Thomas Boston
1. From the doctrine of Christ as Prophet we may infer the continual necessity of a standing ministry.
Christ has gone into heaven, and will continue there until the time of the restitution of all things. But by His ministers, His ambassadors, He daily instructs us; for that purpose He has set them in the Church by a firm and lasting arrangement, which shall remain to the end of the world (Mt 28:16,20). This is a great and valuable privilege; we ought to prize it highly and be careful to make good use of it. This alone is sufficient to counterbalance the greatest outward affliction that people can meet in the world; therefore we have that promise: “Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers” (Is 30:20).
2. The most unrefined and ignorant may be taught, since Christ executes the office of a Teacher.
He can teach the most stupid and give them an understanding; thus they may know the truths of the gospel. Therefore ignorance can be no excuse to gospel-hearers; Christ offers Himself to them as a Teacher. Let the most ignorant among you apply to Him, and He would teach you more than the most accomplished philosophers could ever attain by all the use they make of their natural understanding.
3. The weakest Christians need not be discouraged at the dullness and incapacity which they find in themselves, for Christ can easily reveal to babes what is hidden from the wise and prudent.
The Psalmist says, “The testimonies of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple”. Yes, the Lord delights to choose such as you are, so that His grace may appear more conspicuous in your weakness (1 Cor 1:26,27).
Well then, weak but serious Christian, do not be discouraged because you are not as quick in grasping things as others around you. Many of your neighbours may know more in other things than you do, but you are capable of knowing as much as is necessary for the salvation of your soul, and shall certainly know this if Christ is your Teacher. And that is sufficient to make you happy for ever. Others may indeed far excel you in the knowledge of
other things, but if you know Jesus Christ, and the truth as it is in Jesus, one drop of your knowledge is more valuable and desirable than a whole sea of natural and political knowledge. One precious truth sucked from the breast of Christ by faith and prayer, is infinitely better than ten thousand dry notions, hewn out by torturing the understanding.
4. Prayer is a proper means for the increase of knowledge.
Prayer is the golden key that unlocks this sacred treasure. When Daniel was to expound the secret contained in the King’s dream, about which the Chaldean magicians had racked their brains to no purpose, he addressed God by prayer (Dan 2:17,18). And you see what success he had: the secret was revealed to him. Luther was wont to say that three things made a divine: meditation, temptation and prayer. And a holy man in England was wont to study upon his knees. Indeed those truths which are got by prayer leave an unusual sweetness on the heart. In the use of means you should have your eyes towards Christ, praying that He would open your understandings and enlighten your minds with saving knowledge. This was David’s practice (see Ps 119:18,33,34).
5. Learn from this what reception you are to give to the Word.
Do not be strangers to your Bible, but read it as Christ’s word to you, with reverence, faith and love. Make conscience of attending the preaching of the Word, the dispensation of the sacraments, and catechising. Set yourselves to drink up the doctrine of Christ from Himself as your Teacher; if people believed that Christ was exercising His prophetic office among them in that way, they would not dare to treat these means of grace as they do.
6. See here the abomination of the Quakers and other enthusiasts who separate the Spirit from the Word.
To these may be added those who take up principles which have no basis in the Word, on the credit of dreams, visions, voices and impressions. And much more those who do so on their own light fancies, without serious examination of them by the Word. They all act in direct opposition to Christ as the great Teacher sent from God; consequently the light that is in them is darkness.
7. See also the abomination of formal and legal professors of religion, who know nothing of religion but keeping the law.
Being unacquainted with a due sense of their own emptiness and darkness in spiritual things and how to make use of Christ as a Prophet, they content themselves with the Word without the Spirit, and what they can hammer out of it on their own anvil – so separating the Word from the Spirit. Thus they live ignorant of the Spirit’s light on the Word, and how He makes Scripture truths clear to them. This can only be had through the soul going out of itself and its own wisdom to Christ, in a way of believing and depending on Him for influences of light and knowledge. Ignorance is the ruin of many in our day.
8. Woe to them then that have the teaching of the Word without the Spirit.
Are men not concerned about hearing so much without being illuminated by the Spirit in anything? Christ may be a Prophet to others, but He cannot be one to such people. Let them seriously consider that awful passage: “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor 4:3,4).
9. Receive Christ as a Prophet, and learn to make use of Him daily in this way.
Renounce your own wit and wisdom, and receive instruction from the mouth of this divine Teacher, who teaches to profit. Be of a docile disposition, willing to be taught by God: for “the meek will He teach His way”. And, for the Lord’s sake, do not refuse to listen to the voice of this great Prophet; otherwise it will be your ruin. Consider the awful truth of this verse: “It shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people” (Acts 3:23). Hear Him then and “beware lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish” (Acts 13:40,41).
^1Taken, with editing, from Boston’s Works, vol 1.