Tried With Fire

Suffer the continued work of exhortation. It is your duty to labour to maintain Christian freedom. It was dearly purchased for you and mercifully bestowed on you, and therefore should not be weakly lost. Nor should it be maintained in a willful way. It was given in mercy and must be kept in judgment.  We must use the judgment of discretion in rejecting or embracing doctrines.  We are neither blindly to subject ourselves to them, no matter how holy and learned they may be who teach them, nor are we to reject them perversely. The True Bounds of Christian Freedom , Samuel Bolton, Banner of Truth Trust, page 222.

The Bible is the definitive word on heaven. But after God's word, I prefer an old puritan's thoughts on the subject rather than popular speculation. If we take away or separate that from Heaven, which a carnal heart conceives to be heaven, then that which remains is heaven to a godly man.  Carnal men fancy heaven under carnal notions.  They look upon it as a place where there is freedom from misery, and where there is a fulness of all pleasures and happiness. But both these - the pleasures and the happiness, the freedom and enjoyment, - they fancy in a way which complies with the carnality of their natural hearts.   Conceive aright of heaven.  Do not look upon it with a carnal eye, as a place of freedom from the miseries you feel and as a place of enjoyment of the happiness and pleasures you hoped for.  But look upon it as a place where you will have communion with God, enjoyment of Christ, perfection and fulness of grace, freedom from all sin and corruption a...

For by grace are we saved, and grace is no way grace if not every way grace. Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom , Banner of Truth Trust, page 160.

Puritan Samuel Bolton's take on Jiminy Cricket's famous advice: The one type of man performs duty from the convictions of conscience, the other from the necessity of his nature.  With many, obedience is their precept, not their principle; holiness their law, not their nature.  Many men have convictions who are not converted many are convinced they ought to do this and that, for example, that they ought to pray, but they have not got the heart which desires and lays hold of the things they have convictions of, and know they ought to do.  Conviction, without conversion, is a tyrant rather than a king; it constrains, but does not persuade; it forces, but does not move and incline the soul to obedience. It terrifies but does not reform; it puts a man in fear of sin and makes him fear the omission of duty, but it does not enable him either to hate sin or to love duty. All that it does is out of conviction of conscience, not from the necessary act of nature.  Conscience t...

[The believer] does not perform duty that it may go well with him here; nor does he perform duty that he may gain glory hereafter. He regards communion and nearness to God as happiness enough. His spirit does not say to him: Act thus, pray, obey, and it shall go well with thee in this world, and gain heaven for thee hereafter.  No!  He esteems it a piece of his heaven to have communion with God.  This is "coelum extra coelum' (heaven this side of heaven).  There is enough in the thing itself - communion with God - to induce him to seek it and make his soul desire it. He engages in the duty as if, in itself, it were a part of his reward, and if he can but find God in it, and have converse and communion with God in it, oh, there is heaven enough and glory enough in his soul. The True Bounds of Christian Freedom by Samuel Bolton, Banner of Truth Trust, pg 140.

It must always be remembered that, although Christ as borne the punishment of sin, and although God has forgiven the saints for their sins, yet God may God-fatherly correct His people for sin.  Christ endured the great shower of wrath, the black and dismal hours of displeasure for sin.  That which falls upon us is a sunshine shower, warmth with wet, wet with the warmth of His love to make us fruitful and humble. Christ drank the dregs of that bitter cup, so much of it as would damn us, and left only so much for us to drink as would humble us for our sin.  That which the believer suffers for sin is not penal, arising from vindictive justice, but medicinal, arising from a fatherly love.  It is his medicine, not his punishment; his chastisement, not his sentence; his correction, not his condemnation. The True Bounds of Christian Freedom , Samuel Bolton, Banner of Truth Trust, 2001 (originally published 1645), pgs 122-123.

C. S. Lewis gave good advice when he encouraged us to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds by reading old books and thus avoid the errors of our present age.  Therefore when I am reading books by living authors, I try to read at least one dead theologian, affectionately known as a "dead guy".   I had put down  The True Bounds of Christian Freedom  by Samuel Bolton for several months but picked it up again this week.  I realized how much I had been missing.  Not that I don't appreciate living authors, but there is something refreshing about the Puritans.  They weren't concerned about politically correct prose, but wrote bluntly, eloquently, and with holy affections. Here's a sample of some fresh air from 1645: It would be a sad matter if believers should grow more slack and sluggish; if that which should quicken them slacken their hands; if a man should say in his heart, Christ died, I need not pray so much; Chri...

We are freed from a state of bondage, a spirit of slavery in service, and brought into a spirit of sonship and liberty in service.  As Christ by His blood redeemed us from being slaves, so by His obedience and Spirit He has redeemed us to be sons. Now we are drawn to service, not with cords of fear, but with the bands of love; not by compulsions of conscience, but by the desires of nature ( 2 Peter 1:4 ).  As the love of God to us was the spring of all His actions to us, so our love to God is the source of all our obedience to Him. The True Bounds of Christian Freedom ~ Samuel Bolton , Banner of Truth, pages 48-49.  The introduction by Iain Murray and historical background on this treatise can be found here .

Christian liberty frees a believer from all kinds of previous bondage.  But we must be aware of taking any part of our liberty for bondage, or of our bondage for our liberty.  Too many do so. The True Bounds of Christian Freedom , Samuel Bolton (1606-1654), Banner of Truth, page 21.  First published 1645.