John Owen famous quotes

If we do not abide in prayer, we will abide in temptation.
-- John Owen

#Prayer #Temptation

If private revelations agree with Scripture, they are needless, and if they disagree, they are false.
-- John Owen

#Scripture #Revelations #Agree

Satan's greatest success is in making people think they have plenty of time before they die to consider their eternal welfare.
-- John Owen

#Thinking #People #Satan

So great an advantage is given to sin and Satan by your temper and disposition, that without extraordinary watchfulness, care, and diligence, they will prevail against your soul.
-- John Owen

#Soul #Care #Satan

The growth of trees and plants takes place so slowly that it is not easily seen. Daily we notice little change. But, in course of time, we see that a great change has taken place. So it is with grace. Sanctification is a progressive, lifelong work (Prov 4:18). It is an amazing work of God's grace and it is a work to be prayed for (Rom 8:27).
-- John Owen

#Taken #Tree #Grace

The purpose of our holy and righteous God was to save his church, but their sin could not go unpunished. It was, therefore, necessary that the punishment for that sin be transferred from those who deserved it but could not bear it, to one who did not deserve it but was able to bear it.
-- John Owen

#Punishment #Church #Purpose

Temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction
-- John Owen

#Cutting #Exercise #Men

We speak much of God, and talk of him, his ways, his works; the truth is, we know very little of him.
-- John Owen

#Littles #Way #Speak

Be killing sin or it will be killing you.
-- John Owen

#Sin #Killing

When the heart is once won to rest in God, to repose himself on him, he will assuredly satisfy it. He will never be as water that fails; nor hath he said at any time to the seed of Jacob, "Seek ye my face in vain." If Christ be chosen for the foundation of our supply, he will not fail us.
-- John Owen

#Heart #Water #Faces

Every time we say we believe in the Holy Spirit, we mean we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it.
-- John Owen

#Believe #Mean #Personality

The more I see of the glory of Christ, the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in my eyes.
-- John Owen

#Eye #World #Christ

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.
-- John Owen

#Humble #Mean #Greatness

It is the Spirit alone that can mortify sin; he is promised to do it, and all other means without him are empty and vain. How shall he, then, mortify sin that has not the Spirit? A man may easier see without eyes, speak without a tongue, than truly mortify one sin without the Spirit.
-- John Owen

#Mean #Eye #Men

To kill sin is the work of living men; where men are dead (as all unbelievers, the best of them, are dead), sin is alive, and will live.
-- John Owen

#Men #Alive #Sin

All that may be known of God for our salvation, especially his wisdom, love, goodness, grace and mercy on which the life of our souls depends, are represented to us in all their splendour in and through Christ. No wonder then that Christ is glorious in the eyes of believers!
-- John Owen

#Eye #Grace #Soul

To the sick man the physician when he enters seems to have three faces, those of a man, a devil, a god. When the physician first comes and announces the safety of the patient, then the sick man says: "Behold a God or a guardian angel!
-- John Owen

#Angel #Men #Safety

He that loves works out good to those that he loves, as he is able. God's power and will are equal; what He wills He works.
-- John Owen

#Work Out #Able #Christianity

Christ greatly delights in his people and they greatly delight in him
-- John Owen

#People #Delight #Christ

That wisdom which cannot teach me that God is love, shall ever pass for folly.
-- John Owen

#God Is Love #Teach #Folly

Faith, if it be a living faith, will be a working faith.
-- John Owen

#Life

The good Lord send out a spirit of mortification to cure our distempers, or we are in a sad condition!
-- John Owen

#Spirit #Sin #Lord

In or towards whomsoever the Holy Spirit puts forth His power, or acts his grace for their regeneration, he removes all obstacles, overcomes all oppositions, and infallibly produces the intended effect.
-- John Owen

#Grace #Overcoming #Spirit

All spiritual acts well-pleasing unto God, as faith, repentance, obedience, are supernatural; flesh and blood revealeth not these things.
-- John Owen

#Spiritual #Blood #Flesh

Sin will be always acting, if we be not always mortifying, we are lost creatures...
-- John Owen

#Acting #Sin #Lost

We cannot enjoy peace in this world unless we are ready to yield to the will of God in respect of death. Our times are in His hand, at His sovereign disposal. We must accept that as best.
-- John Owen

#Yield #Hands #World

Fill your affections with the cross of Christ that there may be no room for sin.
-- John Owen

