John Flavel: The “Lost” Puritan

By Brian H. Cosby

Anthony à Wood (1632-1695), the Royalist historian of Oxford and contemporary of John Flavel, once noted that Flavel had “more disciples than ever John Owen the independent or Rich. Baxter the presbyterian.” [1] Increase Mather (1639-1723), himself a well-known New England Puritan and Harvard College president, once wrote shortly after Flavel died: “[Flavel’s] works, already published, have made his name precious in both Englands; and it will be so, as long as the earth shall endure.” [2] Unfortunately, Mather’s prophecy has not come true. Among the annals of Puritan studies, Flavel is often lost in the corpus of historical studies of the Puritan “greats”: Richard Sibbes, John Owen, John Bunyan, and Richard Baxter. But if Wood is correct as a historian and as a contemporary, then Flavel had more of an influence in the seventeenth century than did either Owen or Baxter. This present study is an attempt to reveal this “lost Puritan” as both an important and influential English character and as someone who deserves a second look in the field of Puritan studies.

Flavel as a “Puritan”

That Flavel is called a “Puritan” is immediately a designation in need of some qualification. The term held different meanings in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and those who were labeled as such often espoused different theological emphases, different ecclesiological tendentiousness, and even different goals. As historian John Spurr points out:

Theological innovation reflected pastoral experience; some groups emphasize[d] one aspect rather than another.... The term ‘puritan’ was dynamic, changing in response to the world around it and applying to several denominations...but [it] also denotes a cluster of ideas, attitudes and habits, all built upon the experience of justification, election and regeneration, and this in turn differentiates puritans from other groups such as conformists or the Quakers. [3]

Because of the changing milieu surrounding the use of “Puritan” and “Puritanism” in their contemporary setting, the problem of defining them was not only one of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but, even more so, remains a modern historiographical problem. [4]

Albeit changing emphases, there remained some elements that were common to most, if not all, Puritans. First, Puritans were reactionaries to the Elizabethan Settlement (1559) in favor of a more thorough reformation in England. Secondly, they promoted evangelism, catecheses, and spiritual nourishment through the preaching and teaching of the Bible. Thirdly, they held the views of Luther’s doctrine of faith (sola fide), Calvin’s doctrine of grace (sola gratia), and the Reformers’ (as a whole) doctrine of Scripture (sola scriptura). And finally, the Puritans strove for personal holiness, a practical faith, communion with God, and the glory of God in all things. [5] It is by these standards that Flavel is rightly considered a “Puritan.”

The Life and Writings of John Flavel

It is beyond the scope and purpose of this article to trace the history of Puritanism, even as a historical context to Flavel’s life. This has been masterfully done elsewhere. [6] Though certainly not separate from the historical context, the present task is to trace the story of his life, the evidence of which is found in various accounts from the seventeenth century to the modern day. The most well-known account of his life is found in Volume One of The Works of John Flavel, which has been published numerous times since its first publication in 1701. [7] The author of this account is anonymous and strongly biased in his praise of Flavel’s life and influence. Most modern synopses [8] of his life have been taken from this anonymous biographical sketch. Other than an undergraduate thesis in 1949 [9] and a Ph.D. dissertation on his life in 1952 by Kwai Sing Chang, [10] there had been no lengthy study of Flavel until 2007, with the publication of The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety by J. Stephen Yuille. [11] The following will seek to incorporate the various accounts of Flavel’s life into a coherent story in context of seventeenth-century England.

The Early Years: Preparing for Ministry

John Flavel was born sometime between 1627 and 1630 [12] in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. The Flavels trace their descent from the third great officer who came over with William the Conqueror (1028-1087). His father, Richard Flavel, was a Presbyterian minister in the areas of Worcestershire, Hasler, and Gloucestershire. Richard was ejected from his ministry with the restoration of King Charles II in 1660, and spent the next five years preaching as the occasion arose. However, he and his wife were arrested in 1665 in Covent Garden for having an unauthorized worship meeting. They were taken to the prison in Newgate where they both caught the plague and, though they were soon released, died shortly thereafter. [13]

Richard and his wife left behind two sons who both became ministers of the gospel, John and Phinehas. Virtually nothing is known of Flavel’s earliest years except that his father religiously educated him in the rudiments of literature and Christian religion. [14] Flavel seems to have had a very high esteem for his parents as godly Christians, though what we know is only from small glimpses of autobiographical information found in his books The Fountain of Life [15] and The Mystery of Providence. [16]

In 1646, when he was about eighteen years old, he was sent to University College, Oxford. During his first and second years, Parliament sent a team of people to inquire into the state of the University and to examine its spiritual condition as a result of the ongoing Civil War.

