Thomas Boston Quotes

“A fatal recovery from a promising illness”

— Thomas Boston

“Go where thou wilt, thou canst not go out of thy Father's ground.”

— Thomas Boston

Faith is the soul going out of itself for all its wants.

— Thomas Boston

“The law discovers the disease, and the gospel the physician.”

— Thomas Boston

“Has God decreed all things that come to pass? Then there is nothing that falls out by chance, nor are we to ascribe what we meet with either to good or ill luck and fortune. There are many events in the world which men look upon as mere accidents, yet all these come by the counsel and appointment of Heaven.”

— Thomas Boston

Ye are God's building
All hands of the glorious Trinity are at work in this building. The Father chose the objects of mercy, and gave them to the Son to be redeemed; the Son purchased redemption for them; and the Holy Ghost applies the purchased redemption unto them.

— Thomas Boston

“Many will be affected with some gross sins of theirs against the law, who never see the venom of their unbelief of the gospel. But this is the sin that draws deepest; and therefore that is the sin which the Spirit is in a special manner to convince of.”

— Thomas Boston

“Saving faith is the faith of God's elect; the special gift of God to them, wrought in them by his Spirit.”

— Thomas Boston

“Good education is not regeneration. Education may chain up men's lusts, but cannot change their hearts.”

— Thomas Boston

“No work nor deed of ours whatsoever, no not faith itself, can be the condition of the covenant of grace properly so called; but only Christ's fulfilling all righteousness.”

— Thomas Boston

“The regenerate man's desires are rectified; they are set on God himself, and the things above ... Before, he saw no beauty in Christ, for which he was to be desired; but now he is all he desires, he is altogether lovely ... regenerating grace sets the affections so firmly on God, that the man is disposed, at God's command, to quit his hold of every thing else, in order to keep his hold of Christ ... If the stream of our affections were never thus turned, we are, doubtless, going down the stream into the pit.”

— Thomas Boston

“Free grace will fix those, whom free will shook down into a gulph of misery.”

— Thomas Boston

“Believing, repenting, and the like, are the product of the new nature; and can never be produced by the old corrupt nature ... as the child cannot be active in his own generation, so a man cannot be active in his own regeneration. The heart is shut against Christ: man cannot open it, only God can do it by his grace.”

— Thomas Boston

“If a man be new-born, he will desire the sincere milk of the word.”

— Thomas Boston

Call it no more free-will, but slavish lust; free to evil, but free from good, till regenerating grace loosens the bands of wickedness.

— Thomas Boston

“The gospel casts out a rope to hale sinners to land; but the sinner has no hands to lay hold on it; his very faith must be wrought in him by the Spirit.”

— Thomas Boston

“Whoever be the instruments of any good to us, of whatever sort, we must look above them, and eye the hand and counsel of God in it, which is the first spring, and be duly thankful to God for it. And whatever evil of crosses or afflictions befalls us, we must look above the instruments of it to God.”

— Thomas Boston

“The natural man cannot but resist the Lord's offering to help him; yet that resistance is infallibly overcome in the elect, by converting grace.”

— Thomas Boston

What an honourable thing is it to be fishers of men! How great an honour shouldst thou esteem it, to be a catcher of souls! We are workers together with God, says the apostle. If God has ever so honoured thee, O that thou knewest it, that thou mightst bless his holy name, that ever made such a poor fool as thee to be a co-worker with him. God has owned thee to do good to those who were before caught. O my soul, bless thou the Lord. Lord, what am I, or what is my father's house, that thou hast brought me to this?

— Thomas Boston

“Affliction doth not rise out of the dust or come to men by chance; but it is the Lord that sends it, and we should own and reverence His hand in it.”

— Thomas Boston

Sinners in their natural state lie dead, lifeless, and moveless; they can no more believe in Christ, nor repent, than a dead man can speak or walk: but, in virtue of the promise, the Spirit of life from Christ Jesus, at the time appointed, enters into the dead soul, and quickens it; so that it is no more morally dead, but alive, having new spiritual powers put into it, that were lost by Adam's fall.

— Thomas Boston

Persuade yourselves, that the faith of the gospel is beyond the power of nature; that there is a necessity of a power from on high to bring you to believe. This will raze the old foundation, and cause you to look up for it.

— Thomas Boston

“The believer is sensible of his infirmities, for it is supposed that he is wrestling under them. He sees, he feels, that he is not man enough for his work; that his own hands are not sufficient for him, nor his own back for his burden; this is what drives him out of himself to the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And thus he lies open to the help of the Spirit, while proud nature in unbelievers is left helpless.”

— Thomas Boston

“There is no true believing or trusting to the report of the gospel, but what is the effect of the working of a divine power on the soul for that end.”

— Thomas Boston

“O what hardness of heart mayst thou see in every corner whither thou goest, and where thou preachest, most part being as unconcerned as the very stones of the wall; and say what thou wilt, either by setting before them alluring promises or dreadful threatenings, yet people are hardened against both, none relenting for what they have done, or concerned about it.”

— Thomas Boston

“Let the mantle of worldly enjoyments hang loose about you, that it may be easily dropped when death comes to carry you into another world.”

— Thomas Boston

“For the turning away of the simple, shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.”

— Thomas Boston

“As the corruption of our nature shews the absolute necessity of regeneration, so the absolute necessity of regeneration plainly proves the corruption of our nature; for why should a man need a second birth, if his nature were not quite marred in the first birth?”

— Thomas Boston

“Again, the glory of one attribute is more seen in one work than in another: in some things there is more of His goodness, in other things more of His wisdom is seen, and in others more of His power. But in the work of redemption all His perfections and excellencies shine forth in their greatest glory.”

— Thomas Boston

In regeneration, the mind is enlightened in the knowledge of spiritual things ... The will is renewed ... The will is cured of its utter inability to will what is good. While the opening of the prison to them that are bound, is proclaimed in the Gospel, the Spirit of God comes and opens the prison door, goes to the prisoner, and, by the power of his grace, makes his chains fall off; breaks the bonds of iniquity, wherewith he was held in sin, so as he could neither will nor do any thing TRULY good; and brings him forth into a large place.

— Thomas Boston

Many a lash in the dark doth con science give the wicked.

— Thomas Boston

“None can comprehend eternity but the eternal God. Eternity is an ocean, whereof we shall never see the shore; it is a deep, where we can find no bottom; a labyrinth from whence we cannot extricate ourselves and where we shall never lose the door.”

— Thomas Boston

It is our duty to look to God's commands, and not to His decrees; to our own duty, and not to His purposes. The decrees of God are a vast ocean, into which many possibly have curiously pried to their own horror and despair; but few or none have ever pried into them to their own profit and satisfaction.

— Thomas Boston