#May #Rooms #Affection

There is no true gospel fruit without faith and repentance.
-- John Owen

#Fruit #Repentance

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.
-- John Owen

#World #Sin #This World

All attempts, then, for mortification of any lust, without an interest in Christ, are vain.
-- John Owen

#Lust #Christ #Vain

You have your season, and you have but your season; neither can you lie down in peace, until you have some persuasion that your work as well as your life is at an end.
-- John Owen

#Life #Lying #Persuasion

We are never nearer Christ than when we find ourselves lost in a holy amazement at His unspeakable love.
-- John Owen

#Worship #Christ #Holy

No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight hereafter who does not in some measure behold it here by faith.
-- John Owen

#Men #Sight #Doe

Christ by his death destroying the works of the devil, procuring the Spirit for us, hath so killed sin, as to its reign in believers, that it shall not obtain its end and dominion.
-- John Owen

#Devil #Dominion #Reign

It must be observed, that the best of men, the most holy and spiritually minded, may have, nay, ought to have, their thoughts of spiritual things excited, multiplied, and confirmed, by the preaching of the word.
-- John Owen

#Spiritual #Men #May

As a tender and loving friend is grieved at the unkindness of his friend... so is it with this tender and loving Spirit, who hath chosen our hearts for a habitation to dwell in.
-- John Owen

#Heart #Spirit #Sin

A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more.
-- John Owen

#Prayer #Secret #May

We can have no power from Christ unless we live in a persuasion that we have none of our own.
-- John Owen

#Persuasion #Christ

There is no death of sin without the death of Christ.
-- John Owen

#Sin #Christ

Christ's blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls.
-- John Owen

#Blood #Sick #Soul

Before the work of grace the heart is ‘stony.’ It can do no more than a stone can do to please God.
-- John Owen

#Heart #Grace #Stones

What do we want? What would we be at? What do our souls desire? Is it not that we might have a more full, clear, stable comprehension of the wisdom, love, grace, goodness, holiness, righteousness, and power of God, as declared and exalted in Christ unto our redemption and eternal salvation?
-- John Owen

#Christian #Grace #Soul

We are taught in an especial manner to pray that God would give his Holy Spirit unto us, that through his aid and assistance we may live unto God in that holy obedience which he requires at our hands.
-- John Owen

#Hands #Giving #Taught

When we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for-then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men.
-- John Owen

#Men #Grace #Doctrine

He works in us and with us, not against us or without us; so that his assistance is an encouragement to the facilitating of the work, and no occasion of neglect as to the work itself.
-- John Owen

#Encouragement #Sin #Neglect

Free will is "corrupted nature's deformed darling, the Pallas or beloved self-conception of darkened minds"
-- John Owen

#Self #Mind #Beloved

It is truth alone that capacitates any soul to glorify God.
-- John Owen

#Soul #Christianity #Glorify

The stronghold of the contemplation of Christ's glory affords the soul rest, for it will be made evident that our troubles grow on the root of an over-valuation of temporal things. The mind is its own greatest troubler.
-- John Owen

#Roots #Soul #Mind

The pretended desires of many to behold the glory of Christ in heaven, who have no view of it by faith while they are here in this world, are nothing but self-deceiving imaginations.
-- John Owen

#Self #Views #Imagination

...but let it suffice us to know that it became God, who is the supreme Ruler, Governor and Judge of all that sin should be punished with death in the sinner or his surety; and therefore if God would bring many sons to glory, the Captain of their salvation must undergo sufferings and death, to make satisfaction for them.
-- John Owen

#Son #Judging #Suffering

Christ is our best friend, and ere long will be our only friend. I pray God with all my heart that I may be weary of everything else but converse and communion with Him.
-- John Owen

#Heart #Long #May

If I have observed anything by experience, it is this: a man may take the measure of his growth and decay in grace according to his thoughts and meditations upon the person of Christ, and the glory of Christ's Kingdom, and of His love.
-- John Owen

#Peace #Men #Meditation

Never was sin seen to be more abominably sinful and full of provocation than when the burden of it was upon the shoulders of the Son of God...Would you, then, see the true demerit of sin?-take the measure of it from the mediation of Christ, especially his cross.
-- John Owen

#Son #Sin #Christ

As rivers, the nearer they come to the ocean whither they tend, the more they increase their waters, and speed their streams; so will grace flow more fully and freely in its near approaches to the ocean of glory.
-- John Owen

