I.
THE Rev. Thomas Boston, though such an eminent preacher of the Gospel and faithful minister of Christ had some very trying experiences as a minister in Ettrick. He tells the story of these trials in his Memoirs from which the following quotation is taken. That Boston was faithful to no ordinary degree is made clear in the extract* we published in the Magazine; his record is on high and among the faithful of the land he was held in the highest esteem for his faithfulness governed by a judicious carefulness. Still, in his congregation at Ettrick there was a considerable number who did not consider him as faithful as they thought he ought to be and it is to these reference is made in the following extract. The devoted pastor’s troubles continued for about ten years after coming to Ettrick and it is only when the parish was likely to lose him by being transferred to Closeburn that the people wakened up to realise what a gift they had from God in their minister. This is his account of the troubles:—”Being settled here, I soon found I was come from home, and that I was but beginning to be a minister of a parish. As for the people, the natives, generally speaking were naturally smart, and of an uncommon assurance; self-conceited, and censorious to a pitch, using an indecent freedom both, with Church and State. There were three parties in the place. One of dissenters, followers of Mr. John Macmillan,† a considerable number, who have been all along unto this day a dead weight on my ministry in the place; though not so great now, by far, as in former years. Another was an heritor in the parish, with two elders dependents of his. He himself deserted the ordinances, for about the space of the first ten years, viz., till the affair of
*”Carnal and Spiritual Wisdom” (vol. xxxviii, p. 413).
†The Rev. John Macmillan, Balmaghe, who left the Church of Scotland and joined the Society People who were afterwards known as Reformed Presbyterians.
Closeburn. One of the elders having heard a little while, went off for altogether to the dissenters [i.e. the Society People]. The other, for ought I know, never heard me after I was settled among them. The third was the congregation of my hearers, under the disadvantage of what influence these two parties could have upon them. Their appetite for the ordinances I did not find to be sharpened by the long fast they had got, for about the space of four years. Wherefore, soon perceiving the little value they had for occasions of hearing the gospel, and having called a meeting for business, on a week-day, 19th August. I preached to them, that day, the sense I had of their case, from Is. xliii, 22: “Thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.” I plainly saw, that a brother, who, at the Synod which transported me, was overheard to bid let me go, I would get preaching my fill there, was far out. On the contrary, I behoved to bid farewell to a pleasant part of my exercise of that nature before; and to have it miserably slighted and despised, where occasionally I was called to it. And for the Sabbaths’ sermons, they were but coldly enough received; but remarkable was the pricking up of ears, when anything relative to the public fell in; which was a wounding observe to me.
To the breeding and cherishing of this disposition among them, several things occurred. There being little knowledge of religion among them, till the time of confusion and persecution; so that John Andison in Gamescleugh told me of a time, when there was not a Bible in the church, but the minister’s, his father’s and another’s; they drank in the principles of Presbytery in the greatest height, with the principles of Christianity. The dissenters were in great reputation among them, and continually buzzing in their ears something to the disparagement of the Church and the ministry. Moreover, the union with England, which they were violently set against, trysted with my settling among them, and brought in an unacceptable change of the state of affairs. And, finally, they lived alone.
A profession of religion generally obtained among them, through the preaching of the persecuted ministers in and about the place. Before the Revolution, they were generally made Presbyterians, praying persons, and several of them, I believe, good Christians. Often I observed, that I had never seen in a country-kirk more Bibles than appeared in ours; nor more persons giving in to the Sabbath’s collection for the poor. And indeed they were, and are, very liberal to the poor, both their own, and strangers passing among them; but very unkind to strangers settling among them, and not very benevolent in neighbourhood among themselves. But one thing I was particularly surprised with, viz., the prevalency of the sin of profane swearing; and was amazed to find blessing and cursing proceeding out of the same mouth; praying persons, and praying in their families too, horrid swearers at times; so that by the month of November I behoved to set myself to preach, directly against that sin.
