John Flavel

Heart-work is hard work indeed. To shuffle over religious duties with a loose and heedless spirit, will cost no great pains; but to set thyself before the Lord, and tie up thy loose and vain thoughts to a constant and se…

Suppose the cup be a bitter cup, yet it is the cup which thy father hath given thee to drink; and canst thou suspect poison to be in that cup which he delivers thee?

Providence is like a curious piece of arras, made of a thousand shreds, which single we know not what to make of, but put together, and stitched up orderly, they represent a beautiful history to the eye.

The study of Jesus Christ is the most noble subject that ever a soul spent itself upon; those that rack and torture their brains upon other studies, like children, weary themselves at a low game; the eagle plays at the s…

By keeping the heart, understand the diligent and constant use of all holy means to preserve the soul from sin, and maintain its sweet and free communion with God.

Wicked men are sometimes like mad horses, they would stamp the people of God under their feet, but that the bridle of providence is in their lips. A lion at liberty is terrible to meet; but who is afraid of a lion in the…

Even a gracious heart is like a musical instrument, which though it be never so exactly tuned, a small matter brings it out of tune again; yea, put it aside but a little while and it will need setting again before anothe…

All the comforts of believers are streams from this fountain. Jesus Christ is the very object matter of a believer's joy.

Eudoxus was so affected with the glory of the sun, that he thought he was born only to behold it; much more should a Christian judge himself born only to behold and delight in the glory of the Lord Jesus.

The keeping, and right managing of the heart in every condition, is the great business of a Christian's life.

He is a sea of sweetness without one drop of gall.

To be above the stroke of passion, is a condition equal to angels: to be in a state of sorrow without the sense of sorrow, is a disposition beneath beasts: but duly to regulate our sorrows, and bound our passions under t…

There is no grace more excellent than faith; no sin more execrable and abominable than unbelief. Faith is the saving grace, and unbelief the damning sin.

Husband and wife are not so dear, soul and body are not so near, as Christ and the believing soul are near to each other.

For never was any wound healed by a prepared, but unapplied plaister. Never any body warmed by the most costly garment made, but not put on: Never any heart refreshed and comforted by the richest cordial compounded, but…

He laboured to recover and revive the ancient providences of God's mercies many years past, and suck a fresh sweetness out of them by new reviews of them.

There is not such a pleasant history for you to read in all the world as the history of your own lives, if you would sit down and record from the beginning hitherto what God has been to you, and done for you.

Prayer is the honor of Providence, and Providence is the honor of prayer.

It is not the cleansing of the hand that makes a Christian, for many a hypocrite can shew as fair a hand as he; but the purifying, watching, and right ordering of the heart; this is the thing that provokes so many sad co…

Payment is the performance of promises. Grace makes the promise, and Providence the payment.

Self is the poise of the unrenewed heart, which biases and moves it in all its designs and actions; and as long as it is so, it is impossible that any external means should keep it with God.

What the heart is to the body, that the soul is to the man; and what health is to the heart, that holiness is to the soul.

The knowledge of Jesus Christ is the very marrow and kernel of all the scriptures; the scope and centre of all divine revelations: both Testaments meet in Christ.

Christ is the peerless pearl hid in the field, Mat. 13:46. Will you be that wise merchant, that resolves to win and compass that treasure, whatever it shall cost you? Ah, Sir, Christ is a commodity that can never be boug…

God values no man by outward excellencies, but by inward graces.

Take away the knowledge of Christ, and a Christian is the most sad and melancholy creature in the world: again, let Christ but manifest himself, and dart the beams of his light into their souls, it will make them kiss th…

We are as able to stop the sun in its course, or make the rivers run backward, as by our own skill and power to rule and order our hearts.

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

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 heart is the treasury, the hand and tongue but the shops: what is in these, comes from thence.

And, indeed, it were not worth while to live in a world devoid of God and providence.

Heart-work is weighty and difficult work; and error there, may cost you your souls.

There is only so much of worth in what we do, as there is of heart in it.

The greatest difficulty in conversion, is to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion, is to keep the heart with God.

The heart of man is his worst part before it is regenerated, and the best afterward; it is the seat of principles, and the fountain of actions.

There is no doctrine more excellent in itself or more necessary to be preached and studied, than the doctrine of Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

The knowledge of Christ is profound and large; all other sciences are but shadows; this is a boundless, bottomless ocean.

What an excellent thing would it be for you, to make such holy improvements of all these earthly objects which daily occur to your senses, and cause them to proclaim and preach to you divine and heavenly mysteries.

They that are careless in the day of grace, shall be speechless in the day of judgment.

I confess the discoveries of God in the word are far more excellent, clear, and powerful; he hath magnified his word above all his name.

As the body cannot have life but by having communion with the soul, so the soul cannot have blessedness but by having immediate communion with God.