Human Misery by Thomas Boston

¹Taken, with editing, from Boston’s Works, vol 1. These are some “inferences” concluding a chapter on “the misery of man’s natural state”.

1. See the great evil of sin. Many reckon it but a small matter to transgress God’s holy and righteous law. They can curse and swear, lie and steal, and commit many other enormous crimes and yet have no trouble or remorse about it. But if they would consider the dreadful effects of sin, they would be of another mind. Sin is the worst of evils, and big with all kinds of evils. It has brought a flood of miseries into the world, which has overflowed the whole creation. Under its weight, the earth and all its inhabitants are groaning. It is the great cause of trouble between God and sinners; it has shut the door of access to God against us and exposed us to His wrath and curse in this life and in that which is to come.

2. The case of all in a state of nature is woeful. They are far from God; they have no interest in Him or fellowship with Him; they are under His wrath and curse, liable to all the miseries of this life and to the vengeance of eternal fire in the world to come. They have fallen under the power and tyranny of the devil and, if mercy does not prevent it, they shall dwell with him in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone for ever. Whatever your situation and circumstances in the world may be, you who are yet in your natural state are in a miserable condition, for you are without God, the fountain of all good. Men may be pleased with you and bless you, but you are under God’s wrath and curse, and will continue so till by faith you embrace God in Christ as your God.

3. Arise, sinners yet in your natural state, and depart, for this is not your rest. Come to the Lord Jesus, who alone can open the door of access to God. His blood quenches the fire of wrath and He can deliver from the curse of the law. Who would stay in a house ready to fall? Who can sleep soundly when God is an enemy? Lay these things seriously to heart and flee from the wrath you lie under, for the plague has begun already. Flee speedily from the wrath to come, for it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.