Thomas Boston from his commentary on the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Volume One:
"His permissive decree doth only respect the irregularity and pravity that is in sinful actions [concursus--CD]. God decreed to permit the same, or he determined it to be, himself permitting it. Hence it is said, Acts xiv. 16. 'In times past he suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.' And God doth nothing in time, but what he did from eternity decree to do. So that the futurition of sin is from the decree of God. God determined that it should be. He did not have efficiency in sin, considered as such; but he willed that it should be done, himself permitting it. The counsel of God did not determine to do it, but that it should be done."
"Beware of drawing an excuse for your sin from the providence of God; for it is most holy, and has not the least efficiency in any sin you commit."
Psalm 105:25 says God TURNED their heart to hate His people. Hating God's people is sin. God turned their heart and made them sin by so doing. The passage says that God turned their heart. How more efficient can it get, Boston?
"Though he has by a permissive decree allowed moral evil to be in the world, yet that has no influence on the sinner to commit it. For it is not the fulfilling of God's decree, which is an absolute secret to every mortal, but the gratification of their own lusts and perverse inclinations, that men intend and mind in the commission of sin. "
In the case of clear verses like Psalm 105:25, eisegesis is the norm among the Reformed. Boston twists and turns this passage to say that God DOES NOT TURN hearts to gratify their own lusts and perverse inclinations, but allows these hearts to turn themselves. Why would Thomas Boston do this? At least one reason is that Boston is a pretentious potsherd who presumes on the Potter having no hands to turn hearts.
“Woe to him who fights with the One who formed him! A
potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to its
former, What are you making? Or does your work say, He has no hands?”
(Isaiah 45:9)
