Thomas Goodwin Quotes

“This agony, this wrestling, was therefore with his Father’s wrath, which now had taken hold on him, and under which he now lay struggling.”

“And therefore, as the worth of Christ’s person was infinite, so must the worth of his actions be.”

“Is not the Father holy, and the Son holy, and both equally holy with this Holy Spirit?”

“For, as David says, Ps. 14, ‘God is in the generation of the just.’ God is in every one of them; but when there are more together, there is more of God among them, and he shines more.”

“There is then no member in a church but what is necessary and helpful, and no one can say that he hath no need of another.”

“Doth any man or landlord build or repair an house, and then let it lie empty, when he hath a tenant fit for it?”

“When a traveller sees the sun almost down, he would make haste; so if we believed that the time of grace is short, we would begin to make our calling and election sure.”

“And what is it that makes Christ so happy but that He is equal with God the Father?”

“He is an intercessor on earth because Christ is an intercessor in heaven.”

“The glory, saith he, that the law hath is no glory, in comparison of that which excelleth; it is the same word which is translated here ‘exceeding.’ Take all created powers, my brethren, and they are nothing to God.”

“He headeth them all in Christ; and what saith Christ? ‘My sheep shall no man take out of my hand.’ If angels and men be once bottomed on Christ, they can never be parted again.”

“Whilst the things of grace are a wonder to a man, as at first they are, presumption joins and ekes out faith.”

“And therefore, as the promises of other temporal good things are not absolute, no more are the promises to give assurance to a believer absolute, as those to give him heaven and salvation are.”

“We see what great friends do procure oftentimes with but a word speaking, even that which money, no, nor anything could have obtained.”

“And now, when thou hast considered all, bethink thyself withal a little of thy dealings towards him; what have been the effects and fruits of all this goodness?”

“You value the things (every one of them) which God hath given us; then value the Spirit much more, who is the author of the most, and discoverer of them all.”

“I may as well think to climb up to heaven, and take hold of Christ there, and go down into the deep, and come up with Christ there in my heart, as to believe this.”

“It is Christ who is that true tabernacle to be in heaven, which not man but God pitched, and was to be the ark of his testament, as Christ under the new testament is called.”

“Thus, on the contrary, those terrors God strikes their adversaries’ hearts withal, are like tokens and evidences of hell, no other than the suburbs, the first-fruits of hell, and shadow of death.”

“See what a great work grace is, what a distance there is between nature and faith.”

“He wanted to make known the heights and depths of His love, and nothing except the depths of our misery could have drawn them out.”

“We cannot be one with Him as Christ is, for He is the brightness of His glory, the express image and character of His person; He is the natural Son of God and of the same nature with God.”

“Let the chief of our obedience be placed in our souls and in soul-worship.”

“Can a man that is dead, or deadly-wounded, live? that is, perform the actions of life with delight constantly, for that is to live.”

“In our ordinary language we use to say of dying, that it is the change of a mortal life for an immortal life.”

“He had a Son to give away, and his Son a life, a kingdom; and both of them agreed to do it.”

“It is in our souls, as the soul is in the body, as it were tota in toto, et tota in qualibet parte , the whole of sin is in the whole soul, and in every part too.”

“As therefore a potter breaks a vessel that hath poison put into it by another, though it be his own vessel, so God justly destroys his own creature when corrupted by the devil.”

“And so Christ has this glory given on the occasion of His being a Redeemer, and that He is a Redeemer; for He was slain, and without that He would not have been a Redeemer.”

“And, my brethren, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as he is married thus to his church, he will shew himself the most fond and perfect lover that ever was.”

“And of all trees God hath most care of his vines, and regards them more than all the rest in the world.”

“In the midst of all the fires round about their ears, they glorified God; some read it ‘in the valley,’ in the lowest condition they could be in.”

“When we seek spiritual things much, in the height of our spirits, then doth God answer us also in temporal things.”

“As Christ undertook to God, so God undertakes to Christ again, to justify, adopt and forgive, sanctify and glorify those he gives him.”

“The resurrection is called a waking; for death, you know, is a sleep.”

