John Flavel - A Poem from His "Navigation Spiritualized"

John Flavel (1628-1691) was a Presbyterian minister at Dartmouth in Devon,

England, whose teaching is still highly valued as most helpful and strengthening. The son of a minister who died in prison for his noncomformity, John Flavel knew what it was to suffer hardship, and in his life he showed the evangelical graces of a strong man of God. Under his influence, a union of the Presbyterian and Congregational (Independent) churches in his area was accomplished.

THERE’s many a soul’s eternally undone

For sparing sin, because a little one.

But we are much deceiv’d; no sin is small,

That wounds so great a God, so dear a soul.

Yet say it were, the smallest pen-knife may

As well as sword or lance, dispatch and slay,

And shall so small a matter part and sever

Christ and thy soul? What! make you part for ever?

Or wilt thou stand on toys with him, when he

Deny’d himself in greatest things for thee?

Or will it be an ease in hell to think

How easily thy soul therein did sink?

Are Christ and hell for trifles sold and bought?

Strike souls with trembling, Lord, at such a thought!

By little sins belov’d, the soul is lost,

Unless such sins do great repentance cost.