The Works of Thomas Goodwin, Volume 2

MEMOIIJ OF DU THOMAS GOODWIN.
xliii
IF HE WAS NOT RATHER THE FIRST DIVINE
WHO THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATED THEM.
HE WAS EMINENTLY QUALIFIED,
BY THE LIGHT OF SACRED TRUTH,
TO PACIFY TROUBLED CONSCIENCES,
TO DISPEL THE CLOUDS OF MISTAKE,
AND REMOVE NEEDLESS SCRUPLES
FROM PERPLEXED AND BEWILDERED MINDS.
IN KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, AND ELOQUENCE,
HE WAS A TRULY CHRISTIAN PASTOR.
IN HIS PRIVATE DISCOURSES,
AS WELL AS IN HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY,
HE EDIFIED NUMBERS OF SOULS,
WHOM HE HAD FIRST WON TO CHRIST,
TILL HAVINO FINISHED HIS APPOINTED COURSE,
EN
BOTH OP SERVICES AND SUFFERINGS
THE CAUSE OP HIS DIVINE MASTER,
HE GENTLY FELL ASLEEP IN JESUS,
HIS WRITINGS ALREADY PUBLISHED,
AND WHAT ARE NOW PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION,
THE NOBLEST MONUMENTS OP THIS GREAT MAN'S PRAISE,
WILL DIFFUSE HIS NAME IN A MORE FRAGRANT ODOUR
THAN THAT OF THE RICHEST PERFUME,
TO FLOURISH IN THOSE PAR DISTANT AGES,
WHEN THIS MARBLE, INSCRIBED WITH HIS JUST HONOUR,
SHALL HAVE DROPT INTO DUST.
HE DIED FEBRUARY 23D, 1679,
IN THE EIGHTIETH YEAR OF HIS AGE.
The -writings mentioned as puMished and preparing for publication
have fulfilled the prophecy of Gilbert, surviving the perishable inscription
on the stone -which the visitor to Bunhill Fields tries in
vain to identify, and remaining as a lasting monument of all that is
recorded of him on his grave. The posthumous works were published
by James Barron, who had been divinity reader at Magdalene
College during Goodwin's presidency,* and by his faithful friend,
Thankful Owen, who succeeded him in the pastoral office, and who,
a fortnight after his appointment, and immediately after finishing the
preface to the works of his venerated friend, was suddenly called to
rejoin him in a higher sphere.f His body, at his own request, was
laid in the same vault. The inscription on his tombstone is subjoined,
as the last expression of a friendship which had survived
many trials, and suffered no interruption.
* Cai Ace, p. 98. ' + Wilson's Dissenting Churches, vol. iii., p. 439.