Front matter (continued, part 3)

after; yet still all those impressions proved to be but morning dew, and

came to nothing, and I utterly forbore to pray privately, or exercise any other good duty, and so all my religion was soon lost and came to nothing. But again, when the time of the next sacrament came, I renewed the former

exercises, and then I grew into a love of the good scholars of the College, both

of Fellows and others, and began to continue more constant in duties for a

longer time together.

* And I left going to St Mary s, the university church, where were all the

ll MEMOIR OF DR THOMAS GOODWIN*.

flood ^MMM and strains of wit in which that age abounded, the great wits

of those times striving who of them should exceed each other. But from

thffft the work I had the next sacrament upon me did so far withdraw me,

as for eight weeks together I went with the Puritans of that College to hear

Dr Sibbs, whose preaching was plain and wholesome ; and to improve my

time the better before sermon began, I carried with me Calvin s Institu

tions to church, and found a great deal of sweetness and savouriness in that

divinity. In those weeks I kept constantly to private prayer, and calling to

mind the sweetness of this course, of those eight weeks in these exercises, and acquainting myself more with the youths of that College who held

steadfast in their profession. Oh, how did I long for the receiving of the

next sacrament, in which I hoped the body and blood of Christ received

with due preparation, which I endeavoured to make to the utmost of my

ability, would con6rm me in the way I had begun and continued in so long, and would strengthen me for ever from falling into the same way of liking

florid and scholastic sermons.

I went to chapel for the sacrament, as I was wont to do, and expected no other but to receive it ; but in the nick, when every communicant was

rising to go to kneel at the step, as the manner was, my tutor, Mr Power,

(who was the only tutor that ever I had,) sent a messenger to me to com mand me out of the chapel, and to forbear to receive; which message I

received with extreme dolour of heart and trouble ; but he being my tutor,

I obeyed, him. But upon this disappointment I was so discouraged, that I

left off private prayer for the first week after, and at last altogether, and

from thence after went constantly to St Mary s, where the^flaunting sermons

were; and though I never fell into the common sins of drunkenness or

whoredom, whercunto I had temptations and opportunities enough, yet I

returned unto the lusts and pleasures of sinning, but especially the ambition

of glory and praise, prosecuting those lusts with the whole of my soul. And

though I did not walk in profane ways against religion, yet with a lower

kind of enmity against good men and good things, resolving to have preached

: : .. ;.! L ml til ir v. ;..;, :! ,\. tab :i pttrf with I:,

whole town against them ; which my wicked spirit was too eager and fitted

to do by the studies I had pursued ; it came to this at last, that if God would give me the pleasure I desired, and the credit and preferment I pur sued after, and not damn me at last, let him keep heaven to himself; and I

often thought thus with myself, They talk of their Puritan powerful prca&lt; h-

ing, and of Mr Rogers of Dedham, and such others, but I would gladh

the man that could trouble my conscience.

When God now by a true work of grace effectually converted me to him

self the vanity of my former religion was, by serious reflections on these

postages Mill lined, sufficiently manifested The deficiency of the root of

all my devotions did also abundantly add to the discover}-. For God did

vouchsafe me a new and further light into the bottom of my heart, to

discern that self-love and 1 i.y

th&lt; rd so

far aft they will extend, were but the roots of all the.^c gaudy tulips which I

MEMOIR OF DR THOMAS GOODWIN. Ill

: and I needed no other scripture than that in the parable,

counted grace

" Some fell

together with my own heart, for the proof of it : Mark iv. 5, G,

upon stony ground, where it had not much earth ; and immediately it sprang

up, because it had no depth of earth : but when the sun was up, it was

scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away." And with this one blast, and thus easily, did the flower of all my former devotions wither and come to nought, because they wanted moisture in the heart to nourish them.

By the prospect of all these heads of sinning which I lay under, I was surrounded and shut up, and saw no way to escape

: but together with the

sight of all this sinfulness, hell opened his mouth upon me, threatening to devour and destroy me ; and I began withal to consider the eternity of time

that I was to pass through under this estate, that it was for ever and ever But though I was subjugated and bound over to these apprehensions, yet God kept me from the soreness of his wrath, and its piercing my soul

through and through

: that though I had a solid and strong conviction of God s wrath abiding on me, as being in a state of unbelief, yet my soul

suffered not the terrors of the Almighty, though I lay bound as it were hand and foot, subacted under the pressure of the guilt of wrath, or of

being subject to the just judgment of the Lord, as the word is to be trans

lated, Rom. iii. 19. How long my soul lay filled with these thoughts, I per

fectly remember not ; but it was not many hours before God, who after we

are regenerate is so faithful and mindful of his word, and his word of pro mise, as to suffer us not to be tempted above what we are able, but will with

the temptation also make a way to escape, that we may bo able to bear it ; and he loving us with the same love as we are his own dear elect, does not

often suffer a destroying apprehension to continue long upon us, but out of

the same faithfulness and pity to us finds a way to escape.

