02:138
An Introductory Comment
The variety and vehemence of the attacks upon his doctrines, and against
Christian perfection in particular, never ceased to baffle Wesley. These attacks
seemed to him to proceed from a lack of serious interest in the distinctive
vision of holy living that he was trying to put into words. Nor could he help
being further dismayed by the distortions of that vision that were being spread
abroad by some of his own self-professed disciples. There is an illuminating
discussion of these problems of misinterpretation on this very point in the Minutes for June 17, 1747. Clearly, then, the sermon Christian Perfection required yet another sequel which
would acknowledge the abuses of the doctrines and also take his critics to task
for ignoring the crucial distinction between valid use and illicit abuse. Most
of all, Wesley wanted to reduce such dismal janglings by making still further
clarifications.
He had found his clue, of course, in the conviction that the world in general was
ruled by Satan and his minions. Cf. No. 12, ‘The Witness of Our Own Spirit’, §10
and n. This satanocratic perspective had been shared by the generality of
Puritan theologians, but it had been given a special turn by William Spurstowe,
better known for his membership in the anti-Laudian group that styled itself
‘Smectymnuus’. One of the discourses in Spurstowe’s Spiritual
Chymist: Or, Six Decades of Divine Meditations (1666) is entitled
‘Σατάνα Νοήματα: Or, the Wiles of Satan’—and this was one of the volumes owned
and read by the Holy Club. Spurstowe, of course, had no concern whatever with
any notion of Christian perfection; his interest was in pointing out Satan’s
alertness in distorting Christian truth in the minds of believers and his
effectiveness in annulling the benefits of mere orthodoxy.
Thus, ‘Satan’s Devices’ is Wesley’s elaboration of this suggestion on the point
of sanctification in particular; it is also a warning to his people against
Satan’s insinuations in general. He had already preached on 2 Cor. 2:11 four
times before 1750 (October 31, 1739; 02:139December 29, 1740; January
18, 1741 [twice]). He would return to it again (May 1, 1774; February 6, 1785;
February 9, 1785) with no indication, however, as to which specific ‘device’ he
may have had in view on any of these occasions. In the first edition (1750) the
sermon has its text without a title; that appears for the first time in Works (1771), III.232-51.
Satan’s Devices
2 Corinthians 2:11
We are not ignorant of his devices.
11. The devices whereby the subtle ‘god of this world’
labours
to destroy the children of God, or at least to torment whom he cannot destroy,
to perplex and hinder them in running the race which is set before them, are numberless as the stars of heaven or the sand upon the
sea-shore. But it is of one of them only that I now propose
to speak (although exerted in various ways), whereby he endeavours to divide the
gospel against itself, and by one part of it to overthrow the other.
22. The inward kingdom of heaven, which is set up in the heart of all that
‘repent and believe the gospel’,
is no other than
‘righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost’. Every
babe in Christ knows we are made partakers of these the very hour that we
believe in Jesus. But these are only the first-fruits of his Spirit; the harvest is not yet. Although these blessings are
inconceivably great, yet we trust to see greater than these. We trust to ‘love
the Lord our God’ not only as we do now, with a weak though sincere affection,
but ‘with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our
strength’. We look for power to ‘rejoice evermore’, to ‘pray
without ceasing’, and ‘in everything to give thanks’; knowing ‘this is the will
of God concerning’ us ‘in Christ Jesus’.
302:1403. We expect to be ‘made perfect in love’, in that love
which ‘casts out’ all painful ‘fear’,
and all desire but that of
glorifying him we love, and of loving and serving him more and more. We look for
such an increase in the experimental knowledge and love of God our Saviour as
will enable us always to ‘walk in the light, as he is in the light’. We believe the whole ‘mind’ will be in us ‘which was also in
Christ Jesus’; that we shall love every man so as to be
ready ‘to lay down our life for his sake’, so as by this love
to be freed from anger and pride, and from every unkind affection. We expect to
be ‘cleansed’ from all our idols, ‘from all filthiness’, whether ‘of flesh or
spirit’; to be ‘saved from all our uncleannesses’, inward or outward; to be ‘purified as he is
pure’.
44. We trust in his promise who cannot lie,
that the time will
surely come when in every word and work we shall ‘do his’ blessed ‘will on
earth, as it is done in heaven’; when all our
conversation shall be ‘seasoned with salt’, all meet to ‘minister
grace to the hearers’; when ‘whether we eat or
drink, or whatever we do’, it shall be done ‘to 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, through him’.