This team enforced the faculty and students to submit to the Solemn League and Covenant (1643), which had united England and Scotland together both in doctrine and in military power against the King. [17] As a result, many professors and tutors of the University, who did not subscribe to the Covenant, were expelled. Despite these turbulent times, at no point in Flavel’s writings does he speak with contempt or disrespect for any of his professors or tutors while at Oxford. After about two years of study, he decided to become a preacher and minister of the gospel without any orders from a bishop. Following this pursuit, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and became quite popular among his fellow classmates and other area ministers. [18]

The Journey of Ministry

Flavel was immediately invited to become an assistant minister to Mr. Walplate of Diptford, in the county of Devon. He was officially settled in this new position on April 27, 1650. About six months after settling at Diptford, he went to Salisbury, where he was examined for ordination by presbyters. On October 17, 1650, he was ordained and set apart for the work of the ministry. He returned to Diptford and succeeded Mr. Walplate after his death. Around 1651 or early 1652, he married his first wife, Jane Randal, a woman from a good family. However, she died in childbirth and he married again soon thereafter to Elizabeth Morries [19] and, as the anonymous author of one biography explained, was “again very happy.” [20] Sometime around 1655, the people of the port-town of Dartmouth [21] in the county of Devon unanimously chose Flavel to succeed the Rev. Anthony Hartford, who had recently passed away. [22]

Flavel was well known and respected among the people of Dartmouth. Indeed, it was observed that he was “acceptable to the whole town.” [23] During a provincial synod in Devon before 1655, Flavel was asked to be moderator, whereupon he opened the assembly with a “most devout” and pertinent prayer, examined the candidates of ministry with insightful questions and good judgment, and on the whole conducted himself with such piety and seriousness that the other ministers, including Anthony Hartford, took particular notice of him as an exceptional minister of the gospel. When Rev. Hartford died, Flavel was the people of Dartmouth’s first choice. [24]

Flavel accepted the call to Dartmouth and was settled there by the election of the people on December 10, 1656. During the following years, many people were converted under his preaching and teaching. One person, who sat under his preaching, said that a “person must have a very soft head, or a very hard heart, or both, that could sit under his [Flavel’s] ministry unaffected.” [25] One of Flavel’s good friends, John Galpine, commented two months after his death (1691) that Flavel had a “longing desire after the conversion of souls.” [26] Flavel was also a man of great learning and had a steady devotion to personal study. He was well acquainted with Hebrew, Greek, and Latin [27] and understood the controversies of his day between the Jews and Christians, Papists and Protestants, Lutherans and Calvinists, and the like. [28]

Two years after the Restoration in 1660, King Charles II issued an Act of Uniformity that required all ministers to subscribe to the Book of Common Prayer and to all of the “Catholic aesthetics” that remained in the Church of England. [29] Those who did not subscribe were duly ejected from the state church on August 24, 1662, St. Bartholomew’s Day. Over 1,700 ministers were officially removed from their positions of ministry. [30] Among these were notable Puritans including Richard Baxter, Thomas Watson, John Howe, and John Flavel. [31] Although the Act had deprived him of the legal title and temporal support, Flavel still retained his relationship to the people at Dartmouth. He would, at times, preach and administer the sacraments to them in private. After being ejected, Flavel tried to earn a living by setting up a small school, or academy, for Dissenters in Dartmouth. [32] However, in 1665, the King issued the Five Mile Act, [33] which banished him from teaching or ministering within five miles of a chartered town, like Dartmouth. Despite the ramifications of this Act, many either walked or rode to hear him preach each Lord’s Day and he would sometimes slip into the town to exhort and catechize his flock and administer the sacraments. [34]

During the period of the Great Persecution (1662-1689), Flavel was allowed, at times due to certain royal indulgences, to preach openly in Dartmouth. However, they were usually short lived and the fires of persecution would send him into hiding again. [35] Many times, he fled persecution and attempted arrest for preaching the gospel without license. At one point, while holding meetings near Slapton, [36] he was pursued by those out to arrest him and escaped by riding his horse into the sea and swimming to safety. [37]

It should be noted that it was during this time of persecution that Flavel wrote most of what we have today in his Works. [38] Persecution gave him time away from daily ministry to write. It was a similar situation for the other more well-known Puritans such as John Owen and John Bunyan; we have a large corpus of Puritan literature from this time period due to the fact that these men were given time to write as they were pushed away from their congregations.

During the Indulgence granted by Charles II in 1671, Flavel’s second wife died. Soon thereafter, he married a third time, this time to Ann Downs, the daughter of the minister in Exeter. This marriage lasted for eleven years and he had two sons with her. [39] When persecution came again to Dartmouth, he fled to London. Ann died and, sometime during the years of 1676-77, he married again, a fourth time, to a widow named Dorothy and daughter of a minister, Rev. George Jeffries. [40] In 1686, because of rising persecution in London, he fled back to Dartmouth where he spent some time under house arrest. The next year, James II issued a Declaration of Indulgence, which granted religious freedom to many different religious groups, including the Puritans. [41] Flavel was then allowed to preach without inhibition and he enjoyed a fruitful ministry until his death. He preached his last sermon on June 21, 1691 and died five days later at Exeter apparently from a stroke.

