The Beauties of Thomas Boston (eBook)

by Thomas Boston (editied by Samuel MacMillan)

in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats

"The Beauties of Thomas Boston" is a masterfully curated compilation of sermons and writings by the eminent Scottish Puritan theologian, Thomas Boston. A profound exploration into a myriad of theological subjects, this collection deeply explores topics such as the covenant of grace, the role of Christ as the priest, mankind's fall, the doctrine of election, and the profound workings of God's providence.

Thomas Boston's remarkable gift of making intricate theological subjects both clear and accessible is evident throughout the book. His writing, imbued with vivid anecdotes, not only aids comprehension but also brings his profound messages to life. Rooted in the Reformed tradition, Boston's theology accentuates the absolute sovereignty of God, the inherent depravity of man, and the indispensable role of grace in salvation. As he unravels these themes, Boston underscores God's unconditional grace and mankind's sheer incapacity for self-salvation.

Among the standout features of this compilation are Boston's unmatched treatises on profound theological issues such as election and the covenants of works and grace. More than a mere exposition, the book also challenges readers to introspect, urging them towards a closer alignment with the image of Christ, touching upon areas of prayer, scripture, and unwavering faith in Christ.

For anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Puritan teachings or Christian theology's more intricate facets, "The Beauties of Thomas Boston" serves as an invaluable resource. Equally suited for scholars and laypeople, this book shines a light on the teachings of a man whose piety, introspection, and influence on Scottish spiritual life remain unparalleled. Boston's legacy, extending beyond this book, is evident in his other influential works that have left an indelible mark on Scottish spiritual literature.

Some of Boston's Works, The Fourfold State, The Crook in the Lot, and his Body of Divinity, had a powerful influence over the Scottish peasantry. His Memoirs were published in 1776 (ed. GD Low, 1908). An edition of his works in 12 volumes appeared in 1849 and just republished again in 2023

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Table of Contents 

SCRIPTURE

-- The Nature of that Faith and Obedience which the Holy Scriptures Teach

-- Discovering the True Sense of Scripture

-- Reason not the Supreme Judge of Controversies in Religion 

-- To Search and Study the Scriptures is the Duty of All Classes of Men

-- Several things of Great Importance pre-supposed in these words - Isaiah 34:16

-- Weighty Reasons for Diligently Reading and Searching the Book of God

-- Earnest Exhortations and Powerful Motives to Read and Search the Book of God

-- Useful Directions for Reading and Searching the Scriptures

PRAYER

-- Explanation of What it is to Pray in the Name of Christ

-- By What Means Believers pray in a Manner Acceptable to God

-- What Classes of Men we are to Pray For

-- For What, and how we are to Pray

-- The Necessity of Secret Prayer

-- Important Questions Concerning Secret Prayer Stated and Answered

-- Motives to Secret Prayer, with Answers to Objections commonly made to the Performance of this Duty

-- The Only Rule which God Hath Given to Direct His People in the Prayers to Him

GOD

-- Directions to Aid Us in Forming Right Notions of God as a Spirit, infinistely Pure and Perfect

-- In What God's Attribute of Wisdom is Gloriously Displayed

-- In What God's Attribute of Power is Gloriously Displayed

-- In What God's Glorious Attribute of Holiness is Manifested

-- In What God's Awful Attribute of Justice is Manifested

-- Plausible Objections to the Justice of God Stated and Answered

-- Important Lessons from the Justice of God

-- In What the Wonderous Goodness of God is Manifested

-- In What God's Glorious Attribute of Truth is Manifested

-- There is, and Can be but One God

- The Awful and Destructive Nature of Atheism

-- Directions How to Guard Against Atheism

-- Clear Evidence of the Godhead Subsisting in Three Persons

-- How the Tree Persons of the Godhead are Distinguished

-- Clear Evidence of the Three Persons of the Godhead being One God

-- The Great Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity

THE PUBLIC ORDINANCES

-- Interesting Explanation of Acts 10:33

-- Reasons Why We Should be Careful to Attend the Public Ordinances of God

-- In What Respects Are We Before the Lord at Public Ordinances

GOD'S DECREES

-- The Chief End of God's Decrees Explained

-- The Properties of God's Decrees Explained

-- Objections to God's Decrees Stated and Answered

-- Important Lessons Drawn from the Decrees of God

GOD THE CREATOR

-- God Alone Created the World

-- Important Lessons from the Doctrine of God's Creation of the World

-- In What the Image of God, in which Man was Created, Consisted

-- Important Lessons Deduced From the Consideration of Man's State of Innocence

CHRIST'S PRIESTHOOD

-- The Evidence of Christ's True Priesthood

-- The Import of Christ's Offering Himself a Sacrifice

-- What the Sacrifice Was Which Christ Offered

-- For Whom Christ Offered Himself a Sacrifice

-- Christ Grace Full Satisfaction to the Justice of God

-- What Rendered Christ's Sacrifice so Acceptable to God, and so Efficacious for Men

-- Objections to the Sufferings of Christ for the Sins of His People, Stated and Answered

-- Reconciliation by the Death of Christ Explained and Proved

-- Important Instructions from the Doctrine of Reconciliation by the Death of Christ

-- The Effacacious Intercession of Christ Illustrated

BELIEVING IN CHRIST

-- Privileges of those Espoused to Christ

-- What is Imported in the Exhortation, 'Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear,' Psalm 45:10

-- How Christ Speaks to His Spouse, and what it is for His Spouse to hear Christ

-- How We are to View Christ, that we may Please Him in All Things

-- Motives to Hear Christ, and to Suit Ourselves to His Pleasure

-- Who Are our Own People Mentioned in Psalm 45:10 whom we Must Forget; in What Respects and Why We Must Forget Them.

