“It is our duty to be “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1); to be “growing in grace” every day (1 Peter 2:2; 2 Peter 3:18); to be “renewing our inward man day by day: (2 Cor. 4:16). Now, this cannot be done without the daily mortifying of sin. Sin sets its strength against every act of holiness and against every degree we grow to. Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness who walks not over the bellies of his lusts. He who does not kill sin in his way takes no steps toward 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.”

John Owen

Overcoming Sin and Temptation page 55

“Many are so far from being better for their knowledge, that they are worse: ‘thy knowledge hath perverted thee’ (Isa. 47:10). The knowledge of most people makes them more cunning in sin; these have little cause to glory in their knowledge. Absalom might boast of the hair of his head, but that hanged him; so these may boast of the knowledge of their head, but it will destroy them.”

Thomas Watson

The Godly Man’s Picture