'Voices From The Past' Vol. 1 — April 13

If you see many lying sick, weak, and wounded in a hospital with many diseases, and if you should inquire how they fell into this condition, and they all tell you that such and such a thing was the occasion of their trouble, would it not make you careful what you had to do with that thing? Surely it would. If you go to a dungeon, and see many miserable creatures bound in chains for an approaching day of execution, and inquire how they were brought into that condition, and they all fixed on the same thing, would you not take care to avoid it? So is the case with entering into temptation. Ah! How many poor, miserable souls, spiritually wounded by one sin or another, have we everywhere. Ask them how they came into such a condition—'Alas! We entered into temptation and fell into cursed snares, and it has brought us into the sad condition.' Aye, if a man could look into the dungeons of hell, and see the poor damned souls that lie bound in chains of darkness, and hear their cries, what would he hear? Are they not cursing their tempters and temptations? Shall we be negligent in this? If you knew all who have fallen by entering into temptation, you would be more watchful and careful. Men will not come out of their temptation without wounds and scars. We should watch the first rising of sin and all the ways in which Satan has made his approach to us, even if it seems ever so harmless. Have we not our own experience of weakness, folly, and the invincible power of temptation? If you neglect a careful watch, you will certainly enter into temptation, and just as certainly fall into sin. Do not flatter yourselves: 'Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.' Past grace received will not preserve you from evil; you must stand upon your watch.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Devotional Readings 'Voices From The Past Vol.1.'
John Owen, Works, VI:149-150
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