BOLTON, Robert

by Robert Bolton

£1,650 · Offered by Sokol Books

First edition of this important Puritan work dealing with spiritual Melancholy by the noted Puritan preacher Robert Bolton (1572-1631). Robert Bolton, who wrote Instructions for a Right Comforting Afflicted Consciences in 1631, was perhaps one of the most staunch disparagers of the horrible humour (Melancholy). Bolton was a rector of Broughton, Northamptonshire, and a well-known conformist preacher. While he differentiated grief occasioned by humoral imbalance from sorrow born of a repentant conscience like many of his contemporaries in the period, he set himself somewhat apart from other writers by cautioning his readers even against excessive godly sorrow. If inappropriately managed, he believed it was a corrupting source that could prevent one from doing the works required of a good Christian. Interestingly, he describes the effect of sorrow on the body by envisioning it within a bodily context, suggesting that grief grates most upon the vitall spirits; dries up soonest the freshest marrow in the bones; and most sensibly suckes out the purest, and refinedst bloud in the heart. His book functions as a guide of sorts, warning readers against falling prey to sorrow. He contends that melancholy can be alleviated through spiritual purification, with the sadness generated by black bile cleansed by devotion to God. CRRS Toronto University. Other English Calvinists agreed that the afflicted conscience was not to be confused with melancholy. . Closer attention to melancholy was giv

• Binding: Hardcover

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