by Thomas Goodwin
in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats
No book in all of Christendom so thoroughly explores, explains, and details the guiltiness due the sin that permeates unregenerate men. It is well for those who are regenerated to understand their blessing. This is Volume X of Goodwin’s Works, entitled, ''An Unregenerate Man’s Guiltiness Before God.'' With great thoroughness, Goodwin explores the depths of the total depravity of man by nature. Goodwin is the only author we are aware of who ever wrote more thoroughly on the subject of man's depravity than A. W. Pink
This is a weighty treatise on human guilt, corruption, and the imputation and punishment of sin. In exposing the total depravity of the natural man's heart, this book is unparalleled. Its aim is to produce a heartfelt need for saving faith in Christ rather than offer the quick fix of superficial Christendom.
Goodwin ''represents the cream of Puritanism, capturing the intellect, the will, and the heart of his readers'' (Joel Beeke)
Thomas Goodwin (1600-1679): Possessing a tender conscience from the age of six, Goodwin’s parents strove to prepare him for the ministry by their own example and by providing for the best education they could. At twelve he entered Christ’s College, Cambridge, known as a “nest of Puritans” in those days. The God of all grace and mercy brought Goodwin to a profound conviction of sin and genuine conversion on October 2, 1620, shortly after his twentieth birthday. Following his conversion he aligned himself with the Puritan theological tradition of such preachers as William Perkins, Richard Sibbes, and John Preston. His preaching was earnest, practical, experinmental, pastoral and above all, Christ-centered.
Goodwin, an Independent, who was appointed to the Westminster Assembly, is said to have been “the most decisive figure and the great disturber of the Westminster Assembly,” due to his continual promotion of the Independent view of church government. Records of the assembly covering 243 sessions held from August 1643 to December 1644 indicate that Goodwin gave more addresses than any other divine—357 in all! During the early 1650s, he and John Owen shared a Sunday afternoon lecture for the students at Oxford, and both were chaplains to Oliver Cromwell. He was also assisted in drawing up the confession of faith for the Independents known as The Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order. During the period when many godly pastors were ejected from their pulpits because of strict demands of conformity, God’s mighty overruling providence permitted Goodwin to continue preaching throughout the years of persecution by Charles II. Most of his major theological writings were the fruit of his mature years and published after his death. Goodwin’s works, which are presently reprinted in a twelve-volume authoritative edition, were James Nichol’s first choice in what would become known as the well-edited and highly regarded Nichol’s Series of Standard Divines.
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Table of Contents
BOOK I: Of an unregenerate man's guiltiness before God, from the imputation of Adam's first transgression to every person of his posterity
-- CHAPTER I: The general design and division of the discourse
-- CHAPTER II: The text explained.—That all men are in a state of sin.
-- CHAPTER III: How sin it derived from Adam to all mankind
-- CHAPTER IV: How great every man's sinfulness is in having the guilt of Adam's first transgression imputed to him
-- CHAPTER V: The practical improvements which we should make of these truths delivered.
BOOK II: An unregenerate man's guiltiness before God, in respect of that corruption of nature with which all mankind is infected, and the whole nature of every man is polluted and depraved
-- CHAPTER I: An enumeration of the several errors concerning original sin
-- CHAPTER II: What are the reasons or causes of the corruption of man's nature.
-- CHAPTER III: This corruption of nature is not only a punishment, but a sin, which renders us guilty
-- CHAPTER IV: An inclination and proneness to all sin is in every man's nature.
-- CHAPTER V: That since there is so great a corruption in our natures, we should be very earnest to have it purged out.
-- CHAPTER VI: The corruption of man's nature, a privation of all goodness, and an inclination to all evil.
-- CHAPTER VII: The objections answered which are made against the doctrine:
-- CHAPTER VIII: The second part of original corruption, enmity unto God, and to all that is good.
BOOK III: The corruption of man's whole nature, and of all the faculties of his soul by sin; and first of the depravation of the understanding, which is full of darkness, and blinded, so that it cannot apprehend spiritual things in a due spiritual manner
-- CHAPTER I: That all the faculties of the soul, even the mind, are wholly corrupted
-- CHAPTER II: Arguments to prove that not only the inferior powers of this soul, but the supreme, the understanding and mind, are corrupted.
