Resist the Beginning of Evil

Let us resist the beginning of evil. Let us banish sinful thoughts. We are in danger from a single evil thought. If we suffer it to lodge and rest in the heart, we rock a giant. It will soon arise and overpower us.

From sermon on Mortification of Sin by Asahel Nettleton quoted in John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric, 104.