267 Quotes by John Owen

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.

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

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.

If a man teach uprightly and walk crookedly, more will fall down in the night of his life than he built in the day of his doctrine.

We admit no faith to be justifying, which is not itself and in its own nature a spiritually vital principle of obedience and good works.

If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be better than they are in the world: at least, we should be better enabled to bear them.

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.

The root of an unmortified course is the digestion of sin without bitterness in the heart.

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.