6.—THOMAS GOODWIN, D.D.
THE Word of God brings before us that God has chosen the “base things of this world, and things which are despised, . . . and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in His presence.” This is instanced in the case of the subject of the following sketch, for he did not spring from a family of high rank, where he might have the advantages of education, and of the influence which might secure for him a high place among his fellow-creatures. Thomas Goodwin was born at Rollesby, a few miles from Yarmouth, on 5th October, 1600, and was of a weak constitution, yet, as he himself informs us, “God so kept and strengthened me, that He preserved me, as David says, when I hung upon my mother’s breasts; as one in whom He meant to manifest His grace, in the miraculous conversion of my soul unto Himself.” Of his parents, Richard and Catherine Goodwin, nothing is known beyond the fact that, from his infancy, they brought him up to respect the Word of God and to search it. Thus we find his early days attended by weakness and shrouded by obscurity.
From the age of six years he was very much the subject of the common strivings of the Holy Spirit, but in youth these strivings seemed to have been almost quenched by a proud and ambitious spirit which caused him to think that he had more grace than others, and prompted him to an endeavour to make his natural gifts and attainments shine before men. He had an extraordinary thirst for knowledge, applied himself diligently to his studies, and with such success that he was admitted to Christ’s College, Cambridge in the thirteenth year of his age. Here his earlier religious impressions appeared to have vanished altogether and he devoted himself exclusively to his studies, little realising that the Most High was in this way preparing him for the stand which, in after life, he was to take on behalf of God’s truth, causing him to appear as a polished shaft in the hand of the Lord, to be a means of bringing conviction and consolation to the souls of many of his fellow-creatures. During this time he ceased to attend the preaching of Dr. Sibbes and his views inclined to Arminianism. The preaching which he relished most was that which was characterised by its ostentatious display of rhetoric rather than by its clear statements of evangelical truth, yet he was not too easy in his mind as to his standing before God.
In his sixteenth year he took the degree of B.A., and in his twentieth year his M.A. degree. Having by this time removed to Catherine Hall he was chosen fellow and lecturer in that Hall. God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform, and so it happened in His dealings with Thomas Goodwin. While passing St. Edmund’s Church on his way to join a party at old college shortly after being elected fellow of Catherine Hall, the bell was tolling for a funeral sermon at which Dr. Bainbridge or Bambridge was to preach, and he went in to hear. The sermon was from Luke xix. 41, 42, and such was the effect it had on Goodwin that when he left the church, instead of joining the party at Christ’s College as he originally intended, he retired to his rooms in Catherine Hall where a mighty conflict went on in his soul. He could now enter, as he never entered before, into the words of the fiftieth psalm, “These things thou has done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.” The Holy Spirit now confronted him with his sins and he found himself standing before God, reprov’d, convinced, and convicted of sin. Who can describe his agonies of soul as it now dawned on him, as never before, that he was without God and without hope? In this condition he continued for about seven years until it pleased God through the instrumentality of Mr. Price, a Puritan minister of King’s Lynn, to bring him to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. His preaching now underwent a radical change. Instead of aiming at flowery language his thoughts were expressed in a simple manner suited to the capacity of the most illiterate of his hearers, while the Arminian views vanished and, in the words of one of his biographers, “He began to speak from the fulness of his heart. He preached earnestly, for he preached a full and free salvation which had been the life and joy of his own soul. He preached experimentally, for he preached as he had felt, and tasted, and handled of the good word of life. His great desire was to convert sinners to Christ; he thought no more of the applause, reputation or honour, which had been so precious to him, he desired to know nothing among men, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Such preaching was owned of God and blessed to many who afterwards became eminent preachers of the gospel. The change in his attitude to worldly honour is best given in his own words, “I freely renounced,” said he, “for Christ, when God converted me, all those designs of pride, and vain-glory, and advancement for myself, upon which my heart was so strongly set that no persuasions of men, nor my worldly considerations, 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.”
Some time after this he became lecturer at Trinity Church and in spite of the demands of the Bishop of Ely that he would first give his promise that he would not preach on any controverted doctrine, he was admitted without giving such a promise. The Bishop, however, being a creature of Archbishop Lund, gave him so much trouble that he resigned the lectureship and also the fellowship of Catherine Hall and retired from Cambridge in 1634. In 1638 he married the daughter of Alderman Prescot of London, and in 1639, owing to the persecution against the Puritans becoming so fierce in England, he removed to Holland, settling first at Amsterdam, and then at Arnheim, becoming pastor of a small English congregation there. During his sojourn in Holland the Long Parliament began to advocate the right of the people to worship God according to His Word, and invited those who left the country for non-conformity to return. Goodwin soon availed himself of this opportunity and became pastor of an Independent congregation in St. Dunstan’s in the East, London, where he laboured with great success for ten years, till he became president of Magdalene College, Oxford through the influence of Oliver Cromwell. Here, in co-operation with Dr. Owen, he was a power for good in the University, and many who were bright and shining lights in the church of God traced their first serious impressions to the preaching of these two men.
The eminence which he attained as a preacher and a theologian can be judged by the fact that on the occasion of the solemn national fast of 27th April, 1642 he was appointed to preach before the House of Commons, while in the following year he was appointed a member of the celebrated Assembly of Divines which met at Westminster. In this Assembly he showed his preference to the Independent form of church government to such an extent that much of the time of that body was taken up with long, fruitless debates, yet he was of such a Christian temper that even his most ardent opponents spoke highly of him. When the Directory for Public Worship was presented before Parliament, Goodwin was one of the members appointed to present it, and on the occasion preached form Psalm cv. 14, 15.
At the Restoration of King Charles II. Goodwin left Oxford and removed to London along with many of the members of his church. Here they formed a new congregation to which he ministered until his death on 23rd February, 1679. During this period of his life he was not much molested by the authorities though others like-minded with him suffered bitter trials. He had, however, one severe trial in the destruction of a large portion of his excellent library, in the Great Fire of London in 1666. In this trial he saw much of the goodness of the Lord in sparing to him the part of his library, the loss of which he would feel most keenly—the religious and theological works. He submitted meekly to the Lord’s dealings in this trial and accepted it as from the hand of a loving Father. The remaining part of his life was divided between his pastoral duties and his theological studies. He left behind him a priceless legacy of numerous sermons and treatises, the most of which were written during this period of his life and published after his death. The peace of God rested on his soul, and when about to enter the dark valley of the shadow of death he said, “I could not have imagined I should have had such a measure of faith in this hour; no, I could never have imagined it. My bow abides in strength. Is Christ divided? No. I have the whole of his righteousness. I am found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith of Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Christ cannot love me better than He doth. I think I cannot love Christ better than I do; I am swallowed up in God.” His last words were, “Now I shall be ever with the Lord,” and thus fell asleep in Christ. Thus lived and thus died Thomas Goodwin. He was buried in Bunhill Fields where with many more of the Lord’s dear saints his body lies waiting the blast of the last trumpet.—J. C.