Scottish evangelical minister and leader in the Marrow Controversy. Educated at Edinburgh, he became a noted authority on the Hebrew Bible. Finding a copy of The Marrow of Modern Divinity left in Scotland by a Commonwealth soldier, he was intrigued and had the work republished in 1718. This English Puritan work (attributed by some to Edward Fisher) was a compendium of the opinions of the leading Reformation divines on the doctrine of grace and the offer of the gospel. It immediately set off a storm of controversy, being condemned by the General Assembly of the Scottish church for its alleged antinomianism and defended by twelve divines including Boston. The "Marrow Men," as they were subsequently called, played a large role in the attempt within Scottish Presbyterianism to withstand the growing movement toward Arminianism, which also involved the corollary issue of limited versus universal atonement.
The conflict arose when the Auchterarder Presbytery would not ordain a man who refused to assent to the following proposition: "I believe that it is not sound and orthodox to teach that we must forsake sin in order to our coming to Christ, and instating us in Covenant with God." The Assembly overruled the Presbytery, and Boston argued against the Assembly.
Boston's influence was enhanced by his faithful and exemplary dedication to his parochial tasks and by his popular writings, which include The Fourfold State of Human Nature, The Crook in the Lot, and his autobiography.
C. F. ALLISON