Flavel’s Character and Other Reflections

Flavel hated controversy, which made him a popular moderator and preacher in a nation often torn by internal disagreements. [42] Just days before his death, he was engaged in a movement [43] to unify differences between Congregationalists, or Independents, [44] and Presbyterians.

This passion to unify differing nonconformists in England has led to some confusion among historians as to exactly which denomination he belonged. If he was ordained as a Presbyterian, then why do so many consider him a Congregationalist? [45] The truth is that he was both a Presbyterian and a Congregationalist. He was ordained by the Presbytery as his biographer points out in volume one of his Works. [46] But, after 1672, when Charles II issued an Indulgence, which granted liberty to dissenters, Flavel took advantage of this liberty and was licensed as a Congregationalist. [47] That he at different times in his life was part of different denominations is possibly why he had such a zeal for seeing a unified church in England, both Presbyterians and Congregationalists together. This partial ecumenism was quite exceptional during the seventeenth century when a person could be imprisoned or fined for belonging to a certain denomination or religious group. In this sense, he was revolutionary and ahead of his times.

Concerning Flavel’s character, both the unnamed author of the biographical sketch in volume one of Flavel’s Works and John Galpine, friend of Flavel, paint him as a godly, pious, and wise minister of the gospel. Both of these men knew him. They show him to be faithful, hard working, gracious in the way in which he performed his ministerial duties, and, even to the end of his life, fervent to preach and convert sinners to the gospel message. Both of these men provide detailed stories to illustrate these characteristics and to show the reader his love for Christ and his neighbor. [48]

The unnamed author of the biographical sketch in Christian Biography in 1799 commented on his character:

His religion was not theological speculation, nor was it mere feeling; but that divine all-pervading principle which sanctifies the heart, elevates the affections, brings into near and delightful communion with God, constrains to love and to good works, and which, by its progressive influence, fits a man for the society of angels, and the presence of God. [49]

Flavel traveled frequently, preached as much as possible, performed private worship services in the woods, and continued to the end of his life to play an active role in ministry both to his beloved congregation in Dartmouth and in London. [50] In the end, we see a man who was not only incredibly gifted in preaching and speaking, but who had a minister’s heart and who deeply cared for the souls of his congregation.

Flavel’s Writings

The Works of John Flavel [51] have been published and reprinted numerous times as a collected whole since its first publication in 1701. [52] The six-volume Banner of Truth edition released in 1968 is comprised of 22 books and 116 sermons. [53] His writing style may be compared to Richard Baxter and John Bunyan in both its variations of simplicity and density. It is not as technical or as “wooden” as that of John Owen, nor is his content as profound. However, as Iain Murray has said, “[S]ome Puritans might be more learned than he, and some more quaint, but for all-around usefulness none was his [Flavel’s] equal.”

Volume 1 includes an anonymous biographical sketch of Flavel apparently by someone who knew him. It is followed by a 500-page book, The Fountain of Life, which is a collection of forty-two theologically based sermons centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Volume 2 is a collection of thirty-eight sermons, thirty-five of which comprise the book The Method of Grace in the Gospel Redemption. These thirty-five sermons constitute a series on soteriology and the ordo salutis with special attention given to the redeeming work of Christ. However, within these sermons, a host of other general topics are discussed, all of them infused with life application. The last three sermons, entitled Pneumatologia: A Treatise of the Soul of Man, are principally about the origin and nature of the soul in relation to the body and immortality.

Volume 3 is a collection of a number of different writings from a practical treatise on fear to the importance of unity in the church. Volume 4 includes eleven sermons delivered in England in the late 1680s, a polemical writing on the Roman Catholic Church and probably his most well-known work, Divine Conduct or the Mystery of Providence: A Treatise upon Psalm 57:2. In this book, Flavel not only discusses the theology of God’s providence, but in typical Puritan style, explains how God’s providence plays into everyday life.

Volume 5 includes two large books, Husbandry Spiritualized: The Heavenly Use of Earthly Things [54] and Navigation Spiritualized: A New Compass for Seamen. In Husbandry Spiritualized, he desires “to teach wisdom spiritually” to those in “civil calling.” [55] In other words, he shows how to think and function by seeing the world through “spiritual eyes.” In Navigation Spiritualized, he spiritualizes sailing terminology for the purpose of evangelizing sailors. [56] The other works in Volume 5 cover a variety of subjects from general applications to the Christian life to a book on how to mourn the loss of a loved one.

Volume 6 also includes several books. Four noteworthy titles included in this volume are: An Exposition of the (Westminster) Assembly’s Shorter Catechism, Twelve Sacramental Meditations, The Reasonableness of Personal Reformation and the Necessity of Conversion, and The Character of an Evangelical Pastor drawn by Christ. We can see how diverse and broad his subject matter is by the sheer number of different topics he incorporates into his sermons, treatises, and books.

