PREFACE.

THOMAS BOSTON, the author of The Crook in the Lot, was born in the town of Dunse, Scotland, A. D. 1676, of respectable and religious parentage, and was the youngest of seven children. He was licensed to preach the Gospel in 1697, and was ordained at Simprin in 1699. In the year 1700 he married Catherine Brown, a lady of good family and rare endowments of mind; by her he had a number of children, four of whom survived him. He departed this life in the hope of a glorious immortality, A. D. 1732, in the 56th year of his age.

In person, Mr. Boston was above the middle stature, and of a grave and amiable aspect. His mind was vigorous and fruitful; his imagination lively but under due restraint; his judgment solid; his affections warm and tender; and his whole demeanour courteous, obliging, and benevolent. Under provocation he was gentle, and always manifested a delicate regard for the feelings of others; but when a just occasion of rebuke occurred he was always prompt in administering it.

Having become in early life a subject of divine grace, he honoured his profession by a deportment at once consistent and uniform. He was pre-eminently a man of prayer, cul. tivating a close communion with God, and receiving many encouraging evidences of his personal acceptance. The divine providence was carefully observed and recorded by him in all its operations, and the law of God was regarded in all its claims with the most scrupulous exactness. Tender in conscience, watchful in spirit, and rich in Christian

experience, his effort was to avoid even the appearance of evil, and to be fruitful in every good work.

In regard to others, he was affectionate as a husband, indulgent as a father, and sincere and faithful as a friend. Not only did he extend his counsel and sympathy to the distressed, but one tenth of his annual income was religiously devoted to the relief of the poor.

As a scholar, Mr. Boston was well versed in the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and French languages, and in other departments of learning, was no novice. As a Theologian, his various works afford the best evidence of his great acquire. ments, of his sound and judicious views, and of his skill in defending the truth. In his application to study he was indefatigable, and it was with him a rule, to leave no subject he was investigating, until he had mastered its difficulties. Yet withal he was so unostentatious, that nothing in his manner betrayed the conceit of learning. He was a liberal admirer of the gifts of others, and was unwilling to detract from their merits, although they might differ with him in opinion.

cuous.

As a minister of Jesus Christ he was particularly conspiHe was "mighty in the Scriptures," not only in his critical acquaintance with them, but in his understanding of their spirit and power; by which he was well qualified to expound in a clear, simple, and cogent manner the great mysteries of the Gospel to others. His thoughts were generally just and often profound; his mode of expression simple and yet forcible; his imagination fertile in happily adapted illustrations; his delivery graceful and earnest; and in his whole manner in the pulpit, gravity, meekness, and authority were happily blended. His ministrations were not only acceptable, but successful in the conversion of sinners, and in the edification of saints. Mr. Boston, although a devoted student, never suffered his de. lightful pursuit of knowledge to interfere with his pastoral visitations. In preparing for the pulpit, he generally wrote out his sermons in full;—an example worthy of imitation by more modern preachers. It is a remarkable fact that,

although Mr. Boston was so eminently endowed by grace and mental culture for the work of the ministry, yet he was tempted to abandon it after he had entered on it, from a deep and humbling sense of his unfitness for the work. This was indeed a rare humility.

In ecclesiastical judicatories Mr. Boston displayed great wisdom and prudence, and was well qualified to give counsel in difficult and intricate cases. His talent was so admirable in framing minutes, that he was pronounced by a statesman of considerable note, the best clerk he had ever known in any court, civil or ecclesiastical.

In relation to the general concerns of the church, zeal and knowledge were happily combined in him; and in securing its best interests, few were so zealous for its purity, or studious of its peace. He was no friend to innovations, and always subjected novel suggestions to the most careful scrutiny. His opinion on the subject of controversy was, that error was best confuted by a strong representation of the truth; and in his defence of the Protestant doctrine against the aspersions of a certain book, he fully vindicated the truth, answered objections, but still avoided all offensive personal allusions. In some notices of his life written for the use of his children, he remarks:

"Thus also I was much addicted to peace, and averse from controversy; though once engaged therein, I was set to go through with it. I had no great difficulty to retain a due honour and charity for my brethren, differing from me both in opinion and practice. But then I was in no great hazard, neither of being swayed by them to depart from what I judged truth or duty. Withal, it was easy to me to yield to them in things wherein I found not myself in conscience bound up. Whatever precipitant steps I have made in the course of my life, which I desire to be humbled for. rashness in conduct was not my weak side. But, since the Lord, by his grace, brought me to consider things, it was much my exercise to discern sin and duty in particular cases; being afraid to venture on things, until I should see myself called thereto. But when the matter

was cleared to me, I generally stuck fast by it, being as much afraid to desert the way which I took to be pointed

out to me.

The same paper he thus concludes:

"And thus I have given some account of the days of my vanity. Upon the whole, I bless my God in Jesus Christ, that ever he made me a Christian, and took an early dealing with my soul: that ever he made me a minister of the gospel, and gave me some insight into the doctrine of his grace: and that ever he gave me the blessed Bible, and brought me acquainted with the originals, and especially with the Hebrew text. The world hath all along been a step-dame unto me, and whensoever I would have attempted to nestle in it, there was a thorn of uneasiness laid for me. Man is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed from that quarter. All is vanity and vexation of spirit; I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.'"

It may be interesting for the reader to know that the truly valuable treatise with which he is here presented, under a quaint title, was one of the last of the author's writings, and therefore embodies much of the maturity of his experience. He was engaged in revising it when he was called to cease from his labours. May it prove a happy legacy to every one into whose hands it may fall.