Quotes from Thomas Goodwin

What is the cause of all God's purposes towards us? Himself. There is no other cause.

Glory in nothing, but only in this, that you are in Christ. For God chose you in him; the being you had was in him before the world was.

The children of believing parents, at least their next and immediate seed, even of us Gentiles now under the gospel, are included by God within the covenant of grace.

Moreover, as God respects no persons, so He respects no conditions upon which He gives salvation to us.

We have the promise of God's being our God, and of the blessing by Christ for ourselves, as we are Abraham's seed, yet take the whole promise collectively made to him and us.

Oh despise not election! therein lies all your hope, that there is a remnant who shall infallibly be saved.

Those blessings are sweetest that are won with prayers and won with thanks.

And so Adam, in that his speech to Eve, uttered his faith in the promise made to her of her seed, and so in that respect Adam himself came in under her covenant.

I will begin first to search out this right by that magna charta, that great and faithful charter which was made to Abraham, the father of the faithful, in the name of all his seed.

It was both Abraham's and the Jews' privilege also that they should have this promise to all generations.

My brethren, when God first began to love you, He gave you all that He ever meant to give you in the lump, and eternity of time is that in which He is retailing of it out.

Christ's riches are unsearchable, and this doctrine of the gospel is the field this treasure is hidden in.

Judas heard all Christ's sermons.

Those blessings are sweetest that are won with prayer and worn with thanks.

The most thankful person is the most fully human.

Our prayers are granted as soon as we have prayed, even though the process of fulfilling our requests has not yet begun.

The person who knows Christ best is the person who will pray best.

It is not enough to hear a sermon, but you must eat it down, take in what it commands, and then it will purge your heart...Take the word and digest it, squeeze the juice of it into thy heart, and it will purge thee from all contrary corruption." pg.73

The Indwelling of Christ by faith…is to have Jesus Christ continually in one's eye, a habitual sight of Him. I call it so because a man actually does not always think of Christ; but as a man does not look up to the sun continually, yet he sees the light of it…. 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. —Thomas Goodwin, Works, 2:411

Take the fact that you were created to love. Your heart can find real joy only through love - through loving and being loved.

All that God is, will supply your need.

It is not enough to hear a sermon, but you must eat it down, take in what it commands, and then it will purge your heart...Take the word and digest it, squeeze the juice of it into thy heart, and it will purge thee from all contrary corruption.

God is infinitely beautiful in himself, and his beauty ought to attract you like a magnet to him.

Ask God to make you like David: an intercessor, even in the midst of your own great sins and great needs.