Flavel is certainly one of the most diverse and practical of all of the Puritans. In a review of his Works, Douglas Vickers notes:

[Flavel] always turns our attention to the greatness and glory of Christ, and leaves us in no doubt at all about the realities of the need for redemption and the fact that man is in the estate of sin and misery in which a biblical anthropology clearly sees him. [57]

Vickers continues by giving us, in his estimation, the relevance of Flavel’s writings for today: “In Flavel, we have once again an opportunity to learn...the sounder answers from a sounder age to problems of life.” [58] Paul Cook, in his review of Flavel’s Works, concludes that “the main value of Flavel’s works is their spiritual content.” [59] The devotional nature and spiritual unction with which Flavel writes can easily transfer to the twenty-first-century reader’s life. Indeed, much of his writing is of timeless value.

Flavel’s Influence

How popular was Flavel in his own lifetime or even shortly after his death? Is Anthony à Wood’s statement credible that he had more disciples than either John Owen or Richard Baxter? And if so, why have they become so popular in the recent explosion of interest [60] in the Puritans rather than Flavel? If his influence can be traced through the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, why and when did such influence stop?

Seventeenth-Century Influence

In the brief biographical sketches by the unnamed author of the “Life” in Flavel’s Works and by John Galpine, his good friend and disciple, we can trace adumbrations that show us that he was quite well known not just throughout southern England, but beyond its borders. For example, Galpine wrote that Flavel was “deservedly famous among the writers of this age.” [61] When writing of Flavel’s desire for the conversion of souls, he writes:

God was pleased to crown his labors with great success this way. Many souls have been given in as the seal of his ministry, who have owned him to be their spiritual father in Christ, by whom they have been begotten through the Gospel. [62]

Flavel’s influence can also be traced from Galpine’s account of his life by the sheer number of people that attended his funeral and the many diverse places from which they rode. At the funeral, Galpine wrote: “I never saw so many weeping eyes, nor heard so much bitter lamentation in all my life.” [63]

In a similarly positive outlook, the unnamed author of his “Life” in the Works shows Flavel to be not only a “powerful and successful preacher,” [64] but also an influential writer. He tells a story of how a certain gentleman came into a bookstore asking for some “play-books.” Though the bookseller did not have any, he did have Flavel’s Keeping the Heart. He read the book and came back to the store and told the bookseller that it had “saved [his] soul.” The author of the “Life” shows this as but one example of many of how his writings became the chief catalyst of his influence and fame. [65]

We can also get a sense of Flavel’s contemporary influence by how his critics treated his writings. While he was in Dartmouth, some opposers of the Puritan cause carried through the town an effigy of Flavel and committed it to flames. His writings, in particular, were often sought after and gathered together during protests of the Puritans and later burned. This happened in both England and New England. [66] Despite the hatred, this sheds light historically on how influential Flavel really was — that he in some way represented the Puritan cause enough that those who opposed the movement sought specifically to profane him.

Other contemporary Puritans, such as John Howe (1630-1705) and Matthew Henry (1662-1714), knew of and appreciated Flavel as both a pastor and a writer. [67] By the end of the seventeenth century, Flavel’s writings had circulated in the communities of England and New England to such an extent that, on both sides of the Atlantic, his name was known and loved.

Eighteenth-Century Influence

The eighteenth century witnessed the emergence of the evangelical leaders Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, who led what became known as the First Great Awakening (1730s and 40s). [68] Both of these men were heirs of the Puritan tradition in general and of John Flavel in particular. “Holy Mr. Flavel,” as Edwards calls him, [69] is quoted more than any other person in Edwards’s Religious Affections (1746) except for Stoddard and Shepherd. [70] Moreover, Edwards’s writing format and style — namely, that he states a particular doctrine and then gives an explanation — is identical to that of Flavel. [71] James I. Packer, picking up on this, calls Edwards the “spiritual heir” of Flavel. [72]

George Whitefield was also influenced by Flavel. When making plans for his ministry in Georgia, he included Flavel’s writings in his luggage to take along with him on his journey from London. [73] At another point, in a letter to John Wesley (1703-1791), Whitefield defended the doctrine of election using Flavel’s orthodoxy. [74] Not long before his death, Whitefield not only commended the books of Flavel, but also noted that his works are often “enquired after, and bought up, more and more every day.” [75]

That Flavel’s influence stopped with these men during those exciting years of revivals is far from true. In fact, Flavel’s literature often inspired the revivalists in New England. Samuel Davies of Virginia noted that many were “awakened” by reading Flavel. [76] One pastor, named Nicholas Gilman of New Hampshire, would read Flavel’s writings to crowds during the Awakening and these writings stimulated his own “appetite” for more of the same. [77] Over and over, Flavel’s tracts, treatises, and books became a top choice among revivalists during the early-to-mid-seventeenth century. [78]

Flavel’s influence throughout the rest of the seventeenth century can also be seen by the sheer amount of printing and publishing of his works. As a collected whole, The Works of John Flavel went through nine editions from 1701 to 1770, not including the numerous reprints. [79] Many individual publications were printed and translated into Dutch, Latin, Welsh, Czech, and other languages before 1800. [80] By the end of the eighteenth century, Flavel’s popularity and influence had not yet begun to fade.

