He studied at Oxford and was ordained in 1650. Flavel preached during a dangerous era for Noncomformist ministers and spent much of his career trying to pastor and avoid jail. The sermons, from the last two years of his life, were preached following the restoration of religious liberty. But Flavel's readability does not imply shallowness. He was a favorite Puritan of Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, and Charles Spurgeon.
Ministers can but knock at the external door of the senses.
It is not frost and snow, storms and thunder, but the gentle distilling dews and cherishing sunbeams that make the flowers open in the spring. If that is what preaching is, let me at it. I'll do it with all the strength I possess, no matter how demanding the enterprise. Preaching Christ has always been and will always be intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually demanding. Adjectives such as easy, enjoyable, pleasant , and pretty never apply to this kind of preaching.