I do not speak now of temptations, but of the just conviction which many such souls have, previous unto their believing. See what God says, Ezek. xvi., of the whole body of his elect church, comparing their condition

to that of a child born dead, and covered over with blood, as it came out

of the womb, the navel not cut, neither washed in water, but in this plight cast out into the open field, as a child that was dead, among the carcases. And therefore God, when he was said to have compassion on him, said to

him, Live, which implies that he was dead. In this plight was my soul, dead in sins and trespasses from my nativity, and from thence so continuing to that very day, together with that heap of actual sins, that were the con

tinual ebullitions of original sin. And no eye pitied me or could help me, but

as God there, in Ezek. xvi., on the sudden, for it is spoken as a speedy word, as well as a vehement earnest word, for it is doubled twice, yea, I said unto

you, Live, so God was pleased on the sudden, and as it were in an instant, to alter the whole of his former dispensation towards me, and said of and to my soul, Yea, live; yea, live, I say, said God : and as he created the world and the matter of all things by a word, so he created and put a new life and

spirit into my soul, and so great an alteration was strange to me.

Jjjj MEMOIR OF DR THOMAS GOODWIN.

The word of promise which he let fall into my heart, and which was but

as it were softly whispered to my soul ; and as when a man speaks afar off,

he gives a still, yet a certain sound, or as one hath expressed the preachingt

of the gospel by the apostles, that God whispered the gospel out of Zion,

but the sound thereof went forth over the whole earth : so this speaking of

Gtxl to my soul, although it was but a gentle sound, yet it made a noise

over my whole heart, and filled and possessed all the faculties of my whole

soul. God took me aside, and as it were privately said unto me, Do you now

turn to me, and I will pardon all your sins though never so many, as I for

gave and pardoned my sen-ant Paul, and convert you unto me, as I did Mr

Price, who was the most famous convert and example of religion in Cam

bridge. Of these two secret whispers and speeches of God to me, I about a

year after did expressly tell Mr Price, in declaring to him this my conversion,

while it was fresh with me, as he well remembered long ; and I have since

repeated them to others I know not how often, for they have ever stuck in

my mind. And examples laid before us by God do give us hope, and are

" For whatsoever things were

written and proposed unto us : Rom. xv. 4,

written to us aforetime were written for our learning, that we through

patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope ;" and we use to

allege examples, not only to illustrate and explain rules, but to prove and

confirm them. That God pardoned such a man in such a condition, is often

brought home unto another man in the same condition, and impliedly con

tains a secret promise, that so he may do to me, says the soul in the same

condition. And I remember that I, preaching at Ely two years after,

urged to the people the example of Paul (which I was before referred to) as

an example to win others, in having in my eye and thoughts the said ex

perience of God s dealing with me in the same kind ; and that the examples

of such are to be held forth by God, as flags of mercy before a company of

rebels to win them in.

1 Now as to this example of Paul, it was full and pertinent for that pur-

poee for which God held it out to me ; I then considered with myself the

amplitude of my pardon, that it involved all sorts of sins of the highest

nature, in which Paul had so walked as he was even upon the narrow brink

of sinning against the Holy Ghost. And God suggested unto me that he

would pardon me all my sins, though never so great, for boldness, hardness

of heart, and heinousness of sinning, as he had pardoned Paul, whose story

of forgiveness I was referred unto ; and also that he would change my heart,

at he had done Mr Price s, who was in all men s eyes the greatest and most

famous oonvert, known to the whole University of Cambridge, and made the

greatest and notedcst example that ever was, of a strange conversion to God,

and who was tat holiest man that ever I knew one or other, and was then

preacher at King s Lynn, whither my parents had removed from Ilollesby, and

1 The confirmations which myself have had, to judge that these instructions

and suggestions were immediately from God, were these :

I.I considered the posture and condition of my spirit, and that this sug-

MEMOIR OF DR THOMAS GOODWIN. Ixi

gcstion took me when my heart was fixed, and that unmoveably, in the con

trary persuasions, not only that I was guilty of those sins, and had continued

in them to that time, but that I was in a damned estate, without hope for

: and when God had set a guard upon me as the prisoner of hell, then came in these contrary apprehensions and impressions as it were in an

remedy

instant ; which impressions also were so deep and rooted in my heart, that I remembered them ever since. And I did accordingly acquaint Mr Price at

Lynn, a year and a half after this, setting them on upon my heart, in

rehearsing to him the story of iny conversion, which he exceedingly ap

proved of.

2. It was a word in its proper season, like that which was spoken to

Abraham, the father of all the faithful, and which ran in a proverb among the Jews: In the mount the Lord will be seen, or provide; which they

apply to the immediate remedy which God does use to afford out of pity to

a, man in a strait or distress, and which none but himself can give remedy to.

It is a word fitted and proper to such an occasion, and peculiar to the case

of the person ; a word that was quick and sudden, and interrupting all con

trary expectations and fears, as the manner of the speech was, Abraham, Abraham, as a man that speaks in haste to prevent any contrary fears. It is

a word spoken in season, which Christ himself was taught by God to speak to distressed souls, Isa. 1. 4.

3. This that was suggested to me was not an ungrounded fancy, but the

pure word of God, which is the ground of faith and hope. It was the pro mise and performance of God s forgiving of Paul the most heinous sins that

ever any convert committed who was saved ; for he was the chiefest of

sinners, as himself confesses. And this instance was directed unto me, as

the most pertinent to my case that I could elsewhere have found in the Book of God.

