That which made them more pressing and earnest with Mr. Flavel* was this ; at a provincial synod in that county, Mr. Flavel, though but a young man, was voted into the chair as moderator, where he opened the assembly with a most devout and pertinent prayer ; he examined the candidates who offered themselves to their trials for the ministry with great learning, stated the cases and questions proposed to them with much acuteness and judgment, and in the whole de- meaned himself with that gravity, piety, and seriousness, during his presidency, that all the ministers of the assembly admired and loved him. The Reverend Mr. Hartford* his predecessor at Dartmouth, took particular notice of him, from that time forward contracted a strict friendship with him, and spoke of him among the magistrates and people of Dartmouth, as an extraordinary person, who was like to be a great light in the church. This, with their having several times heard him preach, occasioned their importunity with Mr. Fla- vel to come and be their minister ; upon which, having spread his case before the Lord, and submitted to the decision of his neighbour- ing ministers, he was prevailed upon to remove to Darmouth, to his great loss in temporals, the rectory of Diptford being a much greater benefice.
Mr. Flavel being settled at Dartmouth by the election of people, and an order from Whitehall by the commissioners for approba- tion of public preachers, of the 10th of December, 1656, he was associated with Mr. Allein Geere, a very worthy, but sickly, man. The ministerial work was thus divided betwixt them ; Mr, Flavel was
VI THE LIFE OF THE LATE
to preach on the LorcTs-day at Townstall, the mother-church stand- ing upon a hill without the town ; and every fortnight in his turn at the Wednesday's Lecture in Dartmouth. Here God crowned his labours with many conversions. One of his judicious hearers ex- pressed himself thus concerning him ; " I could say much, though " not enough, of the excellency of his preaching ; of his seasonable, " suitable and spiritual matter ; of his plain expositions of scripture, " his taking method, his genuine and natural deductions, his con- " vincing arguments, his clear and powerful demonstrations, his " heart-searching 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."
By his unwearied application to study, he had accquired a great stock both of divine and human learning. He was master of the controversies betwixt the Jews and Christians, Papists and Protes- tants, Lutherans and Calvinists, and betwixt the Orthodox, and the Arminians and Socinians ! he was likewise well read in the Contro- versies about Church-discipline, Infant-!Baptism, and Antinomi- anism. He was well acquainted with the School-divinity, and drew up a judicious and ingenious scheme of the whole body of that Theology in good Latin, which he presented to a person of quality, but it was never printed. He had one way of improving his knowledge, which is very proper for young divines; whatever remarkable passage he heard in private conference, if he was familiar with the relator, he would desire him to repeat it again, and insert it into his Aversaria : by these methods he acquired a vast stock of proper materials for his popular sermons in the pulpit, and his more elaborate works for the press.
He had an excellent gift of prayer, and was never at a loss in all his various occasions for. suitable matter and words ; and, which was the most remarkable of all, he always brought with him a broken heart and moving affections : his tongue and spirit were touched with a live coal from the altar, and he was evidently assisted by the holy Spirit of grace and supplication in that divine ordinance. Those who lived in his family, say, that lie was always full and copious in prayer, seemed constantly to exceed himself, and rarely made use twice of the same expressions.
When the act of uniformity turned him out with the rest of his nonconforming brethren, he did not thereupon quit his relation to his church, he thought the souls of his flock to be more precious than to be so tamely neglected ; he took all opportunities of mi- nistring the word and sacraments to them in private meetings, and joined with other ministers in solemn days of fasting and humiliation, to pray that God would once more restore the ark of his covenant unto his afflicted Israel. About four months after that fatal Bartho-
REVEREND MR. JOHN FLAVEL. Vll
lomew day, his reverend colleague, Mr. Allein Geere, died ; so that the whole care of the flock devolved upon Mr. Flavel, which, though a heavy and pressing burden, he undertook very cheerfully.
Upon the execution of the Oxford act, which banished all non- conformist ministers five miles from any towns which sent members to parliament, he was forced to leave Dartmouth, to the great sorrow of his people, who followed him out of town; and at Townstall church-yard they took such a mournful farewell of one another as the place might very well have been called Bochim. He removed to Slapton, a parish five miles from Dartmouth, or any other corpora- tion, which put him out of the legal reach of his adversaries. Here he met with signal instances of God's fatherly care and protection, and preached twice every LordVday to such as durst adventure to hear him, which many of his own people and others did, notwith- standing the rigour and severity of the act against conventicles. He many times slipped privately into Dartmouth, where by preaching and conversation he edified his flock, to the great refreshment of his own soul and theirs, though with very much danger, because of his watchful adversaries, who constantly laid wait for him, so that he could not make any long stay in the town.