Quotes from John Owen

And truly, for sinners to have fellowship with God, the infinitely holy God, is an astonishing dispensation.9

keep the heart full of a sense of the love of God in Christ. This is the greatest preservative against the power of temptation in the world. Joseph

If sin be subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing our souls, and we be slothful, negligent, foolish, in proceeding to the ruin thereof, can we expect a comfortable event? There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed on; and it will be so whilst we live in this world.

A soul under the power of conviction from the law is pressed to fight against sin, but hath no strength for the combat.

The intendment of all gospel revelation is, not to unveil God's essential glory, that we should see him as he is, but merely to declare so much of him as he knows sufficient to be a bottom of our faith, love, obedience, and coming to him

sin is always acting, always conceiving, always seducing and tempting.

There are two things that are suited to humble the souls of men, and they are, first, a due consideration of God, and then of themselves;—of God, in his greatness, glory, holiness, power, majesty, and authority; of ourselves, in our mean, abject, and sinful condition.

That it is the work of the Holy Spirit to enable us to believe the Scripture to be the word of God, or the supernatural, immediate revelation of his mind unto us, and infallibly to evidence it unto our minds, so as that we may spiritually and savingly acquiesce therein.

Interpretis officium est, non quid ipse velit, sed quid sentiat ille quem interpretatur, exponere," Hieron. Apol. adv. Rufin.;—for when the mind is really affected with the discovery of truth itself, it will be guided and directed in the declaration of it unto others.

Tell your conscience that it cannot manage any evidence to the purpose that you are free from the condemning power of sin, while your unmortified lust lies in your heart;

When sin lets us alone we may let sin alone; but as sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet, and its waters are for the most part deep when they are still, so ought our contrivances against it to be vigorous at all times and in all conditions, even where there is least suspicion.

It is not, we see, of ourselves, that we either know the truth, or love it, or abide in the profession of it. We have nothing of this kind but what we have received. Humility in ourselves, usefulness towards others, and thankfulness unto God, ought to be the effects of this consideration.