HENRY SCOUGAL
AND THE
OXFORD METHODISTS

Henry Scougal and the
Oxford Methodists

BV THE SAME AUTHOR.

JOHN WESLEY AND GEORGE
WHITEFIELD IN SCOTLAND;
OK, THE
INFLUENCE OF THE OXFORD METHODISTS
ON SCOTTISH RELIGION.
Crown Svo, 5s.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS,
EDINBURGH AND LONDON.

Henry Scougal and
the Oxford Methodists

or, Tlie Influence of a Religious
Teacher of the Scottish Church

BY THE
REV, D. BUTLER, M.A.
ABERNETHY, PERTHSHIRE

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCXCIX

TO
MY WIFE,
[ DEDICATE THIS RECORD OF A
SAINTLY LIFE.

INTEODUCTION.

In the preparation of my book on ' Wesley and
Whitefield in Scotland,' and the study of the
literature, especially the original sources, relating
to the development of the Oxford Methodist
movement, I was very much impressed with the
influence that Henry Scougal of Aberdeen had over
the leaders during their formative period. There
seemed to be strong reason for the conviction that
he had been more of an inspirer and of a creative
power over that movement than he has received credit
for. After my ' Wesley and Whitefield in Scotland '
appeared, the conviction even increa.sed, and further
reflection led to closer examination. It then seemed
to me that not only did his remarkable book influ
ence them, as is abundantly proved by their own
direct evidence in letters and journals — that not

Vin INTRODUCTION.
only did his personality help to shape them — but
from the published writings, as they were known
to the Wesleys, there came forth the testimony that
when Scougal was Regent and Professor of Philo
sophy at King's College, Aberdeen, he was the
" j)erpetual president " of a society at that college
which was guided much by the same aims and ex
isted for the same ends as those which formed the
ideal of the early Methodist Society at Oxford,
that ultimately grew into a great Church and
exercised such a deep power, both directly and
indirectly, over the Christianity of Great Britain.
It seemed to me as more than probable that the
idea of the society at Oxford came to Charles
Wesley, who was its real founder, from Henry
Scougal, and he certainly founded it at the time
when he was studying Scougal's works. Both
societies were alike academic and religious. Hence
this little book, in which I have sought to convey
my impression.
I have endeavoured to observe the true historical
perspective : to represent Scougal as he appeared
to these great saints and teachers from the internal
evidence of his own writings, and from Dr Gairden's
sermon preached at his death. I have endeavoured
to portray the life, teaching, and example of the

INTEODUCTION. IX
Scottish teacher as he shines forth in his own
books, by such evidence as I could gather from
trustworthy and historical sources, and as he ap
peared to the Wesleys about 1729. ^ These writings
are eminently autobiographical, and reveal the
growth of a saintly soul, and of one who wielded
power over the piety of former days. In my previ
ous book,- I made reference to Scougal's influence
both in the text and in a footnote, and a reviewer
wrote that from the evidence stated he was sure
that the fons et origo of Methodism was to be
found in Henry Scougal of Aberdeen. That is
my conviction, deepened by a study of the original
literature as it is preserved in the British Museum,
and I have endeavoured to express it in this book.
If the case is established, then it is a glory of
which the Scottish Church may well be proud, that
one of her most saintly teachers, who died at the
early age of twenty-eight, has the great honour of
shaping and inspiring, during their formative period,
saints so eminent, and religious teachers so epoch-
making, as John Wesley, Charles Wesley, George
1 It is to be regretted that .John Wesley's Journal does not
begin until 1735. What additional interest it would have had,
could we possess a record of each day from 1726, as we have
almost consecutively from 1735.
2 Pp. 5-11, and pp. 67, 68.

X INTRODUCTION.
Whitefield, and their associates. Even if the claim
made regarding the origin of the Society at Oxford
be questioned, Scougal's influence in shaping their
thought is beyond doubt, and I have sought in
this book to give him what he seems legitimately
to deserve. D. BUTLER.
The Manse,
Abebnetht, Pebthshiee,
Ocloher 1899.

I. CHILDHOOD AND BOYHOOD . . 4
II. STUDENT LIFE AT KING'S COLLEGE, ABERDEEN 8
III. REGENT AND PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT
king's COLLEGE, ABERDEEN . 14
IV. MINISTER OF AUCHTERLBSS . . 18
V. PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN KING's COLLEGE,
ABERDEEN . . . 25
VI. EARLY WRITINGS . . 50
VII. ' LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN,' AND
SERMONS . . . . .61
VIII. INFLUENCE OVER THE OXFORD METHODISTS
AND THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION . . 99
IX. SCOTTISH PRAYER-SOCIETIES. WAS SCOUGAL'S
RELIGIOUS SOCIETY AT ABERDEEN THE
PROTOTYPE OF THE OXFORD ONE IN ITS
EARLY FORM ? . . 128
X. ESTIMATES AND TESTIMONIES FROM EMINENT
MEN AS TO HIS INFLUENCE . . 143

HENRY SCOUGAL.

CHAPTER L
Henry Scougal was the son of Patrick Scougal,
who in 1636 was ordained mimster of Dairsie,
Fife; in 1645 was translated to Leuchars; in 1659
to Salton, Haddingtonshire; and in 1664 was ap
pointed Bishop of Aberdeen, and held that office
until his death in 1682.^ Keith says he was a
man of great worth, and Baillie calls him " a good
and subtle scholar." Bishop Burnet, who was his
immediate successor at Salton,^ describes him as " a
man of rare temper, great piety, and prudence " ; ^
and adds in another place, "With a rare humility,
tolerance, and contempt of the world, there was
1 The Scottish Nation, by William Anderson, vol. iii. p. 423.
2 Ency. Brit. (8th edition).
3 History of His Own Time, vol. i. p. 217.
A

2 HENRY SCOUGAL.
combined in him a wonderful strength of judgment,
a dexterity in the conduct of affairs, which he em
ployed chiefly in the making up of difi'erences, and
a discretion in his whole deportment." ^
This brief record of the father's life and character
enables us to follow the life and inner development
of his distinguished son ; but it is to be regretted
that so little can be known of the mother,^ who
must have had no small share in the religious
education of such a remarkable child. She must
have been a lady of most saintly character and
deep religious conviction, for her son Henry was
early imbued with the devotional spirit, and the
Christian consciousness instinctively applies the
name of saint to him, as he reveals himself in his
writings and in his brief but holy life. Henry
1 Preface to Life of Bishop Bedell.
2 In the articles on Scougal in the ' Dictionary of National
Biography ' (vol. li. ) it is stated that Henry was born in 1650
(p. 120) ; and the statement is made^ (p. 122) that the Bishop
was married in 1660 to Ann Congalton, afterwards Lady Guns-
green, who had three sons and two daughters — Henry being
named as the third of the sons. The statement is the same in
Dr Scott's 'Fasti ' (Part vi. p. 886). But this lady must have
been the Bishop's second wife, for the mother of Henry Scougal
was Margaret Wemyss, a Fifeshire lady (see Anderson's Scot
tish Nation, vol. iii. p. 424). On his father's side Henry
Scougal was descended from the Scougals of that ilk (Eminent
Scotsmen, vol. iv. p. 243).

INTRODUCTION. 3
Scougal is one of those to be placed near Thomas
k Kempis, and this study will manifest how
potent and far reaching was his influence as a
religious teacher. Like Thomas k Kempis and
the " friends of God," little is known of the
outward details of his life, for we possess no
letters. He was one of those who moved more in
the region of the inward than of the outward,
and his inner life was fed from those unseen rills
that have their origin in the city of God. Henry
Scougal's best biography is the remarkable book
and sermons he has given us ; but, fortunately for
us, his funeral sermon was preached by a clergy
man who possessed a kindred spirit to that of his
friend. In that sermon we have a brief but in
teresting record of Henry Scougal's life, character,
and training, as well as the impression his person
ality made upon his intimate friends. With the
help of the few biographical details, as given in
encyclopasdise, and sketches of his career given in
editions of his works — but, chief est of all, with
the help of this remarkable sermon — we educe
the following sketch. Dr Gairden's ^ impressions
are valuable, and are in harmony with those we
1 George Gairden (1638-1723) was translated from Old Machar
iu 1683 to the second charge of St Nicholas, Aberdeen. He was

4 HENRY SCOUGAL.
receive from Scougal's book, ' The Life of God
in the Soul of Man.'

Childhood and Boyhood.
Henry Scougal was born probably in the manse
of Leuchars, Fifeshire, in June 1650; he was
fortunate in his parentage, and in the influences
of the home where he was born. The early begin
nings and first blossoms of his life were " seasoned
with pious inclinations," ^ and one can trace in them
the pious influence of his mother. " Happy he
With such a mother ! faith in womankind
Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high
Comes easy to him."
Henry was from his earliest years dedicated to
the service of God and the Church, and the in
fluence of his parents with that purpose in view
found a helpful ally in the pious inclinations and
suitable disposition of the boy's own spirit. He
comes before us as a boy taken up little with
play and diversions, as retiring in his disposition,
said to have been an accomplished naturalist as well as a dis
tinguished minister (Scott's Fasti, Part vi.)
1 Sermon, p. 330.

CHILDHOOD AND BOYHOOD. 5
of a staidness of mind, given to private reading
of the Scriptures, meditation, and prayer — as
vsdthal free from sullenness and dulness of spirit.
A trait comes out in this early period, recalling
a similar one in John Wesley, who often found
help in the difficulties of life by opening his Bible
and reading the text or passage where his eyes
first alighted. Both were averse to making a
" lottery " of Scripture, but both found the habit
just indicated helpful. It is told of Henry
Scougal, that being in the midst of anxious
thought as to his career, he opened his Bible and
found a text which decided his career — " By what
means shall a young man learn to purify his way ?
By taking heed thereto according to Thy word." ^
He learned at an early age the Latin language,
and became acquainted vsdth its literature. Like Dr
Thomas Chalmers when a boy, he was occasionally
found delivering little orations to a company of his
associates, and was evidently much impressed with
Cicero's speeches to the Conscript Fathers. He
possessed a quickness of judgment, a vast memory,
which was soon stored by the treasures of Scrip
ture, and a knowledge of the Greek, Latin, Hebrew,
and Oriental languages, as well as of history, mathe-
1 Sermon, p. 332.

6 HENRY SCOUGAL.
matics, logic. His youth was penetrated with a
deep sense of the vanity and meanness of this
world's hurry and designs — "his heart was clear
of any inclination to it, and he would even then
say to his intimates that, ahstractmg from the will
of God, mere curiosity would make him long for
another world, it being a tedious thing to see still
the same dull play acted over again here." '¦
Henry Scougal was fortunate in his home, and
had an opportunity of meeting many remarkable
men there. It was surely a privilege for such a
boy to have met the saintly Leighton, and to have
heard him speak amid the quietness and freedom
of a sympathetic home. Leighton was minister
of Newbattle in 1641, and was there until 1653,
when he was appointed Principal of Edinburgh
University. Scougal's father and Leighton were of
one mind in matters religious and ecclesiastical, and
Leighton was a welcome guest both at Leuchars
manse and afterwards at Salton, where Scougal's
father was translated in 1659. Leighton, Lawrence
Charteris, Robert Douglas, with other such souls,
were among those of whom Dr Gairden speaks
when he wrote of his friend's boyhood : " Such was
the seriousness of his spirit, and the love he even
1 Pp. 375, 376.

CHILDHOOD AND BOYHOOD. 7
then had for knowledge and good men, that when
he had the opportunity of hearing serious and
reverend persons who used to resort to his father's
house, he was careful to attend to them, and listen
to their wise and pious discourses." i Such is the
brief record of Henry Scougal's childhood and boy
hood — fortunate in all respects — a lovely combination
of hallowing influences and of a hallowed disposi
tion, capable of assimilating and being strengthened
by them. 1 P. 333.

CHAPTER IL
STUDENT LIFE AT KING's COLLEGE, ABERDEEN.
His father was appointed Bishop of Aberdeen in
1664, and from Salton to Aberdeen the family re
moved in that year. Henry Scougal entered King's
College at fourteen years of age, and graduated
when eighteen.^ As a student he both manifested a
genius for godliness and a genius for learning : from
the strifes of the period his soul was as a star, and
dwelt apart. He was far removed from the levities,
animosities, and habits of the time ; he united
gravity with a free, magnetic, unaffected manner ;
he avoided controversy, and cared nothing for the
bitter words and subtle distinctions that charac-
1 In the ' Fasti Aberdonenses ' or ' Records of the University
and King's College, Aberdeen, ' his name appears in the list of
students who studied under Dr Robert Forbes in 1664 (p. 481),
and among those laureated in 1668 (p. 523).

