Puritan Wisdom

 “Awake, therefore, all of you in whose hearts is anything of the ways of God! Your enemy is not only upon you, as on Sampson of old, but he is in you also. He is at work, but always of force and craft, as we shall see. Would you not dishonour God and his Gospel; would you not scandalize the saints and ways of God; would you not wound your consciences and endanger your souls; would you not grieve the good and Holy Spirit of God, the author of all your comforts; would you keep your garments undefiled, and escape the woeful temptations and pollutions of the days wherein we live; would you be preserved from the number of apostates in  these latter days; – awake to the consideration of this accursed enemy, which is the spring of all these, and innumerable other evils, as also of the ruin of all the souls the parish in this world!” – John Owen, The Nature and Power…of…Indwelling Sin…, in The Works of John Owen, Volume 6:  Temptation and Sin, 162.