Thomas Goodwin (1600–1680) was an English Puritan nonconformist. In another of the Profiles in Reformed Spirituality (Joel Beeke and Michael Haykin, gen. ed.), A Habitual Sight of Him: The Christ-Centered Piety of Thomas Goodwin, we are given a short biography of Goodwin and, through a sampling of his writings, a thumbnail sketch of his theology and character.
In the following excerpt, Goodwin writes of the value and purpose of our trials and temptations in this life, namely, proving the grace of God to us and the perfections of Christ in us.
If you are true and right Christians, and you know, as the apostle says, how to put a due estimate on what is our greatest interest and privilege in this life—the proof and trial of your graces, and of the grace of patience above all, as the highest perfection of a Christian, yea, of Christ Himself, and the most eminent praise of prophets and apostles—and if you value being rendered most pleasing to God, then count it all joy when you fall into temptations. For now you have God and Christ, the great, the Chief Master Orderer and Designer of these conflicts, setting His most gracious eye on you, pleasing Himself to behold how valiantly, wisely, and gallantly you behave and acquit and yourselves. He sits in heaven as the great Spectator of these jousts and tournaments, which are to Him as spectacles which are sports to us. The apostle alludes to this when he writes, “For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men” (1 Cor. 4:9). Rejoice, therefore, just as good soldiers would rejoice to inter into battle in the sight of their great general and emperor, whom they have given themselves to please. —Thomas Goodwin, A Habitual Sight of Him: The Christ-Centered Piety of Thomas Goodwin, ed. Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones (Reformation Heritage Books, 2009), 61–62.
Comments on this post are closed. If you have a question or comment concerning this post, feel free to email us.