#Christian #Ocean #Blessing

He who prays as he ought will endeavor to live as he prays.
-- John Owen

#Prayer #Praying #Endeavor

Though we are commanded to 'wash ourselves', to 'cleanse ourselves from sins', to 'purge ourselves from all our iniquities', yet to imagine that we can do these things by our own efforts is to trample on the cross and grace of Jesus Christ. Whatever God works in us by his grace, he commands us to do as our duty. God works all in us and by us.
-- John Owen

#Jesus #Effort #Grace

There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed upon. It will always be so while we live in this world. Sin will not spare for one day. There is no safety but in a constant warfare for those who desire deliverance from sin's perplexing rebellion.
-- John Owen

#Safety #Desire #One Day

We shall not benefit from reading the Old Testament unless we look for and meditate on the glory of Christ in its pages.
-- John Owen

#Reading #Looks #Benefits

If Scripture has more than one meaning, it has no meaning at all.
-- John Owen

#Scripture

The house built on the sand may oftentimes be built higher, have more fair parapets and battlements, windows and ornaments, than that which is built upon the rock; yet all gifts and privileges equal not one grace.
-- John Owen

#Rocks #House #Grace

We ought as much to pray for a blessing upon our daily rod as upon our daily bread.
-- John Owen

#Prayer #Blessing #Bread

Then are we servants of God, then are we the disciples of Christ, when we do what is commanded us and because it is commanded us.
-- John Owen

#Christ #Servant #Disciple

Christ did not die for any upon condition, if they do believe; but He died for all God's elect, that they should believe.
-- John Owen

#Believe #Christ #Should

The gospel shall be victorious. This greatly comforts and refreshes me.
-- John Owen

#Comfort

The first and principal duty of a pastor is to feed the flock by diligent preaching of the word
-- John Owen

#Firsts #Flocks #Duty

To those to whom Christ is the hope of future glory, he is also the life of present grace.
-- John Owen

#Grace #Christ #Glory

He that is more frequent in his pulpit to his people than he is in his closet for his people, is but a sorry watchman.
-- John Owen

#Sorry #People #Church

The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not to believe that he loves you.
-- John Owen

#Father #Believe #Love You

To say that we are able by our own efforts to think good thoughts or give God spiritual obedience before we are spiritually regenerate is to overthrow the gospel and the faith of the universal church in all ages.
-- John Owen

#Spiritual #Thinking #Giving

It is one thing to fear God as threatening, with a holy reverence, and another to be afraid of the evil threatened.
-- John Owen

#Evil #Threatening #Holy

The seed of every sin is in every heart.
-- John Owen

#Heart #Sin

For to pretend that men may live habitually sinful lives without any attempt by the Spirit to mortify sin in them, nor with any desire for repentance, is to deny the Christian religion.
-- John Owen

#Christian #Men #Desire

Christ is the meat, the bread, the food of our souls. Nothing is in him of a higher spiritual nourishment than his love, which we should always desire.
-- John Owen

#Spiritual #Soul #Desire

Pardon comes not to the soul alone; or rather, Christ comes not to the soul with pardon only! It is that which He opens the door and enters by, but He comes with a Spirit of life and power.
-- John Owen

#Doors #Soul #Spirit

Labour to grow better under all your afflictions, lest your afflictions grow worse, lest God mingle them with more darkness, bitterness and terror.
-- John Owen

#Darkness #Affliction #Bitterness

The foundation of true holiness and true Christian worship is the doctrine of the gospel, what we are to believe. So when Christian doctrine is neglected, forsaken, or corrupted, true holiness and worship will also be neglected, forsaken, and corrupted.
-- John Owen

#Christian #Believe #Holiness

Let our hearts admit, “I am poor and weak. Satan is too subtle, too cunning, too powerful; he watches constantly for advantages over my soul. The world presses in upon me with all sorts of pressures, pleas, and pretences. My own corruption is violent, tumultuous, enticing, and entangling. As it conceives sin, it wars within me and against me. Occasions and opportunities for temptation are innumerable. No wonder I do not know how deeply involved I have been with sin. Therefore, on God alone will I rely for my keeping. I will continually look to Him.
-- John Owen

#Powerful #War #Heart

Consider who and what you are; who the Spirit is that is grieved, what he has done for you, what he comes to your soul about, what he has already done in you; and be ashamed. Among those who walk with God, there is no greater motive and incentive unto universal holiness, and the preserving of their hearts and spirits in all purity and cleanness than this: That the blessed Spirit, who has undertaken to dwell in them, is continually considering what they give entertainment in their hearts unto, and rejoices when his temple is kept undefiled.
-- John Owen

