THOMAS

See also:

• BOSTON
• THOMAS BOSTON (1676-1732)

BOSTON (1676-1732)  , Scottish divine, was born at Duns on the 17th of March 1676 . His father, John Boston, and his mother, Alison Trotter, were both Covenanters . He was educated at Edinburgh, and licensed in 1697 by the presbytery of Chirnside . In 1699 he became minister of the small parish of Simprin, where there were in all " not more than 90 examinable persons." In 1704 he found, while visiting a member of his flock, a book which had been brought into Scotland by a common-wealth soldier . This was the famous Marrow of Modern Divinity, by Edward Fisher, a compendium of the opinions of leading Reformation divines on the doctrine of grace and the offer of the Gospel . Its object was to demonstrate the unconditional freeness of the Gospel . It cleared away such conditions as repentance, or some degree of outward or inward reformation, and argued that where Christ is heartily received, full repentance and a new life follow . On Boston's recommendation, Hog of Carnock reprinted The Marrow in 1718; and Boston also published an edition with notes of his own . The book, being attacked from the standpoint of high Calvinism, became the standard of a far-reaching movement in Scottish Presbyterianism . The " Marrow men " were marked by the zeal of their service and the effect of their preaching . As they remained Calvinists they could not preach a universal atonement; they were in fact extreme particular redemptionists . In 1707 Boston was translated to Ettrick .

He distinguished himself by being the only member of the

assembly who entered a protest against what he deemed the inadequate sentence passed on John Simson, professor of divinity at Glasgow, who was accused of heterodox teaching on the Incarnation . He died on the 20th of May 1732 . His books, The Fourfold State, The Crook in the Lot, and his Body of Divinity and Miscellanies, long exercised a powerful influence over the Scottish peasantry . His Memoirs were published in 1776 (ed . G . D . Low, 1908) . An edition of his works in 12 volumes appeared in 1849 . (D .