(Heb.

11:4)

John Owen
Died
24th August 1683

 It is one thing to know the truth and another thing to know the
power of that truth. Do not be satisfied with what you know but
endeavor to find the life and power of what you know in your
heart.

 There is a sacred light in the Bible, but there is s a veil on the

eyes of men, so that they cannot behold it aright. Now, the
removal of this veil is the peculiar work of the Holy Spirit.

 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.

 The custom of sinning takes away the sense of it, the course of
the world takes away the shame of it.

 All things I thought I knew; but now confess, the more I know I
know, I know the less.
 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

 If the Word does not dwell in power IN us, it will not pass with
power FROM us.

 How can we possibly believe the promises concerning Heaven,

immortality, and glory, when we do not believe the promises
concerning our present life? And how can we be trusted when we
say we believe these promises but make no effort to experience
them ourselves? 

 He that hath slight thoughts of sin never had great thoughts of

God.

 All that we learn about God will only frighten us away from Him if
we do not see Him as loving and merciful to us.

 Selfishness is the making a man's self his own centre, the

beginning and end of all he doeth.

 I will not judge a person to be spiritually dead whom I have

judged formerly to have had spiritual life, though I see him at
present in a swoon (faint)as to all evidences of the spiritual life.
And the reason why I will not judge him so is this -- because if
you judge a person dead, you neglect him, you leave him; but if
you judge him in a swoon,(faint) though never so dangerous, you
use all means for the retrieving of his life.

 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.
 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
situations.

 Not being able to stay long with God in prayer shows that we are
ignorant of his love to us.

 Steadfastness in believing doth not exclude all temptations from

without. When we say a tree is firmly rooted, we do not say the
wind never blows upon it.

 It is not the distance of the earth from the sun, nor the sun's
withdrawing itself, that makes a dark and gloomy day; but the
interposition of clouds and vaporous exhalations. Neither is thy
soul beyond the reach of the promise, nor does God withdraw
Himself; but the vapours of thy carnal, unbelieving heart do cloud
thee.

 No man preaches his sermon well to others if he first does not

preach it to his own heart.

 Without the diligent exercise of the grace of obedience, we shall

never enjoy the grace of consolation.

 Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man, but only draw
out what was in him before.

 To suppose that whatever God requireth of us that we have the

power of ourselves to do is to make the cross of none effect.
 In the divine Scriptures, there are shallows and there are depths;
shallows where the lamb may wade, and depths where the
elephant may swim.

 He who prays as he ought will endeavor to live as he prays.

 The glory of heaven consists in the full manifestation of divine

wisdom, goodness, grace, holiness, - of all the properties of the
nature of God in Christ. In the clear perception and constant
contemplation hereof consists no small part of eternal
blessedness.

 If we, as believers, would meditate on this truth (communion with

God) more, and live in the light of it, there would be great
spiritual growth in our walk with God.

 NO MAN shall ever behold the glory of Christ BY SIGHT hereafter,

who doth not in some measure behold it BY FAITH here in this
world. Grace is a necessary preparation for glory, and faith for
sight. Where the subject (the soul) is not previously seasoned with
grace and faith, it is not capable of glory or vision. Yea, persons
not disposed hereby unto it cannot desire it, whatever they
pretend. If a man pretends himself to be enamored on, or greatly
to desire, what he never saw, nor was ever represented unto him,
he doth but dote on his own imaginations. And 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.

‘Friend, remember that it is better to read 1 quote 10 times

(meditatively) than to read 10 quotes 1 time (superficially).’

Gathered by Totaf.