THE IMPORTANCE OF UNION WITH CHRIST

'Being in Christ, and united to him, is the fundamental constitution of a Christian.' 

Thomas Goodwin in Rankin Wilbourne, Union with Christ, p.107. 

THE INCARNATION

'Heaven and Earth met and kissed one another...'

Thomas Goodwin in Mark Jones, Knowing Christ, p.25. 

PRAYER

'Mutual communion is the soul of all true friendship; and a familiar converse with a friend hath the greatest sweetness in it...(so) besides the common tribute of daily worship you owe to (God), take occasion to come into his presence on purpose to have communion with him. This is truly friendly, for friendship is most maintained and kept up by visits; and these, the more free and less occaisioned by urgent business, or solemnity...the more friendly they are...We used to check our friends with this upbraiding. "You stll (always) come when you have some business, but when will you come to see me?...When thou comest into his presence, be telling him still how well thou lovest him; labour to abound in expressions of that kind, than which...there is nothing more taking with the heart of any friend.'

Thomas Goodwin in Kevin DeYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness, p.130.

JESUS

'In all miseries and distresses you may be sure to know where to have a friend to help and pity you, even in heaven, Christ; one whose nature, office, interest, relation, all, do engage him to your succour; you will find men, even friends, to be oftentimes unto you unreasonable, and their affections in many cases shut up towards you. Well, say to them all, If you will not pity me, choose, I know one that will, one in heaven, who heart is touched with the feeling of all my infirmities, and I will go and bemoan myself to him. Come boldy (says the text)...even with open mouth, to lay open your complaints, and you shall find garce and mercy to help in time of need. Men love to see themselves pitied by friends, though they cannot help them; Christ can and will do both.'

Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ, p.158.

SIN

'The object of pity is one in misery whom we love; and the greater the misery is, the more is the pity when the party is beloved. Now of all miseries, sin is the greatest; and whilst yourselves look at it as such, Christ will look upon it as such only also in you. And he, loving your persons, and hating only the sin, his hatred shall fall, and that only upon the sin, to free you of by its ruin and destruction, but his affections shall be the more drawn out to you; and this as much when you lie under sin as under any other afflication. Therefore fear not, "What shall seperate us from Christ's love?"'

Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ, p.156.

GUILT

'...as for the guilt of sin, and the temptations from it, he knows more of that than any one of us. He tasted the bitterness of that, in the imputation of it, more deeply than we can, and of the cup of his Father's wrath for it, and so is able experimentally to pity a heart wounded with it, and struggling under such temptations. He knows full well the heart of one in his own sense forsaken by God, seeing himself felt it when he cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"'

Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ, p.154.

GOD'S MERCY

'Hereby is held forth an evident demonstration (and the greatest one that could have been given unto men) of the everlasting continuance of God's mercies unto men, by this, that God is for everlasting become a man; and so we thereby assured that he will be merciful unto men, who are of his own nature, and that for ever. For as his union with our nature is for everlasting, so thereby is sealed up to us the continuation of these mercies, to be for everlasting; so that he can and will no more cease to be merciful unto men, than himself can now cease to be a man; which can never be.'

Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ, p.119.

SIN

'Thy misery can never exceed his mercy.'

Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ, p.99.

THE HOLY SPIRIT

'...he shall tell you, if you will listen to him, and not grieve him, nothing but stories of my love. So it is there, "He shall glorify me", namely to you; for I am in myself already glorified in heaven. All his speech in your hearts will be to advance me, and to greaten my worth and love to you, and it will be his delight to do it. And he can come from heaven in an instant when he will, and bring you fresh tidings of my mind, and tell you the thoughts I last had of you, even at that very last minute when I am thinking of them, what they are at the very time wherein he tells you them.'

Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ, p.19.

THE HOLY SPIRIT

'...the greatest token and pledge of Christ's love that ever was...'

Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ, p.18.

JESUS

'...when Christ's thoughts were full of his glory, and when he took in consideration of it unto the utmost, even then, and upon that occasion, and in the midst of those thoughts, he washed his disciples' feet. And what was Christ's meaning in this, but that, whereas when he should be in heaven, he could not make such outward visible demonstartions of his heart, by doing such mean services for them; therefore by doing this in the midst of such thoughts of his glory, he would show what he could be content (as it were) to do for them, when he should be in full possession of it? So great is his love unto them.'

Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ, p.9.