2 Peter 3:17-18 You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked… I have seen the little pearls of a spring sweat through the bottom of a bank, and penetrate the stubborn pavement, till it hath made it fit for the impression of a child's foot, and it was dispersed like the descending dews of a misty morning, till it had opened its way and made a stream large enough to carry away the ruins of the undermined strand, and to invade the neighbouring gardens; but then the despised drops were grown into an artificial river, and an intolerable mischief. So are the first entrances of sin stopped with the antidotes of a hearty prayer, and checked into sobriety by the eye of a reverent man, or the counsel of a single sermon; but when such beginnings are neglected, and our religion hath not in it so much philosophy as to think anything evil so long as we can endure it, they grow up to ulcers and pestilential evils; they destroy the soul by their abode which, at the first entry, might have been killed by the pressure of a little finger. (Jeremy Taylor.) Parallel Verses KJV: Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. |
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