John Flavel
Puritan pastor of Dartmouth whose works on providence, the heart, and the person of Christ combined doctrinal precision with intense devotional warmth.
1630–1691
Biography
John Flavel was born around 1630 in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, the son of a Puritan minister who later died in prison during the plague of 1665 for his Nonconformity. Flavel was educated at University College, Oxford, and ordained in 1650.
He became minister at Diptford, Devon, and then moved to Dartmouth around 1656, where he would serve for the rest of his life. Dartmouth was a prosperous port town, and Flavel's congregation included many seamen. This shaped his writing; his Navigation Spiritualized and Husbandry Spiritualized drew spiritual lessons from the everyday occupations of his parishioners.
Flavel was ejected from his Dartmouth pulpit by the Act of Uniformity in 1662. For the next twenty-five years he continued to preach clandestinely, sometimes in private homes, sometimes in the woods, and at least once from a rock in the sea to avoid the jurisdiction of local magistrates. He was arrested several times but continued undeterred.
The Declaration of Indulgence in 1687 allowed Flavel to preach openly again, and he built a new meeting house in Dartmouth. He spent his final years advocating for unity among the various Nonconformist groups in Devon.
Flavel's major works include Keeping the Heart (originally A Saint Indeed), The Mystery of Providence, The Fountain of Life (on the person and work of Christ), and The Method of Grace. His collected works fill six volumes.
Flavel died in 1691, reportedly after suffering a stroke during a prayer meeting at Topsham, near Exeter.
Life & Career
Why Flavel Matters
Flavel's distinctive gift was combining careful doctrinal exposition with intense personal application. He never let a theological point rest as an abstraction; every doctrine was pressed into the service of the believer's daily experience.
Keeping the Heart, his most widely read work, argued that the Christian's primary duty is to guard and direct the heart (the will, affections, and thoughts) in every circumstance of life. He catalogued the specific spiritual dangers of prosperity, adversity, affliction, and success, and provided concrete counsel for each.
The Mystery of Providence was an extended meditation on God's sovereign governance of individual lives. Flavel urged believers to keep records of God's providences and to study the patterns of grace in their own experience. This approach influenced later devotional writers and the practice of spiritual journaling.
Flavel also produced some of the finest Christological writing among the Puritans. The Fountain of Life is a sustained meditation on Christ's person, offices, and work that moves systematically through the stages of redemption with devotional intensity.