Nineteenth-Century Influence

By the middle of the 1800s, numerous “collections” of Flavel’s most popular works were being published and printed and given names like Flaveliana [81] and Golden Gems. [82] Other popular items in print were copies of Flavel’s works bound with other notable pastors, theologians, and missionaries. For example, Flavel’s book A Treatise on Keeping the Heart was bound together with Jonathan Edwards’s An Account of the Life of the Late Reverend Mr. David Brainerd in 1820. [83] Flavel’s book Touchstone of Sincerity was bound with writings of William Wilberforce in 1833. [84] During the first half of the nineteenth century, there appeared also several expanded accounts of Flavel’s life, which were compiled with other notable Christians. These included Christian Biography in 1799 [85] and Authentic Extracts from the Lives of John Flavel and Rev. William Tennent in 1807 by Benjamin Cole. [86] Through these publications and reprints, his influence can be traced in the lives and writings of nineteenth-century Scottish evangelicals, like Robert Murray M‘Cheyne (1813-1843) and Andrew Bonar (1810-1892). [87]

Like England, Flavel’s influence can also be traced in America during the nineteenth century. His writings, for example, caught the attention of a young man who would one day begin Princeton Theological Seminary, Archibald Alexander. On one particular Sunday night when Alexander was a young man, he was asked to be a “reader” to the congregation. He had been reading Flavel’s Method of Grace, but, “by some means, [he] was led to select one of the sermons [by Flavel] on Revelation iii. 20, ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock.’” [88] Alexander goes on to describe his intense feeling of sin and grace and of being “overwhelmed with a flood of joy.” He said of this experience that it “soon occurred to me that possibly I had experienced the change called the new birth.” [89] Ultimately, Alexander was deeply indebted to Flavel not only for doctrinal education, but for spiritual nourishment. He explained: “To John Flavel I certainly owe more than to any uninspired author.” [90]

The Twentieth Century and Beyond

By the end of the nineteenth century, however, we begin to see some clear signs of a decline in Flavel’s influence and popularity. By the latter 1800s, there was very little publishing and printing of anything related to Flavel. There are no major stories of converted lives or influential collections of his “finest” work. In fact, his own Works, published in 1820, [91] do not even get a reprint until Banner of Truth’s edition in 1968. He became a “lost Puritan”! What happened?

Even when Puritan studies began to be published and printed again in the late 1930s with works by William Haller, [92] A. S. P. Wood-house, [93] M. M. Knappen, [94] and Perry Miller, [95] his name still did not rise to the level he was known at in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries. Thanks to Banner of Truth Trust, his Works have been preserved, but even this initial reprint in 1968 did little to encourage further study of Flavel. Other than the 1952 dissertation by Kwai Sing Chang, no other substantive study of Flavel’s life can be found until Yuille’s Inner Sanctum in 2007. Since then, several academic projects have examined various aspects of Flavel’s theology and ministry, but he nevertheless remains unknown among the Puritan “greats.”

Despite his loss in popularity and influence, it is quite fascinating to see the legacy that Flavel has left behind, which can be found in a sort of memorial fashion in the county of Devon, England where he spent most of his life. A quick look at a directory for the county in general and Dartmouth in particular will reveal several churches and social venues dedicated to the memory of John Flavel. For example, you can find the Flavel United Reformed Church, [96] the Flavel Centre, [97] the Flavel Church, [98] and the Torbay Methodist Churches, which trace their heritage to Flavel. [99]

Conclusion

To validate Wood’s claim, there is substantial evidence that John Flavel was at least as influential during the seventeenth century as was John Owen or Richard Baxter. His influence may be traced through the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries, but by 1900, Flavel virtually disappears from the printing presses and personal memoirs. If the recent interest in the Puritans has led to the rediscovery of the so-called Puritan “greats”—such as John Owen, Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, and Richard Sibbes—should Flavel not also be included among their ranks? Given the fact that he was both an influential Puritan during his own life and during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, has he not earned the respect of attention among modern-day Puritan studies? I believe that the answer to both of these questions is affirmative. Though Increase Mather’s prophecy has failed during the last century, it may still be revived yet. May this “lost Puritan” be found and be seen as both an influential English character and someone who deserves a second look in the field of Puritan studies.

