The Old Guys

Tags: The Whole Works of Thomas Boston, Thomas Boston

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Categories Gospel, Grace, Legalism, Sanctification, Thomas Boston

Thomas Boston – The Smiling World’s Deadly Hug

10 Jun

1676-1732. A Scottish Church Leader. One of the twelve Marrow Men.

The smiling world is meeting and embracing some. It is casting into their lap plentifully, and still they have prospect of more. But O! take heed to the dangerous embraces, lest it hug you to death, as surely it will, if you do not shake yourselves loose of it, “For the turning away of the simple, shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.”

~Thomas Boston~

The Whole Works of Thomas Boston: An Illustration of the Doctrines of the Christian Religion, Part 1, ed. Samuel M‘Millan, vol. 3 (Aberdeen: George and Robert King, 1848), 122. From Sermon IX: Christ’s Invitation To His Bride.

Tags: The Whole Works of Thomas Boston, Thomas Boston

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Categories Holiness, Sanctification, Thomas Boston

Thomas Boston – Union With the Unseen Christ

8 Apr

1676-1732. A Scottish Church Leader. One of the twelve Marrow Men.

Now, since Christ cannot be seen with our eyes, nor touched with our hands, while he is in heaven and we are on earth, and that he is not known to us but by his word of the gospel, what other way can we unite with him, but believing on this unseen Christ? So that faith is the only mean on our part. And its fitness for this work appears, if ye consider,

 (1.) That faith is a self-emptying and creature-emptying grace, throwing off and putting away all those things that might keep the soul at a distance from Christ, Phil. 3:8.

And,  (2.) It is as much fitted to receive an unseen Christ and salvation, which appears to us only in the word, as the hand to receive what can he received into it. For in the word Christ offers himself and all his salvation to us, which we cannot lay hold of by any bodily action whatsoever; but faith crediting the testimony, consenting to, and resting on the offered Christ, with his salvation, does actually get the same, as sure as there is truth in the word of the gospel.

~Thomas Boston~

The Whole Works of Thomas Boston: An Illustration of the Doctrines of the Christian Religion, Part 1, ed. Samuel M‘Millan, vol. 1 (Aberdeen: George and Robert King, 1848), 547-548.

Tags: The Whole Works of Thomas Boston, Thomas Boston

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Categories Gospel, Jesus Christ, Redemption, Thomas Boston, Union with Christ

Thomas Boston – Three Unions In Our Religion

5 Apr

1676-1732. A Scottish Church Leader. One of the twelve Marrow Men.

There are three mysterious unions in our religion. (1.) The substantial union of the three persons in one Godhead. (2.) The personal union of the divine and human natures in Jesus Christ. (3.) The mystical union betwixt Christ and believers, which is that wherein Christ and believers, are so joined, that they are one Spirit, and one mystical body, 1 Cor. 6:17 and 12:13.    

~Thomas Boston~

The Whole Works of Thomas Boston: An Illustration of the Doctrines of the Christian Religion, Part 1, ed. Samuel M‘Millan, vol. 1 (Aberdeen: George and Robert King, 1848), 546.

Tags: The Whole Works of Thomas Boston, Thomas Boston

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Categories God, Gospel, Incarnation, Jesus Christ, Thomas Boston, Trinity, Union with Christ

Thomas Boston – Redemption Comes Through Union

3 Apr

1676-1732. A Scottish Church Leader. One of the twelve Marrow Men.

Let us consider how Christ’s redemption is applied to a sinner. It is done by way of uniting the sinner to Christ, as a plaister is applied to a sore, by laying the one upon the other. A sinner is interested in, and put in possession of Christ’s redemption through union with him, 1 Cor. 1:30. ‘Of him are ye in Christ Jesus.’ Men must not think to stand afar from Christ, and partake of the benefits of his death, upon their praying to him for it, as the beggar on his crying gets of the rich man’s money thrown to him; which I observe is the soul ruining notion many have of this matter. But he must unite with Christ, and so partake of the redemption purchased by Christ, as the poor widow drowned in debt, by marrying the rich man, is interested in his substance. It is with Christ himself that all saving benefits are given, Rom. 8:32; and without him none such are received. Believe it, Sirs, that as Adam’s sin could never have hurt you, unless ye had been in him, so Christ’s redemption shall never savingly profit you, unless ye be in him, Eph. 1:7. ‘In whom we have redemption through his blood.’  

~Thomas Boston~

The Whole Works of Thomas Boston: An Illustration of the Doctrines of the Christian Religion, Part 1, ed. Samuel M‘Millan, vol. 1 (Aberdeen: George and Robert King, 1848), 545-546.

Tags: The Whole Works of Thomas Boston, Thomas Boston

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Categories Gospel, Jesus Christ, Redemption, Thomas Boston, Union with Christ

Thomas Boston – Eternal Life Beginning Now

11 Mar

It is not only life that is promised, but life eternal, life for evermore, Psalm 133:3; which, from the moment it is given, shall never be extinguished, through the ages of time and eternity. In the style of the Scripture, eternal life is not restricted to the state of glory in heaven. But the life communicated to a sinner, in the first moment of his union with Christ, is eternal: it is the eternal life promised in the covenant, according to the Scripture, John 3:36, “He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life.” See chap. 5:24; 1 John 5:11, 12. Hence, from the promise of the covenant, “The just shall live by faith,” the apostle proves the perseverance of the saints, Heb. 10:38. A plain evidence, that perseverance in grace, in this our state of imperfection, is a part of the eternal life promised in the covenant, as well as heaven’s happiness. And thus the covenant-life extends to that which now is, and that which is to come, 1 Tim. 4:8.

~Thomas Boston~

The Whole Works of Thomas Boston: Human Nature in Its Fourfold State and a View of the Covenant of Grace, ed. Samuel M‘Millan, vol. 8 (Aberdeen: George and Robert King, 1850), 474.