I’ve added a new page to the site: John Flavel’s The Mystery of Providence, rewritten in plain modern English and free to read online.
Flavel was a Puritan pastor in Dartmouth, Devon, in the 1600s. He built this whole book on one line from Psalm 57:2: “I will cry out to God Most High, to God who performs all things for me.” David wrote it while hiding from Saul in a cave. Flavel asks what it means that God is working all things for one hunted, frightened man, and then for you and me.
The book is practical and pastoral. Flavel walks through how God’s hand shows up in the ordinary shape of a life: our birth and upbringing, our conversion, our work, our families, the evils we’re kept from, and our growth in holiness. Then he turns to what we should do about it. He argues we should think about God’s providence, notice it, and keep a record of it. In his words, that record will be there to comfort us later, when we’re tempted to think God has forgotten us.
I think we need this now. Most of us get through the week without much sense that God is governing the details. Flavel helps you look back over your own life and see the thread.
I’ve kept his meaning and his pastoral voice, and changed the language that gets in the way. I kept a few of his old words where his argument depends on them, such as “performs all things for me” and “the saints.” There’s a short note at the start explaining that.
You can read the whole book on the page, scrolling through it in the browser, or download the text file to read on your own device.
👉 Read The Mystery of Providence
You’ll also find it in the Media menu, next to John Owen and John Calvin.
If it’s a help to you, pass it on to someone who’s going through a hard stretch.