WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE.

OCTOBER, 1864.

ROBERT BOLTON: A BIOGRAPHY.

METHODISM, being a revival of spiritual religion, has from the beginning been rich in this department of literature; many persons, under its influence, of both sexes, and in endlessly diversified circumstances, having been examples, both in life and death, of sound religious experience, and of practical godliness; whose characters have been described to the honour of Divine grace, and for the encouragement and imitation of others.

In the early volumes of the Arminian Magazine, which were published under the immediate direction of Mr. Wesley, we find also inserted the lives of eminent men belonging to former ages, as well as those of exemplary persons connected with the Methodist body; and I believe similar narratives are still acceptable to Methodist people. Allow me, then, to place before the readers of the Wesleyan Magazine a few particulars of the personal history of ROBERT BOLTON, one of the most eminent ministers of his age, who lived and died considerably more than two hundred years ago. They are mostly selected from a sketch written by Edward Bagshaw, Esq., of the Middle Temple, and prefixed to a posthumous volume of Bolton's writings, entitled, "The Four Last Things." "I knew him," says the writer, "from the beginning of my youth, being my first tutor in the University of Oxford, and myself one of his first scholars; and from that time to the day of his death, being above seven-and-twenty years, none knew him better, or loved him more. Our familiarity was such, that, I may say, I knew his doctrine, manner of life, faith, charity, patience; and now will only relate what I have heard and seen, wherein I will not exceed the bounds of modesty and truth."

This very remarkable man was born at Blackburn, in Lancashire, on Whitsunday, in the year 1572. His parents were not wealthy; but, finding their son to possess a singular aptitude for learning, they resolved that he should be trained a scholar, and struggled hard to support him. under the tuition of an efficient master, with whose services Blackburn was then favoured. He soon rose to be the greatest proficient in the school, having all those properties of a student which Isocrates and others have specified: namely, great mental power, with a sound bodily constitution; a tenacious memory; a ready apprehension; an inquisitive mind, suggesting doubts, and making inquiries; delight in his studies, so that he could not bear to have his attention diverted from VOL. X.-FIFTH SERIES.

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them; diligence, and earnest application; with strict attention to the speeches and sayings of learned men. Whenever he heard anything that he deemed worthy of special observation, he did not fail to note it in a book, which he kept for that purpose.

He continued at school till about the twentieth year of his age, when he entered Lincoln College, Oxford; where he had as his tutor Mr. Randall, then a man of no public repute, but afterwards a learned divine and a godly preacher in London. Applying himself with his wonted diligence to the study of logic and philosophy, and being a proficient in classical learning, he soon attained to eminence in his College, being in advance of all his contemporaries. In the midst of his successful career his father died; so that his pecuniary supplies were cut off, and he was no longer able to purchase the books he needed in the prosecution of his studies. But even this disadvantage was overruled for good, and served as an occasion of further improve ment; though it subjected him to prodigious labour, both of mind and body. He borrowed of his tutor and other friends the volumes that he needed; and, being compelled to return them to their owners with all convenient speed, he was under a necessity of making from them copious extracts, which served effectually to impress the subjects upon his memory. In this manner his note-books, abridgments, and memoranda became very numerous, and afforded ample proof of diligence and application. Such a desire had he to attain to perfection in the various branches of scholarship, that although he was well skilled in the Greek language, in order that he might attain to greater exactness in it, he wrote with his own hand the whole of Homer's poems, if not also those of Hesiod, in a fair Greek character. Indeed, he composed in that language better than either in Latin or English. When his friend Bagshaw asked him the reason of his pains in transcribing Homer, his answer was, "Only that I may accent perfectly." The pains he took brought him to such a readiness, that he could with as much facility discourse in the public schools (for he was a famous disputant) in Greek, as in English or Latin. In all these languages he wrote and spoke in a lofty style, which was so familiar to him that he could not well avoid it in his ordinary conversation.

From Lincoln College he removed to Brazennose, the Fellowships of which are appointed to be given to Lancashire and Cheshire men; but, having few friends, he did not obtain a Fellowship till he was about thirty years old, when he took his degree as Master of Arts. Meanwhile, his income being small, he was often in considerable straits, and was partly dependent upon the liberality of men who were in better circumstances, and admired his scholarship.

