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“On the 18^th I went to God, and begged… [that] I might be helped to live by faith, above the world… My soul went out in love to Christ, followed hard after Him, and I saw much content, delight, and sweet in Him.”

Learning contentment

By May 1698, Boston had moved to Ferrytown, near Edinburgh, where he lodged with Thomas Brown and his family. Boston was now twenty-two years old and the words of Paul to Timothy ought to be taken to heart: “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity (1 Tim. 4:12).” Age is no barrier to knowing and honouring God.

Again, Boston needed to learn to deal with disappointment in a godly way. The presbytery under whose jurisdiction he came, denied his request to transfer to a neighbouring presbytery and “their refusal I did not take well.”

Overall, this period of Boston’s life was unsettled. He was invited to preach at several different congregations, some with a view to calling him as their minister. On each occasion, Boston weighed his own motives and sought contentment with his lot. He said that the Lord Jesus’ words to His disciples in Luke 10:7, warning them not to go not from house to house, “had weight with me.”

Six Observations of a Christ-wrought soul

            It was during this time that Boston, in preparing to celebrate the Lord’s Supper at Larbert, recorded six observations about himself. He said;

1. I desire Christ without exception of any sin … I am content to part with all sin, and take Christ, to follow Him in His strength…
2. I desire union and communion with Christ …
3. I desire a whole Christ …
4. I esteem Christ above all: Give me Christ, and take from me what thou wilt.
5. Sin is a burden to me …
6. I endeavour, in some measure, to seek after Christ: Lord, Thou knowest. Therefore, I have true faith. 

In this, we see evidence of a Christ-wrought soul. The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), question 1, asks: “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” The answer: “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Saviour, Jesus Christ.” Then, having spoken of the way in which He brings salvation, it says that Christ, by His Holy Spirit, “makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.”

Similarly, the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), speaks of those to who God has given a new heart as going on to grow in sanctification by Christ’s Word and Spirit living within. It is impossible for those who having been made new in Christ, to be the same as they were before. New life produces new fruit, such that, “the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified; and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces, to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord (WCF 13.1).” In this way, the “old man” is to be put off, and the “new man,” shaped after the likeness of God, is to be put on (Eph. 4:22-24).

Katharine Brown

It is during this period of Boston’s life that we first hear about a young lady named Katharine Brown. She was the sister of Thomas Brown, with whom he boarded at Ferrytown. Boston and Katharine were to marry nearly two years later.

In fact, Boston had first met Katharine a year earlier – he even recalled the exact date, 3^rd March 1697, and he said of her: “from the first time that I saw her … something struck with me.” He was taken by Katharine’s piety, beauty and “cheerful disposition” which fitted with his personality. Yet, he was unwilling for them to be married, until he could provide for her.

As it happened, on 3^rd June, Boston was struck down with illness, being “particularly subject to faintings,” and he fainted while Katharine was present. Katharine’s father had been a “practitioner in physic,” and so she suggested that he use boiled wormwood pressed against his stomach to help with his ailments. This, Boston says, helped him. Yet, in the coming years, poor health was to plague both of their lives. At one point Boston was advised to cut his hair off for health reasons. He wore a wig for a while, until he found it too bothersome, and so regrew his hair.

One regret Boston had was not laying before the Lord his future with Katharine, but taking things into his own hands. By the end of 1698, Katharine, who had given a “favourable answer to my proposal,” was troubled that Boston was “not enough deliberate” concerning their future marriage. Boston admits that he was in the wrong, and regretted his lack of thoughtfulness. 

A day in the life of Boston

In this section of Boston’s memoirs, he includes several daily entries. It seems that from time to time throughout his life, he had attempted to keep a journal. In one entry, 1^st January 1699, he said:

I had more than an ordinary measure of God’s presence and help in preaching. In the morning in secret I was earnest with God for it, but had a temptation to think that God would leave me … [and] when I was coming home … Satan fell … again … tempting me to pride … It came three times … [but I repelled him by thinking] “What hast thou that thou hast not received?”

There is a spiritual lesson to be learned here: Temptation is usually never overcome but once. Instead, it must be resisted again and again, because our old Adam within us can be strong. As well as this, the Devil does not easily give us up to the new life in Christ. Even the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane did not pray once to the Father, but three times, during His hour of temptation (Matt. 26:44). Yet, like a muscle, the more God’s grace and strength helps us to overcome specific temptations, the more they lose their power over us.

Intruding thoughts

Another diary entry, later that same month on 21^st January 1699, saw Boston begin the day by meditating on Jeremiah 31:3, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you.” Boston recalled: “My soul grasped at it” and the verse stayed with him, even after breakfast. He thought that the Lord was “drawing me to Himself by the gospel in a loving way” as an evidence and token of His love.