55. 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.
1
1I. 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. 02:141And, (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 have already attained, by a
perverse representation of what we have not attained, and the absolute necessity
of attaining it. S0 that we cannot rejoice in what we have, because there is
more which we have not. We cannot rightly taste the goodness of God, who hath
done so great things for us, because there are so much greater things which as
yet he hath not done. Likewise the deeper conviction God works in us of our
present unholiness, and the more vehement desire we feel in our heart of the
entire holiness he hath promised, the more are we tempted to think lightly of
the present gifts of God, and to undervalue what we have already received
because of what we have not received.
22. If he can prevail thus far, if he can damp our joy, he will soon attack
our peace also. He will suggest, ‘Are you fit to see God? He is of purer eyes
than to behold iniquity.
How then can you flatter
yourself so as to imagine he beholds you with
approbation? God is holy, you are unholy. What communion hath light with
darkness? How is it possible that you, unclean as you are, should be in a state of acceptance with God? You
see indeed the mark, the prize of your high calling. But
do you not see it is afar off? How can you presume then to think that all your
sins are already blotted out? How can this be until you are brought nearer to
God, until you bear more resemblance to him?’ Thus will he endeavour, not only
to shake your peace, but even to overturn the very foundation of it; to bring
you back by insensible degrees to the point from whence you set out first: even
to seek for 02:142justification by works, or by your own
righteousness; to make something in you the ground of
your acceptance, or at least necessarily previous to it.
33. Or if we hold fast—‘other foundation can no man lay than that which is
laid, even Jesus Christ;’
and I am ‘justified
freely by God’s grace, through the redemption which is in Jesus’—yet he will not cease to urge, ‘But “the tree is known
by its fruits.” And have you the fruits of justification?
Is “that mind in you which was in Christ Jesus”? Are
you “dead unto sin and alive unto” righteousness? Are you
made conformable to the death of Christ, and do you know the power of his
resurrection?’ And then, comparing the small fruits we feel in our souls with
the fullness of the promises, we shall be ready to conclude: ‘Surely God hath
not said that my sins are forgiven me! Surely I have not received the remission
of my sins; for what lot have I among them that are sanctified?’
44. More especially in the time of sickness and pain he will press this with
all his might: ‘Is it not the word of him that cannot lie, “Without holiness no
man shall see the Lord”?
But you are not holy.
You know it well; you know holiness is the full image of God. And how far is
this above, out of your sight? You cannot attain unto it.
Therefore all your labour has been in vain. All these things you have suffered
in vain. You have spent your strength for nought. You are yet in your sins and must therefore perish at
the last.’ And thus, if your eye be not steadily fixed on him who hath borne all
your sins, he will bring you again under that ‘fear of death’ whereby you was so
long ‘subject unto bondage’; and by this means impair, if
not wholly destroy, your peace as well as joy in the Lord.
55. But his masterpiece of subtlety is still behind. Not content to strike
at your peace and joy, he will carry his attempts farther yet: he will level his
assault against your righteousness also. He will 02:143endeavour to
shake, yea, if it be possible, to destroy the holiness you have already received
by your very expectation of receiving more, of attaining all the image of
God.
66. The manner wherein he attempts this may partly appear from what has been
already observed. For, first, by striking at our joy in the Lord he strikes
likewise at our holiness: seeing joy in the Holy Ghost
is a
precious means of promoting every holy temper; a choice instrument of God
whereby he carries on much of his work in a believing soul. And it is a
considerable help not only to inward but also to outward holiness. It
strengthens our hands to go on in the work of faith and in the labour of
love; manfully to ‘fight the good fight of faith,’ and
to ‘lay hold on eternal life.’ It is peculiarly 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 proportionably obstructs our
holiness. And therefore so far as Satan shakes our joy he hinders our holiness
also.
77. 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 possible 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 up 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.
88. 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 02:144 we remain in peace; our heart stands
fast while it believes in the Lord. But if we let go our faith, our filial
confidence in a loving, pardoning God, our peace is at an end, the very
foundation on which it stood being overthrown. And this is the only foundation
of holiness as well as of peace. Consequently whatever strikes at this strikes
at the very root of all holiness. For without this faith, without an abiding
sense that Christ loved me and gave himself for me,
without
a continuing conviction that God for Christ’s sake is merciful to me a
sinner, it is impossible that I should
love God. ‘We love him because he first loved us;’ and in
proportion to the strength and clearness of our conviction that he hath loved us
and accepted us in his Son. And unless we love God it is not possible that we
should love our neighbour as ourselves; nor, consequently, that we should have
any right affections either toward God or toward man. It evidently follows that
whatever weakens our faith must in the same degree obstruct our holiness. And
this is not only the most effectual but also the most compendious way of
destroying all holiness; seeing it does not affect any one Christian temper, any
single grace or fruit of the Spirit, but, so far as it succeeds, tears up the
very root of the whole work of God.
