Top 80 John Flavel Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “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.”

— John Flavel

52. “How often has providence convinced its observers, upon a sober recollection of the events of their lives, that if the Lord had left them to their own counsels they had as often been their own tormentors, if not executioners!”

— John Flavel

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

— John Flavel

54. “Scripture knows no other way to glory, but Christ put on and applied by faith.”

— John Flavel

55. “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.”

— John Flavel

56. “Grace makes the promise and providence the payment.”

— John Flavel

57. “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.”

— John Flavel

58. “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.”

— John Flavel

59. “Two things destroy the peace and tranquility of our lives; our bewailing past disappointments, or fearing future ones.”

— John Flavel

60. “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.”

— John Flavel

61. “God’s unspotted faithfulness never failed any soul that durst trust himself in its arms.”

— John Flavel

62. “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.”

— John Flavel

63. “If we were to understand how dear we are to God, our relation to Him, our value in His eyes, and how He protects us by His faithful promises and gracious presence, we would not tremble at every appearance of danger.”

— John Flavel

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

— John Flavel

65. “A hot iron, though blunt, will pierce sooner than a cold one, though sharper.”

— John Flavel

66. “There is not a greater discovery of pride in the world than in the contests of our wills with the will of God.”

— John Flavel

67. “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.”

— John Flavel

68. “Look around in the world, and you may see some in every place who are objects of pity, bereaved by sad accidents of all the comforts of life, while in the meantime Providence has tenderly preserved you.”

— John Flavel

69. “Lord, here is my body; I am very grateful for it; I neglected nothing that belonged to its contents and welfare; but as for my soul, that is lost and cast away forever. I took little care and thought about it.”

— John Flavel

70. “It is the great support and solace of the saints in all the distresses that befall them here, that there is a wise Spirit sitting in all the wheels of motion, and governing the most eccentric creatures and their most pernicious designs to blessed and happy issues.”

— John Flavel

71. “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.”

— John Flavel

72. “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.”

— John Flavel

73. “Where there is no want, there is usually much wantonness.”

— John Flavel

74. “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.”

— John Flavel

75. “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.”

— John Flavel

76. “A bad heart and a slippery memory deprive men of the comfort of many mercies, and defraud God of the glory due for them.”

— John Flavel

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

— John Flavel

78. “We are not distinguished from brutes by our senses, but by our understanding.”

— John Flavel

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

— John Flavel

80. “It is a good sign that our troubles are sanctified to us when they turn our hearts against sin, and not against God.”

— John Flavel

81. “I think it is not very difficult to discern by the duties and converses of Christians, what frames their spirits are under. Take a Christian in a good frame, and how serious, heavenly, and profitable, will his converses and duties be! what a lovely companion is he during the continuance of it!”

— John Flavel

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

— John Flavel

83. “The strength of our unmortified corruption shows itself in our pride and the swelling vanity of our hearts when we have a name and esteem among men. When we are applauded and honoured, when we are admired for any gift or excellence that is in us, this draws forth the pride of the heart and shows the vanity that is in it.”

— John Flavel

84. “Every man loves the mercies of God, but a saint loves the God of his mercies. The mercies of God, as they are the fuel of a wicked man’s lusts, so they are fuel to maintain a good man’s love to God; not that their love to God is grounded upon these external benefits.”

— John Flavel