STUDENT LIFE AT KINGS COLLEGE. 9
terised the ecclesiastical strivings of his time ; he
"wore the white flower of a blameless life, " and
piety penetrated his learning. We hear of him as
being attracted to mathematics and history, besides
the other branches of learning that characterised the
curriculum of the period; and as avoiding all such
false knowledge as depraved the .spirit, and had a
bad influence over the mind. By private study he
mastered the system of Lord Bacon, and one can
well trace in him the influence of the great philos
opher who abandoned the deductive logic of Aristotle
and the schoolmen, and for the interpretation of the
world rested on inductive methods : who insisted on
the facts that man is the servant and interpreter of
nature, that truth is not derived from authority, and
that knowledge is the fruit of experience. Lord
Bacon's method in science became that of Scougal
afterwards in religion, and one can trace throughout
his writings a logical conciseness, a clear reasoning
and exactness of language, an appeal to experience,
and a writing from experience that may have been
derived from his philosophic guide. Henry Scougal
as a student transcended what Dr Thomas Chalmers
named " the olden pertinaciousness and the olden
zeal for little things," ^ and felt, like him, how much
1 Dr Hanna's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 651.

10 HENRY SCOUGAL.
an earnest devotion of mind to a great object raises
the man above petty embarrassments ; ^ learning that
would give him a right apprehension of God and
just thoughts about virtue, morality, and prayer, that
would transform his knowledge into inspiration, be
came his chief quest and the supreme object of his
desire. Books that inflamed as well as informed —
that imparted heat as well as light — that pointed
as "with a single finger to heaven " — were the com
panions of his quiet hours, and helped to nourish
in him a majestic religious repose. While pursuing
learning he also pursued, like Dr Norman Macleod's
"Earnest Student,"- the life that was "hid with
Christ in God " ; while mindful of his calling on
earth, he recalled that it could only be lived aright,
in so far as he remembered that it was a heavenly
calling. Another important feature of his college life at
Aberdeen which has not had the emphasis given
to it that it deserves, was the influence of his
example in moulding afterwards the Oxford Metho
dists. Whitefield distinctly states that Scougal's
book led to his conversion : it was given him by
Charles Wesley, who regarded it as a companion
1 Dr Hanna's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 130.
2 James Mackintosh.

STUDENT LIFE AT KING'S COLLEGE. 11
of the higher life. That book, 'The Life of God
in the Soul of Man,' was used by all the members
of the Oxford club originated by Charles Wesley,
and was the text -book of the little society that
was afterwards destined to exercise an important
and quickening power on the religious life of the
country. Of this more afterwards. But not only
did Scougal's book influence the religion of these
students at Oxford, the example of their teacher
seems to have given them the conception of the
University Club, which they formed for purely
religious purposes, and which received at Oxford
the name (given in derision) of Methodist. It is
impossible to recall the veneration in which Scougal
was held by the Oxford club, of which Charles
Wesley was the first, and John Wesley the succeed
ing, president, and not to see that these Oxford
students were following both the example as well
as the teaching of Scougal in the unfolding of
their religious life. John Wesley afterwards found
an authority for his societies in the history of the
early Church, but the Oxford club originated by
Charles Wesley was probably suggested to him by
the example of Scougal when a student at Aberdeen.
In fact, the prototype of the Oxford club was in
Aberdeen, and the religious society at King's

12 HENRY SCOUGAL.
College was in all probability the precursor of the
one at Christ Church. To the honour of Henry
Scougal's saintly memory this ought to have been
known before this, and it is well to note what Dr
Gairden in 1678 says of Scougal — a fact known
to Charles Wesley. Here are his words : " Religion
was the matter of his [Scougal's] serious and im
partial choice, and not merely the prejudice of
custom and education. He used sometimes to
write essays of morality, and occasional medita
tions ; which, as they were singularly eloquent and
ingenious, so they breathed forth the devotion of
his mind and the seriousness of his spirit, and
would very well become a riper age. It being
the custom of the youth to have private meetings
about the ordering the concerns of their com
mencements, where he [Scougal^ was made constant
president among his fellows, his discourses to them
were so grave and becoming (as some of them have
professed) that they looked upon them as the say
ings of a grey head, and thought they savoured
of the wisdom of a senator." ^ And so the young
gifted Henry Scougal was from 1G65-1668 president
of a religious society at King's College, Aberdeen,
which existed for the same purposes, and was
1 Sermon, p. 337.

STUDENT LIFE AT KING'S COLLEGE. 13
shaped by the same ideal, as afterwards became
the outstanding feature of the Methodist Club at
Oxford. Surely Scougal was a seventeenth-century
"Methodist," if we judge him by the explanation
which John Wesley gives in his dictionary of the
term — " one who lives according to the method
laid down in Holy Scripture." As John Wesley
again prepared a book of prayers for his club, so
Henry Scougal wrote at the age of eighteen ^ his
'Private Reflections and Occasional Maxims,' with
which we shall deal in a succeeding chapter.^
1 See Preface to edition of 1740. 2 Chap. vi.
jVote.— These "private meetings" (p. 12) had a twofold
object: they were intended to prepare for graduation, but
Dr Gairden's narrative renders it beyond doubt that Scougal
used them also for ends purely religious. The Aberdeen
students in those days lived in college (Prof. Cooper's Intro
duction, p. 6), and so Scougal had the same opportunity of
influencing the students as the Wesleys had at Oxford. Their
society had the same twofold object (see p. 101).

14

CHAPTER IIL
EEGENT AND PROFESSOE OF PHILOSOPHY AT
king's COLLEGE, ABERDEEN.
As John Wesley was for many years Greek Lecturer
and Moderator of the classes at Lincoln College,
Oxford, with the duties assigned of lecturing on the
Greek Testament, teaching Divinity, and presiding
over the Daily Disputations held in the College
every day except Sunday, so Henry Scougal was
for one year Regent and for three years Professor
of Philosophy in the University of King's College,^
with duties assigned somewhat similar.^ In Dr
Gairden's quaint language, "he was thought worthy
' Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, vol. iv. p. 244.
2 In the ' Fasti Aberdonenses ' he is mentioned as a regent in
1669 with thirty-four students, and with two additional ones
in the following year (pp. 488, 489). Twelve of his students
laureated in 1673 (ibid., p. 526).

REGENT AND PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY. 15
to be a master, where he had so lately been a
scholar ; and, after having given sufficient proofs
of his fitness, by teaching for the next term the
class of one who was occasionally absent, he was
accordingly promoted, and even in this station to
him to live was Christ." ^ The claim is made for
him as a lecturer in philosophy, that he was the
first in Aberdeen or in the nation^ to teach the
Baconian system ; ^ and, although the discipline
of the class seems for a time to have suffered
on account of his youth, his piety and learning
called forth the affectionate admiration of the
worthy students. The unruly and perverse section
1 Sermon, p. 338. = Ibid., p. 340.
s Sir William Hamilton somewhere observes that every
problem of philosophy ultimately becomes a problem of
theology ; and it is interesting to observe that Scougal's re
ligious teaching, which had experience for its basis, was
preceded in his thought by an adoption of Lord Bacon's
pMlosophy. Dr Thomas Chalmers emphasises this aspect of
thought in a comparison of Lord Bacon and Bishop Butler :
"Butler is in theology what Bacon is in science. The reign
ing principle of the latter is that it is not for man to theorise
on the works of God ; and of the former that it is not for
man to theorise on the ways of God. Both alike deferred to
the certainty of experience as being paramount to all the
plausibilities of hypothesis ; and he who attentively studies
the writings of these great men will find a marvellous con
currence of principle between a sound philosophy and a
sound faith" ('Memoirs,' vol. ii. p. 304).

16 HENRY SCOUGAL.
he permitted to be expelled from the class, even
although the expulsion involved detriment to his
own worldly interests, which had little hold upon
his nature. As a regent, he is brought before us
as one whose presence and teaching shed a Christ
like atmosphere in the lecture-room : who impressed
his students with humility as being the first
step to real knowledge, and inspired them with a
sense of the worth and dignity of the soul and
with an aversion to sensual pleasure. He comes
before us as a teacher who took a personal interest
in each of his students, making it appear both
by teaching and by practice that religion and
philosophy are not enemies to each other, that
the discreet use of reason leads man to the
truths and graces of the Christian religion. '^ On
the evenings of the Lord's Day he had prepared
for them some discourses, chiefly with an ethical
purpose in view, emphasising character as the
abiding foundation of knowledge,^ condemning the
folly and heinousness of vice and impiety, and
bringing religion and goodness forward as the chief
1 Sermon, pp. 341, 342.
2 Dr Gairden specially mentions "that he guarded them
agaiust the debauched sentiments of Leviathan" (Sermon,
p. 341).

REGENT AND PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY. 17
good of life. Carlyle somewhere says : " I call a
man remarkable who becomes a true workman in
the vineyard of the Highest," and Henry Scougal,
during the student and regent period at Aberdeen,
as throughout the rest of his brief life, comes before
us as one who, judged by such a standard, is worthy
to be called "remarkable." He was characterised
by accurate learning and genuine piety — a fine com
bination which must have told perva.sively upon
his students.

CHAPTER IV.
MINISTER OP AUCHTBELESS.
Scougal, like Leighton, was one, of those few men
of whom it can be said that while on earth they
live in heaven, and bring the atmosphere of heaven
nearer earth. Each possessed the same qualities
that began to exhibit themselves in childhood, that
deepened in youth, blossomed forth with rich ful
ness in early manhood, and manifested themselves
in a saintly ministry. In both one realises the
unity of two worlds — the invisible not parallel with
the visible, but pervading it with its holiness,
sanctifying it with its purity. The power of their
ministry was centred in the fact that their life was
hid with Christ in God, that it found its hope and
its repose amid the eternal things of God.
Bishop Thorold narrates that on his translation

MINISTER OF AUCHTERLESS. 19
from the see of Rochester to that of Winchester,
his successor in office at Rochester asked him for
counsel. " Give me," was the request, " one main
piece of advice, the outcome of all your experience,
as the most important for me to remember." After
a pause. Bishop Thorold answered : " This is what
I should like to say. All depends upon the per
sonal life and character of the bishop. That is the
foundation upon which will rest all which you will
be able to do. It is a great but humbling office." ^
Fra Angelico once said, " He who occupies him
self with the things of Christ must ever dwell with
Christ " ; and if ever a young minister entered
his parish with the burden of two such ideals
upon his heart, it was surely Henry Scougal; and
spirits like his maintain the only possible apostolic
succession, for they continue it by incarnating the
sweetness and the grace of the Christian life, and
by making them present facts in conduct.
Henry Scougal was probably advised by Leighton
and others ^ to enter the Church. He was recom
mended, 26th September 1672, for licence, and
ordained in 1673 as minister of the parish of
1 Life and Work of Bishop Thorold, p. 405.
2 Dr Gairden says, " By the counsel of some serious and
reverend persons in the Church."

20 HENRY SCOUGAL.
Auchterless, Aberdeenshire. ^ His ministry was
characterised by a whole-hearted sincerity, a deep
consciousness of- God and the invisible world, a
singular seriousness of purpose. In order to give
himself altogether to his ministerial work, he re
signed the Chair of Philosophy, which he had held
for three years.
From Dr Gairden we can gather together some
aspects of his work at Auchterless. He felt his
obligations to piety and innocence of life increased
by his office ; he regularly catechised, and acquired
an intimate knowledge of members belonging to his
congregation ; more than the goodly appearances of
others he valued the humble innocence, cheerful
contentment, and resignation of one poor woman in
his parish. Wishful that the early part of the
service conducted by the reader (the invocation of
Almighty God, the lessons, the confession of the
Christian faith, and rehearsing the Ten Command
ments) should be regarded as worship and not as
preliminaries to the sermon of the minister, he
was present then, and did not, as was the general
custom, appear in the church when sermon was
about to be given. He revived the use of lectures
or continuous exposition of a book of Scripture ; he
1 Fasti, Part vi. p. 650.

MINISTER OF AUCHTERLESS. 21
strove in his teaching to touch the heart and better
the life, and, like Francis de Sales, his manner
was evidently characterised by majesty and tender
ness. The object of his preaching was the glory
of God and the good of men; and that he might
realise these, he made his subject the study and
prayer of the previous week, that it might thereby
pass into his own heart and affect his own spirit
first. In his preaching he made frequent recol
lections of the divine presence, and his manner
spoke of real piety and quickened it among his
people. Scougal's conception of pulpit eloquence was an
exalted one: to him its aim was twofold — (1)
not only to consider the issues of reason, but to
impress the spiritual nature with a truth ; and (2)
to have his own heart first imbued with that
disposition which he sought to produce in others.
M. Thiers has said that "to give is the noblest
mode of using property ; it is the moral enjoyment
added to the physical." ^ But Scougal, always in
different to the possessions of time, gave not from
the mere sense of the pleasure it gave him so
to do, but from the sense of his property being
a trust to be used in God's service. Throughout
1 Quoted by Montalembert, Monks of the West, vol. i. p. 95.

22 HENRY SCOUGAL.
his college career, his professorships, and ministry,
he gave away a great part of his income, and in
quietness, without letting his name be known. " He
chose,'' says Dr Gairden, "some fit persons both in
the city and the country, who were acquainted with
the necessities and straits of poor, modest, honest
house-keepers, to whom he frequently gave money
to relieve their wants. And these were sometimes
honest persons of different persuasions, who were
relieved in their straits they knew not by whom." ^
Scougal was great in humility, holiness, and happi
ness, and nothing increased his happiness more than
to see the dawn of goodness in those from whom
he did not look for it, while it was his joy to
lead the dawn to the day. It was during this
period that he wrote the book on which his fame
permanently rests, the ' Life of God in the Soul
of Man,' which may be regarded from its inward
ness as his autobiography. In life, character, and
literary labour, he closely resembled one of the
Oxford band that was so profoundly influenced
by his book — the Rev. James Hervey, of Weston-
Favel, the literary parish priest, who from within
the Church of England last century did so much
1 Sermon, p. 370.