-- CHAPTER III: The difference between the natural defects in men's minds, caused by the fall and sin, and those which are spiritual defects
-- CHAPTER IV: What are the spiritual wants and defilements in men's understandings, which can be healed only by true regeneration.
-- CHAPTER V: The reasons why an unregenerate man cannot spiritually discern spiritual things
-- CHAPTER VI: If unregenerate men know nothing of spiritual things, how is it then that the speaks of their knowing them, and sinning against the light of them?
-- CHAPTER VII: The difference between unregenerate the regenerate knowledge of Spiritual things.
-- CHAPTER VIII: That there it a vast difference between the knowledge of a man unregenerate, and that which a holy soul hath of spiritual things
-- CHAPTER IX: The uses of the doctrine.
-- CHAPTER X: That the error of the papists is by this doctrine evinced, who place sin only in the lower faculties of the soul.
BOOK IV: Of that corruption which is in the practical judgments of unregenerate men
-- CHAPTER I: The different judgments which men unregenerate and regenerate have of spiritual things
-- CHAPTER II: How far men unregenerate apprehend and judge the goodness of spiritual things
-- CHAPTER III: That men unregenerate are utterly destitute of that wisdom, and holy skill to do good, which men regenerate have.
-- CHAPTER IV: That wicked men, wanting this true wisdom, are fools.
-- CHAPTER V: In what particulars the folly of unregenerate men consists.
-- CHAPTER VI: That another particular wherein their folly is manifest is in their false judgments.
-- CHAPTER VII: Their folly also appears in the ill choice which they make of things
-- CHAPTER VIII: Their folly is also evident from the event and issue of all their actions
-- CHAPTER IX: The uses of the preceding doctrine
BOOK V: That reason in man being corrupted by sin, useth its strength and force to advise and contrive the satisfaction of his lusts; whence it is that reason, which should have acted for God, now acts for sin and lusts
-- CHAPTER I: ECCLES. 7:29
-- CHAPTER II: How reason affords all assistance to the encouragement of sin.
-- CHAPTER III: That man's reason, which should direct him in his actions, is depraved, and therefore misguides him
-- CHAPTER IV: That the reason, whereof Man so much boasts, is so Corrupt and false, that the first Principles of religion are not really believed by him.
-- CHAPTER V: What are the principles of godliness which a wicked man believes not
-- CHAPTER VI: In what sense it may be affirmed that all wicked men are atheists
-- CHAPTER VII: The truth of faith assenting unto the first general principles of religion
-- CHAPTER VIII: The Uses.—We should employ all our wit and reason for God
BOOK VI: The vanity of thoughts, being an instance of the abounding sinfulness in one faculty of the soul, the cogitative; whereby the sinfulness of the rest may be estimated
BOOK VII: The corruption and defilements of conscience
-- CHAPTER I: The conscience is false in the performance of its office.
-- CHAPTER II: That conscience is corrupt in respect of that false peace which it speaks to a man when there is indeed no peace to him
-- CHAPTER III: That a natural man's conscience is very corrupt, and plays false in the resistance which it makes against sin.
-- CHAPTER IV: What is come both to the strivings of natural conscience against sin, and the conflict of grace against it in a regenerate man.
-- CHAPTER V: Difference between that regret to sin under convictions of natural conscience, and that unwillingness to sin which is in a godly man
BOOK VIII: Of the inclinations and lusts which are in the will and affections, after things fleshly and sinful
-- CHAPTER I: That, to complete the description of our natural sinfulness
-- CHAPTER II: This positive part of the sinfulness of nature is not the very substance of the soul
-- CHAPTER III: How our inclinations and desires lost that rectitude with which at first they were created.
-- CHAPTER IV: What are the aggravations of our sinful lusts.
-- CHAPTER V: An inquiry into the grounds and causes of this heinous inordinacy in our lusts
-- CHAPTER VI: The privation of righteousness is enough to infect the soul with all that is evil
-- CHAPTER VII: He who would truly know the corruption of his nature must search into the lusts of his heart
BOOK IX: Wisdom in the hidden part, or practical wisdom concerning original sin, founded on David's example and practice, Ps. 51:6.—That this sin is matter of repentance as well as our actual sins, and how we are to be humbled for it, and to repent of it
-- CHAPTER I: The errors of the papists, denying original sin to be the object of repentance.
