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Creatures, like pictures, are fairest at a certain distance, but it is not so with Christ the nearer the soul approaches Him, and the longer it lives in the enjoyhment of Him, still the sweeter and more desirable He becomes.

John Flavel

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John Flavel
Age: 61 †
Born: 1630
Born: January 1
Died: 1691
Died: June 26
Author
Cleric
Theologian
John Flavell
Johan Flavel
Johannes Flavel
Christ
Nearer
Lives
Desirable
Stills
Pictures
Certain
Distance
Still
Creatures
Soul
Approach
Fairest
Like
Longer
Sweeter
Becomes
Approaches

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The heart of a Christian, like the moon, commonly suffers an eclipse when it is at the full, and that by the interposition of the earth.
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I think it is not very difficult to discern by the duties and converses of Christians, what frames their spirits are under. Take a Christian in a good frame, and how serious, heavenly, and profitable, will his converses and duties be! what a lovely companion is he during the continuance of it!
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Whatever be the ground of one's distress, it should drive him to, not from God.
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It is a common thing for men to benumb their own arms, and make them as dead and useless by leaning too much upon them: so it is in a moral as well as a natural way: all the prudence and pains in the world avail nothing without God. So saith the Psalmist, in Psalm cxxvii. 2.
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Where there is no want, there is usually much wantonness.
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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.
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Brethren, it is easier to declaim against a thousand sins of others, than to mortify one sin in ourselves.
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The Lord's supper is memorative, and so it has the nature and use of a pledge or token of love, left by a dying to a dear surviving friend.
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Surely if He would not spare His own Son one stroke, one tear, one groan, one sigh, one circumstance of misery, it can never be imagined that ever He should, after this, deny or withhold from His people, for whose sakes all this was suffered, any mercies, any comforts, any privilege, spiritual or temporal, which is good for them.
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And now let us consider and marvel that ever this great and blessed God should be so much concerned, as you have heard He is in all His providences, about such vile, despicable worms as we are! He does not need us, but is perfectly blessed and happy in Himself without us. We can add nothing to Him.
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Suppose that by revenge you might destroy one enemy yet, by exercising the Christian's temper you might conquer three‌–‌your own lust, Satan's temptation, and your enemy's heart.
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The Spirit must therefore first take hold of us before we can live in Christ, and when he doth so, then we are enabled to exert that vital act of faith, whereby we receive Christ.
John Flavel
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What a mercy was it to us to have parents that prayed for us before they had us, as well as in our infancy when we could not pray for ourselves!
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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
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That which begins not with prayer, seldom winds up with comfort.
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Tell me, you vain professor, when did you shed a tear for the deadness, hardness, unbelief, or earthliness of your heart? Do you think that such an easy religion can save you? If so, we may invert Christ's words and say, 'Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to life, and may there be that go in there.'
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If you neglect to instruct children in the way of holiness, will the devil neglect to instruct them in the way of wickedness? No if you will not teach them to pray, he will to curse, swear, and lie if ground be uncultivated, weeds will spring.
John Flavel
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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
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Christian, thou knowest thou carriest Gunpowder about thee, desire those that carry Fire to keep at a Distance from thee 'tis a dangerous Crisis when a proud Heart meets with flattering Lips.
John Flavel
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When God gives you comforts, it is your great evil not to observe His hand in them.
John Flavel