“He that hath the Son hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.’ This is the great record of God the Father concerning his Son; and he that believes not the record God gives of his Son, makes God a liar.”

“But God is not mocked, but hath a curious eye, and he will be looked at directly, and not asquint. 4.”

“Two things in hell make men miserable, and divines know not which is the greater.”

“Therefore sue out the will of Christ, sue out that last legacy of his.”

“Now wherever God dwells, he hath taken up his seat to dwell for ever; he will never be put out of possession.”

“The desire of the heart may be satisfied when God gives some other thing, but the counsel of the heart is then fulfilled when a man is answered in that particular which his own judgment pitched upon as best for him.”

“They cannot desire his coming to them, so much as he desires their coming to him.”

“As God the first person, by way of singularity, ordinarily is called the Father, ‘one God, the Father;’ so frequently in the same way of singularity is Christ termed the Son, in relation unto this God as the Father.”

“There was an allusion in the sufferings of Christ in the garden, unto the first temptation in a garden.”

“He joins our nature first with God in his own person, and makes both one there, that so God and man becoming one in person, he might the easilier make God and man one in covenant.”

“All the secret counsels of his heart, his over-reaching and going beyond poor souls, the utmost and extremity of that malice and envy he acted all with, shall be detected, and thou a poor believer shalt be a judge of all these.”

“The thoughts are the tiring-room of the soul, the privy chamber of it. 3.”

“Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?”

“He hath predestinated us to enjoying himself, even God, his being all in all: this depends not on the fall.”

“They will glory in their oaths as a genteel accomplishment, and swear, and say they will swear.”

“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.’ He came to untie the band, and to destroy the works of the devil.”

“And the wormwood that grows in and about the banks of that infernal lake (the wrath of God), was not so bitter to Solomon’s taste as was his sin that grew out of his own heart.”

“And as moral virtues fit persons to have communion with men, so grace only qualifies men to have communion with Christ and saints. 4.”

“And all the prayers that ever we put up for the church will be answered, and the blessing of all will come upon the churches.”

“Can any Man promise us anything better than Heaven? or, can any Man threaten us with anything worse than Hell?”

“I am sure the apostle never leaves him out; no, not in election and adoption, nor in anything, and not now, when he comes to heaven; whatever he speaks of, Christ comes in.”

“The one is pœna damni , that they have lost heaven and happiness, and that wringeth them; the other is pœna sensus , the feeling of the wrath of God.”

“Into these two is the whole will of God divided; it consists either in things to be believed by us, or in things to be done by us.”

“And as wicked men, whom he always hates, may out of his patience have a truce; so, on the contrary, with his own, God may take up a quarrel; yet he loves them, and remembers them with everlasting kindness.”

“So in the Ephesians we are said both to grow up in him and for him.”

“For to have the Holy Ghost to fall upon a man so as to dwell in him for ever, to take possession of his heart, and to bring him to glory, is more than to have extraordinary gifts, which many had who never were saved.”

“In heaven, God is set afore us to pick all happiness out of; and so all that happiness must arise from suitableness of heart to him.”

“He made a world, and how glorious is it! but if he make a heaven, think with yourselves what a heaven it will be.”

“Merciful effects are ascribed unto the mercy of God as the proper cause of them, and therefore the mercy attributed to God must be properly an inward principle in God, whence those effects do proceed.”

“Free grace loves to be treated according to the fulness of its own freeness, and the extent of its own freeness.”

“And unless I be elected, all that I do will be in vain, and all will be frustrate.”

“When the spirit in him was wanting, his praise is of men, not of God, and therefore, as the opposition shews, was not approved of by God.”

“He takes of all things in heaven and of all things in earth, and He makes them up to Christ as a Head, one body.”

“Now this hath God done for us, without us, in this choice of his Christ and our Lord.”

“Now Christ elsewhere gives us this rule of nature, to judge of the tree by the fruits, to proceed by in matters of grace also.”

“Secondly, There is comfort concerning such infirmities, in that your very sins move him to pity more than to anger.”

