The people who love Owen usually admit that his writing is often hard to understand.  But these same people usually say that he's worth the effort.  A few years ago, I picked up his work on limited atonement, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, and thought that even the table of contents was hard to understand.  His work Communion With the Triune God is supposed to be a wonderful delight for the soul, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.  Admittedly it's a tough read, but there's some great fruit packed among the thick brush, too.

First, let me give a sample of his dense writing and then some excerpts of the bounty I've come across so far.

"That the Scripture does distinctly assign all these [attributes] unto the Father, Son, and Spirit--manifesting that the saints do, in all of them, both as they are purely and nakedly moral, and as further clothed with instituted worship, respect each person respectively--is that which, to give light to the assertion in hand, I shall further declare by particular instances." p97

It was a different era for thinking and writing.  Fortunately, Owen isn't always that complex.  Here are some clearer samples:

"It was from eternity that [God] laid in his own bosom a design for our happiness.  The very thought of this is enough to make all that is within us, like the babe in the womb of Elizabeth, to leap for joy.  A sense of it cannot but prostrate our souls to the lowest abasement of a humble, holy reverence, and make us rejoice before him with trembling." p125

"'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.'  Why should [God] fix his love on us, and pass by millions from whom we differ not by nature (Eph 2:3)--that he should make us sharers in that, and all the fruits of it, which most of the great and wise men of the world are excluded from?" p125-126

Speaking of the expansive love of God to his redeemed, Owen says,

"How unwilling is a child to come into the presence of an angry father!  ... Assure yourself, then, there is nothing more acceptable unto the Father than for us to keep up our hearts unto him as the eternal fountain of all that rich grace which flows out to sinners in the blood of Jesus." p127-128

As I continue to trek through Owen's Communion, I'm sure there will be some thick underbrush in my path, but also some rich soil yet unspoiled by human hands.  After all, anyone with such insight who also buried all 11 of his children and kept delighting in God is worth my time.

Based on my readings from John Owen's (eds K. Kapic & J. Taylor), Communion With the Triune God.

For more on Owen, click here.