Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
I have been remiss of late when it comes to sharing blog posts. Hence, I am running behind at bit, so please excuse the dump of multiple posts today. This one is from Thomas Boston's Memoirs, relating to his dealings with separatist brethren:
... Being set down, I was resolved to divert disputes, at least a while, with some discourse of practical godliness. Wherefore being asked, “What news?” I said, that news were hard to be got here, the place being so far remote from towns; that it was like Jerusalem; Psalm 125:2; which brought us at length to the discourse of communion with God; concerning which S. H. gave his opinion, that it consisted in doing the will of God, keeping his commandments. I told him, that all communion was mutual, and therefore it could not consist in that; and shewed, that actual communion with God, which we ordinarily call communion with God, consists in the Lord’s letting down the influences of his grace on the soul, and the soul’s reacting the same in the exercise of grace. O, says he, that is extraordinary; wherewith I was stunned. I told him, it was that without which neither he nor I would be saved. How will you prove that? said he. So I was put to prove it to him.
Thereafter he brought in the matter of the separation; told, that he understood I was an enemy to them, and preached against them. I acknowledged, that I judged their way was not of God; and therefore, when it fell in my way, I did preach against it. And understanding that lie meant of a note I had at Morbattle sacrament, I desired him to tell me what he heard I had said. He shifted this; and I told him, viz. that I exhorted those that had met with God at this occasion, to tell them that it was so; and that they thereupon, according to the spirit of the gospel, should say, “We will go with you, for we hear the Lord is with you.” J. L. said, if that were true, that the Lord were with you, we would join with you. Mr. St. having no will to make that the determining point, told me, that he knew not but the Lord was with the church of the Jews in time of great corruption. To which I answered, And neither did Christ himself separate from them in that time; and urged them with that, Luke 4:16. After other shifts, they were at length brought to that desperate answer, That Christ was the lawmaker, and therefore not imitable by us. ...
For more, see:
reformedcovenanter.wordpress.com
... Being set down, I was resolved to divert disputes, at least a while, with some discourse of practical godliness. Wherefore being asked, “What news?” I said, that news were hard to be got here, the place being so far remote from towns; that it was like Jerusalem; Psalm 125:2; which brought us at length to the discourse of communion with God; concerning which S. H. gave his opinion, that it consisted in doing the will of God, keeping his commandments. I told him, that all communion was mutual, and therefore it could not consist in that; and shewed, that actual communion with God, which we ordinarily call communion with God, consists in the Lord’s letting down the influences of his grace on the soul, and the soul’s reacting the same in the exercise of grace. O, says he, that is extraordinary; wherewith I was stunned. I told him, it was that without which neither he nor I would be saved. How will you prove that? said he. So I was put to prove it to him.
Thereafter he brought in the matter of the separation; told, that he understood I was an enemy to them, and preached against them. I acknowledged, that I judged their way was not of God; and therefore, when it fell in my way, I did preach against it. And understanding that lie meant of a note I had at Morbattle sacrament, I desired him to tell me what he heard I had said. He shifted this; and I told him, viz. that I exhorted those that had met with God at this occasion, to tell them that it was so; and that they thereupon, according to the spirit of the gospel, should say, “We will go with you, for we hear the Lord is with you.” J. L. said, if that were true, that the Lord were with you, we would join with you. Mr. St. having no will to make that the determining point, told me, that he knew not but the Lord was with the church of the Jews in time of great corruption. To which I answered, And neither did Christ himself separate from them in that time; and urged them with that, Luke 4:16. After other shifts, they were at length brought to that desperate answer, That Christ was the lawmaker, and therefore not imitable by us. ...
For more, see:
Thomas Boston on the separatists
The very next day after my preaching from Acts 10:33, as above related, Mr. [John] Macmillan came to Eskdale, and some of my hearers went to him. This was what I got to begin with. On the morrow af…
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