99. No marvel, therefore, that the ruler of the darkness of this world
should here put forth all his strength. And so we find by
experience. For it is far easier to conceive than it is to express the
unspeakable violence wherewith this temptation is frequently urged on them who
hunger and thirst after righteousness. When they see in a strong
and clear light, on the one hand the desperate wickedness of their own hearts,
on the other hand the unspotted holiness to which they are called in Christ
Jesus; on the one hand the depth of their own corruption, of their total
alienation from God; on the other the height of the glory of God, that image of
the Holy One wherein they are to be renewed; there is many times no spirit left
in them; they could almost cry out, ‘With God this is impossible.’ They are ready to give up both faith and hope, to 02:145cast away that very confidence whereby they are to overcome all
things, and do all things, through Christ strengthening them;
whereby, ‘after’ they ‘have done the will of God’, they are to ‘receive the
promise’.
1010. And if they ‘hold fast the beginning of their confidence steadfast
unto the end’,
they shall undoubtedly receive the promise of
God, reaching through both time and eternity. But here is another snare laid for
our feet. While we earnestly pant for that part of the promise which is to be
accomplished here, for ‘the glorious liberty of the children of God’, we may be led unawares from the consideration of the glory
which shall hereafter be revealed. Our eye may be insensibly turned aside from
that ‘crown which the righteous Judge’ hath promised to ‘give at that day to all
that love his appearing’; and we may be drawn away
from the view of that incorruptible inheritance which is reserved in heaven for
us. But this also would be a loss to our souls, and an
obstruction to our holiness. For to walk in the continual sight of our goal is a
needful help in our running the race that is set before us. This
it was, the having ‘respect unto the recompense of reward’, which of old time
encouraged Moses rather ‘to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt’. Nay, it is
expressly said of a greater than him, that ‘for the joy that was set before him,
he endured the cross, and despised the shame,’ till he ‘sat down at the right
hand of the throne of God’. Whence we may easily infer how much more needful for us
is the view of that joy set before us, that we may endure whatever cross the
wisdom of God lays upon us, and press on through holiness to glory.
1111. But while we are reaching to this, as well as to that glorious liberty
which is preparatory to it, we may be in danger of falling into another snare of
the devil, whereby he labours to entangle the children of God. We may take too
much ‘thought for tomorrow’,
02:146so as to neglect the improvement of today. We may so expect
‘perfect love’ as not to use that which is already ‘shed abroad in our
hearts’. There have not been wanting instances of those who
have greatly suffered hereby. They were so taken up with what they were to
receive hereafter as utterly to neglect what they had already received. In
expectation of having five talents more, they buried their one talent in the
earth. At least they did not improve it as they
might have done to the glory of God and the good of their own souls.
1212. Thus does the subtle adversary of God and man endeavour to make void
the counsel of God by dividing the gospel against itself, and making one part of
it overthrow the other—while the first work of God in the soul is destroyed by
the expectation of his perfect work. We have seen several of the ways wherein he
attempts this by cutting off, as it were, the springs of holiness; but this he
likewise does more directly by making that blessed hope an occasion of unholy
tempers.
1313. Thus, whenever our heart is eagerly athirst for all the great and
precious promises, when we pant after the fullness of God, as the hart after the
water brook,
when our soul breaketh out in fervent desire, ‘Why
are his chariot wheels so long a-coming?’ he will not
neglect the opportunity of tempting us to murmur against God. He will use all
his wisdom and all his strength if haply, in an unguarded hour, we may be
influenced to repine at our Lord for thus delaying his coming. At least he will
labour to excite some degree of fretfulness or impatience; and perhaps of envy
at those whom we believe to have already attained the prize of our high
calling. He well knows that by giving way to any of these
tempers we are pulling down the very thing we would build up. By thus following after perfect holiness we become more
unholy than before. Yea, there is great
danger that our last state should be worse than the first;
like them of whom the Apostle speaks in those dreadful words, ‘It had been
better they had never known the way of righteousness, than after they had known
it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.’
