The knowledge of Christ is profound and large. All other sciences are but shadows; this is a boundless, bottomless ocean. Though something of Christ be unfolded in one age, and something in another, yet eternity itself cannot full unfold him.
John Flavel (Minister, 1627 – 1691)
As the blood of Christ is the fountain of all merit, so the Spirit of Christ is the fountain of all spiritual life; and until he quicken us and infuse the principle of the divine life into our souls, we can put forth no hand, or vital act of faith, to lay hold upon Jesus Christ.
John Flavel (Minister, 1627 – 1691)
We acknowledge no righteousness but what the obedience and satisfaction of Christ yields us. His blood, not our faith; his satisfaction, not our believing it, is the matter of our justification before God.
John Flavel (Minister, 1627 – 1691)
Whatever be the ground of one’s distress, it should drive him to, not from God.
John Flavel (Minister, 1627 – 1691)
When God gives you comforts, it is your great evil not to observe His hand in them.
John Flavel (Minister, 1627 – 1691)
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.
John Flavel (Minister, 1627 – 1691)
Jesus, our head, is already in heaven; and if the head be above water, the body cannot drown.
John Flavel (Minister, 1627 – 1691)
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.
John Flavel (Minister, 1627 – 1691)
The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying.
John Flavel (Minister, 1627 – 1691)
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 congregation or meeting-place of all waters in the world: so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet. . . .
John Flavel (Minister, 1627 – 1691)