-- CHAPTER II: The exposition of the text proved, that David expresseth humiliation and repentance for his original sin
-- CHAPTER III: By what principles in a converted man's heart he comes to be convicted of the guilt of Adam's fact
-- CHAPTER IV: What are the acts of repentance which we are to exercise concerning our guilt of Adam's first sin.
-- CHAPTER V: All these acts of repentance are mingled with faith in Christ, and have a tendency to excite and increase it.
-- CHAPTER VI: That act of repentance
-- CHAPTER VII: The sorrow and repentance which we should have for original sin
-- CHAPTER VIII: What sorrow and repentance we should have for the other part of original sin
-- CHAPTER IX: That there is more guilt in the sin of our nature, than in all our actual transgressions put together
-- CHAPTER X: We are to be humbled for this sin, as the original of all our sins, as that which tempts us and draws us to sin, more than the devil doth.
BOOK X: That this state of guilt and natural corruption is the condition of all men unregenerate, though they make an external profession of Christianity.—A discovery of the several sorts of such men, both the ignorant, the profane, and the civil and the formal Christian.—And an answer to all those pleas by which they excuse, justify, or flatter themselves
-- CHAPTER I: As the strength of a kingdom consists in having places of defence
-- CHAPTER II: The great hindrance of the work of conversion is the pleas whereby men justify themselves in an unregenerate state.
-- CHAPTER III: What are the general heads of arguments from which men draw reasons for the safety and welfare of their state, though they continue in their natural condition.
-- CHAPTER IV: The pleas which men who have only morality make for themselves.
-- CHAPTER V: That all this mere morality in corrupt nature falls short of grace
-- CHAPTER VI: What are the principles from whence all this virtue and moral actions in unregenerate men do proceed.
-- CHAPTER VII: That the moral righteousness of unregenerate men proceeds from the fore-mentioned principles
-- CHAPTER VIII: That these moral actions want the essentials of goodness.
-- CHAPTER IX: Some objections answered
-- CHAPTER X: That all these virtues, and moral righteousness, are but some dark remains of the image of God in Adam, which is not wholly defaced.
-- CHAPTER XI: Where the nature of true holiness consists.
BOOK XI: That an unregenerate man is highly guilty, by reason of the numberless account of actual sins which he daily commits
-- CHAPTER I: The exposition of the words
-- CHAPTER II: That the infinite number of his sins
-- CHAPTER III: A larger confirmation of this interpretation given
-- CHAPTER IV: That it was the multitude of sins was in his eye that made him to say, I find not
-- CHAPTER V: The exposition of verse 29
-- CHAPTER VI: The chief remark out of this verse
-- CHAPTER VII: An objection by way of query
-- CHAPTER VIII: Two corollaries and monitories drawn out touching the subject in hand
-- CHAPTER IX: That the judgment of their sinfulness at the great day
-- CHAPTER X: The main subject of this treatise
-- CHAPTER XI: A second demonstration, taken from the judgments of saints
-- CHAPTER XII: The sense of this main assertion further state
BOOK XII: An unregenerate man's guiltiness by reason of the aggravations of his sinfulness
BOOK XIII: Of the punishment of sin in hell.—That the wrath of God is the immediate cause of that punishment
-- CHAPTER I: The subject and general division of the discourse
-- CHAPTER II: The first sort of proofs from Scriptures: first, those three prefixed as the texts
-- CHAPTER III: The passage in Rom. 9:22 explicated
-- CHAPTER IV: That this immediate wrath of God is in Scripture set forth unto us under the similitude of fire, and fiery indignation.
-- CHAPTER V: A second sort of proofs.
-- CHAPTER VI: A third sort of proofs from reasons:
-- CHAPTER VII: A fourth sort of additional confirmations, drawn from the harmonies that are between it and other divine truths
-- CHAPTER VIII: The dreadfulness of this punishment argued from all and each of the particulars treated of in the former chapters.
-- CHAPTER IX: The inferences and uses of the doctrine.