4. In considering the consequents and effects that followed after God s

speaking to me, I was hopefully persuaded it was from God, for the things were fulfilled which God had spoken of. For, first, I felt my soul, and all

the powers of it, as in an instant, to be clean altered and changed in the dis

positions of them ; even as our own divines of Great Britain do set out in

their discourse of the manner of conversion in the effect of it. Secondly, I found from the same time the works of the devil to be dissolved in my heart in an eminent manner, my understanding enlightened, my will melted and softened, and of a stone made flesh, disposed to receive, and disposed to

turn to God. And, thirdly, I found my spirit clothed with a new nature,

naturally inclining me to good ; whereas before it was inclined only to evil.

I found not only good motions from the Spirit of God, as he was pleased to

incite me formerly, not only flushings and streamings of affection, which soon vanish, or stirring my bodily spirits with joy, when I applied myself to a holy duty, but I found a new indweller, or habitual principle of opposition

to, and hatred of sin indwelling, so as I concluded with myself that this new workmanship wrought in me was of the same kind as to matter of holi

ness with that image of God expressed, Eph. iv. 23, 24, but more expressly

MEMOIR OF DR THOMAS GOODWIX.

affirmed, CoL ill 10. It was this one disposition that at first comforted me,

that I saw and found two contrary principles, of spirit against flesh, and

: and I found apparently the difference of the opposition

flesh against spirit

that only conscience makes against a lust, and that which the spirit that is,

the new work of grace in a man s heart makes against the flesh. That the

spirit not only contradicted and checked, but made a real natural opposition,

such as fire does to water ; so that the spirit did as truly lust against the

work of the flesh, as the flesh against that of the spirit. And this difference

I found not by reading, or hearing any one speak of it, but, as Austin did, I

perceived it of myself, and wondered at it ; for I may say of this combat,

that it is proper and peculiar to a man that is regenerate. It is not in God

or Christ, who are a fulness of holiness ; not in devils, for they are all sin ;

not in good angels, for they are entirely holy ; not in wicked men, for they have no grace in them, to fight with their corruptions after such a manner.

Fourthly, The consequent of this that fell out in my heart was an actual

turning from all known sins, and my entertaining the truth of all godliness,

and the principles of it, as far as I received it from the word of God, and

the best examples of godly men I lived withal. And in general, I took this

course through God s direction and assistance, that I looked back upon my

sinful estate, and took a summary survey of my chiefest sins and lusts; and I

found them to be love of pleasure more than of God, corrupt ends, especially of vain-glory and academic praise, which I sought with my whole soul : and God was pleased to direct me to take up, as the rule of my turning to him, a sincere aim at his glory as the rule of all my inward thoughts, words,

actions, desires, and ends whatsoever. And in this it pleased God to direct

and assist me, to consider asunder all the sorts of actions I had gone through in my life, and to take them asunder in particulars, every one in order, but

especially the principallest of them.

And here, in the first place, I considered what was the aim and drift of my studies, which I had spent my whole time upon

: and having been de

voted by my parents for the work of the ministry, I considered what it WM-*&lt;

did serve most to the glory of God in the work of the ministry, and that

overturned all the projects and designs of my heart hitherto, which were the

dearest of all to me ; so dear, that I would certainly rather not have lived, than have forsaken that interest. The University in those times was addicted

in their preaching to a vain-glorious eloquence, wherein the wits did strive

to exceed one another; and that which I most of all affected, in my

fo&lt;&gt;!i&gt;h

ftacy, was to have preached, for the matter thereof, in the way that I &gt;;

house of St John s, afterwards made bishop, did exceed all men in. I instance

in him, to explain the way and model that I set up, because his sermons,

fire or HLX of them, are in print, and because it is the emincntcM farrago

!l orU of flowers of wit that are found in any of the fathers, poets, his-

. Minilitudes, or whatever has the elegancy of wit in it: and in the

ing and disposing of these together, wit was the eminent ..rdcn/r in a

uiiscoous way. His way I took f

. r Imped to

attain to the same perfection, I coming far behind-hand of all the accom-

MEMOIR OF DE THOMAS GOODWIN. IXV

plishments he abounded in. But I set him up in my thoughts to imitate

as much as I was able ; and about such collections as these did I set my

studies until I should come to preach.

But this way of his did soon receive a fatal wound, Dr Preston opposing

it, and preaching against it, as vain and unedifying. His catechetical sermons

in the chapel of that College it fell out I heard whilst unregenerate ; but

they moved me not to alter my studies, nor should all the world have per suaded me to have done it, nor all angels, nor men; but my heart, upon

this my turning to God and setting his glory as my resolved end of all my

actions and ways, did soon discover to me the unprofitableness of such a de

sign ; and I came to this resolved principle, that I would preach wholly and

altogether sound, wholesome words, without affectation of wit and vanity of

eloquence. And in the end, this project of wit and vain-glory was wholly sunk in my heart, and I left all, and have continued in that purpose and

practice these threescore years; and I never was so much as tempted to put

in any of my own withered flowers that I had gathered, and valued more

than diamonds, nor have they offered themselves to my memory to the

bringing them into a sermon to this day, but I have preached what I thought was truly edifying, either for conversion of souls, or bringing them up to

eternal life : so as I am free to profess that great maxim of Dr Preston, in

" that of all other, my master-lust was mortified."