Appendix

Timeline of the Life of John Flavel and His Major Writings:

• 1628 born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
• c. 1646 entered Oxford
• c. 1649 graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree
• 1650 (4/27) became assistant minister to Mr. Walplate in Diptford
• 1650 (10/17) was ordained at Salisbury into the Presbyterian Church
• c. 1651 married 1st wife: Jane Randal (she later died while pregnant)
• c. 1654 married 2nd wife: name unknown
• c. 1655 people of Dartmouth chose Flavel to succeed Anthony Hartford
• 1656 (12/10) became assistant minister to Allein Geere in Dartmouth and took post at Townstall, a larger church on the edge of town.
• 1662 Act of Uniformity—evicted from official ministerial position
• 1662 Allein Geere died and whole flock in Dartmouth devolved upon Flavel
• 1665 Oxford Act/Five Mile Act: removed to Slapton (5 miles away from Dartmouth)
• 1665 parents died from plague in Newgate after being released from prison.
• 1665-71 preached in Slapton and in Exeter
• 1669 Husbandry Spiritualized published
• 1671 Indulgence granted by King Charles II; A Saint Indeed published
• c. 1671 2nd wife died
• c. 1672 married 3rd wife, Ann Downs, who was the daughter of Thomas Downs, minister at Exeter
• c. 1672-3 (3rd wife died?)
• 1673 because of persecution, fled to London; Fountain of Life Opened published
• 1674 A Token for Mourners published
• c. 1676-7 married 4th wife in London, daughter of George Jeffries, minister of King’s Bridge;
• A Sea-Man’s Companion published
• 1679 back to Dartmouth; Divine Conduct, or the Mystery of Providence published
• 1681 Method of Grace published
• 1682 fled to London again (10 July); Navigation Spiritualized and Two Treatises on Fear and Judgment published
• 1685 Pneumatologia: A Treatise on the Soul of Man published
• 1686 fled London back to Dartmouth because of persecution
• 1687 King James II dispensed penal laws—Flavel able to preach at will
• 1687-91 preached in Dartmouth to his flock, especially preached sermons on Rev. 3:20
• 1688 An Exposition of the (Westminster) Assemblies catechism published
• 1689 England’s duty under the present Gospel liberty published
• 1691 preached last sermon (21 June) (1 Cor. 10:12) at Ashburton; also met with a group of ministers in Exeter to settle union between Independents and Presbyterians; Planeologia and The reasonableness of personal reformation published; sudden and surprising death (26 June) in Exeter at age 64; corpse carried to Dartmouth; next day, funeral sermon preached by George Trosse

