The influence exerted by Perkins and other Puritan teachers and friends in the University of Cambridge upon the mind of Goodwin when a student, his remarkable conversion, the effect of his residence in Holland, and of his association there, with Dutch Divines, and with “English Dissenting brethren,” are visible in his opinions. Three main stand-points come out sharply in the phases of Goodwin’s theology. The first is _Faith_. In his treatise on that subject he discusses (1) the object of faith, including the mercies in God’s nature, the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the riches of free grace as declared and proposed in the Gospel covenant; (2) the acts of faith in the understanding, the affections and the will, respecting which he distinguishes between justifying faith in general, and the faith of assurance; and (3) the properties of faith, its excellence and use--good works, he says, so far from being slighted by the exaltation of belief, are really promoted in a pre-eminent degree by the influence of that principle. It is apparent at once, that in this way a complete scheme of theology is arranged with faith for a pivot on which the entire circle of thought is made to move. Accordingly, we find introduced into this elaborate treatise, nearly, if not quite, all the doctrines comprised within the writer’s evangelical creed. There are abundant descriptions of faith, of what it is, and of what it does, but we do not discover any compact definition of it in any part of the volume. Goodwin alludes to it as sealed in the understanding, in the heart, and in the will,--a description which might seem comprehensive enough to take in all which Thorndike or Bull has advanced on the subject; but Goodwin’s way of working out the idea is very different from theirs, and whilst they are chiefly intent upon preserving the interests of Christian morality, he, although not neglectful of them, is principally engaged in exalting the glories of sovereign grace. According to his theology, faith is commanded by God, it influences all the graces--but it is the meanest and lowest of them all, and it is merely and altogether a passive principle. It should be carefully noticed, as amongst the marked features of Goodwin’s teaching:--not, however, peculiar to him, but common to Puritan Divines--that although he enumerates many objects of faith, by far the most prominent one is Christ Himself, as the great propitiation for sin.[519] [Sidenote: GOODWIN.]