The very next day after my preaching from Acts x. 33, as above related, Mr. Macmillan came to Eskdale, and some of my hearers went to him. This was what I got to begin with. On the morrow after, I went up to S. to see J. L.’s family and others: my design was to endeavour to prevent their perverting others. When I came there, I went first into the house of one of my hearers; and there I was surprised with the news of Mr. Macmillan’s being in J. L.’s, and others with him. The old man came in to me. Is. L. came into that house, but never noticed me; but I carried courteously to her, and told her I had a mind to have come and seen them. She told me I should be welcome. When I went in, J. L. showed not common civility. I was set down among three men, strangers, none of whom I knew. They were S. H. of H., Mr. St. and Mr. Sm. The last I took for Mr. Macmillan, having never seen the man. Being set down, I was resolved to divert disputes, at least a while, with some discourse of practical godliness. Wherefore being asked, “What news?” I said, that news were hard
to be got here, the place being so far remote from towns; that it was like Jerusalem, Ps. exxv. 2; which brought us at length to the discourse of communion with God; concerning which S. H. gave his opinion, that it consisted in doing the will of God, and keeping His commandments. I told him, that all communion was mutual, and therefore it could not consist in that; and shewed, that actual communion with God, which we ordinarily call communion with God, consists in the Lord letting down the influences of His grace on the soul, and the soul’s reacting the same in the exercise of grace. O, says he, that is extraordinary; wherewith I was stunned. I told him it was that without which neither he nor I would be saved. How will you prove that? says he. So I was put to prove it to him. Thereafter he brought in the matter of the separation; told, that he understood I was an enemy to them, and preached against them. I acknowledged, that I judged their way was not of God; and therefore, when it fell in my way, I did preach against it, and understanding that he meant of a note I had at Morbattie sacrament, I desired him to tell me what he heard I had said. He shifted this; and I told it him, viz., that I exhorted those that had met with God at that occasion, to tell to them, that it was so; and that they thereupon, according to the spirit of the gospel, should say: ‘We will go with you, for we hear the Lord is with you.’ . . . . . In January 1708 the fire in the congregation was blown up into a violent flame, upon occasion of my observing a fast on the 14th of that month, appointed by the civil magistrate. Upon this many of my hearers broke off, and left me; several of whom never returned. There was such a headiness among the people, and the day was so bad, that few came to it. I had no scruple as to the observing of it; though I thought it a grievance and disadvantage that we were come under by the Union, and the taking away of the Privy Council, whereby there was no correspondence betwixt the Church and State as to fasts. But considering the temper of the people, I thought, if I should have yielded to
them in this, I would teach them to dictate ever after unto me. . . . . . The Lord’s Day immediately thereafter, it was so stormy, that I had only a few to preach to, in the house. Then I found myself like a bird shaken out of its nest, and was as an owl in the desert. Instead of the converse I, sometime a day, had with exercised Christians about their own spiritual case, I was engaged in disputes about the public, and about separation, and how to defend the lawfulness and duty of hearing me preach the gospel; and for the most part to no effect. So that many a time it was a terror to me to go out among them; and coming to particular places, I often looked very blunt, finding myself beset with contemners of me and my ministry; who often kept not within the bounds of common civility.
(To be continued).
Notes of Sermon.
by the late Rev. D. Macfarlane, Dingwall.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: As it is written, the just shall live by faith.” (Rom. I. 16-17).
THE Apostle Paul wrote this epistle to the Romans in which there are all the doctrines that pertain to the Christian faith. At that time there was a congregation in Rome in which there were many true Christians. He addresses his Epistle to these, describing them as “beloved of God and called to be saints.” The word “saints” does not apply only to a certain class of God’s people, as some hold, but it applies to all of them, as all are to some extent holy or sanctified. He thanks God that there were such in Rome, and they were so famous that “their faith was spoken of throughout the whole world.” He prays for them and longs to see them. He often purpose to
visit them, but was hitherto hindered. He desired to go to Rome to preach the gospel to them that he might establish them in the faith. On account of God’s great mercy to himself personally, he felt that he was under obligations to “preach to the Greeks (Gentiles) and to the barbarians, and to the wise and the unwise.” So that as much as in him was he was “ready to preach the gospel to them at Rome also.” His intended visit would, he hoped, be of mutual benefit to them and to himself. He hoped to impart spiritual gifts to them to the end that they might be established, and that he might himself be comforted by his intercourse with them. In addressing you from the words of our text, we shall notice: I. That the Apostle was “not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,” and II. The reason he gives for this confidence.
I. He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. This implies that some were ashamed of it. Not only that the Jews who put Christ to death were ashamed of it, but the pagans in Rome who thought so much of their own false religion were ashamed of the gospel of Christ and persecuted those who professed the Christian religion. To look for salvation to a person who suffered an ignominious death was a thing of which they would be ashamed. Rome was the capital of the then known world, and contained learned men who thought much more of their own learning than of the gospel of Christ and despised those that preached the gospel, but Paul was not ashamed to preach the gospel to these. He gloried in preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Gal. vi. 14). Some who are in the land of the gospel are ashamed of it, they want something new, something strange. Christ’s ministers are not ashamed to preach the gospel howsoever much they may suffer from their enemies for their work. They are often ashamed of themselves, because of their imperfections and shortcomings in performing their duties in connection with the glorious work which God has given them to do. Many are ashamed of the gospel, who
are not ashamed of sinning against God. The proud and self-righteous are ashamed of the gospel, but not those who have found out their great need of the gospel.
II. The reason why he is not ashamed of the gospel. There are two things in the reason. (1) “Because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” The gospel is the channel through which God exerts His power to save sinners. He created the world by the word of His power, but he saves sinners by the Word of the gospel. The bare Word is not sufficient for this end; it requires the power of God by the agency of the Holy Spirit, to accompany it in order to salvation. So, the Word of the gospel came to the Thessalonians, as the Apostle states, “Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost.” (I. Thess. i. 5). The end, for which God exerts His saving power through the gospel, is salvation. The salvation of our souls is the most important thing for us. If we are not saved, we shall be miserable forever in eternity. Many are satisfied if they are supplied with everything that their bodies need, and care not what may become of their souls, but “What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark viii. 36).