When he had taken this his second degree, and had become Fellow of his College, he soon rose into public repute, so as to be appointed Reader in Logic, and in Natural and Moral Philosophy; and such was the esteem in which he was held in the matter of public disputations, which he performed with facility and acuteness, as well as with depth and comprehensiveness of erudition, that, when James the First visited Oxford, Bolton was selected by the Vice-Chancellor to be

one of the disputants before His Majesty. He excelled no less in mathematics, metaphysics, and in school-divinity.

Yet, while he commanded general admiration as a man of learning and of great intellectual power, he was a hypocrite, and desperately wicked. His master at Blackburn had succeeded in making him a Papist; and, while he was a member of a Protestant University, he agreed with a priest, of the name of Anderton, secretly to leave Oxford, and become a Professor in a Romish College on the Continent. The time and place of their departure from England were agreed upon, and Bolton was ready at the spot. But, as Anderton did not appear, Bolton returned to Oxford; where he gave ample proof that, whatever might be his opinions, he was an entire stranger to personal religion. He loved stage-plays, cards, and dice; he was a horrible swearer, a Sabbath-breaker, and a boon-companion of intemperate and profane men; he was ever glad of Christmas holidays, because of the amusements in which he could freely indulge, and was marvellously sad when they were ended, and grave duties demanded his attention. He loved not goodness, nor good men; and, of all sorts of people, he could not bear such as were of a strict life and conversation. Persons of this class he denominated Puritans, according to the fashion of the age; thinking that the application of this contemptuous name deprived them of all just claim either to learning, or to sound religion. This humour he discovered at Cambridge: for, being there at a Commencement, he attended the preaching of Mr. Perkins, then in the zenith of his fame as a faithful and able minister of Christ's Gospel; but his sermon was not at all adapted to the taste of Bolton, who pronounced the preacher "a barren, empty fellow, and a mean scholar."

When his friend the priest had disappointed him, and he had now returned to Oxford, Bolton formed an intimacy with Mr. Peacock, a Fellow of the same College, a godly man, but now unknown to fame. By the conversation of this intelligent and holy man Bolton was not only convinced of the errors of Popery, but of the evil and danger of sin. His convictions, as we might expect, considering the atrocious wickedness to which he had been addicted, were of the most painful and agonizing kind. "The first news he had of God," his friend and biographer testifies, "was not by a soft and still voice, but in terrible tempest and thunder; the Lord running upon him as a 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; laying before him the ugly visage of his sins, which lay heavy upon him, as he roared for very grief of heart; and so affrighted him, as I have heard him say, [that] he rose out of his bed in the night for very anguish of spirit. And, to augment his misery, he was exercised with foul temptations. As he was parallel with Luther in many things, so was he in these spiritual temptations; which were so vehement upon Luther, that the very venom of them drank up his spirits, and his body seemed dead. Neither speech, sense, blood, nor heat appeared in him, as Justus Jonas, who was by and saw it, reporteth of him. But this sharp fit

of Luther lasted but for one day; whereas Mr. Bolton's continued for many months. Yet God gave him at length a blessed issue; and these grievous pangs of his spiritual birth produced two admirable effects in him, as well as in Luther, an invincible courage and resolution for the cause of God, in which he feared no colours, nor the face or force of any; and a singular dexterity in comforting afflicted and wounded spirits.'

Having obtained relief to his burdened conscience, through faith in the sacrifice of Christ, and being renewed in the spirit of his mind by the power of the Holy Ghost, he resolved to enter the Christian ministry, being then about thirty-five years of age. Having received ordination, he applied himself with all his might to the duties of his new and sacred calling; devoting all his time, his energies, and his learning to the work of saving souls; anxious to bring as many sinners as possible into the same state of peace and holiness into which by grace of God he had himself been introduced.