1414. And from hence he hopes to reap another advantage, even 02:147to bring up an evil report of the good way. He is sensible how few are able to
distinguish (and too many are not willing so to do) between the accidental abuse
and the natural tendency of a doctrine. These, therefore, will he continually
blend together with regard to the doctrine of Christian perfection, in order to
prejudice the minds of unwary men against the glorious promises of God. And how
frequently, how generally—I had almost said, how universally—has he prevailed
herein! For who is there that observes any of these accidental ill effects of
this doctrine, and does not immediately conclude, ‘This is its natural
tendency’? And does not readily cry out, ‘See, these are the fruits (meaning the
natural, necessary fruits) of such doctrine!’ Not so. They are fruits which may
accidentally spring from the abuse of a great and precious truth. But the abuse
of this, or any other scriptural doctrine, does by no means destroy its
use.
Neither can the unfaithfulness of man, perverting his right
way, ‘make the promise of God of none effect’. No; let God be true and
every man a liar. The word of the Lord, it shall
stand. ‘Faithful is he that hath promised;’ ‘he also will do
it.’ Let not us then be ‘removed from the hope of the
gospel’. Rather let us observe—which was the second thing
proposed—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.
2
1II. 1. And, first, does Satan endeavour to damp your joy in the Lord by the
consideration of your sinfulness, added to this, that without entire, universal
‘holiness no man can see the Lord’?
You may cast back this
dart upon his own head while, through the grace of God, the more you feel of
your own vileness the more you rejoice in confident hope that all this shall be
done away. While you hold fast this hope, every evil temper you feel, though you
hate it with a perfect hatred, may be a means, not of lessening your humble joy,
but rather of increasing it. ‘This and this’, may you say, ‘shall likewise
perish from the presence of the Lord. Like as the wax melteth at the fire, so
shall this melt away before his face.’ By this means
the greater that change is which remains to 02:148be wrought in your
soul, the more may you triumph in the Lord and rejoice in the God of your
salvation—who hath done so great things for you
already, and will do so much greater things than these.
22. Secondly, the more vehemently he assaults your peace with that
suggestion: ‘God is holy; you are unholy. You are immensely distant from that
holiness without which you cannot see God.
How then can you
be in the favour of God? How can you fancy you are justified?’—take the more
earnest heed to hold fast that, ‘not by works of righteousness which I have
done’ I am ‘found in him’. I am
‘accepted in the Beloved’, ‘not having my own
righteousness’ (as the cause either in whole or in part of our justification
before God), ‘but that which is by faith in Christ, the righteousness which is
of God by faith’. O bind this about your
neck; write it upon the table of thy heart; wear it as a
bracelet upon thy arm, as frontlets between
thine eyes: I am ‘justified freely by his
grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ’.
Value and esteem more and more that precious truth, ‘By grace we are saved
through faith.’ Admire more and more the free grace of God in
so loving the world as to give ‘his only Son, that whosoever believeth on him
might not perish but have everlasting life’. So shall the sense
of the sinfulness you feel on the one hand, and of the holiness you expect on
the other, both contribute to establish your peace, and to make it flow as a
river. So shall that peace flow on with an even stream,
in spite of all those mountains of ungodliness, which shall become a plain in
the day when the Lord cometh to take full possession of your heart. Neither will sickness or pain, or
the approach of death, occasion any doubt or fear. You know a day, an hour, a
moment with God is as a thousand years. He cannot be
straitened for time wherein to work whatever remains to be done in your soul.
And God’s time is always the best time. Therefore be thou ‘careful for
nothing’. Only ‘make thy request known unto him,’ 02:149and that, not
with doubt or fear, but ‘thanksgiving’; as being previously
assured, he cannot withhold from thee any manner of thing that is good.
33. Thirdly, the more you are tempted to give up your shield, to cast away
your faith, your confidence in his love, so much the more take heed that you
hold fast that whereunto you have attained.
So much the more
labour to ‘stir up the gift of God which is in you.’
