None who go to her return- that is, very few do so. It is rare to hear of any who are enchanted and captivated with the sin of immorality who recover from it. I discovered more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her -Ecclesiastes 7-26-. Her heart is a trap- that is, she is clever in deceiving...

Upon this all the dead shall rise from their graves. All, both small and great, who shall have lived upon earth since the foundation of the world, those who died before the flood, and those who were drowned in the flood, all that have died since that time, and that shall die to the end of the world. There will be a great moving upon the face of the earth, and in the water, in bringing bone to his bone, in opening graves, and bringing together all the scattered particles of dead bodies. The earth shall give up the dead that are in it, and the sea shall give up the dead that are in it.

Amongst all the reasons, however, that I ever heard, that with which I have the most sympathy, is this one- that some cannot receive Christ because they are so full of anguish, and are so crushed in spirit that they cannot find strength enough of mind to entertain a hope that by any possibility salvation can come to them. It is to their sad case that I desire to speak. I think that I can speak to the case, if God help me, for I have felt the same.

For this reason I speak by parables. He says that he speaks to the-- multitude in an obscure manner, because they are not partakers of the-- true light. And yet, while he declares that a veil is spread over the-- blind, that they may remain in their darkness, he does not ascribe the-- blame of this to themselves, but takes occasion to commend more highly-- the grace bestowed on the Apostles, because it is not equally-- communicated to all. He assigns no cause for it, except the secret-- purpose of God...

Some gospel precepts are exceeding difficult to our nature as it is weak. This our Savior takes notice of when exhorting his disciples to watchfulness and prayer in an hour of temptation- he tells them that -the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,- Matthew 26-41 The difficulties and discouragements that lay in the way of the people quite took off their hearts and minds from endeavoring an entrance into the promised land. But what was the event- The apostle declares at large that on this account the indignation of God came upon them, and -their carcasses fell in the wilderness.-

Nay, stay, said the Interpreter, till I have shewed you a little more, and after that you shall go on your way. So he took him by the hand again, and led him into a very dark room, where there sat a man in an iron cage. Now the man, to look on, seemed very sad- he sat with his eyes looking down to the ground, his hands folded together, and he sighed as if he would break his heart. Then said Christian, What means this- At which the Interpreter bid him talk with the man.

To make prayer of any value, there should be definite objects for which to plead. My brethren, we often ramble in our prayers after this, that, and the other, and we get nothing because in each we do not really desire anything. We chatter about many subjects, but the soul does not concentrate itself upon any one object. Do you not sometimes fall on your knees without thinking beforehand what you mean to ask God for- You do so as a matter of habit, without any motion of your heart. You are like a man who should go to a shop and not know what articles he would procure.

From John Owen's Work Of The Holy Spirit in Regeneration