Puritan of the Week: John Flavel (1628-1691)

I believe I may be one of the few Reformed Baptist pastors who does not own a copy of The Work of John Flavel, but after reading more of him from Meet the Puritan I may have to break down and purchase them.  He was no doubt a gifted preacher.  One who sat regularly under his ministry said of him,

I could say, much though not enough of the excellency of his preaching; of his seasonable, suitable and spiritual matter; of his plain exposition of Scripture; his talking method, his genuine and natural deductions, his convincing arguments, his applications, and his comfortable supports to those that were afflicted in conscience.  In short, that person must have a very soft head, or a very hard heart, or both, that could sit under his ministry unaffected. 

To top it off, he appears to have been the Indiana Jones of the Puritans.  (Maybe I can try to live up to some of this and be dubbed Indiana Flavel)  He was removed from his pulpit in 1662 for being a nonconformist, but would preach secretly to his flock, often in the woods.  Once, he dressed up like a woman to be able to ride to preach.  On another occasion he had to ride his horse off into the sea and swim away to avoid being arrested.  There is an occasion recorded where his preaching in the woods was broken up by soldiers, but they moved him to another woods to finish his sermon.  Wow!  I wonder how often that would happen today to those of us who are preachers.   

The key to all of this seems to have been his many hours of personal meditation and self-examination.

He attained to a well-grounded assurance, the ravishing comforts of which were many times shed abroad in his soul; this made him a powerful and successful preacher, as one who spoke from his own heart to those of others.  he preached what he felt, and what he had handled, what he had seen and tasted of the word of life and they felt it also.

We read those words today and may see in them what we want, but the beauty is Flavel did not preach about politics or soap boxes, he preached the excellency of Christ.