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Of Temptation

by John Owen

To one who reads the treatise in the spirit with which the author wrote it, simply that he may judge his own heart, and know what temptation means, and be fully on his guard against it, the effect is far beyond what the mere wealth of fancy or the arts of rhetoric could produce.From the text, Matt. xxvi. 41, the author considers in succession three topics educed from it: temptation, the means by which it prevails, and the way of preventing it. The most of the treatise is occupied with the last topic,—the means of prevention. It is subdivided into inquiries,—as to the evidence by which a man may know that he has entered into temptation, the directions requisite to prevent him entering into it, and the seasons when temptation may be apprehended. The discussion of this last inquiry merges very much into an illustration of the Christian duty of watchfulness, and the treatise is closed by a general exhortation to this duty. - Summary by Editor