“Whereby is meant, that cleaving to Christ by faith and obedience, whereby we do profess him to be our Saviour, and do put our confidence in him.”

“If grace wrought in us be the perfect curing and healing of corruption, then if flesh be a corrupt principle inherent, so must grace likewise be an inherent principle.”

“It is not enough to aim at God thus far in thy service, as much as thou wouldst aim at men.”

“That true faith, wherever it is, worketh and frameth the heart to friendlike dispositions unto God, and brings forth friendlike carriage in the life towards God.”

“If a town or castle hath cost blood, the blood of many soldiers to win it, and he to whom it is betrusted should yield it up, how heinous would the action be!”

“Can you go whole weeks, months, and never speak to him by secret and intimate prayer, so as to take him alone, as you would do a friend, into a corner, and there pour out your heart before him, and tell him all your secrets?”

“The one brings scripture to scripture, and compares each with each; the other deals and divides the word, and brings Scripture and men’s consciences together.”

“Therefore, do you think your prayers are accepted at all, notwithstanding their weakness?”

“If thou hast one grace, thou hast all, and all gracious privileges together therewith; even all the things that belong to life and godliness; all the promises of this life and that to come.”

“But all the scope is this, to shew the stability of it, to shew that God’s choosing of men is stable, and firm, and unalterable; therefore it is called predestination according to purpose.”

“You must know, brethren, God the Father, who is the great quickener, he is the author, the great fountain of life; and Jesus Christ, as God-man, hath life given from the Father to him that he might raise us.”

“The father of the prodigal was the forwarder of the two to that joyful meeting.”

“Believers, by the virtue and strength of Christ, conquerors over the devil.”

“And as Christ’s promise is to be with us to the end of the world, so this must be our course to the end of the world.”

“Sometimes all about the Father and his free grace takes up our thoughts, and the soul runs out that way; and sometimes the Son, and sometimes the Spirit, employ all our thoughts, as indeed we must adore every person in his office.”

“He that hath the strongest faith on the power of God, simply so considered, he hath a more precious faith than he that hath a weaker faith in that power.”

“You need not teach him to sin, but only leave him to himself, and he will soon shame his mother.”

“Shall a man run away with the forgiveness, and pass it over thus, so as not to concern himself about the sin forgiven any more?”

“They may relish the sweetness of the sauce with which they are dished up, but not of the meat itself.”

“And like as he cured diseases, by taking them on himself by sympathy, it is said of him, when his healing of them is recorded, himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.”

“Hast thou never an old tried evidence which hath been acknowledged and confirmed again and again in open court?”

“It is Christ, in whom the soul rests and hath comfort in, and not in its grace; so that the sight of a man’s grace is but a back-door to let faith in at, to converse with Christ, whom the soul loves.”

“So doth Jesus Christ spread forth beams of truth into believers’ hearts, and by them comes into their hearts, as the sun is said to do; when the beams of it come into a house, you say the sun comes in.”

“And Christ is ‘not ashamed’ of us, his poor kindred; but being allied to us by his nature, he deigns to call us brethren, and is grieved that we come no oftener to him, with petitions of favour to be put up by him.”

“It was, indeed, the part of the law to justify in man’s primitive state, and to that it was ordained; but Christ only attained the accomplishment of this design.”

“Oh! what a value then would be set upon a king’s becoming a ransom himself, yea, of the great God made one person with our nature, and of his giving himself a ransom, who is the King of kings.”

“To hate sin is his nature; and that sin deserves death, is also the natural and inseparable property, consequent, and demerit of it.”

“Or it is as if one should ride a tired horse; there is a bridle to direct, and a spur to put him on, but the rider giveth no strength for the horse to travel with.”

“The devil sinned from the beginning, and drew men after him, and set up his design; and Christ was promised from the beginning, and in the end appeared to break this design of Satan.”

“But if we take the apostle’s words in the sense which hath been given, there is full and abundant consolation against all fear of death.”

“For one stage of our lives our hearts run after him for his blood to wash away our sins, and for his righteousness to cover us in the presence of God.”

“Thou comest to take Jesus Christ, with all the life of Christ, and all that belongs unto him.”

