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LITERATURE

Biography - by Alexander Whyte. The biography of Whyte makes clear that he was a great fan of Goodwin. See why.
Memoir of Thomas Goodwin DD by his son. Read his words to his family about his conversion, and much more.

Index to the Works on the Puritan Sermons site. http://www.puritansermons.com/goodwin/goodindx.htm

Preface To the Tanski Edition of his Works (1996) with biography and some very useful reading notes (recommended reading) - used in this website for ease of readers new to Goodwin. (By Dr. Joel Beeke)
General Preface To the Original Edition - by John C. Miller DD. A very useful guide to the Puritans and a comprehensive account of their qualities, virtues and vices.

Recommended Reading
(One) Patience and its Perfect Work - this was written just after Thomas had lost most of his library in a fire! Wks.vol.2.
(Two) A Child of Light Walking in Darkness Chapters 3-5 -
Efficient Causes of this Distress, the Holy Spirit (1) and Satan (2)
The Folly of Relapsing (into Darkness) After Peace Spoken.
(Three) The Return of Prayers. Highly recommended - only 45 pages in the book (Vol.3 of Works)
(Four) The Trial of a Christian's Growth. In three parts. 75 pages in the book, (Vol.3 of Works) but worth it!
(Five) The Vanity of Thoughts. A nice short sermon on keeping the mind captive to the Lord. (Vol 3 of Works)
(Six) The Aggravation of Sin. Sub-titled "The Sinfulness of Sin" A short sermon, highly recommmended.
(And) The Aggravation of Sinning Against Knowledge - sinning when you KNOW it is sin!
(Seven) The Supereminence of Christ Above Moses. or, the more excellent glory and power which accompanies the promolgation of the gospel, than did accompany the giving of the law on mount Sinai. Heb. 12:25-29
Sermons on Ephesians. "Not even Luther on Galatians is such an expositor of Paul's mind and heart as is Goodwin on Ephesians" (from the Introduction by Beeke) Go to the Ephesians Index?

Other Highly Recommmended Writings
The Reconciliation of the People of God by Christ's Death - Ephesians 2:14-16 "I come now to the actual accord, that the virtue of Christ’s death did effect between those Jews and Gentiles......."
Three Sermons on Hebrews. - short, bite-size examples of our Puritan's wonderful grasp of Scripture.
Sermon One "God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. - Heb. I. 1, 2.
Sermon Two - "To come now to the other part of the words, "in the last days he hath revealed himself unto us by his Son," The first thing we may observe hence is, why they should be called 'the last days'
Sermon Three - Whom He hath appointed heir of all things. "Having mentioned Christ, he falls into a large encomium of him: first, that which was first, as mediator, to wit, his Father's appointing him to be heir of all things; .."
An Exposition of the Revelation. You may not want to read the whole 205 pages, because Goodwin fell into the trap a good many godly and pious men have entered, and took the Historical View - that it has nearly all happened already, and events can be traced in history that were predicted by Revelation. Wrong! Events have ocurred that no way match anything in Revelation, and anyway, our puritan reckoned the whole thing would be over and the Second Coming accomplished, by 1690 (I think) - writing in 1639. His son certainly saw it was all hopelessly wrong when he wrote the introduction after Goodwin's death. Here, however, for interest's sake, is his summary of what he expounds later in more detail.
The Folly of Relapsing After Peace Spoken - "But let them turn no more to folly". - Psalm LXXXV. 8. "Thou having punished us less than we deserve, and given us such a deliverance as this, should we again break thy commandments, wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us". Ezra 9:13,14
Encouragement To Faith (Vol.4) "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me". - JOHN VI. 37, 38. "THERE are two persons whom faith hath to deal withal in seeking of forgiveness......."

Letters - there are three from Mr. Price, who was Goodwin's mentor and spiritual guide while at Cambridge.
There is also a very interesting letter from Richard Sibbes, who was a material factor in Goodwin's conversion but later held to the Church (of England) when Evangelicals were being driven out of it by Archbishop Laud and King James.

Quotes -
"Grace" is more than mercy and love, it superadds to them. It denotes, not simply love, but the love of a sovereign, transcendly superior, one that may do what he will, that may wholly choose whether he will love or no. There may be love between equals, and an inferior may love a superior; but love in a superior, and so superior as he may do what he will, in such a one love is called grace: and therefore grace is attributed to princes; they are said to be gracious to their subjects, whereas subjects cannot be gracious to princes. Now God, who is an infinite Sovereign, who might have chosen whether ever He would love us or no, for Him to love us, this is grace." - Thomas Goodwin
On Dying. "I am going to the three Persons with whom I have had communion: They have taken me, I did not take Them. I shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye; all my lusts and corruptions I shall be rid of, which I could not be here; those croaking toads will fall off in a moment" - Thomas Goodwin (from memoir by his son).
To a friend "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 purer, and also a fitter temple for His Spirit to dwell in?" - Thomas Goodwin. ibid.
In His Memoir - " For God did vouchsafe me a new and further light into the bottom of my heart, to discern that self-love and self-flattery, acted by the motives of the word so far as they will extend, were but the roots of all these gaudy tulips which I counted grace: and I needed no other scripture than that in the parable, together with my own heart, for the proof of it: Mark iv. 5, 6, "Some fell 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."

In case you missed it - "Those blessings are sweetest that are won with prayers and worn with thanks" - T.G.


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