-- Motives to Forsake Evil Company

-- What they Must Part With, Who Forget Their Father's House, as Commanded, Psal. 45:10. and Reasons Why they Must Obey this Command

-- Who Are they That Will Not Leave their Father's House, as Exhorted and Commanded of God, Psal. 45:10

-- Matthew 11:28 Explained, "Come unto Me, all ye that Labour, and are heavy-ladenm and I will give you rest."

-- Reasons why Christ is so Kind and Liberal to Invite Sinners of Mankind to Come to Him, that they may Share of His Special Goodness

-- The Character of the Persons Whom Christ Invites to Come to Him, Matt. 11:28

-- Consideration of What it is that Sinners our of Christ are Labouring For

-- How it is, that Men out of Christ Labour for Happiness

-- The nature of the labour of sinners out of Christ, considered, 1st, As it respects their lusts; 2nd, As it respects the law.

-- Why Sinners Labour for Happiness, Yet Come not to Christ for it.

-- The sinner Earnestly Expostulated with.

-- Christless Sinners Under a Heavy Burden

-- The Nature of Coming to Christ Explained

-- Several things Imported in our Lord's Kind Invitation to Sinners, Matt. 11:28

-- The Nature of that Rest which Christ Graciously Promises, and Actually Gives, to Weary and Heavy-Laden Sinners.

GOD'S PROVIDENCE

-- Consideration of the Preserving and Governing acts of God's Providence

-- Properties of God's Providence

-- Directions to be Observed in Considering the Providence of God

-- Practical Observation of the Dispensations of Providence

-- A Fourfold Harmony to be Observed in the Dispensations of Providence

-- Useful Lessons from the Doctrine of the Wise Observation of Providence

-- Important Instructions Concerning Providence

ELECTION

-- Ephesians 1. 3, 4, 5 Explained

-- What Sinners of Mankind are Chosen To

-- The Glorious Properties of God's Election of Sinners

-- By Whom God's Chosen are Redeemed and Saved

-- Useful Lessons from the Doctrine of God's Election

THE COVENANT OF WORKS

-- Genesis 2:17 Explained

-- Evidences of a Covenant of Works Between God and the First Man Adam

-- In the Covenant of Works, Adam was Constituted as Public Person, and the Representation of All His Posterity

-- The Justice and Equity of Adam's Representation in the Covenant of Works

-- The Nature of the Obedience in Which Man is Obliged by the Covenant of Works

-- The Difference Between Adam's and the Believer's Heaven

THE FALL OF MAN

-- How Man's Nature is Wholly Corrupted, and How Man in hi First Sin Transgressed the Whole Law

-- Man's Natural State, Matter of Deep Lamentation

-- The Necessity of Having a Special Eye Upon the Corruption and Sin of our Nature

-- The Reason Why God was Pleased to deal with Man in the Way of a Covenant

-- Consideration of What our First Parents Fell From, and of What they Fell Into

-- A Full Explanation of the Way by Which the Lamentable Fall of our First Parents Happened

-- Useful Lessons from the Doctrine of the Fall

-- An Affecting View of that in which the Evil of Sin Doth Lie

-- How Adam's First Sin Comes to the imputed to All His Posterity

-- Psalm 51:5 Explained

-- Original Sin Proved, in what this Sin Consists, and How Far it Extends

-- Useful Lessons from the Doctrine of Original Sin

-- The Dreadful Misery Into which All Mankind are Brought by Adam's Fall

-- Useful Lessons from the Awful Doctrine of Man's Misery in his Fallen Condition

-- A Full Answer to the Question: Who Among Men are Still under the Broken Covenant of Works, or Still Under the Curse of the Broken Law

-- Reasons why Man in a Christian Land Still Remain Under the Broken Covenant of Works

-- An Affecting View of the Awful Consequences of a Sinner's Dying Under the Curse of the Broken Law

THE JUDGMENT OF THE WICKED

-- A View of the Wicked Rising from the Grave under the Curse

-- The Wicked, Under the Curse, Appearing at the Judgment-Seat of Christ

-- An Affecting View of Sinners Lying For Ever in Hell, Under the Curse of the Broken Law

THE COVENANT OF GRACE

-- The Covenant of Grace, the Grand Foundation of all Saving Mercy to Lost Sinners of Adam's race

-- Instructions Deduced from the Consideration of Saving Mercy Exhibited in the Covenant of Grace

-- How Christ the Son of God Became the Second Adam. and How the Covenant of Grace was made With Him as the Second Adam

-- For What, Christ, in the Covenant of Grace, became Surety to God, for His People

-- The Absolute Necessity of Christ's Priesthood

-- Christ Fulfilling All Righteousness, as the Surety and Representative of His People, is the Ground and Only Condition of the Covenant of Grace

-- Several Things of Awful Import, Agreed to Between the Father and the Son in the Covenant of Grace

-- Instructive Lessons from the Consideration of the Singular Condition of the Covenant of Grace

-- The True Character of Those Who are Personally and Savingly Interested by Faith in the Covenant of Grace

-- Promises Peculiar to Christ Made in the Covenant of Grace

-- Promises of the Covenant of Grace to God's Elect while yet in their State of Rebellion Against Him

-- Promises of the Covenant of Grace to God's Elect, from the Time of Actually Embracing Christ Till Death

-- Promises of the Covenant of Grace to God's Elect, from the Period of the Death Through the Ages of Eternity

-- Christ as a Prophet Administers the Covenant of Grace

-- The Chief Acts of Christ Administering the Covenant of Grace as a King

-- Discovery of the Means by Which Sinners Embrace the Covenant of Grace

-- The Faith of the Law Necessary to our Entering into the Covenant of Grace

-- The Faith of the Gospel Necessary to our Entering into the Covenant of Grace