his sermon of humiliation, on the first of the Ephesians,

I observed of this work of God on my soul, that there was nothing of

constraint or force in it, but I was carried on with the most ready and will

ing mind, and what I did was what I chose to do. With the greatest free dom I parted with my sins, formerly as dear to me as the apple of my eye,

yea, as my life, and resolved never to return to them more. And what I did

was from deliberate choice ; I considered what I was doing, and reckoned with

myself what it would cost me to make this great alteration. I considered

the common opinion the world had of those ways of purity and holiness, and walked according to them. But though I considered what the common

course and vogue of the world was concerning the ways of one that would be

a true convert and sincere to God, yet they hindered me not at all. The

weeds that entangled me in those waters, I swam and broke through, with

as much ease as Samson did his withes; for I was made a vassal and a

perfect captive to another binding, such as Paul speaks of, when he says he

went bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem; and I said within myself, of all my

old companions, What do you breaking my heart ? I am not ready to be bound only, but to give up my life, so as I may serve God with joy in these

ways. I parted with all my lusts, not as Lot s wife, looking back on what

I departed from ; but with my whole soul and whole desires, not to rsturn

more to the enjoyment of any lust, and casting down all those childish ima

ginations of preferment, such as scholars do generally aim at and promise to

themselves, and to attain which they make their aim, and the card of their

life they sail by. All these fell, apd like bubbles broke and vanished to

" and VOL. IT. e

air ; and those which I counted my strongest holds and imaginations,

. MBMOI R OF DR THOMAS GOOP^ I N

1 x N

jMljytlmig that exalteth iteelf, was brought into captivity and obedience to

Christ," 2 Cor. x. 5. And I was brought in my own thoughts to be content

with the meanest condition all my days, so as I might fulfil the course of

my life, though never so mean, with uprightness and sincerity towards God.

I look my leave for my whole life of all ecclesiastical preferments; and

though afterwards I was President of Magdalene College, my great motive

to it, from the bottom of my heart, was the fair opportunity of doing good

in iny ministry in the University, and that it might be in my power to bring

in young men that were godly, both Fellows and students, that should serve

God in the ministry in after-times. And after such as were godly did I

inquire and seek, and valued such when I found them as the greatest jewels. And when I failed of such, it was a great affliction to me; but this was my

heart and endeavour, as my own soul and conscience bears me witness,

though I did and might fall short of this my own aim in some particular

l&gt;en&gt;ons. And this principle I brought with me from Catherine Hall in

Cambridge, where I had my first station, and where I was the instrument

of the choice of that holy and reverend man, Dr Sibbs, to be Master of that

College, and of most of the Fellows of that College in those times, as Dr

Arrowsmith, and Mr Pen of Northamptonshire, to name no more. And I

was the more fixedly established in the practice of this, that after I had

been seven years from Cambridge, coming out of Holland, I had for some

years after, well-nigh every mouth, serious and hearty acknowledgment from

several young men, who had received the light of their conversion by my

ministry while I was in the University of Cambridge. And this was the

great encouragement I had to return again to a university, having enjoyed

so frequent a testimony of the fruit of my labours while I was preacher at

Cambridge; and what the success has been at Oxford, I leave to Christ till

the latter day.

But the most eminent property of my conversion to God, I have been

speaking o was this, that the glory of the great God was set up in my heart

as the square and rule of each and every particular practice, both of faith

and godliness, that I turned unto ; and of all signs of sincerity, there is, nor

can be, none clearer than this, witness our Saviour Christ s speech, John vii.

18, "He that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no

1* Christ speaketh it of himself, who is the truth

unrighteousness is in him.

iteelf and speaketh of himself out of his own experience of what he did who is the truth itself; and the glory of God is God himself, who doth all

things for himself : and therefore he that acteth thus predominantly for God

abore all other ends, must necessarily be judged truly righteous. Nor can

any man extract that out of his heart which is not in it. Now there is not

the least spark of the glory of God hi the heart of man unregenerate, and

tfcatffrni cannot be extracted out of it, no, not the least spark. Take a flint, and Btrike it against steel or iron, and you shall have sparks struck out ; but

if you take a piece of ice never so great, and strike it against a stone, or any

yon shall not have a spark, for there ifl none in it, nor .my

I remember that when I heard Dr Prestun describing

MEMOIR OF DR THOMAS GOODWIN.

" Be ye transformed

true spiritual change of heart, (it was upon Rom. xii. 2,

" It is," said he,

by the renewing of your minds,") he spoke in this manner.

" when upon the change of a man s utmost end, there is a change made upon the whole man, and all the powers of his soul

" which when I had duly con

sidered, I judged I never had anything more punctual, remembering this work of God upon myself at first. For, as he then discoursed it,

" if a man

changes but unto one particular end, and has but one particular and limited

end, the effect is answerable, it is but partial so far as that end serves to : as

if a man that had a humour of prodigality, and now thinks it concerns him

to be sparing and covetous, this change of his end being but particular, has but a narrowed effect, namely as to sparing and care to keep his money, not

to spend it lavishly ; but godliness, the height of which lies in a respect to God and his glory above all things else, hath a general, yea, universal end, which extends its influence upon all things." Hence my task, from this principle, proved to be to survey and go over

every particular kind of act, both what I must forbear, and for what end, and with what heart, as also to observe each particular practice of godliness, which I wretchedly had altogether for a long while lived in neglect of; and hereabout I began with what I was to forbear and practise no longer, but alter my course in : as, first of all, my sins I had lived in j and therein I

fixed upon this summary of my whole life, that I had made lusts and pleasures my only end, and done nothing with aims at the glory of God ; and therefore I would there begin my turning to him, and make the glory of God the measure of all for the time to come.

