John Owen
John Owen
spirit sin lord
The good Lord send out a spirit of mortification to cure our distempers, or we are in a sad condition!
wish worst stills
I wish thy lot, now bad, still worse, my friend, for when at worst, they say, things always mend.
spring heart dragons
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
soul together may
Leanness of body and soul may go together.
moon love-is light
The love of God is like himself – equal, constant, not capable of augmentation or diminution; our love is like ourselves – unequal, increasing, waning, growing, declining. His, like the sun, always the same in its light, though a cloud may sometimes interpose; ours, as the moon, has its enlargements and straightenings.
world shame courses
The custom of sinning takes away the sense of it, the course of the world takes away the shame of it.
heart men lust
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.
principles good-work obedience
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.
prayer world bears
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.
lying support weight
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.
heart roots digestion
The root of an unmortified course is the digestion of sin without bitterness in the heart.
elephants swim wade
In the divine Scriptures, there are shallows and there are deeps; shallows where the lamb may wade, and deeps where the elephant may swim.
believe blow wind
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.
christian running blessing
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?