Notes

1. Anthony à Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses: An Exact History of all the Writers and Bishops who have had their Education in the University of Oxford (New York: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, et al., 1820), 4:323.
2. Increase Mather, “To the Reader,” in An Exposition of the Assembly’s Catechism by John Flavel in The Works of John Flavel (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1968), 6:139.
3. John Spurr, English Puritanism: 1603-1689 (London: Macmillan Press, 1998), 6-8.
4. Peter Lewis notes in his book, The Genius of Puritanism (Morgan, Pa.: Soli Deo Gloria, 1996): “The definitions of ‘Puritan’ and ‘Puritanism’ have been, since their earliest use in England, a matter of crowded debate and widespread confusion. National, political, and social elements which were closely allied with the idea of Puritanism at various stages of its progress have largely obscured the vital religious and spiritual meaning of the term[s].” In the same vein, Christopher Durston and Jacqueline Eales in The Culture of English Puritanism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1996) explain: “Attempts to define early-modern English ‘puritanism’ and to agree on a common usage for the noun and adjective ‘puritan’ have been going on for well over 400 years.”
5. These various emphases can be traced throughout Puritan literature and Puritan historiography. Cf. Joel R. Beeke and Randall Pederson, Meet the Puritans (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2006), xv–xix.
6. See John Coffey, Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England, 1558-1689 (London: Logman, 2000); Patrick Collinson, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (London: Jonathan Cape, 1967); William Haller, The Rise of Puritanism (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1957); John Spurr, English Puritanism: 1603-1689; and Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints: The Puritans as They Really Were (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986).
7. London: Tho. Parkhurst. Another edition was published that year in Edinburgh with some corrections of this London edition by Andrew Anderson.
8. In various encyclopedias and books.
9. Earl T Farrell, “The doctrine of man and grace as held by the Reverend John Flavel” (B.D. thesis, Duke University, 1949).
10. Kwai Sing Chang, “John Flavel of Dartmouth, 1630-1691” (Ph.D. diss., University of Edinburgh), 1952. Chang’s dissertation remains the only full-length biography of Flavel available.
11. J. Stephen Yuille, The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety: John Flavel’s Doctrine of Mystical Union with Christ (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2007). Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety is a theological explanation of Flavel’s doctrine of union with Christ. As such, the biographical information is limited.
12. The actual date of his birth is unknown. Some argue that he was born in 1627 such as Stephen Yuille in The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety. But a numerical backtrack in the anonymous biographical sketch in The Works of John Flavel reveals that if it was not in 1628, it would have been late 1627. Others lean toward a 1630 date such as Kwai Sing Chang, “John Flavel of Dartmouth, 1630-1691” (Ph.D. diss., University of Edinburgh, 1952). The strongest argument for the 1630 date is that Flavel’s baptism is recorded as 26 September 1630, which would most likely fall just days after his birth (James W. Kelly, “Flavell, John [bap. 1630, d. 1691],” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online ed, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9678]). Other Puritan scholars, however, lean toward the 1628 date. The best argument for the earlier date(s) is that the anonymous biographer of “Life of” in Volume 1 of Flavel’s Works writes that he was sixty-four years old when he died, which we know was in 1691. However, a monument in Dartmouth tells us that he was sixty-one years of age when he died. If that is true, he was born in 1630. Thus, seventeenth-century historical evidence differs one from another, which makes nailing down a date very difficult.
13. “Life of the Rev. John Flavel of Dartmouth” in Christian Biography (London: Religious Tract Society, 1799), 3, 6; “The Life of the late Rev. Mr. John Flavel, Minister of Dartmouth” in the WJF (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1968), 1:iii.
14. “Life of” in Christian Biography, 6.
15. WJF, 1:382-392.
16. Ibid., 4:370-375.
17. This Covenant not only allowed for over twenty thousand Scottish troops to fight with Parliament against the Royalist army, but it also paved the way for Scottish involvement at the Westminster Assembly (1643-47).
18. “Life of” in Christian Biography, 10-13; “Life of” in WJF, 1:iv.
19. Sinclair Ferguson, “The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel (1628-1691)” in The Devoted Life, eds. Kelly M. Kapic and Randall C. Gleason (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 212; “Life of” in Christian Biography, 17; Joel Beeke, “John Flavel (1628-1691),” Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth (January 2006), says that her name was Elizabeth Stapell.
20. “Life of” in WJF, 1:v.
21. See Appendix 2. Dartmouth was a great and noted seaport and a very populous town in the county of Devon.
22. “Life of” in WJF, 1:v.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid., 1:vi.
26. John Galpine, “A Short Life of John Flavel” in Flavel, the Quaker, and the Crown (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Rhwymbooks, 2000), 16.
27. “Life of” in Flaveliana, xxvii. This can also clearly be seen by his frequent use of these languages in his Works.
28. “Life of” in WJF, 1:vi.
29. These included the wearing of ceremonial vestments, kneeling at Communion, and prescribed homilies and prayers.
30. Gerald Bray, ed., Documents of the English Reformation (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 1994), 546-47.
31. Kelly M. Kapic and Randall C. Gleason, The Devoted Life: An Invitation to the Puritan Classics (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 155, 201, 211, 227.
32. Ray Freeman, John Flavel: A Famous Dartmouth Puritan (Dartmouth: Dartmouth History Research Group, 2001), 5.
33. Also known as the Oxford Act.
34. David Bogue and James Bennett, History of Dissenters, From the Revolution to the Year 1838 (Stoke-on-Trent, England: Tentmaker Publications, 2000), 1:301.
35. “Life of” in WJF, 1:viii.
36. Slapton is five miles from Dartmouth and is where Flavel spent much of his time during the tenure of the Five Mile Act.
37. Freeman, John Flavel, 5.
38. See Appendix.