“The point therefore to be proved now is not, that the corruption is conveyed, but that the guilt of the act of his first sin is also derived down to us.”

“Would men be covetous, be fornicators, drunkards, &c., if they believed that the wrath of God comes upon such?”

“But it is essential to upholding worship in all the parts of it, that there be a fixed congregational church.”

“Christ did not set up a doctrinal principle for government and policy in the speculation, but such an one as is practical.”

“To this end, consider it is not simply having saints, and multitudes of saints, ‘called, faithful, and chosen,’ but it is the using them kindly, and dealing well with them, that is the interest of a nation.”

“God had given Jesus Christ, by choosing him to the union with our nature, an infinite glory.”

“The one is pœna damni, that they have lost heaven and happiness, and that wringeth them; the other is pœna sensus, the feeling of the wrath of God.”

“As he hath ordained Jesus Christ to be the great medium or means betwixt us and himself, so he hath ordained faith as the principal instrument in us to treat with Christ.”

“Now, then, to affirm the first (or indeed any) act of faith justifying, to be a belief that a man is justified, is to make justification the antecedent to such a faith, for a thing must be before we believe it to be.”

“In a word, the whole work of justification, and whatever goes to it, is meant by blood.”

“As Luther said, there is more force in pronouns, meum and tuum‚ than in any words.”

“Thus a mere natural conscience will be partial in its actings, when grace and a sanctified conscience will not do thus, but urgeth the law indifferently, and judgeth impartially, and will let no sin escape.”

“He took our flesh and carried it into heaven, and left us His Spirit on earth, both being pawns and earnests that we should follow.”

“He did the same when He suffered: “Not my will, but thine be done,” which was His motto from first to last.”

“We were elected to be holy, and predestinated to adoption, according to the good pleasure of his will, c.”

“As he is the Saviour of his church, which is his body, so he will come and fetch her at the last unto himself.”

“Christ will have, not only every knee to bow, but every tongue to confess his name.”

“Let us be content to decrease, that he may increase, as John did; and, like the moon, the nearer we come to this sun, the more we should, yea we shall, wane; it is our glory so to do.”

“Is it the holiness, the amiableness, the love, the goodness, that is in him, which draws thy heart unto him?”

“But some will say, If I should now set myself to turn, I fear my case is desperate, and there is no hope, I am so hardened in evil.”

“But the Son of God was as perfect afore assuming man’s nature as after, and nothing of perfection is added unto him thereby.”

“Whereas thou didst unbuild Jerusalem and my temple, I will unbuild thee, so as not so much as a stone of thee shall serve for any other building, but my Sion shall be built again.”

“Why did He choose faith of all graces by which to save a man?”

“For if one promise do belong to thee, then all do, for every one conveys whole Christ, in whom all the promises are made, and who is the matter of them.”

“Without holiness no man can see God; that is, so see him as to be happy in him.”

“That our bodies at latter day shall be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ’s body, the Scripture is clear for it.”

“He doth not say he hath called us into grace only, or unto his favour, but ‘into glory,’ and ‘eternal glory;’ that is, by calling he estates us into the whole and full right thereof for ever.”

“The saints shall be all clothed in white linen, which is the righteousness of the saints; that is, the righteousness they have by Christ, whereby they shall be righteous before God, and holy before men.”

“So you should carry along and bear along in your eye the sight and knowledge of Christ, so that at least a presence of Him accompanies you, which faith makes.”

“Therefore you know God boasteth of it; ‘I have set my king upon mine holy hill.’ Other kings are by human institution and creation; but this same Jesus Christ, he is my king, saith he.”

“And love, in whomsoever it is, is the most predominant of all dispositions; whatsoever is good and whatsoever is excellent in any, love hath the command of it; and so it hath in God.”

“And, indeed, their being dead in sin is the cause of their living in sin; and their living in sin, or having a life of sin, is the cause of their walking in sin.”

“If the sun were down at this instant, if there were a glass that took in the beams of it above the earth, I might always see the sun in that glass.”

