Thomas Boston (1676–1732)

“True theology is not theoretical but practical; the end of it is to live a godly life”

~Martin Bucer

Enjoying God Now and Hereafter— Pastoral Theology 101

By Ian Hamilton, Editor, The Banner of Truth Magazine

Reprinted from The Banner of Truth Magazine

Thomas Boston (1676–1732) was a remarkable Christian man and pastor. If I had the wherewithal, I would make his Memoirs compulsory reading for all would-be gospel ministers. Jonathan Edwards considered
Boston ‘a truly great divine,’ and John ‘Rabbi’ Duncan wished he could send his students to Edwards to discover what true religion is, and then send them to Thomas Boston to see it in action.

Boston was a great divine, but he was first and foremost a pastor. He preached at least three times every week and visited the two congregations he served assiduously. Remarkably, he made time to write many volumes of biblical and pastoral theology. Among his many writings, Boston wrote insightfully on the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which he held in the highest regard. He believed that the spiritual good of his people would best be served by him faithfully catechizing them, in sermons as well as from house to house. In his exposition of Question and Answer 1, ‘What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever,’ Boston exemplified Martin Bucer’s maxim, ‘True theology is not theoretical but practical; the end of it is to live a godly life’ (Vera theologian non theoretica, sed practica est; Finis siquidem eius agere est hoc est vitam vivere deiformem). The following lengthy quote from Boston illustrates the point:

1st, There is an imperfect enjoyment of God in this life; which consists of two things. 1. In union with him, or special saving interest in him, whereby God is their God by covenant. By this union Christ and believers are so joined, that they are one in spirit, one mystical body. The whole man, soul and body, is united to him, and, through the Mediator, unto God. This is the foundation of all saving enjoyment of God. 2. In communion with God, which is a participation of the benefits of that saving relation, whereof the soul makes returns to the Lord in the exercise of its graces, particularly of faith and love. This is had in the duties of religion, prayer, meditation, etc. in which the Lord privileges his people with manifestations of his grace, favour, and love, bestows on them the influences of his Spirit, gives them many tokens of his kindness, and fills them with joy and peace in believing. 2ndly, There is a perfect enjoyment of God in heaven, when this world is no more. This consists in, 1. An intimate presence with him in glory, Psalm 16:11, ‘In his presence is fulness of joy, and at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ God himself shall be with them, and they shall ever be with the Lord, enjoying his glorious presence, brought near to his throne, and standing before him, where he shews his inconceivable glory.

2. In seeing him as he is, 1 John 3:2. They shall have a full, a satisfying, and never-ending sight of God, and of all his glorious perfections and excellencies, and they shall be ravished with the view thereof forever. 3. In a perfect union with him, Revelation 21:3. He will be their God. They were united to God in Christ here by the Spirit and faith, and made partakers of a divine nature, but then only in part; but in heaven they shall perfectly partake of it. There shall be a most close and intimate union between God and them: God shall be in them, and they shall be in God, in the way of a glorious and most perfect union, never to be dissolved. 4. In an immediate, full, free, and comfortable communion with him, infinitely superior to all the communion they ever had with him in this world, and which no mortal can suitably describe.

Like most of the great theologians of the church before him and after him, Boston became a theologian in order to be a better pastor. Until relatively recent times it was a rule, often written into church constitutions, that in order to teach theology in a Reformed seminary, men should first be proven pastor-preachers. Of course there were and are exceptions to that rule. However, in the quest to be credible to the Academy, too often Reformed churches have abandoned the pastoral model for an academic
model. In no sense am I seeking to downplay the importance of academic excellence. The church needs men of proven ability to teach in its theological colleges. But when training would-be gospel ministers, proven ability must surely include proven spiritual and pastoral ability.

Seminaries (from the Latin ‘seminarium,’ a seed bed) have the great privilege of helping to train men for the greatest work under heaven. The biblical languages, systematic and biblical theology, exegesis, church history, will be taught, hopefully always, by men committed to orthodoxy of doctrine and life. But what impacts men in training is teaching that has been tried and tested and proved in the joys and sorrows, the triumphs and failures of church life (this holds for teachers of Hebrew and Greek,
as well as for biblical and systematic theology).

Young men need to sit under the teaching of godly models. Seminaries cannot make a man into a gospel minister. What they can do is expose a man to faithful, biblical, Reformed teaching, and faithful, biblical,
Reformed exemplars, men whose lives have been shaped and styled by the years of faithful gospel ministry.

In short, we need more John Calvins and Thomas Bostons teaching in our seminaries, theological teachers whose instruction has been forged and formed in the deaths and resurrections of pastoral ministry. Academic theology is a misnomer. Christian theology can never be merely academic—how can it when it is engaged with the revelation of the God who is Life. When Tertullian wrote, ‘What has Jerusalem to do with Athens?’, he was not saying the church has nothing to learn from ‘Athens’ (he himself quotes Greek philosophers to good effect). He was saying that the thinking and life of the church must never be carried out with one eye on the thinking and practice of the Academy. May the Lord give us pastor-theologians whose eyes, both of them, are fixed on the Holy Scriptures and on the Triune God who created them into existence.

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