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At this period he became known to Mr. Justice Nicolls, "who, observing the comeliness of his person, and the stuff that was in him, had it always in his thoughts to advance him ;" and about the thirtyseventh year of Mr. Bolton's age, the living of Broughton in Northamptonshire falling void, the Justice sent for him from the University to his chambers at Serjeants' Inn, and presented him to the charge of that parish. The Bishop of London, who happened to be present at the time, thanked the patron for what he had done, but observed that he had deprived the University of a singular ornament.

About this time Mr. Bolton entered upon an honourable career of authorship, by publishing "A Discourse about True Happiness; delivered in certain Sermons in Oxford, and at St. Paul's Cross:" an ample volume, dedicated to his generous friend the Justice, which passed through several editions, and proves that the author was well qualified for the duties of the sacred office. Many persons, we are informed, who bought it on account of the elegance of its style, were not only charmed with its diction, but by the perusal of it were led to Christ as the Author of salvation, and thus found rest to their souls.

When he had attained to the age of forty years, and for the better settling of himself in house-keeping, he resolved upon marriage, and entered into that sacred relation with Mrs. Ann Boyse, a gentlewoman of an ancient and worthy family in Kent; to whom he committed the care of his outward estate. For he himself minded only the studies and weighty affairs of his heavenly calling; in which for the space of more than twenty years he was diligent and faithful, preaching twice every Lord's day, and catechizing children in the afternoon, when he expounded the Creed and the Ten Commandments in a very exact manner. Upon every holiday, and on every Friday before the administration of the Lord's Supper, he expounded a chapter of holy Scripture; by which means he went over the greater part of the historical books of the Old and New Testament. In all these exercises he prepared nothing for his people, but what might have served a learned audience. In all his public services, next to the honour of God, be aimed at the con

version of souls; the very crown and glory of a good minister at the appearing of Christ in the last great day. In this respect he was wonderfully owned and honoured by his Lord, who made him a father in righteousness to many sons and daughters: for it may be truly said, that hundreds of persons were either absolutely converted to God, or mightily confirmed in their Christian faith and practice, or richly comforted under their sorrows and trials, by his instrumentality. He had, indeed, such an aptitude for the relief of afflicted consciences, which he had acquired, partly by great pains and industry in searching into such cases, but chiefly by the experience he had in himself, that he was sought unto by persons far and near; and not a few beyond the seas desired his counsel in order to the removal of their doubts, and the attainment of true peace of mind. These applications led him to write and publish his last and godly treatise, which he entitled, "Instructions for the right Comforting afflicted Consciences; with special Antidotes against some grievous Temptations. Delivered, for the most part, in the Lecture at Kettering in Northamptonshire." In his manner of preaching, Bolton was a son of thunder; and yet to bruised reeds, and those that mourned in spirit, he was as sweet a son of consolation as was ever heard: for with a very tender and pitiful heart he poured the oil of mercy into their bleeding wounds. As it was said of Luther, he was a mighty opponent to Satan's kingdom, and had a singular skill in exposing the craftiness of the wicked one, whereby he lies in wait to deceive. He thought that there is no more effectual way of casting down the strongholds of Satan, than by attacking sin with an irresistible power. In all his sermons, therefore, he set himself to expose sin in all its forms, and to impress upon every conscience the necessity of holiness. In this part of his work three things were specially observable :—

First, such courage and resolution as are seldom found even in men of the greatest fidelity. In the cause of God, he could have been contented, with Luther, to endure the hatred and violence of the whole world. And hence he delivered the truth with such impressiveness and energy, that it pierced between the very joints and marrow.

Secondly, impartiality. He spared none in their sins, whether they were rich or poor, great or small: for he knew and felt that he was called to deliver the will of his Lord, with whom there is no respect of persons.

Thirdly, wisdom. As he was a man of high courage, so he was no less wise and prudent. In all his denunciations against sin, therefore, he never made personal attacks upon his hearers, except when their own sense of guilt led them to apply the word to themselves. He never pressed upon the conscience the guilt of sin without fortifying what he advanced by Scripture, by the Fathers, (in whose writings he was ripe and ready,) and the concurrence of the best orthodox authors; so as to stop the mouths of all slanderers, who would accuse his doctrine of novelty, or of too much preciseness. When he had searched the conscience to the very quick, as he often did, he always offered Christ, in all the tenderness of His mercy, and poured the healing