MINISTER OF AUCHTERLESS. 23
by his popular books to link Methodism as a
religious force to literature, and whose books with
Scougal's were so widely read over the country,
and did so much to deepen piety. Scougal's book
and his life are one in spirit, and his book was
published in 1677 for the first time, without his
name, and with a preface by Bishop Burnet.'-
The bishop was the first to recognise its spiritual
genius, piety, and literary style,^ and his recogni
tion of this excellence is no small tribute to his
own insight. His memory will be gratefully treas
ured both for the 'History of His Own Time,'
so valuable for the period, and for his friendship
with the saintly Archbishop Leighton and his
1 Scottish Biographical Dictionary, p. 243 ; also Chalmers's
General Biographical Dictionary, vol. xxvii. p. 288.
3 Burnet had been successor to Bishop Scougal in the parish
of Salton, and was minister there from 1665 to 1670. Although
he afterwards attained the highest eminence, he always retained
an affectionate remembrance of his early parish. At his death
he bequeathed twenty thousand merks for the benefit of the
parish, but chieiiy for clothing and educating thirty poor
children and in relieving the necessities of the parochial poor.
The children who continued to reap the fruits of his bounty
were popularly called "bishops," and occupied in the church
a gallery which bore the name of the bishop's loft. See
Anderson's Scottish Nation, vol. i. p. 490.

24 HENRY SCOUGAL.
saintly pupil, Henry Scougal. It was said of
Tauler, one of the "friends of God," that "the
Spirit of God breathed through him as sweet
music through a lute," and the same can be said
of each of these Scottish splendours. The divine
harmony reached this world through them both.

CHAPTER V.
PROFESSOE OP DIVINITY IN KING's COLLEGE,
ABEEDEEN.
A YEAE after his ordination at Auchterless, Scougal
was chosen unanimously by the clergy of the diocese
to fill the Chair of Theology in King's College, a
position which he occupied until his premature death
in 1678. This chair had been shortly before filled
by the celebrated John Forbes of Corse, and more
lately by William Douglas, the learned author of
'Academiarum Vindiciae' and other eminent works. ^
Scougal's appointment was universally acceptable,
and in accordance with the custom of the time
he published a thesis on his accession to the chair,
entitled ' De objecto cultus religiosi.' He hesi
tated in accepting the appointment, but gave way
to the pressure of his friends. He gave to his
1 Eminent Scotsmen, vol. iv. p. 244.

26 HENRY SCOUGAL.
new office the whole-hearted sincerity that character
ised his ministry and student life, and several
aspects of his work are preserved for us which
reveal the same lofty spirit. He learned a Western
language in a few days, and as Leighton could
write elegant classical French, so his pupU before
long attained the same culture. He did not only
read books, but thought them until their truth
became inspiration to him. He regarded too much
reading as dulling, confusing, and " prejudicating "
man's mind; and he united with his reading the
impulse and impact of friendship, associating with
many, especially like-minded friends, and benefit
ing others and himself by conversation, improved
afterwards by retired meditation and devotion.
Thus was his learning made inspiration, and thus
did he strengthen himself by the atmosphere of
a university town.
Scougal again seems to have benefited from
Leighton's experience — probably from his sugges
tion. Leighton was educated at Edinburgh Univer-
.sity, where he took his degree in 1631 ; but he
was subsequently sent by his parents to Douay,^
a town eighteen miles south of Lille in France,
and remarkable for the number of its literary and
1 Anderson's Scottish Nation, vol. ii. p. 643.

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. 27
scientific institutions, and for its university founded
in 15G2.1 He there formed an intimacy with the
best educated of the Roman Catholic gentlemen who
were attending the college ; and being fond of under
standing systems different from his own, and of
coming into contact vdth men of worth in other
Churches than his own, he learned to love them
in Christian charity for the goodness they possessed,
and thought less rigidly of the differences that
separated them.^ This must have intensified the
natural catholicity of his mind ; and as Leighton
maintained such friendships throughout life,'' and
visited the Continent at intervals of work, he
must have found it helpful to him. Scougal,
invalid and all as he was, did likevrise, and
1 Ency. Brit., vol. vii. p. 375.
2 Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, vol. iii. p.
378. 3 Leighton is said at his early and subsequent visits to have
had a good deal of intercourse with some members of the
Jansenist party, and was impressed by their piety (Ency.
Brit, article, p. 427). Both Leighton and Scougal were
evidently infiuenced by teachers of the Pietists, Quietists,
as well as the Jansenists ou the Continent. Dr John Forbes
was at French and other universities ; likewise Burnet,
Spottiswood, and Patrick Young (Burton's Scot Abroad, p.
293). King's CoUege, Aberdeen, was constructed on the
model of that of Paris (ibid., p. 166). The connection is
not without interest during this period.

28 HENRY SCOUGAL.
" employed two summers in going to a neighbour
ing nation," ' not unlikely to the very haunts of
Leighton. This contact with thoughts, beliefs, and
systems different from his own must have helped
to raise him above national insularity, and to give
him that larger catholicity of heart and mind which
certainly did not characterise his period. It helped
his natural disposition to attach less weight to the
local and contingent than to the universal and
abiding ; it taught the transitoriness of custom, and
the permanence of the spiritual in religion.
Leighton was once reprimanded by zealots at a
synod meeting for not "preaching up the times."
"Who," he asked, "does preach up the times?"
It was answered that all the brethren did it.
" Then," he rejoined, " if all of you preach up
the times, you may surely allow one poor brother
to preach up Christ Jesus and eternity." ^ The
words expressed the spirit of both Leighton and
Scougal, — embodied the ideal which they shaped
for themselves amid their troublous times. Both
lived in the eternals, and, living time as eternity,
were saved from the narrowing, ecclesiastical strifes
of the period — were in them but not of them.
1 Gairden's Sermons, p. 352.
2 Pearson's Life of Leighton, p. 9.

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. 29
Both sought to look at their time-problems from
the atmosphere which they breathed, the ideal
that became theirs from communion with God ;
both were thus saved from giving to the phe
nomenal that importance which was due to the
spiritual, and both sought from their position to
help their age by concentrating its spiritual con
sciousness on the calming, elevating truths of
religion, and thereby giving to questions of polity
the secondary position in the kingdom of God.
The spiritual and not the ecclesiastical was to
them the real, and their attitude to questions of
Church government was that of comprehension —
of including in a wide polity all that were willing
to be included. By drawing men more towards
the centre of things, — by bringing them nearer
the deeper unity that dissolved differences or
reconciled differences, — by pleading for a catho
licity of spirit that of itself put other questions
in a secondary position, — they both sought a
balm for the ecclesiastical strivings of their age.
Leighton and Scougal stand out as teachers to
whom the term catholic can truly be applied ;
both master and pupil were witnesses in the
seventeenth century to the eternal in religion,
and it is this that makes them both priceless

30 HENRY SCOUGAL.
possessions to the Church. It is, too, not with
out importance, that both treasured this spirit by
communion with men living under different fellow
ships from their own, and finding thereby an
underlying similarity of devotion that tran
scended all outward distinctions. Over all secon
dary questions that divided men, Scougal, like
Leighton,! would say in the words of the Master,
" What is that to thee ? Follow thou me." And,
during his professorship at Aberdeen, Scougal is
brought before us as one who sought to heal
the ecclesiastical differences of parties by bring
ing them together in a bond of friendship, and
by producing a pious temper or disposition op
posed to faction, led them to understand each
other, and to work for the same spirit in others.
Clearly does his friend Dr Gairden see in this
the abiding solution of things, and a similarity
to the method by which the Son of God spread
1 The following reference to Leighton is to be found in
Scougal's published ^vritings : " An eminent and holy person
yet alive in our Church said, ' he would rather be instrumental
in persuading one man to be serious in religion, than the whole
nation to be Conformists.'" The following is in Dr Gairden's
Sermon on Scougal : " A great light ot this nation used to say,
that the most edifying way was to have long texts and short
sermons" (p. 66)— Archbishop Leighton: a Short Biography,
by William Blair, D.D., Dunblane.

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. 31
His religion in the world, by which the zeal and
piety of His first followers did continue it, and
by which we can expect to see the life and spirit
of it breathe once more among us.^ Henry
Scougal was not even by necessity a polemic,
and his effort to unite those separated by names
and parties, and bring them together in the re
ligion of the Master, is in accordance with the
true spirit of Protestantism, for "a Church which
does not claim to be infallible is bound to allow
that some part of the truth may possibly be with
its adversaries."^
Such was Scougal's aim both in the general
society of Aberdeen and in his classroom. With
regard to his lectures, we are not without infor
mation. He inspired his students with a twofold
aim, the service of Jesus Christ and the good of
His Church. He taught the direct objects of
the ministry to be the rescuing of the vicious,
the inculcation of the practice of religion, and the
preparation of souls for the vision of God in
eternity. A knowledge of controversies was re
garded as useful only as explaining the grounds
of the divisions of Christendom, for their own
1 Sermon, p. 375.
' Bryce's Holy Roman Empire, p. 332.

32 HENRY SCOUGAL.
instruction and for the special needs of any who
might require it. The following is his friend's
narrative : " He proposed two designs as the sub
ject of all his public exercises. The one, de cura
pastorali, proposing to consider the institution and
dignity, the weight and difficulty, the necessity and
usefulness, of the holy function of the ministry ;
the nature of the call we ought to have to it,
the necessary dispositions that are required to fit
us for it, the manner of our own private life and
conversation in it, and how we ought to discharge
the several exercises of it, both public and private.
The other, the instructing them in casuistical
divinity ; the considering how a man of a straight
conscience ought to behave himself in whatever
state or condition of life he be, and whatever
cases and circumstances he fall into ; and the
branching out this into particulars, and vindicat
ing it from the corruption of the Jesuits and
others. So great and good were the designs he
proposed unto himself as to matters of controversy,
he studied rather to lessen than to multiply, and
saw that men were apter to be reasoned out of
their erroneous persuasions by a good life than
many arguments. He thought it enough to make
the youth understand the true state of matters

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. 33
in debate, and to consider the most weighty
differences ; but he was careful to take them off
as much as possible from the disputing humour,
and an itch of wrangling pro and con about any
thing, and many times by silence answered their
impertinent quibbles. There were no debates he
was more cautious to meddle with than those about
the decrees of God, being sensible how much
Christianity had suffered by men diving into
things beyond their reach : " secret things belong
ing to the Lord, and things revealed, to us and
our children." But he had always a deep sense of
the powerful efficacy of God's grace upon our
souls, and that all our good was entirely to be
ascribed to God, and all our evil unto ourselves.
He used once a year (when the youth were most
frequent), by a very serious and affectionate dis
course in English, to lay before them the weight
and importance of the ministry : how they should
demean themselves now while they were candidates
for that holy function ; how carefully they ought
to avoid all such evil conversation as might give
their minds a bad tincture ; what course of study
they ought to take; inviting them to a frequent
resort unto him, and expressing a most affectionate
concern for them. It was also his great care to
c

34 HENRY SCOUGAL.
make his private conversation with them as useful
as his public. And by this, indeed, he hoped to do
most good. They had always free access to him,
and his counsels and advices were still suited to
the dispositions he perceived in them. He could
so modestly and prudently tell them their fail
ings, as to make them perceive and amend them
without being offended. He was careful to lend
and direct them to the use of good books; and,
indeed, one of the great ends of his buying so
many was to serve them. Those who were of
the most eminent endowments and best inclina
tions, he stirred up to serious thoughts of the
holy ministry. He gave them the most undoubted
proofs of his love and care of them, opened his
heart freely to them, and learned their inclinations
and studies. He directed them to the best means
of bettering their heart, as well as informing their
judgments : prayer, meditation, and frequent retire
ments; and made them sensible that self-will was
the root of all our sin, and an entire resignation to
the will of God the very spring of all our duty, and
directed them to frequent and constant acts of self-
denial and resignation. And as he was thus careful
of his charge, so also of maintaining that entire cor
respondence with and due deference and respect that

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. 35
he' owed towards his reverend colleague ; and that
entire and constant love and harmony between them,
and that mutually deserved esteem they had for one
another was very singular and very exemplary.
Thus to him to live was Christ." ^
The same writer continues : " Thus faithfully and
prudently did our dear friend manage his charge in
serving the interest of his blessed Master. And we
might have hoped confidently, ere long, that, by
.their joint-endeavours, through the blessing of the
Almighty, we should have see'n another face on our
Church. But, amidst all his pious designs and
cares, he is called by his great Master, in an hour
that we thought not of, from his stewardship here,
to an higher employment in the other world. ' Who
is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord
makes ruler over his household, to give them their
portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that
servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall
find so doing. Of a truth he will make him
ruler over all that he hath.' " ^
Henry Scougal died of consumption at the pre
mature age of twenty - eight, and was buried in
the University Chapel at King's College. He
was unmarried. Men felt that a light was taken
1 Sermon, pp. 354-358. ^ ibid., p. 358.

