A saint quite off his guard

Verse 1
A saint quite off his guard
Is for the fiend prepar’d:
When in grace they cease to grow,
When they in their grace confide,
Souls are ready for the foe,
Garnish’d, and adorn’d by pride.

Verse 2
The house which seems so clean,
And swept from every sin,
Tempts the tempter to come back;
Satan and a troop from hell
Of the soul possession take,
In the saint forever dwell.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘When he cometh he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh &c.’—[Luke 11,] v. 25, 26.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Luke.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/575, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 206.
Publishing: Public Domain