Calvin Synod Herald, 2004 (105. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2004-01-01 / 1-2. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

9

Robert Bolton

(1572 - 1631)

Robert Bolton was born in 1572 at Blackburn, Lancashire. He studied at Lincoln and Brasenose Colleges, Oxford. In 1602, he became a fellow of Brasenose. He soon established himself as an able university lecturer as well as a gifted logician, linguist, and philosopher. But he was not yet converted.

After hearing William Perkins deliver a commencement address, Bolton called him “a barren empty fellow” and a poor scholar. Shortly after that, however, God convicted Bolton of his sins through his conversations with Thomas Peacock, fellow of the house where Bolton was staying. As one biographer writes, “The Lord ran upon him as giant, taking him by the neck and shaking him to pieces, as he did Job; beating him to the very ground as he did Paul, by laying before him the ugly visage of his sins, which lay so heavy upon him, as he roared for grief of heart, and so affrighted him, as I have heard him say, he rose out of his bed in the night for very anguish of spirit” (M. Boltons Last and Learned Worke of the Foure last Things [1635]. pp 15-16). Several months later, Bolton was set at liberty in Christ. Shortly after his conversion, he felt called to the ministry.

After earning a Bachelor of Divinity degree at Oxford in 1609, Bolton became minister of Broughton, in Northamptonshire, where he served as a faithful Puritan pastor until his death. He was a dignified, eloquent, and godly minister, whose preaching stressed both the heinousness of sin and God’s offers of grace. He was scriptural, earnest, and affectionate, and conveyed a singular passion for the good of never-dying souls. His biographer J.F. Denham writes, “This simplicity of intention was peculiarly approved and honored of God, who by his ministry convinced many hundreds of their spiritual need, and of the ability and willingness of the Saviour to sanctify and to redeem” (Afflicted Consciences, p. xxxiii).

Bolton loved to preach on the historical material of Scripture. In the course of his ministry, he preached on nearly every historical chapter of the Old and New Testaments. On every holy day and every Friday before a sacrament, he customarily expounded on an entire chapter.

Bolton was in constant demand as a spiritual counselor, both at home and abroad. His books reflect that experience, summarizing half a century of Puritan thought on sanctification and the principles of Christian living.

Here are some brief reviews of books that Bolton wrote which have been reprinted in the last few decades:

The Carnal Professor (156 pages; 1992). Bound with Rhomas Goodwin’s Christ Set Forth, this book is a solemn work on man’s natural sinfulness and Christ exceeding sufficiency. Bolton’s text for this treatise is Romans 8:13, “For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die, but through the Spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” He says of his work, “Thou hast here in brief the soul of man unbowed before thine eye, and that mass of corruption lodging in a carnal heart (together with its power and plague) discovered unto thee, wherein is plainly demonstrated the miserable condition of a man guided by the flesh,

and the happiness attending such as are led by God’s Spirit; as also the bitter conflict of these two opposite inmates in a believing souls, with the means of victory.”

Discourse About the State of True Happinesse (156 pages; 1979). This reprint offers Bolton’s sermons on Psalm 1:1, 2, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” In classic Puritan fashion, Bolton contends that man’s chief happiness can be found only in God and in living godly before Him, and solemnly warns against seeking happiness anywhere else.

Bolton says of happiness, “There is no possibility of attainment, but by pureness of heart, holiness of life, constancy in a course of sanctification, which only lead unto the face and presence of God, where, and with whom alone is the highest perfection of bliss, a river of infinite pleasures, the well of life, and endless rest of all created desires.”

The Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Hell, Heaven (144 pages; 1994). This book contains the last sermons Bolton preached before his death. Much of its instruction is on how to prepare for impending judgment and one’s final destiny in heaven or hell. Half of the book is spent on how to prepare for death.

Writing of the joys of heaven, Bolton declares, “Let me tell you beforehand, that the excellency, glory, and sweetness thereof no mortal heart, finite mind, created understanding, can possibly conceive and comprehend” (p. 93). In the back of this edition is an abridgment of Bolton’s scarce work, Helps to Humiliation, based on Acts 2:37.

General Directions for a Comfortable Walking with God (450 pages; 1995).

This treatise, first published in 1626 and reprinted in 1837, is a major work of Puritan casuistry. But Bolton first wrote it as a guide for himself. He divides this work into two sections: General Preparative and Particular Directions. In the first section, Bolton considers ten ways to loosen sin’s grip on the soul: abandon your loved sin, hate hypocrisy, exercise self-denial, live the life of faith, form right conceptions of Christianity, guard against wordliness, be warmed with the love of God, treasure reconciliation with God, keep your heart, and meditate on future bliss. In the second section, he describes Christian duties, such as tending family, governing the tongue, and managing every action of our lives.

J.I. Packer wrote of Bolton’s Comfortable Walking and Instruction (see next entry): “Richard Baxter went over all this ground a generation later in much greater detail, and with a greater power of thought, but Bolton yields nothing to Baxter in experimental warmth and depth, and sometimes surpasses him.” Instructions for Comforting Afflicted Consciences (390 pages; 1991). The Puritans addressed every aspect of the inner life of man-mind, heart, conscience, memory, and will. Bolton’s Instructions (1626) provides one of the best early Puritan works on consoling the afflicted believer in all those aspects:

Section 1, Part 1 shows man’s great need, based on Proverbs 18:14, to store up “heavenly comforts” in his heart. It admonishes the indifferent, the sensualist, and those who oppose faithful preaching. And it addresses the problem of persecution.