Most Holy and Profitable Sayings of Doctor Thomas Goodwin

Most Holy and Profitable Sayings of That Reverend Divine, Doctor Thomas Goodwin, Who Departed This Life, February 23, 1679/80.

We sail to glory, not in the salt sea of our tears, but in the red sea of Christ's precious blood.

A sanctified heart is better than a silver tongue.

A heart full of graces is better than a heart full of notions.

Notional knowledge may make a man's head giddy, but it will never make a man's heart holy.

The wheat and the chaff may both grow together, but they shall not both lie together.

In Hell there shall not be a saint among those that are terrified; and in Heaven there shall not be a sinner among those that are glorified.

Will you pity a body that is going to the block, and will you not pity a soul that is going to the pit.

What a sad visitation is that, where the black horse of death goes before, and the red horse of wrath follows after.

A man's condition in this life may be honorable, and yet his state as to another life may be damnable.

There cannot be a better being for us, than for us to be with the best of beings.

That which makes Heaven so full of joy is that it is above all fear; and that which makes Hell so full of horror is that it is below all hope.

To be a professor of piety and a practiser of iniquity is an abomination to the Lord.

Oh! Sin is that mark at which all the arrows of vengeance are shot.

Were it not for sin, death had never had a beginning; and were it not for death, sin would never have had an ending.

Oh! Did sin bring sorrow into the world, then let sorrow carry sin out of the world.

Let the cry of your prayers out-cry the cry of your sins.

Nothing can quench the fire that sin has kindled, but the water which repentance has caused.

You that have filled the book of God with your sins should fill the bottle of God with your tears.

He can never truly relish the sweetness of God's mercy, who never tasted the bitterness of his own misery.

None can promise us better than Christ can, and none can threaten us worse than Christ can.

Can any man promise us anything better than Heaven? Or, can any man threaten us with anything worse than Hell?

Heaven is promised to those that love him, and Hell is to be the portion of those that hate him.

To live without fear of death is to die living; to labor not to die is labor in vain.

Men are afraid to die in such and such sins, but not afraid to live in such and such sins.

Oh the hell of horrors and terrors that attend those souls that have their greatest work to do when they come to die.

Therefore as you would be happy in death, and everlastingly blessed after death, prepare and fit yourselves for death.

Did Christ die for us, that we might live with him? And shall not we desire to die, and be with him.

A believer's dying day is his crowning day.

God protects men when they are in his way, but not out of his way. Sin is never at a higher flood than when grace is at a low ebb.

Though the church's enemies may be waves to toss her, yet they shall never be rocks to split her.

It is not a time for Zion's sons to be rejoicing, when their mother is mourning.

When the church's adversaries make long furrows upon her back, we should cast in the seed of tears.

Many, instead of sympathizing with believers in their misery, are censuring them for their misery.

True love to Christ can walk on the water without drowning, and lie on the fire without burning.

How shall we land at the heaven of rest, if we are not tossed upon the sea of trouble.

A saint of God lives above the love of life, and fears not the terror of death.

None are so welcome to that spiritual Canaan as those that swim to it through the Red Sea of their own blood.

Saints are not so much afraid of suffering as they are of sinning; in suffering the offence is done to us, but in sinning the offence is done to God.