36 HENRY SCOUGAL.
from among them, and his monument in the Uni
versity has an inscription with the words that
so well express his character, " Caeli avidus et cselo
maturus " (" Eager for heaven, and prepared for
heaven "). If life is not to be measured by years,
but by intensity of thought and life and devotion;
if the longest life is not the best, but that which is
most of all devoted to the service of God ; if that
which lives time as eternity, and brings eternity
into time, is the most useful for the world, — then
Henry Scougal's name may well be enrolled in the
Calendar of the Saints. His wasting sickness was
borne as a Christian hero alone could do. " In
deed," says Dr Gairden, " the end of his life was
no less Christ's than the beginning and whole
course of it. The time of his sickness was as
cheerfully spent in suffering the vidll of God as
the former was in doing it. He manifested the
greatest meekness and cheerfulness of spirit through
out the whole course of it. He used not the least
harsh expression, either to any of those that waited
on him, or concerning the present providence. He
expressed a perfect inclifferency as to life and death,
and an entire resignation to the will of God, to
dispose of him as He thought meet. He found
himself never more sensible of the vanity of this

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. 37
world, nor ever felt more ardent acts of love to
God, than at that time. He was rapt in admira
tion of God's goodness to him, and the little re
turns he said he had made to it ; and acknowledged
his own great unworthiness, and his humble confi
dence in the mercy and goodness of God, through
the merits of his blessed Saviour. And thus meekly
did he pass his sickness, and resign his spirit, with
out any trouble from the world, or great pain of
body, or any anguish of mind ; for ' mark the
perfect man, and behold the upright ; for the end
of that man is peace.' " ^
His lectures were not published, but he left
several manuscripts in Latin, particularly " A
Short System of Ethics or Moral Philosophy — a
Preservative against the Artifices of the Romish
Missionaries " ; an unfinished treatise ' On the Pas
toral Care ' ; ' Occasional Meditations,' which were
not published until 1740. For the Cathedral of
Aberdeen, where he was precentor - during his in
cumbency at Auchterless, he prepared a "Morning
and Evening Service," which will be found printed
1 Sermon, p. 359.
2 A canon appointed by the dean and chapter to regulate the
musical services and ritual (Glossary of Ecclesiastical Terms,
p. 370).

38 HENRY SCOUGAL.
in the 'History of Aberdeen' by Willie^m Orem,
town-clerk. 1 Its spirit is felt in the following
petition, which forms part of it : " Let the life
of the Holy Jesus be always in our thoughts and
before our eyes, that, being in love with all those
excellent graces which shined in His blessed soul,
we may never cease our endeavours till the image
of our Lord and Saviour be fully formed within
our hearts." ^ He bequeathed his library to King's
College, with five thousand merks to increase the
salary of the Professor of Divinity in that college.
A portrait of Scougal is preserved in the College
Hall, and has been engraved in Pinkerton's ' Icono-
graphia.' ' He was interred in the College Chapel
on the north side, opposite to the high altar, now
called the bishop's seat or desk.*
Such is the brief record of Henry Scougal's life,
work, and character ; but as the thesis of this book
is both to show the influence of his teaching and
life over the Oxford Methodists, it is well to record
other traits as they are brought before us by his
intimate friend Dr Gairden.
1 Bibliotheca Topographia Britannica, Part iii. (In Edin
burgh Library copy, vol. vi. pp. 180-189.)
2 Ibid., p. 186. 3 Anderson's Scottish Nation, p. 424.
'' Orem's History of Aberdeen, p. 178.

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. 39
"All the harm he could do his enemies (if there
were any such universal haters of mankind as to do
him bad offices) was to pray for them the more
earnestly to God." ^
"He did not confine his charity within a sect
or party, but loved goodness wherever he fpund
it ; and entertained no harsh thoughts of men,
merely upon their differing from him in this or
that opinion. He was grieved at the distractions
and divisions of the Church, and that religion,
the bond of love, should be made so much the
bone of contentions." ^
" What wise methods had he to make his friends
sensible of their infirmities and failings by speak
ing to them of his own ! and to stir them up to
zeal and diligence in piety and good works, and
to the use of the most effectual means for purify
ing their souls, by telling them instances of the
piety and life of others of his acquaintances." ^
The impression he gave his intimate friends
was that of inward purity and elevation above
the worldly spirit. There was about him " a great
unconcernedness for this present world, it having
been the general observation of all that knew him.
He looked, indeed, always as a stranger and pil-
1 Sermon, p. 365. = imj. Mbid., p. 367.

40 HENRY SCOUGAL.
grim in it, and was dead to it in heart and spirit
long before his body had taken leave of it. Good
God ! what a deep sense had he of the meanness
and vanity of this world's hurry and designs, which
he used to say looked to him like the projects
and scuffle of children and fools. In his very
youth his heart was clear of any inclination to
it; and he would even then say to his intimates
that, abstracting from the vsdll of God, mere curi
osity would make him long for another world, it
being a tedious thing to see still the same dull
play acted over again here." ^ He was simple in
his food : " while he supported nature he scarce suf
fered his taste to have any complacency in them [the
actions of the animal life]. He thought it strange
to see those who pretended to a Christian temper
ance exercising such voluptuous pleasure in their
meals, making them the subject of their table-talk,
and, as if they owned their bellies for their gods,
professing they loved such and such dishes with
all their souls. Alas ! that the weakness and in
firmity of human nature, by which we are leveUed
with the beasts, should become the matter of our
vanity and voluptuousness, instead of that humble
and debasing sense we ought to have of ourselves." ^
1 Sermon, pp. 375, 376. 2 jbid., pp. 376, 377.

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. 41
He comes before us as one "wearing the white
flower of a blameless life," but also enduring hard
ship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and main
taining in the midst of it serenity of spirit.
" When he lived in the country [at Auchterless],
the hardships and inconveniences he then endured
were the common talk of all that knew him : his
coarse fare, and hard lodgings, and unwonted soli
tude; the extreme coldness of the season, and the
comfortless shelters he had against it, did excite the
compassion of others, but never lessened the quiet
and contentedness of his spirit ; and he sufi'ered
them with as much patience as if he had heen hred
up from his infancy in the Turkish galleys. A'nj
traverses that befell him in the circumstances of
his life and designs did never becloud the natural
serenity and cheerfulness of his mind, and he
used to say in relation to such discontents, that
as he blessed God he was not naturally melancholy,
so he thought an acqmred melancholy was scandcd-
ous in a clergyman." ^
The Christian religion has united two features in
the spiritual consciousness of its disciples — loveliness
1 Sermon, pp. 378, 379. Compare a similar assertion of
Francis de Sales, "He who complains, sins" ("Qui se plaint,
piiche ") (The Spirit of Francis de Sales, p. 97).

42 HENRY SCOUGAL.
and serenity of character with lowliness of heart. It
is difficult to say which is the more attractive, but
combined as they are in Christian experience, they
form a beautiful unity. It has been pointed out
that for his moral life the pagan was referred
wholly to himself; that this is the reason why
there was no virtue in which the heathen world
was so deflcient as humility; that it was utterly
incomprehensible to a Greek or Roman, for such
virtues as he possessed were self-acquired, without
divine aid.^ In opposition to this, Christian faith,
we may say, penetrates the soul of the disciple with
the life of God, gives him a dominion over sin,
with a motive-power to live a holy life, and yet it
brings him face to face, heart to heart, with an
ideal that is beyond all possibility of full embodi
ment here, that is ever before all attainment, that
while being realised is beyond all realisation, that
towers beyond the fulfilment of the greatest saint
in the pure calm light of God. Such is a feature
that comes out in the lives of all the saints, making
all times and all countries one ; and in all their
letters and autobiographies the experience of St
Paul is in some measure manifested : " I knew a
1 Dr Gerhard UUhorn's Conflict of Christianity Avith Heathen
ism, p. 144.

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. 43
man in Christ above fourteen years ago, . . . such
an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew
such a man (whether in the body or out of the body,
I cannot tell: God knoweth;) how that he was
caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable
words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
Of such an one will I glory : yet of myself I will
not glory, but in mine infirmities." ^ The vision
always brings the sense of unworthiness, and we
find this in John Wesley, who averred that he laid
the foundation of his work in judging and condemn
ing himself.^ Henry Scougal was possessed too with
a profound sense of humility : " The admiration of
the perfection of the Almighty, in the contemplation
of which he was often taken up, had sunk him into
truly mean thoughts of himself.^ . . . With what
seriousness and simplicity did this enlightened soul
express the sense he had of the sinfulness of his
nature, and the worthlessness of his person. Almost
the very last words he spoke were to this purpose,
uttered with an extraordinary devotion of spirit,
after having witnessed his resignation to the will
of God, and his humble hopes in His mercy and
goodness ; ' But,' says he, ' when you have the
1 2 Cor. xii. 2-5. = Works, vol. viii. p. 321.
3 Sermon, p. 379.

44 HENRY SCOUGAL.
charity to remember me in your prayers, do not
think me a better man than I am ; but look upon
me, as indeed I am, a miserable sinner, a most
miserable sinner.'"^
This is surely interesting from one whose life was
the Gospel carried into practice, and regarded as
such by his intimate friends and fellow-townsmen.
Dr Gairden's sermon was preached to the com
munity amid which Scougal lived, and by which
his life and character were well known, and he
verifies the truth of his narrative by saying : " I
hope there are none here will think me guilty
of so much imprudence as to utter falsehoods of
him in a place where he was so well known, and
where there are so many well acquainted with most
of the important and private passages of his life.
No. I know you are sensible how far short all I
have said conies of his true worth. He had need
to be endowed vsdth the same spirit that would
speak aright of him ; and true goodness cannot be
expressed, but felt."^
Another characteristic of Scougal's character is
one that has appeared in the lives of many saintly
men — e.g., Luther, Wesley, Kingsley, and Chalmers
— his love for the society of children. " The exem-
1 Sermon, pp. 381, 382. 2 Ibid., p. 382.

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. 45
plary regard he had to young children was equally
the expression of his humility and his love. How
ready was he on all occasions to converse with
them, taking a singular delight in their harmless
innocence, and usually, after the manner of the
great master of love, affectionately embracing and
blessing them." ^
Such is the record of a short and saintly life, and it
is always good to be brought into contact with such.
From its largeness comes something that raises above
smallness ; from its greatness flows imperceptibly
but pervasively a something that ennobles the com
mon day, and condemns the littleness into which
its duties are apt to glide. Such a life gives a
higher point of view, a firmer grasp of the invisible
realities, an elevation above pettiness, and a glimpse
into the wondrous possibilities of the human soul,
when it is consecrated to and by God. A life like
Scougal's is the direct gift of God to His Church,
and imparts to it new impulse and inspiration for
service. It is a permanent emotion in man's nature to
admire what is lovely and spiritual in character, and
no lapse of time or change of tradition can outgrow
this eternal instinct in the human heart. A saint
1 Dr Gairden's Sermon, pp. 379, 380.

46 HENRY SCOUGAL.
stirs instincts in the human breast which all men
know to be among their purest and their best, and
man will never withhold reverence from one who
bears "the marks of the Lord Jesus." Scougal's
life glorifies human nature, and his devotion aroused
others — we will shortly see most intensely — who
awakened in turn the multitudes, and quickened
their dormant energies. His heaven -lit love, en
larging itself by the discipline of self-denial, was
the secret of his power, and pointed to its source in
God. And it is not without interest to observe
that this young Aberdeen professor, who made
experience the basis of his teaching, and testified
of the indwelling God, consciously known by a
manifested life — was first of all a character of rare
elevation and spirituality. Experience is the best
interpreter in religion (" pectus facit theologum ") ;
but experience gives insight in proportion to the
purity and spirituality of him who experiences it.
Here was the uniqueness of the gifted Henry
Scougal, and his writings everywhere bear witness
to a learned and accomplished mind, but not least
of all to an intensely beautiful soul. His classical
and patristic learning was great, but greater far
was that which he derived from sitting before the
Heavenly Master as a childlike, submissive disciple.

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. 47
In his case the promise was verified : " If any man
will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine";
from him, as from Leighton, the truth can be learned
that a Christ-like character is the best interpreter of
Christian truth.
His early death, relieved, softened, and illuminated
by faith in God, is another example of the truth
expressed by Dr Walter Smith, and loved by Bishop
Ewing 1 : —
" But all through life I see a Cross,
Where sons of God yield up their breath ;
There is no gain except by loss.
There is no life except by death.
There is no vision but by Faith,
No glory but by bearing shame.
Nor justice but by taking blame :
And that Eternal Passion saith.
Be emptied of glory, and right and name." ^
The short life here, led to nobler service in larger
worlds than this; but what it learned in the dis
cipline of pain passed into other lives, and enriched
them. If it be true of the larger plane of Church
history, as has been averred, that the light of an
active religion is always burning somewhere, that
1 Ross' Life of Bishop Ewing, p. 577.
2 Olrig Grange, p. 202.

