Both titles reviewed here, and the other books referred to in these reviews are available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom, apart from Boston’s Memoirs.
Scattered and Kept, Twenty-eight Lost Sermons, by Thomas Boston
published by Ettrick Press, hardback, 461 pages, £24.00.
The Collected Works of Thomas Boston have been read and prized throughout our land and beyond for many generations, and in better days in Scotland there were many homes where such volumes as Human Nature in its Four-fold State and The Crook in the Lot, as well as Memoirs of Thomas Boston, would have been found. This makes these rediscovered sermons a precious gift to the Church today.
Thomas Boston (1676-1732) was, as described in the Preface, “one of the most remarkable and godly ministers to adorn the Church of Christ since the days of the apostles”. His ministry of 33 years was spent in two remote parishes in the Scottish Borders. The first was Simprin, from 1699 to 1707, and the second Ettrick, from 1707 until his death in 1732. It would seem that his ministry bore little fruit for quite a number of years. At length, however, much blessing attended Boston’s faithful and diligent labours, following his providential discovery of the book, The Marrow of Modern Divinity. This book clarified for him the sinner’s warrant to believe, the believer’s relationship to the law and the nature of faith.
The Preface explains: “Although Boston’s sermons in this book were preached at different times and on different occasions, when collected together they seem to provide an extended commentary on the Church’s timeless confession about our Saviour: ‘He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock’ (Jer 31:10). These sermons clearly expose the reasons for God scattering His people, and the solemnity of experiencing God’s displeasure. They also preach the means of God gathering his scattered people – the glorious message of the gospel. And they proclaim the faithfulness of God, who keeps His once straying and now recovered sheep. Such preaching is very much needed in the Church today.”
Again, as explained in the Preface, following an explanation of where those sermons were discovered, we learn that this book gathers the sermons from four sources. The first two are: A collection of sermons showing the grounds of the Lord’s controversy with the church and land (1772); The straying state and condition of mankind sinners (1761). (This source includes a sermon by Henry Davidson, Boston’s friend and ministerial colleague at Galashiels.) The third source is, Several sermons on the recovery from the ruins of the fall by Jesus Christ and the difference between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace; it is an appendix to the first edition of Boston’s View of the Covenant of Works (1772). Finally there is, A collection of sermons on the following important subjects (1772); the largest part of this collection of eight sermons was preached at Maxton and Morebattle communion seasons in 1715 and 1725.
All of these sermons, like those in his Collected Works, are relatively brief. (We learn from a footnote in his Commentary on the Shorter Catechism (vol 2, p 374) that Boston “was generally a short preacher, seldom, on ordinary occasions, exceeding half an hour, and that his delivery was somewhat slow”.) The sermons are, however, most profound and, as seen in this volume, tend to follow the same order. After stating his text and giving a brief introduction, he would state the doctrine or doctrines arising from the text. There may be one or several doctrines, which would usually determine the number of sermons he would preach from the text. Generally there would be a sermon on each of the doctrines.
An example of Boston’s preaching – on the text, “For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls” (1 Pet 2:25) – is seen in his introduction: “Adam’s sons, as inheritors of their father’s folly, are born wanderers; and ever since he broke over the hedge of God’s covenant into the devil’s common, they are wandering from mountain to mountain, having forgotten their resting place. And because a wandering disposition is natural unto them, therefore they cannot return until they be returned, as in my text, But are now returned . . . The fallen angels are left to be miserable wanderers. So the Scripture represents them, walking about, going to and fro. They are straying wretches, but the great Shepherd has no commission to gather them. They stray and will stray, until they be shut up in the pit, they stray without anyone seeking after them. But Jesus Christ is the Shepherd of Adam’s sons, some of whom are returned to Him already” (p 183).
Literally, a grassy area that everyone can use.
Later, in speaking of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, purchasing the life and return of the strays, Boston goes on: “The Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep, according to the eternal compact. The word was given, ‘Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My fellow’ (Zec 13:7); and then Justice pursued Him from the cradle to the grave, and did not leave Him, till it brought Him to the dust of death. The Shepherd stood in the gap the strays had made in the first enclosure, namely the covenant of works. For the making it up, two things were demanded, and He answered in both, [namely] obedience and suffering, both which were necessary to making up of the hedge the strays had broken down. The waters of the curse, a flood of wrath, which would have swept all the strays away before it for evermore, brake out at the gap. It overflowed Him, sunk into His very soul, even to the very last drop; but they were all swallowed up in Him, because of the excellency of Him that stood in the gap, to make up the breach” (p 190).
