What is a knowing head without a fruitful heart?
— John Flavel (1627-1691)
God’s Faithfulness
As God did not at first choose you because you were high, so He will not forsake you because you are low.
— John Flavel
Chastisement
Whatsoever we have over-loved, idolized, and leaned upon, God has from time to time broken it, and made us to see the vanity of it; so that we find the readiest course to be rid of our comforts is to set our hearts inordinately upon them.
— John Flavel
Jesus Christ
Christ is the very essence of all delights and pleasures, the very soul and substance of them. As all the rivers are gathered into the ocean, which is the meeting-place of all the waters in the world, so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet.
— John Flavel
Your Own Discontent
It would much conduce to the settlement of your heart, to consider that by fretting and discontent — you do yourself more injury than all your afflictions could do. Your own discontent is that which arms your troubles with a sting. You make your burden heavy by struggling under it. Did you but lie quietly under the hand of God, your condition would be much more easy than it is.
— John Flavel
