83 quotes
John Flavel Quotes
The sharpest, most searching lines from John Flavel, drawn straight from the Puritan Paperbacks. Filter by theme, or browse the whole collection.
“The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying.”
“They that know God will be humble, and they that know themselves, cannot be proud.”
“The providence of God is like a Hebrew word, it can only be read backwards.”
“To see a man humble under prosperity is one of the greatest rarities in the world.”
“Christ is so in love with holiness, that at the price of His blood He will buy it for us.”
“It is a dangerous crisis when a proud heart meets with flattering lips.”
“That which begins not with prayer, seldom winds up with comfort.”
“Conscience which should have been the sinner's curb here on earth becomes the sinner's whip that will lash his soul in hell.”
“It is easier to declaim against a thousand sins of others, than to mortify one sin in ourselves.”
“Oh cursed sin! It was you who slew my dear Lord! For your sake He underwent all this!”
“The more afflictions you have been under, the more assistance you have had for this life of holiness.”
“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.”
“Did Christ finish His work for us? Then there can be no doubt but He will also finish His work in us.”
“Sin brought in sweat, but now, not to sweat increases sin.”
“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!”
“O be not too quick to bury the Church before she is dead.”
“When the corn is nearly ripe it bows the head and stoops lower than when it was green. When the people of God are near ripe for heaven, they grow more humble and self-denying.”
“We preach and pray, and you hear; but there is no motion Christ-ward until the Spirit of God blows upon them.”
“Christ's resurrection is the ground-work of our hope. And the new birth is our title or evidence of our interest in it.”
“As the blood of Christ is the fountain of all merit, so the Spirit of Christ is the fountain of all spiritual life.”
“Observed duties maintain our credit; but secret duties maintain our life.”
“Christ bounds and terminates the vast desires of the soul; He is the very Sabbath of the soul.”
“No doctrine is more excellent, or necessary to be preached and studied, than Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
“The soul of man, like the bird in the shell, is still growing or ripening in sin or grace, till at last the shell breaks by death, and the soul flies away to the piece it is prepared for, and where it must abide forever.”
“It is better to be as low as hell with a promise, than in Paradise without one.”
“For the infinite glorious Creator of all things, to become a creature, is a mystery exceeding all human understanding.”
“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.”
“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!”
“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.”
“The knowledge of Christ is profound and large. All other sciences are but shadows; this is a boundless, bottomless ocean.”