Treatise Plain Account Of Christian Perfection
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | treatise |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-treatise-plain-account-of-christian-perfection-086 |
| Words | 380 |
“As a very little dust will disorder a clock, and the least
sand will obscure our sight, so the least grain of sin which is
upon the heart will hinder its right motion towards God. “We ought to be in the church as the saints are in heaven,
and in the house as the holiest men are in the church; doing
our work in the house as we pray in the church; worshipping
God from the ground of the heart. “We should be continually labouring to cut off all the
useless things that surround us; and God usually retrenches
the superfluities of our souls in the same proportion as we do
those of our bodies. “The best means of resisting the devilis, to destroy whatever
of the world remains in us, in order to raise for God, upon its
ruins, a building all of love. Then shall we begin, in this
fleeting life, to love God as we shall love him in eternity. “We scarce conceive how easy it is to rob God of his due,
in our friendship with the most virtuous persons, until they
are torn from us by death. But if this loss produce lasting
sorrow, that is a clear proof that we had before two treasures,
between which we divided our heart. “(7.) If, after having renounced all, we do not watch
incessantly, and beseech God to accompany our vigilance
with his, we shall be again entangled and overcome. “As the most dangerous winds may enter at little openings,
so the devil never enters more dangerously than by little
unobserved incidents, which seem to be nothing, yet insensibly
open the heart to great temptations. “It is good to renew ourselves, from time to time, by
closely examining the state of our souls, as if we had never
done it before; for nothing tends more to the full assurance
of faith, than to keep ourselves by this means in humility,
and the exercise of all good works. “To continual watchfulness and prayer ought to be added
continual employment. For grace flies a vacuum as well as
nature; and the devil fills whatever God does not fill. “There is no faithfulness like that which ought to be
between a guide of souls and the person directed by him.