A Challenge to All Pastors, Starting with This One!

"O study not only to preach exactly, but to live exactly; let the misplacing of one action in your lives trouble you more than the misplacing of your words in your discourses; this is the way to succeed in your embassy, and give up your account with joy." - John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 72


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The Potency of the Preached Word

"No heart so hard, no conscience so stupid, but this sword can pierce and wound; in an instant it can cast down all those vain reasonings and fond imaginations which the carnal heart has been building all its life long, and open a fair passage for convictions of sin, and the fears and terrors of wrath to come, into that heart that never was afraid of these things before...What shall we do? (Acts 2:37) is the doleful cry of men at their wit's end; the voice of one in deepest distress: and such outcries have been no rarities under the preaching of the word; its power has been felt by persons of all orders and conditions; the great and honorable of the earth, as well as the poor and despicable. The learned and the ignorant, the civil and profane, the young and the old, all have felt the heart-piercing efficacy of the gospel."
- John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 61


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You Shine with a Borrowed Light

"How contented and well pleased should we be with our outward lot, however Providence has cast it for us in this world. O do not repine, God hath dealt bountifully with you; upon others he hath bestowed the good things of this world; upon you, himself in Christ. How humble and lowly in spirit should you be under your great advancement. It is true, God hath magnified you greatly by this union; but yet do not boast. You bear not the root, but the root you. You shine, but with a borrowed light."
- John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 51


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Persecutors of the Church, Beware!

"If the saints are so nearly united to Christ, as the members to the head, O then, how great a sin and full of danger is it, for any to wrong and persecute the saints; for in so doing they persecute Christ himself...Oh, it were better thy hand should wither, and thine arm fall off from thy shoulder, than ever it should be lifted up against Christ in the poorest of his members. Believe it, not only your violent actions but your hard speeches are all set down upon your doomsday-book; and you shall be brought to an account for them in the great day. Beware what arrows you shoot, and be sure of your mark before you shoot them."
- John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 49


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Is “Accepting Jesus In Your Heart” Superstitious & Unbiblical?

This is a tremendously sobering thought which we need to share with our churches...

The Lowest Believer More Dignified Than the Greatest Angel

"(Christ) is the head of the angels as well as the saints, but in different respects. To angels he is a head of dominion and government, but to saints he is both a head of dominion and of a vital influence - they are his chief and most honorable subjects, but not his mystical members; they are as the barons and nobles in his kingdom, but the saints as the dear spouse and wife of his bosom. This dignifies the believer above the greatest angel."
- John Flavel, The Method of Grace, p. 43


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Borrowed Excellencies

"What intolerable insolence and vanity would it be for a man that wears the rich and costly robe of Christ's righteousness, in which there is not one thread of his own spinning, to pride himself as if he had made it, and were beholden to none for it. O man, thine excellencies, whatever they are, are borrowed from Christ; they oblige thee to him, but he can be no more obliged to thee who wearest them, than the sun is obliged to him who borrows its light, or the fountain to him that draws its water for his use and benefit."
-John Flavel (1630-1691), The Method of Grace, pp. 23-24


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