Never let that slip: I have ‘an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous’; and ‘the life I now live, I live by faith in the
Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’ Be this
thy glory and crown of rejoicing. And see that no one take thy crown. Hold that
fast: ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth, and shall stand at the latter day upon
the earth.’ And I now ‘have redemption in his blood, even the
forgiveness of sins’. Thus, being filled with
all peace and joy in believing, press
on in the peace and joy of faith to the renewal of thy whole soul in the image
of him that created thee. Meanwhile, cry
continually to God that thou mayst see that prize of thy high calling, not as
Satan represents it, in a horrid
dreadful shape, but in its genuine native beauty; not as something that must be, or thou wilt go to hell, but as what may be, to lead thee to heaven. Look upon it as the most
desirable gift which is in all the stores of the rich
mercies of God. Beholding it in this true point of light, thou wilt hunger after
it more and more: thy whole soul will be athirst for God, and for this glorious
conformity to his likeness. And having received a good hope of this, and strong
consolation through grace, thou wilt no more be weary or faint in thy mind, but
wilt follow on till thou attainest.
44. In the same power of faith press on to glory. Indeed this is the same
prospect still. God hath joined from the beginning pardon, holiness, heaven. And
why should man put them asunder? O 02:150beware of this. Let not one
link of the golden chain be broken.
God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven me.
He is now renewing me in his own image. Shortly he will
make me meet for himself, and take me to stand before his face. I, whom he hath
justified through the blood of his Son, being thoroughly
sanctified by his Spirit, shall quickly ascend to the ‘New Jerusalem, the city
of the living God’. Yet a little while and I shall ‘come to the general assembly
and church of the first-born, and to God the judge of all, and to Jesus the
Mediator of the new covenant’. How soon will these
shadows flee away, and the day of eternity dawn upon me! How soon shall I drink
of ‘the river of the water of life, going out of the throne of God and of the
Lamb! There all his servants shall praise him, and shall see his face, and his
name shall be upon their foreheads. And no night shall be there; and they have
no need of a candle or the light of the sun. For the Lord God enlighteneth them,
and they shall reign for ever and ever.’
55. And if you thus ‘taste of the good word, and of the powers of the world
to come’,
you will not murmur against God, because you are not yet
‘meet for the inheritance of the saints in light’.
Instead of repining at your not being wholly delivered, you will praise God for
thus far delivering you. You will magnify God for what he hath done, and take it
as an earnest of what he will do. You will not fret against him because you are
not yet renewed, but bless him because you shall be; and because ‘now is your
salvation’ from all sin ‘nearer than when you’ first ‘believed’. Instead of uselessly tormenting yourself because the
time is not fully come you will calmly and quietly wait for it, knowing that it
‘will come and will not tarry’. You may therefore the more
cheerfully endure as yet the burden of sin that still remains in you, because it
will not always remain. Yet a little while and it shall be clean gone. Only
‘tarry thou the Lord’s leisure: be strong, and he shall comfort thy heart; and
put thou thy trust in the Lord.’
66. And if you see any who appear (so far as man can judge, but God alone
searcheth the hearts) to be already partakers of their hope, already ‘made
perfect in love’;
far from envying the grace
02:151of God in them, let it rejoice and comfort your heart.
Glorify God for their sake. ‘If one member is honoured’, shall not ‘all the
members rejoice with it’? Instead of jealousy or
evil surmising concerning them, praise God for the consolation. Rejoice in
having a fresh proof of the faithfulness of God in fulfilling all his promises.
And stir yourself up the more to ‘apprehend that for which you also are
apprehended of Christ Jesus’.
77. In order to this, redeem the time.
Improve the
present moment. Buy up every opportunity of growing in grace, or of doing good.
Let not the thought of receiving more grace tomorrow make you negligent of
today. You have one talent now. If you expect five more, so much the rather
improve that you have. And the more you expect to receive hereafter, the more
labour for God now. Sufficient for the day is the grace thereof. God is now pouring his benefits upon you. Now
approve yourself a faithful steward of the present grace of God. Whatever may be
tomorrow, give all diligence today to ‘add to your faith courage, temperance,
patience, brotherly kindness, and the fear of God,’ till you attain that pure
and perfect love. Let ‘these things be’ now ‘in you and abound’. Be not now
slothful or unfruitful. So shall an entrance be ministered ‘into the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ’.
8[8]. Lastly, if in time past you have abused this blessed hope of being
holy as he is holy, yet do not therefore cast it away. Let the abuse cease, the
use remain.
Use it now to the more abundant glory of God and
profit of your own soul. In steadfast faith, in calm tranquility of spirit, in
full assurance of hope, rejoicing evermore for what God hath done, ‘press’ ye
‘on unto perfection.’ Daily growing in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and going on from
strength to strength, in resignation, in patience, in humble thankfulness for
what ye have attained and for what ye shall, run the race set before you,
‘looking unto Jesus’, till through perfect
love ye enter into his glory.