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NICHOL'S SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES.

PURITAN PERIOD.

THE

WORKS OF THOMAS GOODWIN, D.D.

VOL. VI.

COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.

W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational Union, Edinburgh.

JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.

THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University

Edinburgh.

D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church,

Edinburgh.

WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.

ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.

General Editor.

REV. THOMAS SMITH, M.A., EDINBURGH.

OF

THOMAS GOODWIN, D.D.,

SOMETIME PRESIDENT OF MAGDALENE COLLEGE, OXFORD.

With General Preface

BY JOHN C. MILLER, D.D.,

LINCOLN COLLEGE; HONORARY CANON OF WORCESTER; RECTOR OF ST MARTIN'S, BIRMINGHAM.

And Memoir

BY ROBERT HALLEY, D.D.,

PRINCIPAL OF THE INDEPENDENT NEW COLLEGE, LONDON.

VOL. VI.

CONTAINING :

THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SALVATION.

EDINBURGH: JAMES NICHOL.
LONDON: JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN: W. ROBERTSON.

M.DCCC.LXIII.

141. i. 191.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED BY JOHN GREIG AND SON,

OLD PHYSIC GARDENS.

PREFACE.*

THE great and mysterious truth of the trinity of persons in one God, which is the foundation of our Christian faith, and which, though not contrary to our reason, is so much above it, that we could never have had a thought of it, if God had not revealed it to us in his word, is not a mere speculative notion, but a truth, in which the faith and practice of a Christian is concerned; insomuch as it is necessary that every one who is saved should believe that there are three persons, one and the same infinite, eternal God, blessed for evermore. For how can we believe that God hath chosen any of mankind, to make them unchangeably and for ever happy; that the same God hath redeemed and doth sanctify these his elect, if we do not believe that this one and the same God is three persons, to whom these works, so necessary to our salvation, are in the holy Scriptures distinctly attributed? How can we trust in the God of all grace, and his infinite mercies, and adore and love him for that great and indeed unspeakable love, in sending his only-begotten Son to die for us? And how can we act faith on our blessed Redeemer, as having voluntarily come into the world to accomplish the work which his Father sent him to do, unless we have distinct thoughts of the person of the Father sending, as distinct from the person of the Son sent by him? And these persons are equally God; for any one inferior could no more have redeemed us than he could have elected or created us. But they are not so many several Gods; therefore they are one and the same God, equal in all perfections and glory. The author hath discoursed of the work of God the Father in the second volume of his Works; and of the work of God the Son in the third, with great clearness of light from the Scripture, and consequently with as great a strength of evidence to every spiritual mind. In the discourses of this fifth volume he as clearly and evidently describes in all its glory the work peculiar to the Spirit, in healing and restoring our depraved, wretched natures, by making them alive unto God, and sanctifying them in likeness to him. It is a work which demonstrates him to be true God, as well as the Father and Son are; for life is that which God only can give, and a creating power is as necessary to produce a spiritual as a natural life. Nay, of the two it is more difficult

*This preface to the fifth volume of Goodwin's Works, as published by his son, is given here, as being mainly applicable to the contents of this volume.-ED.

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