Boston's Fourfold State

Thomas Boston was a prominent Scottish pastor and theologian. He was born in 1676 and died in 1732. He studied at the University of Edinburgh and then served in two pastorates, both just south of Edinburgh, until his death. In fact, he preached his final sermon from his deathbed.

One piece of Boston's legacy is a book called The Fourfold State. The idea in this book goes all the way back to Augustine. It has to do with the four states of man: the state of innocence, the state of nature, the state of grace, and the state of eternity.

The state of innocence refers to Adam. Augustine used a Latin expression to refer to Adam's state: posse non peccare. That phrase means that Adam was able not to sin. Adam had a certain creaturely freedom and an ability to do what was pleasing to God.

At the fall, Adam lost that ability and entered the state of nature. The Latin phrase to describe this state is non posse non peccare, "not able not to sin." If we were to flip this around, we would say, "bound to sin." In fact, Augustine liked to call us "Adam's sinful lump," a reference to the potter and the clay in Romans 9.

Not because of anything in us, but because of what God has done in us through Christ, we are once again able not to sin.

The third state is the state of grace. We enter this state at conversion, when we are restored, and we become posse non peccare once again. Not because of anything in us, but because of what God has done in us through Christ, we are once again able not to sin.

The fourth state is the state of eternity. In that state, in our glorified bodies, we will be non posse peccare, "not able to sin." Boston says: "The guilt of sin and the reigning power of it are now taken away in the saints, nevertheless, sin dwells in them (Rom. 7:20), but then, in eternity it shall be no more. The corrupt nature will be quite removed. That root of bitterness will be plucked up and no vestiges of it left in their souls. Their nature shall be altogether pure and sinless. There shall be no darkness in their minds but the understanding of every saint when he has come to this kingdom will be as a globe of pure and unmixed light."