This is the account which my dear father drew up concerning the work

of the Holy Ghost on his soul, in converting him to God. He left it with a design, as himself said, to give from his own experience a testimony of the

difference between common grace, which by some is thought sufficient, and

that special saving grace, which indeed is alone sufficient, and always invincibly and effectually prevails, as it did in him

; and endured through a long life, and course of various temptations and trials, unto the end. In the first

enlightenings and workings of conscience, he experienced how far common

grace might go, and yet fail at last, as it did in him, to an utter withering and decay. In the other work on his soul, he felt an extraordinary divine

power changing it, and entirely subduing it to God ; a work that was lasting and victorious to eternity. I have often heard him say, that in reading the

acts of the Synod of Dort, and taking a review of the first workings of common grace in him, he found them consonant with the Arminian opinions ; but comparing his own experiences of efficacious grace with the doctrines of

the orthodox Protestant divines, he found the one perfectly to agree with

the other. It was this inward sense of things, out of which a man will not

suffer himself to be disputed, that established him in the truths of the

gospel, and possessed him with a due tempered warmth and zeal to assert and vindicate, them with such arguments and reasons as the truth is never

destitute of to resist gainsayers,

l x viil MEMOIR OF DB THOMAS GOODWIN.

It was many years before he came to have a clear knowledge of the

gospel, and a full view of Christ by faith, and to have joy and peace in believ

&lt; A blessed age this is, said he in his latter years, now the time of

ing.

kith is come, and faith is principally insisted on unto salvation. In my

younger years, we heard little more of Christ than as merely named in the

ministry and printed books. I was diverted from Christ for several years,

to search only into the signs of grace in me. It was almost seven years ere

I was taken off to live by faith on Christ, and God s free love, which are

alike the object of faith. His thoughts for so long a time were chiefly

intent on the conviction which God had wrought in him, of the heinousneaa

of sin, and of his own sinful and miserable state by nature ; of the difference

between the workings of natural conscience, though enlightened, and the

motions of a holy soul, changed and acted by the Spirit, in an effectual

work of peculiar saving grace. And accordingly he kept a constant diary, of

which I have above a hundred sheets, wrote with his own hand, of observa

tions of the case and posture of his mind and heart toward God, and suitable,

pious, and pathetical meditations. His sermons being the result of these,

had a great deal of spiritual heat in them, and were blessed by God to the

conviction and conversion of many young scholars, who flocked to his

: as my reverend brother, Mr Samuel Smith, minister of the gospel

ministry

:it Windsor, told me, that his reverend father, then a young scholar in

Cambridge, acknowledged mine to have been blessed by God as an instrument

of his conversion, among many others.

As it was that holy minister of Jesus Christ, Mr Price of Lynn, with

whom my father maintained a great intimacy of Christian friendship, and

of whom he said that he was the greatest man for experimental acquaintance

with Christ that ever he met with ; and as he poured into his bosom his

spiritual complaints, so it was he whose conference by letters and discourse

was blessed by God to lead him into the spirit of the gospel, to live by faith

in Christ, and to derive from him life and strength for sanctification, and

all comfort and joy through believing.

As for trials of your own heart/ wrote Mr Price to him in one of his

letters, they are good for you; remember only this, that Christ in whom

you believe hath overcome for you, and he will overcome in you

: the reason

is in 1 John iv. 4. And I say trials are good for you, because else you

would not know your own heart, nor that need of continual seeking unto Gml.

But without those trials your spirit would soon grow secure, which of all

estates Koin^gmg to those that fear God is most dangerous and most uncom

fortable. Therefore count it exceeding cause of joy, not of sorrow, when

you are exercised with any temptations, because they are tokens of your

being in Christ; which being in him Satan would disquiet, and carnal rea

son would call in question. Yet stand fast in the liberty of Christ, main

tain the work of God s free love, which his good Spirit hath wrought in you.

fiay unto the Lord: L-nl, thm knowest I hate my former sinful course;

it grieveth me I have been so long such a stranger unto thee, my Father.

Thou knowest now I desire to telieve in Jesus Christ, I desire to repent of

MEMOIR OF DR THOMAS GOODWIN.

my sins, and it is the desire of my heart to do thy will in all things. Find

ing these things in your heart, cast yourself upon the righteousness of Christ, und fear nothing; for God will be a most merciful God in Christ unto you. Strive but a little while, and thou shalt be crowned ; even so, come, Lord

Jesus, come quickly. Amen.

In another of his letters he thus wrote to him :

All your complaints are good, and will bring abundance of thankfulness

in the end ; for, mark it, in the Scripture, where the saints of God have

complained for want of Christ, or any good thing from God in Christ, they have had ere long their hearts and tongues filled with thanksgivings and

praise, Rom. vii. 24, 25. It is the surest state for our deceitful hearts to be

kept in awe, and not to be as we would be, in perfection of grace. God knows the time when it will be best to fill us with his love, and to ravish us with his favour in Christ. In the meantime let us go on in faith, looking every moment for that day of gladness wherein Christ shall manifest a fuller

sight of his blessed presence. I pray you fight it out valiantly by faith in

Christ against base unbelief and proud humility. I do assure you, and dare

say it, you may by faith in Christ challenge great matters at God s hands, and he will take it well at your hands : yea, the more you can believe for

yourself in Christ, the better it will be taken at the throne of grace. Now the Lord give you of his Spirit to help you in all things. The Lord keep your Spirit in Christ, full of faith and love to immortality.