Many more quotations from that and other sermons in this book could be given, but we conclude with one from Boston’s sermon on: “And on earth peace” (Lk 2:14): “It is owing to the slighting of Christ that there is so little peace on earth, where the gospel is preached. That there is little peace in the pagan world, where the way to get peace with God is not known, is no wonder. But that there is so little peace among those called by the name of the great peace-maker, and who enjoy the gospel of peace, is strange indeed. But if we narrowly consider the matter, and trace it to the spring-head, why there is so little peace in the kingdom, in the church, in families, and in the breasts of particular persons, we will find it to arise from the departure from God the centre of unity, and refusing to return to Him by Jesus Christ, the great peace-maker, without which we will never recover solid peace within, or among ourselves . . . For peace built on the ruins of truth and holiness is none of that peace on earth that was purchased by Christ.”
Boston goes on: “They that are interested in Jesus Christ may be easy, though they have little of the world’s peace (Jn 16:33). Though a Christian’s external peace be broken, while he has internal peace in his own conscience, and a prospect of eternal peace with God through Jesus Christ, he has no reason to be discouraged. Amidst all the tossings one meets with on earth, it is full comfort that the soul has peace with God. Josiah died in peace, though he died of wounds received in battle (2 Chr 34:28 compared with 35:23-24)” (pp 294-5).
Anything by Thomas Boston that is in print is most refreshing to read, and this volume is no exception. Highly recommended. (Rev) W A Weale
Why Were Our Reformers Burned? by J C Ryle
published by the Banner of Truth Trust, booklet, 42 pages, £2.00.
Ryle writes here in his usual clear, forthright way; no one can fail to understand what he means. We should note that, when he speaks of “our Reformers”, he means the leaders of the English Reformation who were burned to death in the time of Queen Mary in a cruel campaign that led to this fanatical Romanist becoming known as “Bloody Mary”. Why Were Our Reformers Burned? is also available as one of the chapters in the paperback, Five English Reformers, and also in the larger volume, Light from Old Times, both by Ryle.
The first main point in this booklet deals with the “broad facts” of the period, when at least 288 people were burned at the stake during the years 1555 to 1558, because they would not recant their Protestant beliefs. Ryle gives the historical background: Edward VI, a genuine Protestant, died young and was replaced by Mary, while English Protestantism was still in its infancy.
A second main section describes the martyrdom of nine leading Reformers, beginning with John Rogers, a London minister, “a bold, thorough Protestant, who had fully made up his mind on all points of the Romish controversy, and was able to give a reason for his opinions”. He had played an important part in the translation of the Bible into English. The French ambassador noted that Rogers went to his death “as if he was walking to his wedding”.
Ryle’s third point is to emphasise “the special reason why our Reformers were burned”. He is in no doubt that it was their refusal, “in almost every case”, to accept the Roman Catholic doctrine of “the real presence of the body and blood of Christ” in the mass. The crucial question was: “Did they or did they not believe that the body and blood of Christ were really, that is, corporally, literally, locally and materially, present under the forms of bread and wine after the words of consecration were pronounced?” Ryle adds, “If they did not believe and admit it, they were burned”. Then follow a series of quotations to show that each of the nine Reformers described was burned because he rejected the false teaching of “the real presence”. It is such a significant error, Ryle points out, that it spoils “the blessed doctrine of Christ’s finished work when He died on the cross” and His “priestly office”.
In the fourth and final section, Ryle seeks to apply what he had written in the previous pages. He was writing in the second half of the nineteenth century, when he could see that “a conspiracy has been long at work for unprotestantising the Church of England”. What he describes as “Ritualism” – or Anglo-Catholicism – was, he says, growing and spreading, and he was anxious to preserve his denomination from drifting further towards Rome; he produced Why Were Our Reformers Burned? to oppose this trend. Yet he argued that her people “ought not lightly to forsake the Church of England”, especially when the 39 Articles “remain unaltered”. That policy has proved unsuccessful; though the Church still has its 39 Articles, subscription to them is now very loose indeed. In practice, it seems that one can believe almost anything and still be an Anglican minister. Apart from some of the comments in the last section, this booklet is very useful.