Religion in Cornwall, p. 313; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 395; De Backer's Bibl. des Ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, i. 2206.]
GOODWIN, JOHN (1594?–1665), republican
divine, was born in Norfolk about
1594. He was educated at Queens' College,
Cambridge, graduating M.A. and obtaining a
fellowship on 10 Nov. 1617. Leaving the
university in consequence of his marriage, he
took orders, and became popular as a preacher
in his native county at Raynham, Lynn,
Yarmouth, and Norwich. For a time he
seems to have officiated at St. Mary's, Dover.
In 1632 he came to London, and on 18 Dec.
1633 was instituted to the vicarage of St.
Stephen's, Coleman Street, vacated by the
nonconformist secession of John Davenport
[q. v.] He sided with the puritans, and as
early as 1633 inclined to independency under
the influence of John Cotton (1585-1682).
In 1635 he was convened for breach of canons,
but on his promise of amendment Bishop
Juxon took no further proceedings. In 1638
Goodwin broached from the pulpit of St.
Stephen's his opinions on justification (which
had given offence at Dover), taking a view
which was already regarded as practically
Arminian, though he always maintained his
independence of the system of Arminius,
and cited Calvin as bearing him out on some
points. A warm pulpit controversy with
other city ministers on this topic was stayed
by Juxon's interference, all parties agreeing
to desist. Next year (1639) Goodwin angered
his opponents anew by insisting on the
need of a learned ministry. Juxon reported
to Laud that he did not despair of a good
issue. Goodwin had a hand in drafting the
London clerical petition against the new
canons of 30 June 1640. Alderman Isaac
Pennington (afterwards closely connected
with the quakers) was one of his parishioners,
and joined his congregational society.
In 1639 Goodwin wrote a preface to the posthumous sermons of Henry Ramsden. During the next two years he published several sermons, and an exegetical tract (1641) criticising the positions of George Walker, B.D., of St. John's, Watling Street. Walker retorted upon Goodwin and others with a charge of Socinianism in the article of justification. Goodwin defended himself (1642) in ' Christ set forth,' and in a treatise on justification.
On the appeal of the parliament to arms Goodwin was one of the earliest clerical supporters of the democratic puritans. His Anti-Cavalierisme ' (1642) proclaims on its very title-page the need of war to suppress th party 'now hammering England to make an Ireland of it.' The loyalist doctrine of the divine right of kings he assailed in his 'Os Ossorianum, or a Bone for a Bishop,' i.e. Griffith Williams, bishop of Ossory (1643). With equal vigour he attacked the presbyerians as a persecuting party in his 'Θεομαχία, or the grand imprudence of ... fighting against God' (1644, 2 editions). In May 1645 he was ejected from his living for refusing to administer indiscriminately in his parish the baptism and the Lord's Supper. Nothing daunted, Goodwin immediately set up an independent church in Coleman Street, which had a large following. William Taylor, his appointed successor at St. Stephen's, was in his turn ejected in 1649, to be restored in 1657. In the interim Goodwin obtained the use of the church, but with a diminished e venue ; he estimates his loss in 1654 at 1,000l. Among his hearers at this period was Thomas Firmin [q. v.], who took down his sermons in shorthand.
The 'Gangræna' (16 Feb. 1646) of Thomas Edwards (1599-1647) [q. v.] included Goodwin among the subjects of attack; in the second and third parts, published in the same year, Edwards was provoked into yet more savage onslaughts by Goodwin's anonymous reply, bearing the stinging title 'Cretensis.' Goodwin is 'a monstrous sectary, a compound of Socinianism, Arminianism, antinomianism, independency, popery, yea and of scepticism.' He and several of his church 'go to bowls and other sports on days of public thanksgiving.' Goodwin, by his 'Hagiomastix, or the Scourge of the Saints' (1646; i.e. January 1647), came into collision with William Jenkyn, vicar of Christ Church, Newgate, whose 'Testimony' was endorsed (14 Dec. 1647) by fifty-eight presbyterian divines at Sion College. Sixteen members of Goodwin's church issued (1647) an 'Apologetical Account' of their reasons for standing by him. In answer (1648) to Jenkyn's complaint that presbyterians were put 'under the cross' by the existence of sectaries, Goodwin asks, 'Is not the whole English element of church livings offered up by the state to their service?' Jenkyn was aided by John Vicars, usher in Christ Church Hospital, who published (1648) an amusing description of 'Coleman-street-conclave' and its minister, 'this most huge Garagantua,' the 'schismatics cheater in chief.' This contains a likeness of Goodwin (engraved by W. Richardson) surmounted by a windmill and weathercock, 'pride' and 'error' supplyingthe breeze. Goodwin's career is, however, remarkable for consistency. He translated and printed (March 1648) a part of the 'Stratagemata Satanæ' of Acontius [q. v.], under the title 'Satan's