In order to be saved, faith is necessary. The gospel is the power of God to every one that believeth. What are we to believe? And in whom are we to believe? We are to believe the gospel as it testifies of Christ, and we are to believe in Christ by means of the gospel. You cannot believe in Christ saving without believing the Word of the gospel. When Christ began His public ministry, He said, “Repent and believe the gospel.” (Mark i. 15), and when the jailor at Philippi asked, what must I do to be saved? the Apostle said unto him, “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” The gospel has been experienced to be the power of God unto salvation by many who are now in heaven and by some who are yet in the world. The Christians in Rome, to whom the Apostle wrote
this epistle, are in heaven, and they praise God for sending the gospel to them while on earth, and for making it effectual unto their salvation. The gospel will not benefit you unless you believe it.
While the Apostle declares that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, he shows the sinful and miserable condition in which all men, Jews and Gentiles, are by nature. They are all exposed to the wrath of God on account of their sins. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” (v. 18). The description he gives of the Gentiles shows how abominable they had been in their practice, and in the third chapter he states that there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles as they are by nature. Before the gospel is blessed to sinners, the Spirit convinces them of their sins and misery, in order that they may see their need of Christ to save them. In the preaching of unconverted ministers, there is little or nothing said about the necessity of the work of the Spirit in applying Christ’s redemption, though the necessity of being “born of the Spirit” is clearly taught in Scripture. It was the first lesson that Christ taught Nicodemus, “Verily, Verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John iii. 5).
(2) The second thing in the reason that the Apostle gives for not being ashamed of the gospel of Christ is that “therein is the righteousness of God revealed.” The Righteousness of God here is the righteousness on the meritorious ground of which sinners are justified and saved. It is called the righteousness of God, because it was appointed by God the Father, and approved by Him, and because it was wrought out by God the Son in our nature. This righteousness is revealed in the gospel, and is imputed to every sinner who believes in Christ. We had no hand in working out this righteousness in whole or in part, and God imputes it to us as our own in the day we believe.
The sins of His people were imputed to Christ, although He had no hand in committing these sins. He endured the penalty of our sins that we might receive the benefits merited by His righteousness. Many refuse to be saved on the ground of Christ’s righteousness, because they expect to be saved on the ground of their own righteousness. They are under a covenant of works, and expect to be saved on the ground of their own works though the Scriptures clearly teach that “by the works of the law no flesh can be justified in the sight of God.” Nothing can root out self-righteousness from the hearts of sinners but the grace of God, and the teaching of the Holy Spirit, which declares that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Before Paul was converted, he trusted in his own righteousness, but after his conversion he said, “that he had no confidence in the flesh.” All his hope for salvation was founded upon the righteousness of Christ, and the Spirit that taught him this is the same that teaches all true Christians. The standard of righteousness is the law of God, and no sinner by his own works can come up to that standard, but Christ by His obedience unto death satisfied all the requirements of the law, and if His righteousness is imputed to us, the law is satisfied with us on the meritorious ground of His righteousness.
This righteousness is “revealed from faith to faith,” that is, according to some interpreters, from the faithfulness of God in His testimony concerning the righteousness to the faith of believers in receiving that testimony, and according to others, from the first act of faith to repeated acts of faith during our time in the world. The latter seems to be the meaning, as it is spoken by the Apostle in connection with the words, “The just shall live by faith.” It is said of believers not only that they came unto Christ, but that they continue to come unto Him as to a living stone.” (I Peter ii. 4). and that as they continue to run the race set before them, they are by faith looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith. The exercise of faith is continued during our time in the world.
There are some who say that they believed in Christ once, and that they have no need of believing in Him again, but that is not the case with us; if we are true Christians, we need to come to Christ by faith daily. When we enter the closet to pray in secret, when we gather at the family altar for family worship, or attend the prayer meeting and the preaching of the gospel in public, we need to look to Christ by faith, till faith is swallowed up in vision, when we enter heaven at death. If Christ and His righteousness are yours, you are a rich and a happy person, although you would be stripped of all temporal possessions as Job was. The Lord sometimes deprives people of their wealth and health, that they may make choice of Christ as the good part that shall not be taken away from them.
In closing this great subject we ask: “What do you think of the gospel of Christ?” Is it great and precious in your estimation, or, are you ashamed of it as a thing of no value to you. Oh! how thankful we ought to be to God for revealing to us the way of salvation in the glorious gospel. “If it is hid, it is hid to them that are lost,” who are blind and cannot see it.
If you have experienced the gospel as the power of God unto salvation, you are a changed person, changed in your nature, in your state, and in your practice. There are many in the land who manifest by their filthy language that they are still in a state of sin and misery. They curse and swear, and if you ask them why do they use such bad language, they would say, if they spoke the truth, “We speak the language of our father the devil, the language that is spoken in hell.” It would not be a wonder to us, although such bad language might be heard among the heathen, but it is a shame to hear it in the land of the gospel. But heathen in the land of the gospel are worse than those in heathen lands, and their punishment in eternity will be greater than that of those who never heard the gospel. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may
minister grace unto the hearers.” (Ephes. iv. 29). To those to whom the gospel is blessed the Lord promises to turn a pure language—“For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one consent.” (Zeph. iii. 9).