"Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God."

1 John 4:1

"These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so."

Acts 17:11

MP3 AUDIOBOOKS:

Download or listen online to mp3 audiobooks of Puritan and Reformed works and more in the Hail & Fire Audio Library.

"To pretend to preach the truth without offending carnal men, is to pretend to be able to do what Jesus Christ could not do."

Thomas Wilson

"The light causes not darkness, but the absence of the light; so the Word causes not heresies, but the absence of the Word."

Elnathan Parr

READ FREE Christian books, Puritan, Reformed & Protestant exhortative works, Catholic and Protestant polemical and apologetical works, bibles, histories, martyrologies, and works on eschatology in the Hail & Fire ONLINE LIBRARY »

QUOTATIONS: WORDS OF WISDOM

back to author list

John Owen Quotes (1616-1683 AD)

John Owen, D.D., (1616-1683 AD,) was an English Nonconformist Minister, Puritan Preacher, and Chancellor of Oxford University.

John Owen on Trials, Temptations and Sanctification

"Corruptions and temptations develop the roots of humility, self-abasement and mourning in a deeper search for that grace by which holiness grows strong. But only later will there be visible fruits of increased holiness." – John Owen

Source: The Holy Spirit by John Owen.

back to top

John Owen on Baptism

"The outward administration of this ordinance considered materially, extends only to the washing away the filth of the flesh; but it signifies the answer of a good conscience; a conscience purged from sin, and quickened by virtue of the resurrection of Christ to holy obedience, Hebrews 9:14; Romans 6:3-7." – John Owen

Source: Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit by John Owen.

back to top

John Owen on the Freedom of the Will (Free Will)

"If it is by our own will and choice that we are saved, then God's purpose to convert a single soul could be frustrated. God may determine to save a soul. But after he has done all that is to be done or can be done for the saving of that soul, yet if the will remains unchanged, and God cannot do anything to renew that will, the soul will not be converted. ... This is contrary to the testimonies of Christ (Mat 11:25-26; Joh 6:37; Rom 8:29). ... it would all depend on man's undetermined freedom of will whether he believes in Jesus Christ or not and salvation would be 'of him who wills,' and of him 'who runs,' and not 'of God who shows mercy on whom he will have mercy' (Rom 9:15-16). Thus to make God's purpose to save by his grace depend on the wills of men is not consistent with our being the 'workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus for good works' (Eph 2:10). Nor, on this supposition, do men know what they pray for when they pray for their own or other men's conversion to God." – John Owen

Source: Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit by John Owen.

back to top

John Owen on the Gospel; Salvation by Grace

"He suffered men, indeed, to make trial of other ways; and when their insufficiency for the ends men proposed to themselves was manifested, it pleased him to reveal His way. And what are we, that we should contend about it with Him? God's rejection of the way of personal righteousness, and choosing the way of grace and forgiveness, he reveals, Jeremiah 31:31-34: 'Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers,' (in which administration of the covenant, as far as it had respect to typical mercies, much depended on their personal obedience,) 'but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my law in their hearts, and will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.' Let, then, this way stand, and the way of man's wisdom and self-righteousness perish forever." – John Owen

Source: The Forgiveness of Sin, a Practical Exposition of Psalm 130 by John Owen.

back to top

John Owen on the Spiritual Discernment of Grace

"Wordly people - do not know how, nor are ... able, to make a right judgement of believers. Only the spiritual man is able to discern the things of God. The weaknesses of believers are visible to all, but graces are invisible." – John Owen

Source: The Glory of Christ by John Owen.

back to top

John Owen on False Gospels without Repentance

"They told the Indians only of Christ's present glory and power. In this way they pretended to win them over to faith in Christ. By hiding from them what might discourage them they preached a false Christ. ... Cursed is the person who encourages you to come to Christ and allows you to think that you can still indulge one sin in your life. I am not saying that when you come to Christ you will at once be absolutely and perfectly free from all sin. But in your heart and by a holy determination you must daily mortify all sin as grace enables you. Your choice of Christ must be wholehearted with no thought of turning back to some favourite sin. It is either God or the world, Christ or Satan, holiness or sin. They cannot be reconciled (2 Corinthians 6:15-18)." – John Owen

Source: The Glory of Christ by John Owen.

back to top

John Owen on True Pleasure

"The truth is, you have never yet known real pleasure and will not until you come to Christ. For only in Christ are true pleasures to be found. A few moments with Christ are to be preferred to an eternity with the cursed pleasures of this world (Proverbs 3:13-18, Psalm 16:11)." – John Owen

Source: The Glory of Christ by John Owen.