So temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction.

There is not a day in our lives in which sin does not either defeat us or is defeated, prevails over us or is prevailed over, and it will be like this as long as we live in this world.

4. When a man fighteth against his sin only with arguments from the issue or the punishment due unto it, this is a sign that sin hath taken great possession of the will, and that in the heart there is a superfluity of naughtiness.

for Owen, circumstances—whether amiable or painful—were not an excuse to stop resisting sin.

Temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction.

Christians are called to wage war against this enemy, knowing that there are only two options: "Be killing sin or it will be killing you."25

When we are overtaken with a sin, we sometimes fail to analyze how we fell. This is to our great disadvantage. We repent of the sin, but we do not consider the temptation that was the cause of it.

Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness who walks not over the bellies of his lusts. He who doth not kill sin in this way takes no steps towards his journey's end. He who finds not opposition from it, and who sets not himself in every particular to its mortification, is at peace with it, not dying to it. This

Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man, but only draw out what was in him before.

God says, 'Here is one, if he could be rid of this lust I should never hear of him more; let him wrestle with this, or he is lost'" (chapter 8). Astonishing! God ordains to leave a lust with me till I become the sort of warrior who will still seek his aid when this victory is won. God knows when we can bear the triumphs of his grace.

Temptation, then, in general, is any thing, state, way, or condition that, upon any account whatsoever, has a force or efficacy to seduce, to draw the mind and heart of a man from its obedience, which God requires of him, into any sin, in any degree of it whatsoever.

Being a divorcee in a small town is a little like playing Monopoly; eventually you land on all the properties.