But then later that day, Boston had a very troubling experience. He said: “My heart began to wander (I think, falling asleep); and I said in my heart the words of a curse against myself used by rude ungodly people. They came like a flash of lightning, and immediately made my very heart to leap for dread.”

Every Christian will experience something similar. Suddenly, a sinful thought can burst into your mind, and you didn’t want it – you hate it, in fact – but, it has entered nonetheless. It rattles us when this happens, and we will wonder where such wicked thoughts come from.

At such distressing times it is good to understand that intrusive thoughts are different to willful thoughts. Both show the sinfulness of our nature, but willful sin is a more serious matter, because it is a thought that we have encouraged. Yet, unwanted sinful thoughts must also be fought against. As soon as you realise that they are there, immediately put them out of your mind. Learn to pray: “Heavenly Father, please lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. Rescue me from intrusive, evil thoughts.” May God answer that prayer, even little by little. Above all, remember that God’s love for us is unbreakable in Christ Jesus. Unwanted, intrusive thoughts cannot steal His love away from us. In the words of the hymn:

When Satan tempts me to despair

And tells me of the guilt within

Upward I look and see Him there

Who made an end to all my sin.

– Charitie Less Smith (1841-1923)

The Art of Man-Fishing

            Boston had only recently begun to preach God’s Word, and yet he wrote a soliloquy (“speaking one’s thoughts aloud”) called The Art of Man-Fishing. He thought that it was “scribble” – and he said that it is unfinished, although what was lacking is unclear. It was not published until forty years after his death, but it has become a well-loved and helpful book. It is based on the Lord Jesus’ words to Peter and Andrew, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4:19).” Boston’s desire was “to know how I might follow Christ, so as to become a fisher of men.” There is much that aims at the heart of the preacher himself.

Boston begins with this confession:

I am called out to preach this everlasting gospel, it is my duty to endeavour, and it is my desire to be (Lord, thou knowest) a fisher of men. But, alas! I may come in with my complaints to my Lord, that I have toiled in some measure, but caught nothing, for anything I know, as to the conversion of any one soul. I fear I may say, I have almost spent my strength in vain, and my labour for nought… why does my preaching so little good?

He answers the question by admitting his own weakness and failure, whilst still earnestly desiring to be led by the Lord in becoming a fisher of men. Amongst the points that he sets out are;

• Christ does the catching. He achieves this “by the power of his Spirit accompanying the word they preach, and the discipline they administer.” Therefore, gifting is not enough – “A man may preach as an angel, and yet be useless. If Christ withdraw his presence, all will be to no purpose.” The power of Christ is such that we should not despair of the conversion of any person, “be they ever so profligate … many times the wind of God’s Spirit in the word lays the tall cedars in sin down upon the ground.”

• The gospel is the only net by which to catch souls. The net is spread widely, and “God excludes none from the benefits of the gospel that will not exclude themselves, it is free to all.”

• Some people may come close to the Kingdom, but are not within it. In this way, just “as fish sometimes come near and touch the net, and yet draw back; so many souls are somewhat affected at the hearing of the gospel, and yet remain in the gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity.” This is discouraging, but it should not surprise us that when we see “some affected in the time of preaching; and yet when they are away again, all is worn off.”

• The fisher must keep going. “Fishers may toil long, and yet catch nothing; but they do not therefore lay aside their work.”

• A fisher must follow Christ, which presupposes life. As “a dead man cannot follow any person; a dead preacher cannot follow Christ; there must be a principle of life, spiritual life in him, or else he is nought.”

• The Lord’s call to preach His gospel involves both and extraordinary and an ordinary call. The ordinary call is made up of four parts: knowledge of Christian doctrine above that of ordinary Christians; aptness to teach; a willingness to take on the work of preaching; and the call of the church.

• Following the example of Christ, we must be much in prayer before and after preaching. “Be busy with God in prayer, when thou art thinking on dealing with the souls of men. Let thy sermons be sermons of many prayers.”

• The fisher must never shrink back from the truth, and “beware of preaching smoothly” in order to impress people. Christ must be in all: “Be edifying in thy private converse. When thou art at any time in company, let something that smells of heaven drop from thy lips.”

Always Boston draws us to Christ as the Great Fisher: “Christ wept, because people in their day did not know, i.e. do, the things that belonged to their peace… When he thought upon this their stupidity, it made the tears trickle down his precious cheeks.”  

Some fruit    

By the close of this period of Boston’s life, there was evidence that his preaching had been fruitful in the Lord’s service. He heard from several people that the “Lord had made the word in my mouth to reach their own case, and to be a discerner of the thoughts of their hearts.” It was enough encouragement to keep him going. Yet, by mid-May of 1699, following a moving farewell with the believers that he had come to know, he returned, led by the Lord, albeit somewhat reluctantly, to his hometown of Dunse.

– Graham Barnes