39. Thomas and Benjamin. See A. G. Matthews, Calamy Revised, Being a Revision of Edmund Calamy’s Account of the Ministers and Others Ejected and Silenced, 1660-1662 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934), 201.
40. His fourth wife, Dorothy, survived him. See Joseph Banvard, “Memoir of the Author,” in Golden Gems for the Christian, Selected from the Writings of Rev. John Flavel (Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1848), 13; A. G. Matthews, Calamy Revised, 201.
41. J. R. H. Moorman, A History of the Church in England, 3rd ed. (Harrisburg, Pa.: Morehouse Publishing, 1980), 262-63. Because he was a Roman Catholic, his main objective in issuing this Indulgence was to let Catholics be free to worship. If he extended freedom of worship for them, then Puritans could take advantage of the liberty as well.
42. Publisher’s “Introduction” to True Professors and Mourners by John Flavel (Cambridge, Mass.: WordSpace, 1996), ii.
43. This movement was called the “Happy Union.” See Gerald R. Cragg, Puritanism in the Period of the Great Persecution: 1660-1688 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1957), 252-53; Michael Boland, “Publisher’s Introduction,” in The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1963), 10.
44. Though technically all Congregationalists were Independents, all Independents were not Congregationalists. Flavel became an Independent Congregationalist.
45. Dewey D. Wallace, Jr., Puritans and Predestination: Grace in English Protestant Theology, 1525-1695 (Eugene, Ore.: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1982), 187; Dewey D. Wallace, Jr., “Flavel (Favell), John (1627-1691),” in Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia, 98; Michael R. Watts, The Dissenters (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), 230; A. G. Matthews, Calamy Revised, 200.
46. “Life of” in WJF, 1:iv.
47. Boland, “Publisher’s Introduction,” 10; he was licensed at his house in Dartmouth on April 2, 1672. Of his congregation, 163 signed the License. See A. G. Matthews, Calamy Revised, 200.
48. “Life of” in WJF, 1:iii-xvi; John Galpine, “A Short Life of John Flavel,” 13-22.
49. “Life of” in Christian Biography, 71.
50. “Introduction” to True Professors and Mourners, ii.
51. The WJF contain just about everything that Flavel wrote. He co-authored one work, The Sinner Directed to the Saviour, with Isaac Watts, published in 1820 (London: Printed by Augustus Applegath and Edward Cowper for the Religious Tract Society; sold by F. Collins and J. Nisbet), which is not included in the Works.
52. See discussion below under “Eighteenth-Century Influence.”
53. See Appendix 1 for a time line of his major writings.
54. Husbandry Spiritualized was in its tenth edition by 1709. See “Introduction” to True Professors and Mourners by John Flavel (Cambridge, Mass.: WordSpace, 1996), iii.
55. Flavel, Husbandry Spiritualized in WJF, 5:8.
56. Living in the port-town of Dartmouth, Flavel had many encounters with sailors.
57. Douglas Vickers, review of The Works of John Flavel, Westminster Theological Journal 32 (Nov. 1969–May 1970): 93.
58. Ibid.
59. Paul E. G. Cook, review of The Works of John Flavel, The Evangelical Quarterly 41 (1969): 178.
60. See Erroll Hulse, Who Are the Puritans? (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2000), 27.
61. Galpine, “Life,” 13.
62. Ibid., 16.
63. Ibid., 21.
64. “Life of” in WJF, 1:xii.
65. Ibid., 1:xiii-xiv.
66. Arnold A. Dallimore, George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1980), 2:186; Bogue and Bennett, History of Dissenters, 1:302.
67. A look through The Works of John Howe (Ligonier, Pa.: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1990) and J. B. Williams’s The Lives of Philip and Matthew Henry (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974) will reveal this—e.g., p. 250.
68. See Mark A. Noll, David W. Bebbington, and George A. Rawlyk, eds., Evangelicalism: Comparative Studies of Popular Protestantism in North America, the British Isles, and Beyond, 1700-1990 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 19-23.
69. Jonathan Edwards, On Religious Affections in The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974), 1:248.
70. A brief scan through the footnotes will reveal this.
71. Compare Edwards’s History of Redemption and Flavel’s Fountain of Life.
72. James I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1990), 312.
73. Dallimore, George Whitefield, 1:143-45.
74. George Whitefield, “A Letter to the Mr. John Wesley in Answer to His Sermon Entitled ‘Free Grace,’” London, 1740 in George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1980), 2:564.
75. Quoted in Iain H. Murray, The Puritan Hope: Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1971), 143.
76. Letters from the Rev. Samuel Davies, and Others shewing the State of Religion in Virginia, South Carolina, etc., particularly Among the Negroes (London, 1761), 4.
77. Noll, Bebbington, and Rawlyk, Evangelicalism, 38.
78. Ibid., 43, 44, 54.
79. 1701 (London), 1701 (Edinburgh), 1716 (London), 1731 (Edinburgh), 1740 (London), 1750 (unknown location), 1754 (Glasgow), 1762 (Edinburgh), 1770 (unknown location). There were further editions in 1797 (Newcastle) and 1799 (London) before the edition that we have today from 1820 (London: W. Baynes and Son).
80. A brief scan on ATLA or WorldCat will illustrate this. His Token for Mourners was even translated into Scottish Gaelic (Duneidin: Thornton agus Collie, 1849).
81. Edinburgh: John Menzies, 1859.
82. Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1848.
83. New York: American Tract Society.
84. Ibid.
85. London: Religious Tract Society.
86. Brattleborough: Printed for the Author.
87. Joel Beeke, “John Flavel (1628-1691)” in Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth, January 2006. In this article, Beeke also summarizes a story told by M‘Cheyne about the impact of Flavel’s preaching and writing ministry. Flavel’s name comes up throughout M‘Cheyne’s diary and sermons.
88. James W. Alexander, The Life of Archibald Alexander, D.D. (Harrisonburg, Virg.: Sprinkle Publications, 1991), 44.
89. Ibid., 46.
90. Ibid., 47.
91. By W. Baynes and Son.
92. The Rise of Puritanism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1938).
93. Puritanism and Liberty (London: Macmillan, 1938).
94. Tudor Puritanism (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1939).
95. The New England Mind, Vol. 1: The Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1939).
96. Information can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
97. The Flavel Centre is also called “The Flavel.” It is a multipurposed arts and entertainment venue in Dartmouth. It can be accessed at http://www.theflavel.org.uk.
98. A history of this church can be found at http://www.dartmouth-history.org.uk.
99. A brief history of these churches can be accessed at http://www.torbay-methodists.org.uk.