48 HENRY SCOUGAL.
the inevitable tendency is for that light to die away
in one place and reappear in another,^ it is also true
in the succession of spiritual teachers. One man
utters the message and passes away, but the message
does not die : it is transmitted by the potent in
fluence it has borne over other souls. And Henry
Scougal's life and teaching not only deepened the
piety of Scotland, but became also impulse, light,
life in Oxford. They entered as formative in
fluences into the young band of earnest souls known
as the Oxford Methodists ; they shaped them for
the work that ultimately produced the religious
movement historically known as Methodism ; they
also quickened the revival of religion over the
country. God fulfils Himself in many ways, here
and hereafter ; and His faithful servant was hon
oured by the work his short service on earth achieved,
for it issued in the most living, spiritual force
throughout the subsequent period. God's greatest
gift is a consecrated soul, and, as we unite with
Bishop Andrewes in his prayer "for the Cathohc
Church, its establishment and increase : for the
Eastern, its deliverance and union ; for the West
ern, its adjustment and peace ; for the British, the
supply of what is wanting in it, the strengthen-
1 See Spectator, July 15, 1899, p. 80.

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. 49
ing of that which remains in it," ^ we also realise
that the answer to such petitions is to be found
in God's gifts to all of saintly disciples. Whether
they appear as leaders directing the spiritual life
and controlling the policy of the Church, or as
obscure, silent forces helping the Church in their
quiet walk, by incarnating the Christ -spirit, they
are in both cases the true fulfilment of the prayer,
as well as the supreme need of all time.
1 Pascal and other Sermons, by Dean Church, p. 92.

50

CHAPTER VI.

EARLY WRITINGS.

To write an adequate biography of Henry Scougal
is an impossibility ; to attempt it is to realise, as
was said of another, that it is " like writing the
history of a fragrance." ^ His infiuence can be best
felt, and such a life as his was one necessarily lived
apart : it had a genius for godliness, but not one for
affairs. He was one of those born good, who have
goodness in their blood ; but the leading of his life
manifests the unfolding of his inner wealth, and
writings are still extant in which we can trace his
growth. Scougal was fortunate in his home and
friends, fortunate also in his inborn capacity, and
the chief influence that shaped him was a study of
the Bible, and of the literature that breathed the
1 Professor Smith's Life of Henry Drummond, p. 12.

EARLY WRITINGS. 51
spirit of the Bible. Coleridge has said that "an
intense study of the Bible will keep any writer
from being vulgar in point of style," ^ and Scougal's
simple, impressive style as well as his thought were
moulded by this book. It quickened, deepened, and
intensified a natural direction, and transformed a
capacity into a fulfilment.
The ' Life of God in the Soul of Man ' was
published by Bishop Burnet, and was written by
Scougal at the early age of twenty-six or twenty-
seven. It is on that book his fame vrill perma
nently rest, and viewed both from the standpoint
of thought and style, it is worthy to sustain it.
But there is an earlier production, written at the
age of eighteen, although not published till after
his death, that is interesting in the study of his de
velopment, and manifests the growth that had been
going on within his mind from the earliest years.
Scougal, we have already seen, was president of a
religious society in King's College, and it was most
probably for this society that the 'Private Refiec
tions and Occasional Maxims ' were prepared. They
manifest him as a student, careful in his philosophic
studies, but not unmindful of that larger life within
—the life "hid with Christ in God." They do not
1 Table Talk, p. 100.

i)2 HENRY SCOUGAL.
contain the same richness or depth of thought as his
later work, but they bring us to the little stream
that deepened and expanded into the broad river.
We have first to do with Henry Scougal as the
president of the religious society, and, although
the details of its constitution and rules no longer
survive, it is possible to aver that its object was
a purely spiritual one — the cultivation among the
students of personal religion. The following selec
tions from the now-forgotten volume will best mani
fest its aim.

Contempt of Sensual Pleasures.
" Now for the enjoyments which only tickle the
senses with a short and ignoble delight, and withal
do clog and dull the soul, many times leaving it
in a melancholy mood. I think any considering
man will score them out, and put them from com
petition. There is indeed a certain gradation of
the senses, wherein from the touch, the object
whereof is most gross and palpable, we may, as
it were by steps, ascend to the height, which is
more pure, and hath a greater analogy with the
intellectual faculty; and it is not unworthy of our
observation, that the purest and sublimest sense is

EARLY WRITINGS. 53
always seated in the highest parts of tho human
body." Deceitfulness of Riches.
" The next design (besides sensual pleasures) that
puts in for happiness is riches, which we must con
sider in themselves or with relation to us, and so
attending their intents. Under the first considera
tion, their claim is but weak : for why should a
man be happy because his coffers enclose some
money, whereof I am as much master as himself;
ii justice restrain me from meddling with it, avarice
doth not less bind up the supposed owner's hands.
If we take riches in the second consideration, then
they resign their claim in favour of those interests
which they are designed to promote ; if they be
intended for sensual pleasure, that is already dis
carded; if for ambition, of that anon. And by
the way, it may be noted that riches cannot be
used but by alienation, and so they never profit
the owner until they be another's ; and if we
seriously consider, we shall find that the rich man
enjoys no more than his own entertainment, and
the pains of dispensing the rest to others; a little
will supply the personal necessities, even of the
most luxuriant, and what is over must be spent on

54 HENRY SCOUGAL.
his domestics, whom he must serve in the quality
of a steward ; and if they be numerous (as a great
estate will require) he finds it a greater business
to see to their provision and carriage than they
find it to attend him." ^
The Vanity of Glory.
" The consciences of men are not so debauched
but that they may have some reverence for virtue
in others, though void of it themselves ; and there
fore he who would approve himself to the opinion
of the greatest part, must shun all jpalpable enor
mities. . . I must needs confess, I have never
been so nearly touched with the sharpest reproof
as I have been by the undeserved applause of
others, when my conscience told me how far I
came short of their good opinion. . . . Amor
pairim in the heathen was joined to laudisque
immensa cupido. . . I think it is no solid
happiness which depends on the variable thoughts
of a multitude." ^
Object of Desires an Infinite Being.
" The object of human bliss is somewhat above
nature, the enjoyment whereof shall answer or
1 Essay on Happiness, pp. 24, 25. 2 j^id. , p. 26.

EARLY WRITINGS. 55
exceed the expectation of his soul, and so fill all
the corners of it, that there shall be no more
room for future desires ; and that this must be
an infinite being may appear from our boundless
desires." ^
"What doth the world afford us but anxiety
in projects, vanity in enjoyments, and vexation in
disappointment ? " . . . O Lord, Thou alone
knowest the present discomposure of my spirit :
rebuke, I beseech Thee, the furious tempest, and
restore my soul to that calmness and tranquillity
which may capacitate me for the duties of Thy
service and my calling. . . . Make me taste of
the joys that are at Thy right hand, and the
pleasures which endure for evermore." ^

References to Greek Philosophy.
" Doubtless the Stoics shot at rovers when they
prescribed an apathy as the only felicity of man." *
"Platonism in morality answereth to charity in
Christianity." ^
1 Essays, p. 29. 2 jbid., p. 5. ' Ibid.
i Ibid., p. 10. 5 Ibid., p. 29.

56 HENRY SCOUGAL.
The Advantages of Divine Love.
"Man's duty and happiness consist in the right
placing of his love, and this noble affection can
have no such suitable, no such adequate object
as God. Love is the only thing which may be
called ours ; any other thing may be taken from
us without our consent, but none can ravish our
love : if, therefore, we would offer anything to God,
let us do it of that which is our own, and if
anything can be counted our own, it will follow
as an appendix to that gift. He that giveth his
love, giveth with it all that he hath, in so far
as he giveth his will by which he possesseth all
things, and it is not possible to refuse him any
thing to whom by love we have given our souls ;
nay, since it is the privilege of gifts to take the
value from the giver, and not to be measured by
that event, but by the desire, he who loveth
may be reckoned not only to give what he hath,
but everything else which may make the beloved
person happy.
" in which sense it is, that one makes bold to say,
that he who loveth God, doth give God to himself,
by the complacency he takes in ' his happiness and
perfections. But though this seem too big an

EARLY WRITINGS. 57
expression, certainly love is the worthiest thing
we can give or offer to God, and there is none
can so well deserve it.
" When this affection is misplaced, it doth often
vent itself in such expressions as do point at its
genuine and proper object, and insinuate where it
ought to be fixed : the fiattering and almost
blasphemous terms of admiration wherewith lovers
court one another are the language of that affection
which was made and designed for God. As he
who is accustomed to speak to some great person
doth perhaps unawares accost another with the
same titles he is wont to give him, so love, which
was born to converse with God, being drawn from
Him, doth bestow His honour another way. In
a word, that affection which calleth its object a
deity ought to have been placed on Him who
really is so : the excess and violence of his passion
ought to be placed where it cannot be excessive.
And indeed so large and unbounded is its nature,
that it needs be extremely hampered and ill ac
commodate in any creature : everything is so
straight for it, but an infinite goodness ; hence
ariseth that vexation and disquiet which accom
pany love, when it is not filled with an object, to
answer the vastness of its capacity, hence it is

58 HENRY SCOUGAL.
that lovers do hardly brook a rival, and cannot
endure that any should approve their action by
imitating it : they know the narrowness of the
goodness which they love, that it cannot suffice
two, being indeed too narrow for one. The love
of God is free of gall ; it regrateth nothing so much
as the want of rivals : love is the king of self-
dereliction, a wandering out of ourselves, a volun
tary death, wherein the lover dieth to himself and
all his own interest, not thinking of them or caring
for them any more, and so perisheth altogether,
unless he meeteth with reciprocal affection, for
then he is revived, recovers a new life, and liveth
in the soul and care of the person whom he loves ;
nay, now he begins to mind his own concernment,
not because they are his, but because the beloved
person is pleased to have an interest in them ; he
becomes dear to himself, because he is dear to
the other ; but he perisheth quite who loveth one
who either cannot or will not answer his affection.
Thus do they utter their own utter ruin, who doat
on their own fellow-creature, who may chance to
neglect or despise their affection, or whose death
may put an end to all their endearments. But
happy he who hath lost himself in divine love,
where he can never miss reciprocal kindness, for

EARLY WRITINGS. 59
who shall separate in form that love of God whose
beginning and goodness are equally eternal ?
" They who have made an exchange of hearts by
love, get thereby an interest in one another's happi
ness and misery ; this makes love a troublesome
passion, when placed on earth, where the most fortu
nate person hath grief enough to mar the tranquillity
of his friend ; and it is hard to hold out when we are
attacked on aU hands, and suffer not only in our own
person but in another's. If God be the object of
our love, we share in an infinite happiness, without
any mixture or possibility of diminution : we rejoice
to behold the glory of God, and receive comfort and
pleasure from all the praises wherewith men and
angels adore Him : it delights us beyond expression
to consider that He whom our soul loveth is in
finitely happy in Himself, and that all His enemies
cannot shake or unmake His throne.
" Nothing doth more naturally beget afiection in
us than the love of another : either because having
a good opinion of ourselves, we account him a lover
of goodness, and therefore a lover of goodness who
loves us ; or because the likeness in disposition which
wrought affection in one effecteth the same in the
other; or because the lover doth require his own
image in his own soul, and every one loveth his own

60 HENRY SCOUGAL.
where he seeth it ; or lastly because of the gift which
the lover makes of himself to the beloved person,
who thereby is moved to love that which now is
become his own." ^
Such are remarkable views of religion and life for
a lad of eighteen years : they reveal a soul that at an
early period had trampled vulgar ambitions in the
dust, and had chosen the better part. They are in
teresting not least of all as illustrating the develop
ment of the author's thought ; for the position arrived
at, that the infinite desires of the human heart
demand an infinite object to rest upon, was by ex
perience ripened into the riper thought — that the
human soul can transcend its finite conditions and
enter here and now into the life of God — that it can
become the participator of a life that is not of this
world, but immortal and divine — that has neither
this world as its source nor goal — that is nothing
else than the Life of God, throbbing and pulsing
within it. Such, briefly exjjressed, seems to be the
later faith to which the earlier one led, and with it
we will deal in the next chapter.
1 Essays, pp. 33-35.

