Autograph volume of Thomas Boston containing three sermons preached by him on 6 August 1715 at Morebattle, Roxburghshire. Possibly a transcription by Boston for the elders at Morebattle.
Includes notes on provenance by Alexander Fletcher (1787-1860) who states that the manuscript was authenticated by his brother in law John Brown of Whitburn (1754-1832).
Thomas Boston (1676-1732) was a Church of Scotland minister and theologian. Born in Berwickshire he attended Edinburgh University from 1691. He was ordained on 21 September 1699 at Simprin, Berwickshire. On 1 May 1707 Boston was translated to Ettrick, Selkirkshire. In August 1715 he went to Morebattle, Roxburghshire, where on Saturday 6 August he preached from Revelations on the subject 'And I saw no temple ther'. According to his journal, 'On the Monday two of the elders there desired a copy of the sermons transcribed, insinuating their design to print them; which I took to consideration.' Boston played a significant role in the major ecclesiastical controversies of the early eighteenth century, in particular the Marrow controversy (1717-1723). Many of Boston's writings and sermons were published during his lifetime and posthumously. His most famous book was Human Nature in its Fourfold State (1720, 1729), a collection of sermons preached early in Boston's ministry and revised throughout his lifetime.
Source: P.G. Ryken, 'Boston, Thomas (1676-1732)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. By permission of Oxford University Press - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/2943.
Given by Alexander Fletcher to Thomas Raffles on 13 March 1843.