In another letter he thus wrote :

* Your last complaint made in your letter of yourself is from spiritual

insight of your unregenerate part. It is wholesome, for it being loathed and

abhorred, makes Christ in his righteousness and sanctification more glorious in your eyes daily. If this were not, pride and security would start up and undo you. Besides, I find you have great assistance from God in Christ. He ministers much light to you both of knowledge and comfort ; and there

fore you had need of some startling evils, to make you depend upon God s

grace for the time to come, lest you should rest in that which is past. Let the Lord do what he will with our spirits, so he drive us from the liking our

selves in any sin, and make us long after Christ, to be found in him, and in

his righteousness.

In another he wrote thus : Your letter is welcome to me, and your state also matter of rejoicing unto me, however it may seem unto you for the present. Know you not that the Lord is come to dwell in your heart, and now is purging you and

refining you ; that you may be a purer, and also a fitter temple for his Spirit to dwell in ? All these things concerning the right framing of your spirit will not be done at once, but by little and little, as it shall please our gracious God in Christ to work for his own glory. Yet this you may have remaining ever unto you, as an evidence of God s everlasting love, that the marks of true chosen ones are imprinted upon you, and truly wrought within you

: for your eyes are opened to see yourself utterly lost ; your heart is touched with a sense and feeling of your need of Christ, which is poverty of spirit ; you

OIR OF DE THOMAS GOODWIN.

hunger and thirst after Christ and his righteousnew above all things ; and it

is the practice of your inward man to groan and sigh, to ask and seek for

reconciliation with God in Christ. These things you have to comfort you

against sin and Satan, and all the doubts of your own heart. Therefore when you fear that all is but hypocrisy, to fear is good and wholesome, but

to think so is from the flesh, carnal reason, Satan, darkness, because it is

against that truth which hath taken place in your heart, merely of God s

free favour towards you in Jesus Christ. As for slips and fall.s, so long as

your purpose is in all things to do the will of God, and to judge yourself for

them, so soon as you find yourself faulty, fear nothing ; for these will stick

by you to humble you, and to make you loathe yourself the more, and to

long after the holiness of your blessed Saviour, which is imputed unto you

for your holiness in the sight of God.

It was thus this gracious minister of Christ, Mr Price, poured the balm of

the gospel into his wounded soul, and God blessed it to heal and comfort it.

These truly evangelical instructions turned his thoughts to Christ, to find

that relief in him which he had in vain sought from all other considerations.

I am come to this pass now, wrote my father in a letter to him,

* that signs

will do me no good alone ; I have trusted too much to habitual grace for

assurance of justification ; I tell you Christ is worth all Thus coming unto Christ, his weary soul found rest, when in all its unquiet motions it

could not find it anywhere else. But the account of this work of faith I shall give, as I have done the

other, in his own words :

It fell out, that soon after my being humbled for sin, the doctrine of justi

fication through Christ by faith came into my thoughts. But my spirit was

turned off from it by this prejudice, that it had been the common deceit

ordinarily of carnal men, when they continued in their sins, and so I might be deceived in that way and course; and I remembered that I had been

also deceived in believing on Christ crucified with joy and ravishment in my carnal state ; and that remembrance was from time to time a hindrance to me from going to Christ ; and I was pitched on this great principle, that if

I found I were sanctified, as I plainly did, I then was certainly justified. But I did not think my sanctification to be my justification, but an evidence of it only ; and thus my spirit was set upon examining the inherent work in me wrought by the Spirit ; and I pursued after mortification of lusts, and of

holiness within, and then I thought I should have the comfort of justificat or of being justified And thus I was kept from going to Christ actually; though I dealt with God and his mercy in Christ, as having done all that was on his part to be done, in redeeming and reconciling us, and so I dr.-.lt

immediately with God, and his pure mercy and free grace. But as it fell

strongly into my thoughts, that there was a necessity of Christ s righteous-

\ to justify me, as well as of his grarc which had sanctified me ; and the God took to convince me of it, and to set me a-work about it, was

thin. He used the very conviction which I had of original -in from Adam, in the two branches .f it ; the guilt of Adam s actual transgression imputed

MEMOIR OP DR THOMAS GOODWIN.

to me, and the corruption of my nature thence derived. I had had a mighty and large conviction, and deep sense of these, and that all lusts were sins ; and this mightily helped me clearly to take in the absolute necessity of justi

fication by Christ s righteousness, and to discern the perfect difference of it

from sanctification, and the necessity of it, and I gloried in it. I began to

reflect that Jesus Christ was the head for salvation, as Adam had been for

sin and condemnation : and that therefore as there were two branches of

sin and condemnation derived to me from Adam, the one an imputation of

his fact to me, the other a violent and universal corruption of nature inherent

in me, just so it must be in Christ s salvation of me ; and hence I must have an imputation of his righteousness for justification, as well as a holy nature

derived from him for sanctification ; which righteousness of Christ for justifi

cation was perfect, though my sanctification was imperfect. The notion of

this did mightily and experimentally enlighten me.

