * At the same time that our wise adversary endeavours, to make our conviction of the necessity of perfect love, an occasion of shaking our peace by doubts and fears, he endeavours to weaken, if not destroy our faith. Indeed these are inseparably connected; so that they must stand or fall together. So long as faith subsists,