John Flavel Quotes

No doctrine is more excellent, or necessary to be preached and studied, than Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

Did Christ finish His work for us? Then there can be no doubt but He will also finish His work in us.

The carnal person fears man, not God. The strong Christian fears God, not man. The weak Christian fears man too much, and God too little.

The law sends us to Christ to be justified, and Christ sends us to the law to be regulated.

What a mercy was it to us to have parents that prayed for us before they had us, as well as in our infancy when we could not pray for ourselves!

As God did not at first choose you because you were high, He will not now forsake you because you are low.

Suppose that by revenge you might destroy one enemy; yet, by exercising the Christian's temper you might conquer three‌–‌your own lust, Satan's temptation, and your enemy's heart.

The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying.

To see a man humble under prosperity is one of the greatest rarities in the world.

Whatever be the ground of one's distress, it should drive him to, not from God.

They that know God will be humble. They that know themselves cannot be proud.

He feels all our sorrows, needs, and burdens as his own. That is why it is said that the sufferings of believers are called the sufferings of Christ.

Christ is so in love with holiness, that at the price of His blood He will buy it for us.

Jesus, our head, is already in heaven; and if the head be above water, the body cannot drown.

The Providence of God is like Hebrew words-it can be read only backwards.

One word of God can do more than ten thousand words of men to relieve a distressed soul.

Regeneration expresses those supernatural, divine, new qualities imparted by the Spirit to the soul, which are the principle of all holy action.

Let all Arminians know: we have as high an esteem for faith as any men in the world, but yet we will not rob Christ to clothe faith.

Grace makes the promise and providence the payment.

Affliction is a pill, which, being wrapt up in patience and quiet submission, may be easily swallowed; but discontent chews the pill, and so embitters the soul.

Brethren, it is easier to declaim against a thousand sins of others, than to mortify one sin in ourselves.

Observed duties maintain our credit; but secret duties maintain our life.

Jesus Christ is in every way sufficient to the vast desires of the soul.

Providence so orders the case, that faith and prayer come between our wants and supplies, and the goodness of God may be the more magnified in our eyes thereby.

That which begins not with prayer, seldom winds up with comfort.

Christ bounds and terminates the vast desires of the soul; He is the very Sabbath of the soul.

The heart of a Christian, like the moon, commonly suffers an eclipse when it is at the full, and that by the interposition of the earth.

Providence is like a curious piece of tapestry made of a thousand shreds, which, single, appear useless, but put together, they represent a beautiful history to the eye.

The more afflictions you have been under, the more assistance you have had for this life of holiness.

God's unspotted faithfulness never failed any soul that durst trust himself in its arms.

To keep the heart then, is carefully to preserve it from sin which disorders it; and maintain that spiritual and gracious frame, which fits it for a life of communion with God.

Guilt is to danger, what fire is to gunpowder; a man need not fear to walk among many barrels of powder, if he have no fire about him.

Oh sirs, deal with sin as sin, and speak of heaven and hell as they are, and not as if you were in jest.

When God gives you comforts, it is your great evil not to observe His hand in them.

It is the duty of the saints, especially in times of straights, to reflect upon the performances of Providence for them in all the states and through all the stages of their lives.

Christian, thou knowest thou carriest Gunpowder about thee, desire those that carry Fire to keep at a Distance from thee; 'tis a dangerous Crisis when a proud Heart meets with flattering Lips.

Some providences, like Hebrew letters, must be read backwards.

What, at peace with the Father and at war with the children? It cannot be.

The Spirit must therefore first take hold of us before we can live in Christ, and when he doth so, then we are enabled to exert that vital act of faith, whereby we receive Christ.

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!

The opening of your hearts to receive the Lord Jesus Christ is not a work done by any power of your own, but the arm of the Lord is revealed therein.

It is better to be as low as hell with a promise, than in Paradise without one.

Where there is no want, there is usually much wantonness.

My soul is of more value than ten thousand worlds.

Christ comes with kingly power, to rescue sinners, as a prey from the mouth of the terrible one.

A saving, though an immethodical knowledge of Christ, will bring us to heaven, John 17: 2, but a regular and methodical, as well as a saving knowledge of him, will bring heaven into us, Col. 2: 2, 3.

Providence is wiser than you, and you may be confident it has suited all things better to your eternal good than you could do had you been left to your own option.

The Lord's supper is memorative, and so it has the nature and use of a pledge or token of love, left by a dying to a dear surviving friend.

That soul is dead to which the Spirit of Christ is not given in the work of regeneration; and all its works are dead works.

Afflictions have the same use and end to our souls, that frosty weather hath upon those clothes that are laid and bleaching, they alter the hue and make them white.