(il

CHAPTER vn.
'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OP MAN,'
AND SEEMONS.
It is interesting to compare the position Scougal
had attained at eighteen years of age with the
one Dr Chalmers had reached at the same age
when he was a student at St Andrews Univer
sity. The latter, engrossed in scientific studies,
whUe disclaiming Mirabaud's view of this world
as " an eternal universe of mere matter and mo
tion," states his rehgious belief in no doubtful
terms. Looking back at this period of his life
twenty -four years afterwards, he writes, February
26, 1821 : "Oh that He possessed me with a sense
of His holiness and His love, as He at one time
possessed me with a sense of His greatness and
His power. I remember, when a student of

62 HENRY SCOUG.A.L.
divinity, and long ere I could relish evangelical
sentunent, I spent nearly a twelvemonth in a
sort of mental elysium, and the one idea which
ministered to my soul all its rapture was the
magnificence of the Godhead, and the universal
subordination of all things to the one great
purpose for which He evolved and was supporting
creation. I should like to be so inspired over
again, but with such a view of the Deity as
coalesced and was in harmony with the doctrine
of the New Testament." ^ Dr Chalmers was so
"inspired over again," and the penetration of his
earlier view by a later faith was the means of
the world receiving a classic in pulpit oratory
— the 'Astronomical Discourses.' Chalmers's view
of God at eighteen years of age was that of
Infinite Greatness and Power ; Scougal's was that
of God as an Indwelling Presence, whose life was
manifested in the believer, and revealed itself
through him as the inward love of God, as love
going out in service to man, as inward purity
and humility of character. Afterwards both agreed
more than they differed, but the comparison is not
without interest, and unfolds the richness and
variety of the religious life in different minds.
1 Dr Hanna's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 13.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 63
Like the late Mr R. H. Hutton, Scougal may
be said from his very earliest years to have been '
possessed by " the yearning for a wide, ever-
widening horizon" — to have been near and pur
sued " the ever-retreating horizon of eternal life."
The quest made him what he was. The nearest
parallel to Scougal's ' Life of God in the Soul of
Man ' is the ' Theologia Germanica ' : there is the
same mysticism in both books — the same desire
for absorption in God, without the surrender of
the activity necessary for the service of daily life
— the same self-renunciation — the same giving up
of the human will to the will of God — the same
belief in the continuous and direct activity of the
Holy Spirit on the soul, and in a possible union
between the soul and God — the same disclaiming
of a religion based on fear or a hope of reward —
the same belief in the universality of the Christian
priesthood, and in the necessity of the Church for
the quickening of the spiritual life. Scougal, the
Aberdeen professor, and Tauler, the Dominican
monk of Strasburg, with Eckhart, his teacher,
were brothers in spirit, and what the ' Theologia
Germanica ' was to Luther, the ' Life of God in
the Soul of Man ' was to John Wesley and White-
field. The fact of the matter is, both Leighton and

64 HENRY SCOUGAL.
his pupil Scougal find their true historical parallels
in Eckhart and his pupil Tauler ; they were seven
teenth-century "friends of God," and as worthy of
the name as their beautiful predecessors in the
fourteenth century.
Leighton and Scougal transcended their period,
and recoiled from the controversies that character
ised it ; they were " the friends of God " in a
Scottish garb, and the best, perhaps the truest,
estimate of them is to be found in a parallel
between them and their illustrious predecessors.
The 'Theologia Germanica' was vsritten about
1350, the 'Life of God in the Soul of Man' over
three centuries later ; and one may think that
the similarity of religious conception between them
is to be found in the fact that Scougal, as
Leighton, drank from the old Continental streams
of piety, and lived in the society of those to
whom theology was Oeorrria. The ' Theologia Ger
manica,' in teaching that man is justified by faith
and by faith alone, gave the popular intellectual
element of the Reformation,^ — its inwardness led
to Luther's conviction: so likewise the 'Life of
God in the Soul of Man ' led Whitefield into
the same faith, prepared John Wesley for it, and
1 See Baron Bunsen's Letter, p. 60, in Kingsley's edition.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 65
through these teachers and their associates — not
least of all through Charles Wesley by his hymns
— led to the Methodist and Evangelical revival
of last century. Both books came from the deep
spiritual life of their respective periods as protests
against formalism and ceremonialism — the perpetual
enemies of religion ; both books affected spiritual
life most profoundly, as well as far and wide, and
emphasised religion, not as a creed or a ritual, but
as a life in God.
Both teachers saw man in the light of his
spiritual possibilities — as made for God, to enjoy
communion with God, and to manifest the life
of God in time. Both saw man in the light of
the divine ideal. "A sculptor," said Tauler, "is
reported to have exclaimed, on seeing a rude block
of marble, 'What a God-like beauty thou hidest ! '"
So to the friends of God, to Leighton and Scougal,
the roughness of the unregenerate soul is to be
transfigured by the revelation and unfolding of its
inner beauty. The three stages by which a man,
according to Tauler, is led upwards till he attains
true perfection — (a) purification, (5) enlightenment,
(c) union — are assumed by Scougal, and pervade
Leighton's conception of religion. The four prin
ciples, again, of the ' Theologia Germanica ' ¦ — (a)
E

66 HENRY SCOUGAL.
that sin is selfishness; (6) that true godliness is
unselfishness; (c) that a truly godly life is the
steadfast working out of inward freedom from, or
freeness of, self; (d) that to become thus is for
man to regain his true, original nature, the life
of God that is buried vsdthin him, and emerge
from the husk that besets it — are the accepted
principles on which both Leighton and Scougal are
to be understood, for they interpreted them in their
religious writings. When we hear Tauler say : " He
who is against God is dead before God.''^ "Dis
obedience is contrariety to God and nothing else." ^
" Had we no must he's nor ought to he's but
such as God and the Truth show us and constrain
us to, we should have less, forsooth, to order and
do than now (for we make to ourselves much dis
quietude and difficulty which we might well be
spared and raised above)." ^ "The life of Christ
is the best and noblest, the worthiest or loveHest
in God's sight that ever was or will be."* "God
is goodness as good, and not this or that good."^
" God loveth not Himself as Himself, but as Good
ness.""* "A God -like man is 'made partaker of
1 Theologia Germanica, p. 54. 2 Ibid., p. 57.
3 Ibid., p. 73. " Ibid., p. 104. " Ibid., p. 112.
6 Ibid., p. 117.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 67
the divine nature.' " ^ "The more a man followeth
after his own self-will, and self-will groweth in
him, the farther off is he from God, the true
Good (for nothing burneth in hell but self-will).
Therefore it hath been said, 'Put off thine own
will and there will be no hell.'" 2 "All self-will
is sin, and there is no sin but what springeth
therefrom." 8 "He who is content to find all
satisfaction in God, hath enough."* "If there
were one in hell who should get quit of his self-
will and call nothing his own, he would come
out of hell into heaven." ^ "This world is an
outer court of Eternity, and therefore it may well
be called a Paradise, for it is such in truth."
"In this Paradise all things are lawful, save one
tree and the fruits thereof, . . . that is self-will,
or to will otherwise than as the Eternal Will
would have it."^ "Man should claim nothing for
his own, nor crave, will, love, or intend anything
but God alone and what is like unto Him, that
is to say, the One, Eternal, Perfect Goodness." '' —
When we hear Tauler utter such deep truths of
the spiritual life, we are face to face, heart to

' Theologia Germanica, p. 117.
2 Ibid., p. 122. 3 Ibid., p. 171.

 , ^--   , i^. .... ¦" Ibid., IX 184.
' Ibid., p. 206. « Ibid., p. 193. 7 ifcid., p. 220.

68 HENRY SCOUGAL.
heart, with what both Leighton and Scougal pre
eminently recognised religion to be, and reaUsed
it as in their own spiritual life. The latter were
not unlikely influenced by the former, but if this
were so, it is because all alike were moving on
the same line of natural direction ; if their results,
on the other hand, were attained, independent of
each other, it arose from the fact that all had
reached and drank from the same eternal stream —
the inspiration of the living God within the souL
^Mysticism appears in all religions, for the reason
that the spiritual life must ultimately reach a point
where the seen becomes one with the unseen, where
the unseen is felt to influence the seen. What can
not be clearly expressed in the language of the reason
may yet be known to be real in the experience of the
heart, and in religion the latter is as important, if
not more important from the point of view of moral
dynamic, than the former. So intimately related is
God to the intellectual and spiritual nature of man,
that unassisted reason, and unassisted moral life, are
fictions : if theory is to be true to the facts of the
case, it must admit the common fact of experience —
the action of God upon the world of history through
the action of God on the spiritual nature of man.
But if an " unassisted reason " is an impossibility

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 69
when man is viewed in his relation to God, no less
so is pure receptivity possible when the action of
the divine Spirit is contemplated in its relation to
the human soul. Man conditions or limits what he
receives by the internal activity of his own nature,
and so religion has to deal with two permanent fac
tors in experience — the activity of God's Spirit on
the human spirit, and the activity of the human
spirit, even when in conscious communion with God.
When it receives, the help given, the impulse im
parted, come through itself ; and so, while mysticism
is true to an eternal element in the religious con
sciousness — that of communion — it becomes untrue
to another when it seeks to annihilate the self in
God. The self is not annihilated; it is only the
lower self that is extinguished, but the higher,
nobler self, with its activity, is purified, strength
ened, raised into a newness of life. Tennyson
was true to both sides of the religious life when
he wrote for Balliol College the "human cry": —
"We feel we are nothing — for all is Thou and in Thee
We feel we are something — that also has come from Thee
We know we are nothing — but Thou wilt help us to be
Hallowed be Thy Name— Hallelujah ! " '

1 Memoir, vol. i. p. 312.

70 HENRY SCOUGAL.
He expressed the same with deep feeling to
a friend : " Yes, it is true that there are moments
when the fiesh is nothing to me, when I feel
and know the flesh to be the vision, God and
the spiritual the only real and true. Depend
upon it, the Spiiritual is tlie Real: it belongs to
one more than the hand and the foot. You may
tell me that my hand and my foot are only imag
inary symbols of my existence : I could believe you ;
but you never, never can convince me that the I is
not an eternal Reality, and that the Spiritual is not
the true and real part of me." ^
Tennyson emphasises here two necessary and per
manent elements in religion — the Life of God to be
realised through the realisation, not the extinction,
of the higher self in man. Mystical devotion, on
the other hand, has sometimes dreamt of the sup
pression of the self in God, which is nothing less
than spiritual suicide : but the aim defeats it
self, for the very rapture of self-extinction which
the mystic enjoys must be a conscious rapture, and
in the very act of realising it, the self is called into
being, which he sought to extinguish. The self is
re-created — raised into a newness of life — in the
1 Memoir, vol. i. p. 119.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 71
very moment of his felt ecstasy; if it were not,
no such experience were possible to him.
Tauler was wont to speak of the pious peasant
who became his master in the spiritual life : on
being asked where he had found God, he replied,
" There where I left myself : and wheresoever I
found myself, there I lost God." But the truth
here expressed by the peasant is not the extinction
of self, but the renunciation of a false self — of
the self-will that is rebellion in the heart against
the all-holy will of God. It is a dying which
is a life ; it is a loss which is a gain ; it is the
setting aside of the life of immediate desire and
impulse, and a submission to the spiritual order
of the world, which, in bringing the soul into har
mony with the divine, also restores the soul into
harmony with itself. Spiritual renunciation is a
deUverance from a false life, and translation into
a life which voluntarily knows no thought apart
from God, entertains no wish apart from the will
of God, and which, in merging itself in God, has
thereby realised a higher form of being. For the
life of God, consciously or unconsciously appro
priated, manifests itself in a new activity, not
apart from but within the individual soul ; it

72 HENRY SCOUGAL.
means the imparting of new spiritual insight,
the quickening of latent powers, the reaUsation
of possibilities unfelt before, the attainment of
true being. Such was the Ufe of piety which
the "friends of God" aimed at, and the attain
ment of which by the best of them merits for
them the appropriate epithet given them by a
philosopher ^ — " beautiful souls " : such a life, too,
is the eternal ideal of religion, and the realisa
tion of it by disciples would transform the world
into the City of God.
We are here at the problem which Scougal set
before himself, and it is not without interest to
observe that he who was the first to teach the
Baconian philosophy in Scotland, was also with
his spiritual teacher, Leighton, prominent in trans
lating its underlying fact into religion. In other
words, he brought religion away from fruitless
speculations and reasonings upon imaginary or
impossible suppositions to man's own heart ; from
opinions and controversies to the two eternal certi
tudes on which it rests, God and the soul ; from
secondary questions, — and centred it on a Divine
Person. Religion was to him a life of activity in
God, free from a false asceticism on the one hand
1 Hegel.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 73
and from a false emotionalism on the other. Its
certitude lay in a fact of experience, and it
was the disciple's strength to be able to say, "I
know"; it was a refuge from theories about God
to a life of consciously felt peace and repose in
God ; its ideal was not only " as ever in my great
Taskmaster's eye," but heart to heart, soul to soul,
with Him, who is the Father of spirits, and who
loves aU men with an everlasting love, outliving
even their sins. In the life of Thomas Aquinas, we
read that one day Christ is said to have appeared
to him, and asked him what reward he craved for
all his learned writings. "Nothing but Thyself,
O Lord " (Non nisi Te, O Domine), was the good
man's reply. Such, too, was Scougal's great quest ;
and although speech at its best on such a subject
must be "as broken light upon the depth of the
unspoken," ^ his book shows that his was a nature
with true experience of the deep things of God,
and spoke from what it knew. Besides a fine mysti
cism, there is also in ' The Life of God in the Soul
of Man' and the Sermons a philosophical insight,
a logical sequence of thought, an orderly arrange
ment, that make it attractive, and render it an
instructive unfolding of the inner facts of the
'¦ George Eliot.

