Nehemiah prayed to the Lord when he set a watch, and so must we, for without him the watchman walketh but in vain. The example of those about us, and the provocations of those against us, are apt to stir up and draw out corrupt inclinations. While we live in such an evil world, and carry about with us such evil hearts, we have need to pray that we may neither be drawn in by any allurement nor driven on by any provocation to do any sinful thing. Let me not join with them in their feasts and sports, lest thereby I be inveigled into their sins. Better is a dinner of herbs, out of the way of temptation, than a stalled ox in it.
Sinners pretend to find dainties in sin.
But those that consider how soon the dainties of sin will turn into wormwood and gall, how certainly it will, at last, bite like a serpent and sting like an adder, will dread those dainties, and pray to God by his providence to take them out of their sight, and by his grace to turn them against them. Good men will pray even against the sweets of sin. Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth. 9 Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.