Octavius Winslow lived in the 19th century, putting him technically outside the category of “Puritan,” but this book reads just as you would expect from a great Puritan work: profound spiritual insight, theological and yet utterly practical, and passionately Christ-centered.
The purpose of the book is to alert the reader to the “incipient” (in its early stages) signs of spiritual declension in areas like love, faith, prayer and doctrine, in order to prevent one from slowly drifting away from Jesus. “No child of God ever recedes into a state of inward declension and outward backsliding, but by slow and gradual steps.” (p.3).
An example of Winslow’s insight into the human heart is in the chapter on faith. He makes the point that the person whose faith is declining into constant doubt has more of a problem with pride than humility. “The moment a believer looks at his unworthiness more than at the righteousness of Christ – supposes that there is not a sufficiency of merit in Jesus to supply the absence of all merit in himself before God, what is it but a setting up his sinfulness and unworthiness above the infinite worth, fullness, and sufficiency of Christ’s atonement and righteousness?” (p.82).
As with all writings in the Puritan style, there are no punches pulled. The person with a tender conscience should be careful, because you will not finish this book without feeling deep conviction in your soul. But Winslow concludes with a chapter on the Father, Son and Holy Spirit working together as the keeper of His people, and assures us early in the book that “whatever be the departure of a backsliding child of God, it is recoverable: not a step has he lost but may be retraced; not a grace has decayed but may be restored; not a joy has fled but may be won back.” (p.22).