10 Puritans Who Changed the World: John Flavel, the Preacher of Providence

Who Was John Flavel?

John Flavel was born in the town of Bromsgrove, England. He was the son of Richard Flavel, a pastor who died (along with John’s mother) during the Great Plague of 1665 while imprisoned at Newgate for nonconformity. After receiving an education in the Scriptures from his father, John began his studies at the University of Oxford, where he was a remarkably diligent student. After receiving ordination from the presbytery of Salisbury in 1650, Flavel settled in Diptford, where he honed his gifts. In 1656, he accepted a call to minister in the seaport town of Dartmouth. This position earned a smaller income than he had received in Diptford, but his work was more profitable. Many were converted through his ministry.

Government officials ejected Flavel from the pulpit in 1662 for nonconformity but he continued to meet secretly with his parishioners for worship. Once he even disguised himself as a woman on horseback to reach a secret meeting place where he preached and administered baptism. Another time, when pursued by authorities, he plunged his horse into the sea and escaped arrest by swimming through a rocky area to safety.

After the Five Mile Act went into effect in 1665—prohibiting pastors from teaching within five miles of their pastorates—Flavel moved to Slapton. There, he continued to minister to many in his congregation. He secretly preached in the woods, sometimes until midnight. Once, soldiers rushed in and dispersed the congregation. They apprehended and fined several fugitives, but the rest brought Flavel to another wooded area where he continued his sermon. Flavel preached from other unique pulpits, including Salstone Rock, an island submerged at high tide.

After King Charles II gave Nonconformists greater religious freedom in 1672 by issuing the Declaration of Indulgence, Flavel returned to Dartmouth. When officials canceld the indulgence the following year, Flavel once more secretly preached in homes, secluded neighborhoods, or remote forests. In the summer of 1682, he sought safety in London, where he assisted in a friend’s congregation. Flavel returned to Dartmouth in 1684, where he continued his ministry under house arrest. He preached there every Lord’s Day and on many weekday evenings to the gathered crowds. He was faithful even in the face of opposition from the government and hostile townspeople (who burned his effigy in a mob). Yet he wrote concerning his beloved Dartmouth, “Oh, that there were not a prayerless family in this town!”

In 1687, King James II issued another indulgence for Nonconformists that allowed Flavel to preach publicly again. His congregation built a large chapel to herald his return to the pulpit. The Lord richly blessed Flavel’s last four years of public preaching, although his health was rapidly declining. While visiting Exeter to preach in June of 1691, Flavel suffered a massive stroke and died that same evening at the age of sixty-three. Some of his last words were, “I know that it will be well with me.”

Flavel’s Works have been printed in six volumes by Banner of Truth Trust.

What Can Pastors Learn from John Flavel?

The life of John Flavel teaches pastors the importance of suffering and evangelistic boldness.

Dear fellow pastors, let us learn from the life of John Flavel to value suffering. John Flavel lost three wives and at least one child; he was ejected from his ministry in 1662; he was pursued by soldiers for holding conventicles (illegal private church gatherings); he endured life-threatening sea voyages; and he suffered premature aging and a stroke. However, he knew how the Lord sanctifies affliction for the good of His children.

Like Flavel, convert your afflictions into fuel for prayer, preaching, and writing. Flavel was flexible, resilient, and persevering amid suffering. When he could not preach, he wrote. For example, during the persecution of Nonconformists in the 1670s and early 1680s, Flavel published at least nine books, including A Token for Mourners, The Touchstone of Sincerity, The Method of Grace, and Treatise on the Soul of Man. Flavel’s Mystery of Providence is perhaps the best book ever written on the doctrine of divine providence. It comes from the pen of a man who experientially knew suffering in the crucible of affliction.

Second, let us learn from the life of John Flavel to cultivate evangelistic boldness. Flavel was ready to share the gospel in both public and private. In his private ministry, Flavel had opportunities to share the gospel, particularly among the sailors of Dartmouth. In 1673, he spoke with a twenty-three-year-old surgeon who had just attempted suicide by cutting his throat. On the brink of death and hell, this young man eagerly listened to Flavel present the truths of sin and salvation. When Flavel returned to visit him the next day, the young man had begun recovering from his wound and declared his repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus.

Flavel also evangelized through his writing ministry. One day, a man who Flavel’s bookseller described as “sparkish” came to his bookshop to buy a book of stage plays. After the bookseller explained that he had none and recommended Keeping the Heart, the man called Flavel a “damnable heretic.” He purchased it with the promise that he would destroy it. About a month later, he returned to buy one hundred more. He said to the bookseller, “Sir, I most heartily thank you for putting this book into my hands. I bless God that moved you to do it: it has saved my soul. Blessed be God that ever I came into your shop.”¹

Conclusion

Once, while meditating on heaven, Flavel was so overcome with heavenly joy that he lost sight of this world. Stopping his horse by a spring, he viewed death as the most amiable face he had ever seen, except that of Christ, who made it so. When he arrived at an inn, the innkeeper told him he looked like a dead man. Flavel replied that he was the best he had been in his whole life. Years later, Flavel said he understood more of heaven from that experience than from all the books and sermons he’d consumed on the subject.

There are many lessons from John Flavel for pastors. This Puritan knew much about suffering, the glory of Christ, and the joy of resting in God’s providence. May the Lord so sanctify us in the furnace of affliction to the glory of His name!

Recommended Books by John Flavel

• The Fountain of Life
• The Mystery of Providence 
• Triumphing over Sinful Fear
• Christ and His Threefold Office
• Christ Humbled yet Exalted
• Keeping the Heart

©2024 Joel Beeke. Used with permission.

1. Middleton, Evangelical Biography, 4:60–61. ↩︎