Exploring Boston: All Things From His Hand

Thoughts from a Child of Providence

Introduction

I rehearse with my kids (almost) daily (especially when they seek to be sovereign over our home) that God is in charge of everything. Most agree with that statement. Christians often declare in hard situations, “God is in control!” But how far does his control extend? How pervasive is His care over His world? Is He in control of the natural and fleshly evil in my life? This is where a lot of followers of Jesus start to squirm.

Thomas Boston once wrote, “Happy is the people whose God the Lord is: for all things shall work together for their good. They may sit secure in exercising faith upon God, come what will (193).”

How did he get to such a confident conclusion?

Boston Looks Back

Looking back at Boston’s life and the regular afflictions he would undergo, observe what he views as the source of his lot: “And here began more remarkably my bearing of the yoke of trial and affliction, the which laid on in my youth, has, in the wise disposal of holy providence…”

When reflecting on his mother’s death, he says, “…it pleased the Lord to remove my mother by death” (16).

When reflecting on his father’s recovery, he writes, “But it pleased the Lord that I was comforted in the recovery of my father sometime after” (16).

When he gets his first job working alongside a notary, and hones his writing skills, he writes, “The favourable design of providence therein, then unknown to me, I now see, since it could not be but of some use to help me to the style of papers” (17).

Upon graduating from a school of theology, his deepest desire was to be licensed to preach through the Presbytery of Stirling, but “Considering the course of Providence” he ended up being licensed to preach as an itinerate minister through the Presbytery of Dunse and Churnside, the place of his nativity (30).

Looking back on the first three major points of his life, from his birth to grammar school, grammar school to graduation, graduation to being licensed to preach, he summed up his life by saying, “And looking on myself as a child of providence, and considering the manner of my education, I cannot but observe the kind conduct of that providence in carrying me through sundry states of life, and parts of the country, in that short time allotted for me, in the character of a student” (31–32).

He spoke of providence personified—Comparing it to a father who raised and shaped him. This is precisely what Thomas Boston believed about his life—he was the product of the sovereign hand of God. Nothing, thought Boston, came about in His life apart from the Fatherly, meticulous providence of the author of all creation.

Boston’s Beliefs

As the sun rises, birds begin their songs as they fly over roofs, gardens, and trees. Have you ever seen one of them overtaxed over what they will eat? God’s constant care for them ensures they are not deprived of daily sustenance. Boston draws our attention to this as he opens his section on God’s Providence, commenting on the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

Jesus said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father” (Matthew 10:29).

Boston comments,

“Sparrows are of a mean price and small value; and yet, for as mean as they are, God preserves them, guides and disposes of all things concerning them, so that one of them cannot fall to the ground by shot or any other way, without his sovereign ordering and disposal” (186).

He seeks to expound this doctrine from the scriptures and masterfully weaves together four aspects of God’s providence: Its reality, its object, its actions, its properties, and its everyday fruit.

To highlight only three aspects, we’ll look at how he understood its reality, its actions, and its fruit in everyday life.

The Reality of God’s Meticulous Providence

Boston goes in an interesting direction to prove that there is a providence. After quoting very general Scriptural statements about God’s kingship and sovereignty (Psalm 103:19; Acts 17:28; Ephesians 1:11), he writes that providence can be seen in a “three-fold scripture-emblem.”

That three-fold emblem is first, Mount Moriah, “which upon occasion of the miraculous preservation of Isaac, and a ram to be put in his room in order to be sacrificed, was called Jehovah Jireh, i.e.. The Lord will provide, (Gen. 22:14)”

Second, “Jacob’s ladder, on which God appears managing all things, (Gen. 28).”

Third, “Ezekiel’s wheels, where there was a wheel in the middle of a wheel, denoting the agency of the first cause, and the superintending and directing providence of God, (Ezek. 1)” (186)

As a helpful and simple way to introduce this topic, Boston draws upon both kinds of God’s revelation, namely, God’s wisely ordered creation and the numerous fulfilled prophecies that would not happen unless God’s meticulous providence was true. This leads to the actions that God takes in providence.

The Actions of God’s Meticulous Providence

This coin has two sides: Sustaining and governing. Boston helps us sum up providence with those two words alone.

God sustains all things. As the author of Hebrews puts it: “…He upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb 1:3). Boston notes, “This act of providence is so necessary, that nothing could subsist one moment without it” (188).

Here, most Christians find themselves resting in a comfortable place. It’s with the next action of Providence that most take issue: God doesn’t merely sustain all of creation and, therefore, all of history, but He governs it; He exercises control, seeing to it that end from the beginning becomes what it becomes (Isaiah 46:10). Here we find that distinction between God’s decree and His providence. God’s decree is the reality that everything that comes to pass in history originates in God as the primary cause of all things. He unchangeably and infallibly planned everything that came to pass or will come to pass. On the other hand, Providence is God’s execution of the decree; God’s decree is the blueprint, and providence is the building project.

Boston shows how this arises from the text of Scripture. We see not only God’s providence throughout history and over big events like the cross of Christ (Isaiah 46:10; Acts 4:27-28) but over small and seemingly insignificant chance circumstances: “Prov. 21:1 ‘The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will, Prov. 16:33 ‘The lot is cast into the lap: but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.’ Chap. 16:9 ‘A man’s heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps’” (188).

A king’s heart, the outcome of a lot being cast (like the casting of dice), and man’s plans—At the end of the day, God is the one steering all of these things for His glorious ends.

As Boston quips,

“God does not make man as the carpenter doth the ship, which afterwards sails without him; but he rules and guides him, sitting at the helm, to direct and order all his motions: so that whatever men do, they do nothing without him: not only in their good actions, where he gives grace, and excites it, working in them both to will and to do of his good pleasure: but also in their evil actions, wherein they are under the hand of Providence, but in a very different manner” (189; emphasis mine).

One now wonders how he treats God’s providence over human sin and evil. Does this reality not make God the author or, in some sense, the doer of the evil in the world? In a world where sin abounds and surrounds, Scripture’s teaching on this is of supreme importance and great comfort to God’s people.

In my next post, as we continue to explore what Boston believed about Providence, we behold God’s glorious control, even over evil human actions, and how He works all things together for good for those who love Him.