Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/434

 , 1738, 4to (a handsome volume, with many copper-plates; dedicated by Boston's son, Thomas, to Sir Richard Ellys, bart.; Mill's preface is dated from Utrecht, 6 Feb. 1738; he does not endorse Boston’s view, that the Hebrew accents are of divine origin. Boston's work shows very thorough and wide scholarship; he was acquainted with French and Dutch, in addition to the tongues necessary for his purpose. He had prepared for the press ‘An Essay on the first twenty-three chapters of the Book of Genesis; in a two-fold version of the original text,’ with notes, theological and philological; in this work he showed the utility of his theory of the Hebrew accents, and made use of the elaborate system of punctuation which he had framed to represent them in English).  ‘Sermons and Discourses &hellip; never before printed,’ Edin. 1753, 2 vols. 8vo.  ‘Explication of the First Part of the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism,’ 1755, 8vo.  ‘A Collection of Sermons,’ Edin. 1772, 12mo.  ‘A View of the Covenant of Works, from the Sacred Records, &c., and several Sermons,' Edin. 1772, 12mo.  ‘The Distinguishing Characters of true Believers &hellip; to which is prefixed a soliloquy on the art of man-fishing,’ Edin. 1773, 12mo.  ‘An Illustration of the Doctrines of the Christian Religion &hellip; upon the plan of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism,' &c. Edin. 1773, 3 vols. 8vo.  ‘Ten Fast Sermons,' 1773, 8vo; ‘Worm Jacob threshing the Mountains’ (sacrament sermon, Is. xli. 14, 15), Falkirk, 1775, 8vo.  ‘The Christian Life delineated,' Edin. 1775, 2 vols. 12mo.  ‘Sermons,' 1775, 3 vols. 8vo,  ‘A View of this and the other World’ (eight sermons), Edin. 1775, 8vo.  ‘Sermons on the Nature of Church Communion,’ Berwick, 1785, 12mo.  ‘A Memorial concerning personal and family Fasting and Humiliation,’ Edin. 1849, 12mo. 3rd ed., pref, and app. by Alex. Moody Stuart, A.M.)  ‘The Crook in the Lot,’ Glasgow, 1863, 12mo (with biographical sketch).  ‘Whole Works,’ edited by Rev. Samuel McMillin, with the ‘Marrow of Modern Divinity illustrated,’ 1854, 12 vols. 8vo (several of the above collections overlap; the famous sermon on the ‘Crook in the Lot’ has often been reprinted).</ol>

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<section begin="Boston, Thomas (1713-1767)" />BOSTON, THOMAS, the younger (1713–1767), Scottish relief minister, the youngest son of (1677–1732) [q. v.], was born at Ettrick on 3 April 1713, After receiving the rudiments from his father and an elder brother, he went to the grammar school at Hawick, and thence to Edinburgh University. He was licensed on 1 Aug. 1732 by the Selkirk presbytery, presented to Ettrick in the room of his father in November 1732, and ordained there on 4 April 1733. On 25 Oct. 1748 he was released from the charge, having a call to Oxnam, Roxburghshire, and admitted there on 10 Aug. 1749. He inherited his father's theology, and created for himself a popularity which fully sustained the special repute of the family name. A vacancy having occurred in the parish church of the neighbouring town of Jedburgh, the inhabitants were very desirous of having him as their minister, but the presentation was given to an other. Hereupon the elders of the church and most of the parishioners, including the town council, withdrew from the parish church and built a meeting-house, being determined to secure Boston’s services at any cost. As a preliminary to accepting their call, he tendered his demission to the presbytery on 7 Dec. 1757. On 30 May 1758 the general assembly accepted his demission, and in doing so declared him henceforth incapable of receiving a presentation, and prohibited all ministers from employing him in any office. This did not prevent him from pursuing his ministry at Jedburgh in an independent capacity, and it was not long before he found coadjutors. The successor of his father's friend at Carnock was Thomas Gillespie, who in 1752 had been deposed by the general assembly. Gillespie continued to minister at Carnock, at first in the open fields, afterwards in a meeting-house erected by his people. In 1761 Boston and Gillespie joined in admitting a minister to a congregation at Colinsburgh, and the three constituted themselves into a new ecclesiastical body, under the name of the ‘presbytery of relief.’ Boston was the first moderator. The name selected for this new organisation explains why its founders did not cast in their lot with the seceders, who, having formed the ‘associate presbytery’ in 1733, had constituted it an ‘associate synod’ in 1744, and were now (since 1747) divided into two sections, known as the burgher and anti-burgher synods, one admitting, the other disallowing. the lawfulness of the burgess oath to defend ‘the true religion presently <section end="Boston, Thomas (1713-1767)" />