He now altered his way of preaching, which before had been for the

most part, if not wholly, for conviction and terror. But now his experience of the refreshing comforts which the knowledge of Christ, and free justifica tion by his righteousness alone, afforded him, made him zealous to preach the gospel for the consolation of consciences afflicted as Ms had been. And

this was according to the directions given him by that great man, and lively

preacher of the gospel, the reverend Dr Sibbs, who by my father s interest

among the Fellows had been chosen Master of Catherine Hall, and who

familiarly said to him one day, Young man, if you ever would do good, you must preach the gospel and the free grace of God in Christ Jesus. As he

called his sermons of the Glory of the Gospel, printed in this fifth volume of

his works, his Primitice Evangelic^ or his evangelical first-fruits, so the

only copy of them was preserved by a remarkable providence. The port manteau in which they were was by a thief cut off from my father s horse

in the dark of the evening, just against St Andrew s Churchyard in Holborn. The clerk or sexton coming on the Lord s-day morning to ring the bell, found a bundle of papers tied up with a string, lying at the foot of a great

tree. In it there were some acquittances, which Mr Leonard Green, a book

seller of Cambridge, who had accompanied my father to London, had from some of his customers. It was by these only the clerk could know to whom

the bundle did belong, and so he brought it to Mr Green, which he was

the more careful to do because he was his particular friend.

He was chosen in 1628 to preach the lecture to the town of Cambridge

at Trinity Church. Dr Buckridge, Bishop of Ely, at first made some diffi

culty of admitting him to it, unless he would solemnly promise, in pursuance of the King s proclamation, not to preach about any controverted points in

divinity. My father alleged that the most essential articles of the Christian

faith being controverted by one or other, such a promise would scarce leave him any subject to preach on : that it was not his Majesty s intention to in

hibit him or any other from preaching against the gross errors of Popery. After some opposition, he was admitted lecturer, and so continued till 1634, when being in his conscience dissatisfied with the terms of conformity, he

mMOIR OF DR THOMAS GOODWIN.

left the University and his preferments. As he acted herein with .ill sin

cerity, following the light which God had given him, and the persuasions of

his own mind and conscience, in which no worldly motives had any part,

for if he had hearkened to them, they would have swayed him to a contrary

course, so I have heard him express himself with great joy of faith, and

thankfulness and praise of the faithful love of Jesus Christ to him, in perform ance of that promise, Luke xviii. 29, 30,

* And he said unto them, Verily

I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren,

or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God s sake, who shall not receive

manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlast

ing.

I freely renounced, said he, for Christ, when God converted me, all those

designs of pride, and vain-glory, and advancement of myself, upon which my heart was so strongly set that no persuasions of men, nor any worldly con

siderations, could have diverted me from the pursuit of them. No, it was the

power of God alone that prevailed to make me do it. It was he alone made me willing to live in the meanest and most afflicted condition, so that I might serve him in all godly sincerity. I cheerfully parted with all for Christ, and

he hath made me abundant compensation, not only in the comforts and joys of lus love, whicli are beyond comparison above all other things, but even

iu this world. What love and esteem I have had among good men, he gave me. He alone made my ministry in the gospel acceptable, and blessed it with

success, to the conversion and spiritual good and comfort of many souls.

A.D. 1638, he married Mrs Elizabeth Prescott, the daughter of Alder man Prcscott : of the other two, one was married to Sir William Leman

&gt;f Northaw, the other to Sir Nicholas Crisp of Hammersmith. He was

very happy in a woman of such a sweet temper, lively wit, and sincere piety, as endeared her to all that knew her. And he was happy in an only

daughter he had by her, Elizabeth, who was married to Mr John Mason, a

citizen of London. In natural endowments of mind, and, which is far more

to be valued, in grace and piety, she was a lively image of her parents. She

lost her mother when she was about ten years of age, and died two yean before her father s death.

The persecution growing hot in England, my father resolved to remove

into some foreign country, where he might exercise his ministry in the

gospel, and enjoy the ordinances of Christ according to his conscience, which he could not do in his own native land. He went over into Holland in

1639, settled at last at Arnheim, and was pastor of the English church in

that city. During hit abode there, some differences arising in the English church at Rotterdam, my father and the elders of the church at Arnheim went

thither, and God was pleased to bless their brotherly advice and counsel t&lt;&gt;

* dtfhNMI . ::. i fed P--. -!. .: :i tli .ii-tiirbil ptMt of ti:..t

church. After some years* continuance in Arnheim, he returned into

England, was pastor of a church in London, and by an orilin:ni&lt; r of I arlia-

BWII tod to be a member of tb -emblyof Divines at Westminster. Die debates about church government and disci-

MEMOIR OF DR THOMAS GOODWIN. lxxi.il

pline which arose in that synod are not so proper to be inserted in the life

of a particular person. I shall only take notice that he took a brief account

of every day s transactions, of which I have fourteen or fifteen volumes in

Svo, wrote with his own hand. And his way of arguing was with such

modesty and Christian meekness, that it procured the esteem of those who

differed from him and the other dissenting brethren in their judgment.

