Repentance:
Turning from Sin to God
DETAILS:
Publisher: Christian Heritage
Publication Date: September 19, 2012
Format: Paperback
Length: 250 pg.
Read Date: May 1-8, 2022
What’s Repentance About?
This is a collection of sermons preached by Thomas Boston to his congregation in the parish of Ettrick in the early eighteenth century.
The sermons were selected from the sixth volumes of his collected works, and really weren’t conceived of as a set by him. They’re all on the theme of Repentance, from a variety of texts of Scripture.
They are warm, pastoral, clear, and firm. Pretty much everything you want and expect in a collection of Eighteenth-Century Presbyterian sermons.
Tweaking Boston
There were some layout changes and restructuring of the original texts for this book (it’s too long to detail it here)—basically taking works from the early 1700s and making them read like something that was written in the early 2000s.
It bugged me. It might make it easier to read and more approachable to contemporary readers, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Modernization of spelling and punctuation don’t bother me that much (I prefer to read it without the editing, but I’m weird that way). It’s the other tweaks that get to me.
The Introduction
Not at all surprisingly to anyone who’s ever read anything J.I. Packer ever wrote about Puritans and their successors the Introduction he wrote is almost as good as the rest of the book. It’s simply impossible to read that and not get ramped up for the rest.
So, what did I think about Repentance?
I like Boston—I’ve never not profited from time with his work. The Crook in the Lot is one of the greatest works I’ve ever read.
However (you knew there was a “but” coming), I’m not entirely convinced this collection is the best representation of either the doctrine or the preacher. As Packer notes, by the time of the later Puritans and then Boston, the emphasis on repentance had shifted from the penitent life (as espoused by Luther, Calvin, Book of Common Prayer, etc.) to the initial act of repentance of the convert. It’s that focus that dominates this book.
It’s good that it does. It’s important that it does. There’s not a word that Boston says on that point that is incorrect. But, I really could’ve used more about what repentance should look like every day, calls to/reminders for the believer to shape their lives that way. I realize that says more about me than the work, but given the title, that’s what I expected.
It’s a good collection of sermons. Boston’s way with words is rare and great to read. I just didn’t appreciate this as much as I’d hoped to.
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