LISTEN ONLINE:
Hail & Fire Audio Player

READ THIS BOOK ONLINE: this book as well as other works by John Flavel are available for free online reading.

A Treatise on Keeping the Heart

Puritan Sermon or Exhortation on Proverbs 4:23: "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life."

by John Flavel

1813 Edition
Hail & Fire REPRINT

"To keep the heart then, is carefully to preserve it from sin which disorders it; and maintain that spiritual and gracious frame, which fits it for a life of communion with God." - John Flavel

Read this Book Online >>

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Touchstone of Sincerity or Trial of True and False Religion

Puritan Sermon

by John Flavel

1814 Edition
Hail & Fire REPRINT

"My design in these meditations, is not to shake the well founded hopes of any man, or to excite unreasonable apprehensions; but to discover the radical and fatal defects, in the basis of many men's expectations of future happiness. Men must judge of their religion by examining its foundation, if that fail, the superstructure is perishable and worthless. There is a laudable spirit of caution, cherished by the saints, which makes them sensible to the danger of self-deception, and renders them watchful and circumspect; there is also a culpable anxiety and fear, tending only to gloom and despondency, to which they sometimes give way: by the former they are guarded against evil; by the latter they incur needless grief, and are restrained from inward peace. Sometimes good men, indulging groundless fears of hypocrisy, are blind to the clearest evidences of their gracious state; but more frequently, the wicked, regardles of consequences, close their eyes upon the proofs of their guilt and jeopardy." - John Flavel

Read this Book Online >>

ABOUT THE HAIL & FIRE AUDIO LIBRARY:

The Hail & Fire Audio Library is an online Christian audiobook resource. Listen online using the Hail & Fire Audio Player (link at bottom), download to play on your computer, or load onto your iPod or portable player.

These books and sermons have been selected for the purity of their Gospel message and for the various author's witness to the power of the Gospel, of repentance, and of a new life. It is always to be remembered that every writer is but a fallible man and an earthern vessel and we, therefore, must test all things (1 Thes 5:21) against the pure light of Scripture: "all Scripture, is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work," 2 Tim 3:16.

The main theme of each of these works is the absolute necessity of godliness; for, as Scriptures declares, "pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord," Heb 12:14.

LIBRARY: AUDIO
The Hail & Fire Audio Library provides Christian Audio Books and Sermons in MP3 audio format. Listen online using the Hail & Fire Audio Player (link at bottom), download to play on your computer, or load onto your iPod or portable player.

JOHN FLAVEL (1627-1691), English Puritan Preacher and Minister of the Gospel. Author of The Mystery of Providence. "A Treatise on Keeping the Heart," a Puritan Sermon or Exhortation on Proverbs 4:23: "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." by Rev. John Flavel:   Keeping the Heart 01 (of 7) mp3 6.5MB   Keeping the Heart 02 (of 7) mp3 6.5MB   Keeping the Heart 03 (of 7) mp3 6.5MB   Keeping the Heart 04 (of 7) mp3 6.6MB   Keeping the Heart 05 (of 7) mp3 6.5MB   Keeping the Heart 06 (of 7) mp3 6.5MB   Keeping the Heart 07 (of 7) mp3 6.5MB

new audio files added: June 29, 2009 "It is lamentable, that when we give saints and sinners their proper portions, each is so prone to take up the other's part." John Flavel QUOTE: "Heart-work is hard work indeed. To shuffle over religious duties with a loose and heedless spirit will cost no great pains; but to set yourself before the Lord and tie up your loose and vain thoughts to a constant and serious attendance upon him; this will cost you something. To attain a facility and dexterity of language in prayer and put your meaning into apt and decent expressions is easy; but to get your heart broken for sin, while you are confessing it; melted with free grace, while you are blessing God for it; to be really ashamed and humbled through the apprehensions of God's infinite holiness and to keep your heart in this frame, not only in but after duty, will surely cost you some groans and pains of soul. To repress the outward acts of sin and compose the external part of your life in a laudable manner is no great matter; even carnal persons by the force of common principles can do this: but to kill the root of corruption within, to set and keep up an holy government over your thoughts, to have all things lie straight and orderly in the heart, this is not easy." - John Flavel QUOTE: "As rooted malice indicates a stronger hatred, than a sudden though more violent passion; so we must judge, of our love, not by a violent motion of it, now and then, but by the depth of its root, and the constancy of its exercise." - John Flavel QUOTE: "Every appearance of hypocrisy, does not prove the person who manifests it to be a hypocrite. You should carefully distinguish between the appearance and the predominance of hypocricy. There are remains of deceitfulness in the best hearts; this was examplified in David and Peter; but the prevailing frame of their hearts being upright, they were not denominated hypocrites for their conduct." - John Flavel Quotes are excerpted from Keeping the Heart by John Flavel. Read free Christian books, Puritan, Reformed and Protestant exhortational works, Catholic and Protestant polemical and apologetical works, bibles, histories, martyrologies, and works on eschatology in the Hail & Fire Online Library >>