In the year 1647, he had invitations from the Reverend Mr John Cotton,

in whom grace and learning were so happily conjoined, and other worthy

ministers in New England, to come over thither, which he was so much in

clined to do as he had put a great part of his library on shipboard. But

the persuasions of some friends, to whose counsel and advice he paid a great

deference, made him to alter his resolution.

In the year 1649, he married Mrs Mary Hammond, descended from the

ancient family of the Hammonds in Shropshire, whose ancestor was an officer

in the army of William, Duke of Normandy, when he invaded England, A.D.

1066. Though she was but in the seventeenth year of her age, she had the

gravity and prudence of a matron. Her conjugal affection, her tender care, her wise administration of the affairs of her family, the goodness of her dis

position, and, more than all this, her grace and piety, have left an honourable

remembrance of her among all that knew her. He had by her two sons,

the eldest of whom is yet living ; the other, whose name was Richard, died

in a voyage to the East Indies, whither he was sent a year after his father s

death by the East India Company, as one of their factors. She also bore to him two daughters, w

rho died in their infancy. In the same year 1649, he was admitted President of Magdalene College in Oxford, where he made it his business to promote piety and learning. His candour, ingenuous nature, his catholic charity for all good men though of different persuasions, won the hearts of those who had been most averse

to lum. In conferring any places of preferment at his disposal, he was not

biased by affection to a party, but bestowed them where he saw goodness and merit. Those who continued Fellows of the College many years after

he left it, Mr Brown, Mr Byfield, and Dr Fairfax, retained an affection and

esteem for him, and always spoke of him with an honourable mention. He was not only president of a college, but pastor of a church, which consisted

: Mr Thankful Owen, President of St John s ; Mr Francis Howell, Master of Jesus College; Mr Theophilus Gale, Mr Stephen

of persons of piety and learning

Charnock, Mr Blower, Mr Barron, Mr Terry, Mr Lowman, and many others.

Upon the Revolution in 1660, he resigned his place of President to Dr

Oliver, and removed to London, where he was pastor of the same church which

he had gathered in Oxford, a great part of the members of it following him to that city. In the faithful discharge of this office, and labour in the Lord Jesus Christ, he continued till his death.

It was now he lived a retired life, spent in prayer, reading, and meditation, between which he divided his time. He read much, and the authors which he

most valued and studied were Augustine, Calvin, Musculus, Zanchius, Parasus,

Waleus, Gomarus, Altingius, and Amesius ; among the school-men, Suarez

OF DB THOMAS GOODWIN.

and Estius, But the Scriptures were what he most studied ; and as he had

furnished his library with a very good collection of commentators, he made

good use of them. And as the Scriptures are an inexhaustible treasure of

divino knowledge, so by an eager search into them, and comparing one with

another, he discovered those truths which are not to be found in other authors.

The love and free grace of God, the excellencies and glories of our Lord

Jesus Christ, were the truths in which his mind soared with greatest delight. And it was not merely a speculative pleasure, but these truths w^ere the life

and food of his soul ; and as his heart was affected with them, he wrote

them with a spiritual warmth that is better felt than expressed. Though

si&gt;ent more time in thinking ; and it was by intense

he read much, yet he

thought th.it he made himself master of the subject of his discourse.

In that deplorable calamity of the dreadful fire at London, 1666, which

laid in ashes a considerable part of that city, he lost above half his library,

to the value of five hundred pounds. There was this remarkable, that that

part of it which was lodged very near the place where the fire began, and

which he accounted irrecoverably lost, was by the good providence of God,

and the care and diligence of his very good and faithful friend, Mr Moses

Lowman, though with extreme hazard, preserved from the flames. But the

other part, which he thought might have been timely secured, being lodged

at as great a distance as Bread Street, was, by the negligence of the person whom he sent on purpose to tiike care of them, all burned. I heard him say

that God had struck him in a very sensible place ; but that as he had loved hw library too well, so God had rebuked him by this affliction. He blessed

God he had so ordered it in his providence that the loss fell upon those books

which were of human learning ; and that he had preserved those of divinity, which were chiefly of use to him. As the exercise of faith, and of patience, which is the fruit of it, gave him relief, so on this occasion he meditated and

wrote a discourse of Patience and its Perfect Work, printed soon after.

In February 1679, a fever seized him, which in a Tew days put an end

to his life. In all the violence of it, he discoursed with that strength

of faith and assurance of Christ s love, with that holy admiration of free

grace, with that joy in believing, and such thanksgivings and praises, as he

extremely moved and aifected all that heard him. That excellent man, Mr

Collins, who was then pastor of the same church that he had formerly been

pastor of, and with its consent, though unwilling at first to part with him,

he removed to Oxford, 1649, and which is now under the pastoral care of

his worthy son and of Mr Bragg, praying earnestly for him, offered up this

* That God would return into his bosom all those comforts which

]&gt;ftition,

he had by his ^t^j of free grace poured into BO many distressed souls. My dear father felt this prayer answered in the abundant comforts and joys with which he was filled. He rejoiced in the thoughts that he was dying, and going to have a full and uninterrupted communion with God. I am

going, said he, to the three Persons, with whom I have had communion :

they have taken me ; 1 did not take them. I shall be changed in the twink

ling of an eye ; all my lusta and corruptions I shall be rid of, which I could