#Blessed #Heart #Giving

Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until it be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to the death.
-- John Owen

#Men #Thinking #Blow

The vigour, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh...The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin...Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.
-- John Owen

#Spiritual #Deeds #Flesh

See in the meantime that your faith brings forth obedience, and God in due time will cause it to bring forth peace.
-- John Owen

#Causes #Obedience

Without absolutes revealed from without by God Himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas about manners, justice and right and wrong, issuing from a multitude of self-opinionated thinkers.
-- John Owen

#Self #Sea #Ideas

The most tremendous judgment of God in this world is the hardening of the hearts of men.
-- John Owen

#Heart #Men #World

To suppose that whatever God requireth of us that we have power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none effect.
-- John Owen

#Jesus #Grace #Christ

I do not understand how a man can be a true believer, in whom sin is not the greatest burden, sorrow and trouble.
-- John Owen

#Men #Sorrow #Sin

Set faith at work on Christ for the killing of thy sin. His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls. Live in this, and thou wilt die a conqueror; yea, thou wilt, through the good providence of God, live to see thy lust dead at thy feet.
-- John Owen

#Blood #Feet #Sick

We all profess that we are bound for heaven, immortality, and glory: but is it any evidence that we really design it if all our thoughts are consumed about the trifles of this world, which we must leave behind us, and have only occasional thoughts of things above?
-- John Owen

#Heaven #Design #World

Sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet.
-- John Owen

#Quiet #Sin

The duties God requires of us are not in proportion to the strength we possess in ourselves. Rather, they are proportional to the resources available to us in Christ. We do not have the ability in ourselves to accomplish the least of God's tasks. This is the law of grace. When we recognize it is impossible for us to perform a duty in our own strength, we will discover the secret of its accomplishment.
-- John Owen

#Law #Accomplishment #Grace

Nothing shall be lost that is done for God or in obedience to Him.
-- John Owen

#Christian #Prayer #Religion

Sin aims always at the utmost; every time it rises up to tempt or entice, if it has its own way it will go out to the utmost sin in that kind. Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could, every thought of unbelief would be atheism if allowed to develop. Every rise of lust, if it has its way reaches the height of villainy; it is like the grave that is never satisfied. The deceitfulness of sin is seen in that it is modest in its first proposals but when it prevails it hardens men’s hearts, and brings them to ruin.
-- John Owen

#Heart #Men #Lust

The person who understands the evil in his own heart is the only person who is useful, fruitful, and solid in his beliefs and obedience. Others only delude themselves and thus upset families, churches, and all other relationships. In their self-pride and judgment of others, they show great inconsistency.
-- John Owen

#Heart #Pride #Self

Believers obey Christ as the one whom our obedience is accepted by God. Believers know all their duties are weak, imperfect, and unable to abide in God's presence. Therefore they look to Christ as the one who bears the iniquity of their holy things, who adds incense to their prayers, gathers out all the weeds from their duties and makes them acceptable to God.
-- John Owen

#Weed #Prayer #Add

He can make the dry parched ground of my soul to become a pool and my thirsty barren heart as springs of water. Yes he can make this habitation of dragons this heart which is so full of abominable lusts and fiery temptations to be a place of bounty and fruitfulness unto Himself
-- John Owen

#Spring #Heart #Dragons

The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin.
-- John Owen

#Sin #Believer

Leanness of body and soul may go together.
-- John Owen

#Soul #Together #Body

Did you never run for shelter in a storm, and find fruit which you expected not? Did you never go to God for safeguard, driven by outward storms, and there find unexpected fruit?
-- John Owen

#Christian #Running #Blessing

To believe that He will preserve us is, indeed, a means of preservation. God will certainly preserve us, and make a way of escape for us out of the temptation, should we fall. We are to pray for what God has already promised. Our requests are to be regulated by His promises and commands. Faith embraces the promises and so finds relief.
-- John Owen

#Believe #Fall #Mean

It is not the glorious battlements, the painted windows, the crouching gargoyles that support a building, but the stones that lie unseen in or upon the earth. It is often those who are despised and trampled on that bear up the weight of a whole nation.
-- John Owen

#Lying #Support #Stones

Unless we are thoroughly convinced that without Christ we are under the eternal curse of God, as the worst of His enemies, we shall never flee to Him for refuge.
-- John Owen

#Enemy #Christ #Worst