“And it is as certain that we all once were in that condition of nature, and so of wrath, as sure as we are men.”

“If we were indeed to revive, and die a second time, the error might be rectified and repaired; but, alas! it is appointed for all men but once to die; and therefore to transact that well, must needs be a blessing indeed.”

“Such a thing is grace and love: all the excellencies in God are ordained to be the object, the fuel of it; yet it can neither consume, nor be consumed, but abounds still yet more and more.”

“In thy name shall they rejoice all the day; and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.”

“For our sakes he was despised, and his face more marred than any man’s, and so he had not the honours of this world, though he had the right to all.”

“Last of all, all thy good actions must be out of faith, which engrafts a man into Christ.”

“And the church instituted is a particular assembly of saints on earth, united in Christ by a special covenant.”

“To which it maybe answered, that though heaven be a world now that is extant, yet to us poor creatures here below it is a world to come; though it was created at the same time this lower world was.”

“You have no indwelling of Christ unless your hearts are affected.”

“How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel ofjJeace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”

“He hath respect to the whole creation; he will have some of all sorts in it.”

“Even as a king that loveth his favourite, if any one comes to accuse him, it provokes him—his love doth—so much the more not only to pardon him, but to shew his love to him.”

“But now take a Christian, as Jesus Christ is all things to him, so Jesus Christ is in him.”

“And therefore such a real conviction shall be brought against thee at latter day (if thou also turn not) with greater evidence than the multitudes of sermons thou hast heard.”

“Flesh is evidently evil dispositions and inclinations unto evil which dwell in a man, and which as a root hath fruits.”

“But you will say again, If I could once get thither, I had no cause to fear, I should never fall if I were once in heaven; but I fear the vileness of my own heart, I fear I shall be defiled with my corruptions and by Satan.”

“Thou comest to believe in Jesus Christ; let me ask thee this question, What is it thou aimest at in thy coming to him? what wouldest thou have from him? what wouldest thou have with him? what is thy intent, thy business with him?”

“God’s glory appears by this, viz. how glorious he can make creatures.”

“Yet behold, I that am thus your maker, give you leave to dispose by your prayers the great works of my hands, which concern my children, my sons, the affairs of kingdoms, even so far as they relate to their good.”

“Christ Jesus Himself has purchased it for us in His blood, He has laid the foundation of it, His blood was laid out for it; He spun this thread of glory out of His own bowels.”

“And Joshua, you know, was Jesus’ type, who was to tread upon all his enemies, and to make them his footstool.”

“Thus like as by assuming the likeness of sinful flesh, he killed the sin in our flesh; so by taking these our enmities and animosities in his flesh, he slew and abolished them; and as his death was the death of death, so of these.”

“But now the next and more difficult question is, when the thing is not granted, how shall we then discern and know that God doth notwithstanding hear the prayer?”

“Statutum est, it is appointed by a statute law that all should die.”

“If ever the devil was abroad, and the malice of hell in the hearts of men, it was at that day.”

“Kings usually owe more to their births, in which they were mere passives, than to all their after achievements.”

“If faith be not an apprehension that Christ is mine, wherein then lies that special application and appropriation of Christ, and the promise which is made to be in faith, and urged upon believers?”

“To empty out of a man’s heart his false faith, and to convince him he is an unbeliever, how hard is it!”

“Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

“But the sin of him therein is proper to himself, and he shall answer for it all at the last day; when the angels shall be judged, he must bear the load of it.”

“Take a stack of straw, great for bulk and number, and lay it upon a few coals of fire upon an hearth, and what will become of them all?”

“Now consider, is it any absurdity for the saints to be conformed to Christ their Lord and Head, to run through the same states that he did?”

“His heart stands affected towards us, under all sorts of infirmities whatsoever, either of sin or misery.”

“Whensoever we would go down into our own hearts, and take a view of our graces, let us be sure first to look wholly out of ourselves unto Christ, as our justification, and to close with him immediately.”

“That which I have here endeavoured is to set forth to all sorts of believers, whether they have assurance or not, Christ as he is the object of our faith as justifying, and as the cause of justification to us.”