74 HENRY SCOUGAL.
spiritual life. As his ripe message is necessary
for the thesis of this book, we now sketch the
sequence of its thought.
Scougal begins by correcting mistakes about
religion. Religion does not consist in orthodox
opinions, nor does it belong solely to the under
standing, otherwise its disciples would become
divided into sects. Religion does not relate solely
to the outward man, nor consist in a constant
course of external duties and model of performances.
Religion does not refer solely to the affections, nor
lie in rapturous hearts and ecstatic devotion ; nor
can it be associated with wickedness and vice in
any form. True religion is a union of the soul
with God, a real ijarticijjation of the divine
nature, the very image of God drawn upon the
soul ; or, in the Apostle's phrase, it is Christ
formed within us. "Briefly, I know not how the
nature of religion can be more fully expressed
than by calling it a divine life. And under
these terms I shall discourse of it — showing
first how it is called a life, and then how it is
termed divine." ^
It is called a life from its permanency and
stability: it has not fits and starts; it may suffer
1 The Life of God in the Soul of Man, p. 3.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 75
sad decays, yet it is never quite extinguished. It
is so named because it is an inward, free, and self-
moving principle : the love of God within arises
not in virtue of a command, but as a new nature,
instructing and prompting the soul to love God.
Devotion is the emanation of this life, the natural
employment of the new-born soul. Religion is
characterised by reasonableness, purity, goodness.
ReUgion again, while it is a life, is also a divine life,
because God is its real source, and because it re
sembles God in its nature. It is (a) the resemblance
of the divine perfection ; (6) the image of the
Almighty shining in the soul of man; (c) a real
participation of His nature ; (d) a beam of the
eternal light ; (e) a drop of the infinite ocean of
goodness; (/) those who are imbued with it may
be said to have God dwelling in their souls, and
to have Christ formed within them.^ The natural
life prevails in those who are strangers to this life,
and have inclinations to those things that are
pleasing and acceptable to nature. It is a self-love
issuing forth in as many forms as men have
appetites and inclinations. Its root is sense, just
as the root of the divine life is faith. " In a word,
the difference betwixt a religious and wicked man
1 Ibid., p. 7.

76 HENRY SCOUGAL.
is, that in the one the divine life bears sway, in
the other the animal life doth prevail." ^ "In
temperance and lust, injustice and oppression, and
all those other impieties which abound in the world,
and render it so miserable, are the issues of self-love,
the effect of the animal Ufe, when it is neither
overpowered by religion nor governed by natural
reason." ^ The divine life in the soul is a universal
and unbounded affection, and is the mastery over
natural inclinations, so that we are never betrayed
to those things which are blamable. Faith is the
root of this life ; its chief branches are love to
God, charity to men, purity and humility ; it is
a kind of sense or feeling persuasion of spiritual
things. It extends itself unto all divine truths;
in our lapsed estate, hath a peculiar relation to
the declaration of God's mercy and reconcilable-
ness to sinners through a Mediator, and, in re
ceiving its characteristics from its principal object,
is termed faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ
is the very foundation of heaven laid here and
now in the soul, and carries with it the assurance
of God's favour ; and he who has it says with
Leighton, " I had rather see the real impressions
of a God -like nature upon my soul than have
1 The Life of God iu the Soul of Man, p. 8. 2 ibid., p. 10.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 77
a vision from heaven, or an angel sent to tell
me that my name were enrolled in the book of
life." 1
God, again, who reveals this life, through faith
in the disciples as an appropriating or assimilative
power, has exemplified it in the life of our blessed
Saviour, who taught by practice what He required
of others — who made His own life and conversation
an exact resemblance of those laws which He pre
scribed; and if ever true goodness was visible to
mortal eyes, it was when His presence beautified
and Uluminated this lower world. Christ mani
fested in His life (1) the love of God as a sincere
and devout affection (a) by His diligence in doing
God's will throughout it : the delight of His child
hood was the constant employment of His riper
years ; (b) by His no less patient submission, with
out a repining thought or discontented word, to the
will of God ; (c) by making His whole life a prayer
— a constant communion with God — praying, al
though He had no sins to confess, nor any secular
interests to care for.
(2) Christ's life manifested perfect love to man
as well as perfect charity towards man.
(3) Christ's life manifested sinless purity in
1 Ibid., p. 14.

78 HENRY SCOUGAL.
thought, word, and deed : He trampled upon all
time's ambitions, and revealed a neglect of all
worldly enjoyments. The world's sorrow and sin
was His cross, and "we many times hear of our
Saviour's sighs and groans and tears; but never
that He laughed, and but once that He rejoiced
in spirit : so that through His whole life He
did exactly answer that character given of Him
by the prophet of old, that He was a man of
sorrows and acquainted vsdth grief." ^
(4) Christ's life manifested His humility — of
Himself He was able to do nothing : He was so
impressed with a deep sense of the Infinite per
fections of God that He appeared as nothing in
His own eyes, so far as He was a creature.
Such is the foundation of Henry Scougal's re
ligious teaching, and in the heart of his book
there is to be found the following prayer for
" one who had formerly entertained some false
notions of religion, and begins to discover what
it is." It is most likely that the "one" was
himself, and the prayer is beautiful in itself,
but not less so as exhibiting that humility of
character in himself which he found perfectly em
bodied in his Lord and Master.
1 The Life of God in the Soul of Man, p. 19.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 79
"Infinite and Eternal Majesty, author and foun
tain of being and blessedness, how little do we
poor sinful creatures know of Thee or of the way
to please Thee ! We talk of religion, and pretend
unto it ; but, alas ! how few are there that know
and consider what it means ! How easily do we
mistake the affections of our nature, and issues of
self-love, for those divine graces which can alone
render us acceptable in Thy sight ! It may justly
grieve me to consider that I should have wandered
so long and contented myself so often with vain
shadows and false images of piety and religion ;
yet I cannot but acknowledge and adore Thy good
ness, who hast been pleased in some measure to
open mine eyes and let me see what it is at
which I ought to aim. I rejoice to consider what
mighty improvements my nature is capable of, and
what a divine temper of spirit doth shine in those
whom Thou art pleased to choose and cause to
approach unto Thee. Blessed be Thine infinite
mercy, who sentest Thine own Son to dwell among
men, and instruct them by His example, as well
as by His laws, giving them a perfect pattern of
what they ought to be. Oh that the holy life
of the blessed Jesus may be always in my thoughts
and before mine eyes, till I receive a deep sense

80 HENRY SCOUGAL.
and impression of those excellent graces that shined
so eminently in Him; and let me never cease my
endeavours till that new and divine nature prevail
in my soul, and Christ be formed within me." ^
Scougal, having laid the foundation of his reUgious
teaching, and having viewed the origin of it as
coming from God, proceeds now to deal vsdth it
as manifested in the disciple.
Holiness is the right temper, the vigorous and
healthful constitution, of the soul; it is stirred by
divine impressions, and moulded by a sense of
invisible things. (1) Holiness is the love of God
in the soul of man. The worth and excellency of
a soul being measured by the object of its love,
it follows that that must be the highest soul-life
which is rooted and centred in God, for although
imperfections also glide into it, it grows through
that affection unto a conformity with that per
fection which it loves. Divine love in the soul
doth advance and elevate it, and can alone make
it happy. It is stimulated by the love of its
object, by the certainty of being beloved again,
for the happiness of love depends on the return
it meets with : it is quickened by the presence
of the beloved object, and the divine love makes
1 Tlie Life of God in the Soul of Man, pp. 21, 22.

'LIFE OP GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 81
it partake of an infinite happiness. To love God
is to find a sweetness in every dispensation of
life, and all the duties of religion pleasant.
(2) Another aspect of the divine life in man
is a universal charity and love. Holiness is next
a love of man. As charity flows from a noble
and excellent temper, it is accompanied with the
greatest satisfaction and pleasure. It is the life
of heaven on earth. " Certainly, next to the love
and enjoyment of God, that ardent charity and
affection wherewith blessed souls do embrace each
other is justly to be reckoned as the greatest
feUcity of those regions above; and did it univer
sally prevail in the world, it would anticipate that
blessedness, and make us taste of the joys of
heaven upon earth." ^
(3) The next manifestation of the divine life is
purity. This is accompanied with lasting pleasure,
for that which is sensual defiles and so disturbs
the soul. Purity is a contempt of sensual pleasure,
and a resolve to overcome the trouble and pain we
meet with in the discharge of duty. It is also a
deUvery from that base drudgery whereby a man
becomes the slave of his lusts — it is a victory over
them. Never can that person be capable of anything
1 Ibid., p. 33.
F

82 HENRY SCOUGAL.
noble who is sunk in the gross pleasures of sense
or bewitched with the airy gratification of fancy.
To be religious is to be possessed with a more
sublime and divine temper: knowing that man
was made for higher things than sensual pleasure,
the religious soul scorns to step aside one foot
out of the way of holiness.
(4) The fourth manifestation of holiness, or the
divine Ufe within the soul, is humility. This grace
is also accompanied with happiness and tranquilUty,
and "must not that humility be a noble and ex
cellent endowment, when the very shadows of it
are accounted so necessary a part of good breed
ing " 1 " The humble person hath the advantage,
when he is despised, that none can think more
meanly of him than he doth of himself, and there
fore he is not troubled at the matter, but can
easily bear those reproaches which wound the
other to the soul." ^
For the disciple to realise these manifestations
fully, it is necessary to struggle against despondent
thoughts by observing the unreasonableness of them;
by feeUng the help of the intercessions of the Church,
and realising that the saints on earth and the angels
in heaven are engaged on the side of the better
1 P. 36.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 83
part; by doing all he can and depending on the
divine assistance; by trusting in the leading of
Divine Providence, different in every life, for God
hath several ways of dealing with the souls
of men, and it is sufficient if the work be accom
plished, whatever the methods may have been in
breaking up the ground.
Besides these general directions, Scougal proceeds
to give special ones, that are helpful in the evolution
of the spiritual life. It is necessary (a) to avoid
and abandon all vicious and sinful practices; (6)
to shun all manner of sin ; (c) to know what
things are sinful; (d) to resist the temptations
to sin by considering the evil they will draw
on us ; (e) to keep a constant watch over our
selves; (/) to examine often our actions; (g) to
restrain ourselves in many things lawful ; (h) to
put ourselves out of love with the world; (i) to
do those outward actions that are commanded ;
(j) to form internal acts of devotion and charity.
To intensify the Love of God, we must seek
Uving thoughts about God — thoughts that warm
and inspire; we must avoid "spiritless and para
lytic thoughts," which are incapable of moving
the will or of directing the hand. To beget
such thoughts, we must consider the excellency

84 HENRY SCOUGAL.
of the divine nature, and meditate upon God's
goodness and love, especially in the gift of His
Son. "I remember," he says on this last point,
"one of the poets hath an ingenious fancy to
express the passion wherewith he found himself
overcome, after a long resistance : that the god
of love had shot all his golden arrows at him,
but could never pierce his heart, until at length
he put himself into the bow and darted himself
straight into his breast. Methinks this doth
some way adumbrate God's method of dealing
with men." ^
To beget cluvrity, we must remember that all
men are nearly related to God, — -that they carry
His image upon them. To beget purity, we
should consider the dignity of our nature, and
meditate on the joys of heaven — those pleasures
that endure for evermore. To beget humility, we
should consider our own failures, as it is well
observed by a pious vsriter, " The deepest and
most pure humility doth not so much arise from
the consideration of our own faults, as from a
calm and quiet contemplation of the divine purity
and goodness. Our spots never appear so clearly
as when we place them before this infinite light ;
1 Pp. 42-56.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 85
and we never seem less in our own eyes than
when we look down upon ourselves from on
high."i Prayer is another instrument of religion, and
whether uttered with the voice or conceived by
the heart without an utterance in word, or as
a meditation leading to God in sighs and groans,
purifies the soul and disposes it unto a holy and
religious temper. Religion is to be advanced by
the same means vsdth which it began, and the
use of the holy sacrament is peculiarly appointed
to nourish and increase the spiritual life, when
once it is begotten in the soul. He thus views
the sacrament, not as the originator but as a
help in sustaining the divine life in the soul.
Such is a short statement of the message expressed
by Scougal in his remarkable book, which is now
much forgotten, but deserves to be better remem
bered. It contains throughout the marks of a
deeply learned and accomplished mind ; its piety is
as conspicuous as its learning ; its ethical temper as
striking as its chastened and sober mysticism ; and
within it there breathes the spirit of one who
Uved very much above the world, in the atmos
phere of God. As has been already indicated, it is
1 Pp. 66-71.

86 HENRY SCOUGAL.
the product of the period when Scougal was minister
of Auchterless; and belonging to the same period
there are nine published sermons which bear the same
message, although in a less systematised form, and
which must be taken into account in an estimate of
his teaching. Like Leighton's, they contain frequent
references to classical literature, as well as to the
patristic and pious literature that has come from the
heart of the Church in all ages. Piety and scholar
ship are in them wedded together. To take short ex
amples : thus in his sermon on the Nativity (Sermon
vi.) he speaks of joy and cheerfulness as " being so
far inconsistent with religion, when rightly ordered,
that we find them many times allowed and recom
mended in Scripture. . . . That you may not think
this a liberty proper only for the former dispensation,
but that Christians are obliged to greater severity,
the apostle doth no less than three times give this
admonition to the Philippians, ' Rejoice in the Lord :
rejoice always in the Lord : yea, I say, rejoice.' " In
relation to this perhaps it was, that the old hermit
Palladius, having five hundred scholars, used never
to dismiss them without this admonition, " My
friends, be cheerful : forget not, I beseech you, to be
cheerful." This was the constant lecture he repeated,
as often as St John was wont to do these words, ' My

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 87
little children, love one another." ^ He was thus
not without beholding the graciousness, the win-
someness, the geniality of reUgion, while emphasising
it as a controlling life within the soul, and as a
binding law for the conscience.
Again, in his sermon on " The indispensable duty
of loving our enemies," he says, "All anger is not
vicious. We may be angry and not sin. This
passion, as all others implanted in us by God, is
innocent when kept vsdthin its due bounds. It has
its proper office in the mind as the spleen in the
body, but its excess and distemper swell into a
disease. To make it allowable, it must not exceed
the value of the cause, nor the proportion of the
circumstances. It must be governed by discretion,
and kept within the bounds of reason, that it break
not forth into indecent expressions, or violent and
blamable actions. And further, it must not be
too permanent and lasting, — we must not let the
sun set upon our anger. Plutarch tells us that the
Pythagoreans were careful to observe the very
letter of this precept ; for if anger had boiled up
to the height of an injury or reproach, before sun
set they would salute each other and renew their
friendship. They were ashamed that the same
1 P. 179.

