John Flavel
On 26 June 1691, John Flavel died in Exeter, bringing to a close a life spent in the practice of theology, preaching, and writing.
Born in Bromsgrove, with sources placing his birth at some point between 1627 and 1630, Flavel worked as a cleric, a preacher, a theologian, and a writer. He composed his works in English, and his career combined active ministry with sustained authorship. A citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, he pursued these vocations across the decades that separated his birth in Bromsgrove from his death in the southwest of England.
The convergence of his roles — cleric, preacher, and writer — defined the shape of his working life. Flavel produced writing in English throughout his career, and his death in Exeter on 26 June 1691 marked the end of that effort.
Quotes by John Flavel
John Flavel's insights on:
It is a good sign that our troubles are sanctified to us when they turn our hearts against sin, and not against God.
In short, forbidden fear is merely concerned with self-preservation. It does not take God’s glory into account. On the contrary, it actually desires the removal of what it perceives as dangerous, meaning it desires the removal of God.
When our needs are permitted to grow to an extremity, and all visible hopes fail, then to have relief given wonderfully enhances the price of such a mercy.
O my soul, I am now addressing myself to the greatest work that ever a creature was employed about – I am going into the solemn presence of God about business of everlasting importance!
I look upon every good man, as a good book, lent by its owner for another to read, and transcribe the excellent notions and golden passages that are in it for his own benefit, that they may return with him when the owner shall call for the book again: but in case this excellent book shall be thrown into a corner and no use made of it, it justly provokes the owner to take it away in displeasure. – Funeral of John Upton, Esq.
We must not think that faith itself is the soul’s rest; it is only the means of it. We cannot find rest in any work or duty of our own, but we may find it in Christ, whom faith apprehends for justification and salvation.
A bad heart and a slippery memory deprive men of the comfort of many mercies, and defraud God of the glory due for them.
