John Owen

Have You Obtained a View of God’s Fatherly Countenance – John Owen

Have I obtained a view of God’s fatherly countenance that I might behold his face and provoke him to his face? Was my soul washed that room might be made for new defilements? Shall I endeavour to disappoint the end of the death of Christ? Shall I daily grieve the Spirit whereby I am sealed to the day of redemption?

– John Owen –

Bring Lust to the Gospel – John Owen

Bring thy lust to the gospel, not for relief, but for further conviction of its guilt: look on him whom thou hast pierced, and be in bitterness. Say to thy soul, What have I done? What love, what mercy, what blood, what grace, have I despised and trampled on! Is this the return I make to the Father for his love, to the Son for his blood, to the Holy Ghost for his grace? Do I thus requite the Lord? Have I defiled the heart that Christ died to wash, which the blesses Spirit hath chosen to dwell in? And can I keep myself out of the dust? What can I say to the dear Lord Jesus? How shall I hold up my head with any boldness before him? Do I account communion with him of so little value that for this vile lust’s sake I have scarce left him any room in my heart? How shall I escape, if I neglect so great salvation? In the mean time, what shall I say to the Lord? Love, mercy, grace, goodness, peace, joy, consolation; I have despised them all, and esteemed them as a thing of naught, that I might harbour a lust in my heart.

– John Owen –
from The Mortification of Sin

Our Duty to Grow and Thrive in Holiness – John Owen

It is our duty to grow and thrive in holiness. Now what God requires of us, we are to believe he will help us to achieve. But we must not only believe that he will help us, but we must also believe that he is now helping us, we must not rely on our feelings of whether we are aware of being holy or not.

– John Owen –
from The Holy Spirit (abridged by RJK Law)

The Mortification of Sin – John Owen

Not to be daily mortifying sin, is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love of God, who hath furnished us with a principle (and means) of doing it.

– John Owen –
from The Mortification of Sin

Where Is Our Focus? – John Owen

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 –

Living By Aid of the Holy Spirit – John Owen

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 –
from his book The Holy Spirit, 1664

Wonderful Success Of Victory – John Owen

Now, though doubtless there may be attained, by the Spirit and grace of Christ, a wonderful success and eminency of victory against any sin, so that a man may have almost constant triumph over it; yet an utter killing and destruction of it, that it should not be, is not in this life to be expected

– John Owen –

from The Mortification of Sin,1656