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