88 HENRY SCOUGAL.
anger which had disturbed the counsels of the day
should also trouble the quiet and repose of the
night, lest, mingling with their rest and dreams,
it should become prevalent and habitual in them.
And, sure, we owe an infinitely greater deference
to the precepts of our blessed Saviour and His holy
apostles than they did to their Master's reasonings
and advices. And though we should not take this
precept in its strictest and literal signification, yet
this we must know, that the same passion and re
sentment which was innocent and rational in its
first rise, may become vicious and criminal by its
continuance. Anger may kindle in the breast of
a wise man, but '' rests only in the bosom of a
fool.'"i Again, (3) "We can never take better measures
of a man's spirit than from the things he delighteth
in, and sets his heart upon : ' qualis amor, talis
animus ' (as is the love, so is the mind)." ^ (4)
Chrysostom was one of his favourite teachers. In
his sermon on the ministerial function he quotes
from his work ('De Sacerdote') regarding the ad
ministration of the Sacrament — " though," he adds,
"some of his expressions, being figurative and
hyperbolical, have been abused by the Romish
1 Pp. 48, 49. 2 p. 9,

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 89
party : ' When thou dost behold the Lord of Glory
offered up, and the priest performing the sacrifice,
and the people round about dyed, as it were, and
made red with that precious blood — where, I pray
thee, dost thou conceive thyself to be ? Dost thou
think thou art on earth, and conversing among
mortal creatures ; or art thou not rather on a
sudden transported into heaven ? Dost thou not
lose aU thoughts of the body and material things,
and with a pure mind and naked soul behold the
things that are done in those regions above 1 And
when the minister has invoked the divine Spirit,
. . . tell me in what order of things are we to
place him ! what uprightness and purity is re
quired of him ! what hands should they be that
administer those things ! what Ups that utter and
pronounce those words ! for at that time the holy
angels stand by the priest ; the place is full of
blessed spirits who desire to look into those things ;
and all the orders of the heavenly host do shout
and raise their voices together, as we may easily
believe, if we consider the work that is then in
hand.'"i So to similar purpose we find him quoting Augus
tine and Gregory of Nazianzen. Herbert was his
1 Pp. 264, 265.

90 HENRY SCOUGAL.
favourite poet, and he quotes Leighton thus : " It was
an excellent saying of an eminent and holy person
yet alive in our Church, that he would rather be
instrumental in persuading one man to be serious
in religion than the whole nation to be Con
formists." 1 With regard to ordination, he said
with George Herbert : " I am so proud of His
service, that I will always observe and obey, and
do His will, and always call Him Jesus my Master.
I will always contemn my birth and any title or
dignity that can be conferred upon me, when I
shall compare them with the title of being a
prie.st, and serving at the altar of Jesus my
Master." He would not study the gentleman
so much as to forget that primarily he was
the clergyman, and his high ideal of his office
is well declared in his sermon before the Synod
of Aberdeen : " The great business of our call
ing is to advance the divine life in the world ;
to make religion sway and prevail; to frame and
mould the souls of men into a conformity to God,
and superinduce the beautiful lineaments of His
blessed image upon them ; to enlighten their under
standings and inform their judgments, rectify their
wills and order their passions, and sanctify all
1 P. 298.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 91
their affections. The world Ueth in sin, and it is
our work to awaken men out of that deadly sleep,
to rescue them out of that dismal condition. We are
the instruments' of God for effectuating these great
designs ; and, though we be not accountable for the
success, when we have done what Ueth in our
power, yet nothing below this should be our aim ;
and we should never cease our endeavours until
that gracious change be wrought in every person
committed to our charge." ^ The study of liturgies
was evidently a favourite one of Scougal's, and in
his sermon (No. vii.) on the Passion, he says :
"Thus we have given you some rude, imperfect
hints of His great and unspeakable sufferings. But,
oh ! how Uttle of them do we understand to very
good purpose ! It was for this reason the ancient
fathers of the Greek Church in their liturgy, after
they have recounted all the particular pains as they
are set down in His Passion, and by all and every
one of them called for mercy, do after all shut up
with this supplication : ' By thine v,nknown sorrows
and sufferings, felt by Thee, but not distinctly known
by us, have mercy upon us and save us.' " ^
There are other elements in his teaching, im2Dort-
ant as reflecting Scougal's mind on other aspects
1 Pp. 272, 273. 2 Pp. 230, 231.

92 HENRY SCOUGAL.
of reUgion, that must be stated, for they had no
little influence over the Wesleys and their associates.
As to humility, he states: "The most deep and
pure humiUty doth not so much arise from the
consideration of our faults and defects (though that
also may have its own place) as from a calm con
templation of the divine perfection. By reflecting
on ourselves, we may discover something of our
own sinfulness and misery, and thereby be filled
with a kind of boisterous and turbulent grief and
indignation ; but by fixing our eyes on the infinite
greatness and holiness of God, we are most fully
convinced of our own meanness. This will sink
us to the very bottom of our beings, and make us
appear as nothing in our own sight, when beheld
from so great a height. And this is really the
greatest elevation of the soul, and there is nothing
in the world so noble and excellent as the subUmity
of humble minds." ^
Scougal disliked controversy in religion as much
as Wesley, and, like Leighton, his thoughts were
so centred on the important matters of religion
as to place in a secondary position all those of
lesser importance. " Ordinarily the animosities are
greatest where the differences are least; and one
1 Pp. 28, 29.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 93
party of a Reformed Church shall be more in
censed against another than either against the
superstition and tyranny of Rome, or the carnality
of the Mahometan faith." ^ In another passage he
pleads for a sense of the eternal world, as that
which will solemnise and raise the mind above
secondary matters : " The frequent and serious
thoughts of death would conduce much to allay
our hatred, and dispose us to meekness and charity.
Naturalists tell us that when swarms of bees fight
in the air, they are dispersed by throwing dust
among them. Did we in our thoughts often reflect
upon that dust whereunto we must all shortly
return, we should more easily lay down our quarrels
and animosities. While we contend about small
things, little do we consider that death is coming
on apace, and will swallow up the victor and the
vanquished — him that is in the right, and him
that is in the wrong. Look back upon the private
contentions or public commotions which infested
the world a hundred years ago. Where are they
who managed them? They are all gone down
into the dark and silent grave. Death hath decided
their controversies, and within a few days it will
do so with ours, and send us all to plead our
1 P. 42.

94 HENRY SCOUGAL.
cause before our great Judge ; and it will go ill
with us if we appear there in malice. Therefore
why should our hatred be long since our life is
so short ? One would think we should find better
employment for the short time we have to spend
here." i
It is important to consider his views on the
Sacrament. 1. It is a memorial service — a representation.
" The representation of Christ's death in the sacra
ment is so ordered, that it might both help the
soul and leave it something to do in forming its
own apprehensions and resentment. In it we see
so much as to awaken our souls, but not so much
as to keep them awake without themselves. The
outward object serves to excite our faith, but then
leaves it to its proper exercise and employment." ^
2. The terms "body" and "blood" are to be
understood in a spiritual sense. "This sacrament
doth not only represent a wonder that is already
past, but exhibits one anew. The bread and wine
that we receive are not bare and empty signs to
put us in mind of the death and sufferings of
Christ. Our Saviour calls them His body and blood.
And such, without question, they are to all spiritual
1 Pp. 76, 77. 2 Pp. 248, 249.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 95
purposes and advantages. We are not obliged to
believe that, after consecration, the bread and wine
do vanish and the body and blood of Christ suc
ceed in their room ; our sense and reason do assure
us of the contrary ; the Scripture doth nowhere
affirm it, nor did ever the ajicient Church believe
it ; nor is it possible to conceive the use or benefit
of this strange and unintelligible change. 'It is
the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth
nothing ; ' these words of our Saviour are spirit and
life, are to be understood in a vital and spiritual
sense. But though these elements be not changed
in their nature and substance, yet they undergo
a mighty change as to their efficacy and use; and
that food which could before but yield a little
refreshment to the body is now become a means
to nourish and strengthen the soul, an instrument
to convey unto us all those blessings that the body
and blood of our Saviour can afford us." ^
3. " In this sacrament Christ doth convey Him
seff unto the souls of men, and taketh stronger
possession of them. As after the sop Satan entered
into Judas, so with these holy elements Christ
entereth into the hearts of His people, becomes
the food and nourishment of their souls ; He
1 Pp. 249, 250.

96 HENRY SCOUGAL.
diffuseth Himself through all their faculties, and
animates them vsdth His life and Spirit, that they
may have no will or affections of their own, no
desires or inclinations different from His, but that
every pulse may answer the motions of His heart,
and all their powers be actuated and enlivened by
His Spirit, — in a word, that it may not be any
more they, but Christ that liveth in them. Thus
we are fed and nourished by the body and blood
of Christ, while the power of the Godhead doth
diffuse its virtue and operation into the human
nature, to the enlivening the hearts of those who
do rightly receive these sacramental pledges." ^
The sacrament is thus to him a means of quick
ening faith in the living Christ, and in bringing
faith spiritually heart to heart with Him who is
the life of the soul, making it a means of
strengthening the divine life in the soul. Scougal
was free from superstitious views regarding the
sacrament, and looked at it through the light
with which Tennyson regarded it : —
" It is but a Communion, not a Mass :
No sacrifice, but a life-giving feast." 2
In the celebration of the sacrament, he would with
Dr Lindsay Alexander have emphasised the last
1 Pp. 251, 252. 2 Life, vol. ii. p. 412.

'LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL OF MAN.' 97
three words — "Ye do show the Lord's death till
He come "¦ — an emphasis which impressed his hearers
and made them feel that he was afresh thinking
of and rejoicing in their full meaning. When told
of this impression, Dr Alexander Ustened with evi
dent pleasure and said, " It interests me to hear
that, for I have always felt that in these words is
the very essence of the service. The Church is not
only called to remembrance but to anticipation." ^
With regard to the question, "Does Christianity
depend upon the Church as a visible body, or does
the Church depend upon Christianity ? " as far as
one can understand Scougal's mind, one seems
right in asserting that he believed the Church to
depend upon Christianity; that it is more of a
witness than a source ; that we belong to the
Church because we belong to Christ, not to Christ
because we belong to the Church. As far as his
views on Church government can be understood,
he would probably have said with Bishop Ewing,
that if Episcopacy were necessary for the well-
being of the Church, it is not necessary for its
being ; ^ that if it be suitable for its bene esse,
it is not indispensable for its esse — that the best
1 W. L. Alexander, D.D., LL.D., His Life and Work, p. 266.
' Memoir of the Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, p. 557.
G

98 HENRY SCOUGAL.
is that which unites Presbytery and Episcopacy in
an efficient whole. It is true to say that Scougal's
mind was like Leighton's, so impressed and ruled
by the verities of the Christian faith that all other
questions relating to matters of secondary import
ance were matters to be interpreted by efficiency,
charity, and good feeUng. The sole reality in
religion to him was Christ in the soul and the
soul in Christ. Strong in this, he was powerful
to give strength.

99

CHAPTER VIIL
INFLUENCE OVEE THE OXFOED METHODISTS AND
THE EEVIVAL OF EELIGION.
" He begins who animates."
In the previous chapters a somewhat minute examin
ation has been given of Scougal's Ufe, work, and
teaching : in this one it wiU be our endeavour to
investigate their far-reaching influence, so far as that
can now be done. Spiritual influence may be con
scious and unconscious : as to the first, in Scougal's
case, we have direct testimony ; and as to the second,
we have the internal evidence of letters, which shows
that both the conception and style of Scougal's books
influenced the Oxford Methodists far more than
they were conscious of ; yet this, no less than the ¦
first, points to the spiritual potency of his ideal of
reUgion. There were reformers before the Refor-

100 HENRY SCOUGAL.
mation — such as the poor men of Lyons and the
like, who, although they brought about no imme
diate deliverance, yet were the forerunners of Luther
and the Reformers, and without whose early efforts
even the gigantic revolution wrought by the latter
might not have been so effective. Now it seems true
to say, after an examination of the evidence, that
Scougal had no little power in shaping the reUgious
ideal of that remarkable group at Oxford known
as the Oxford Methodists, who afterwards wielded,
both directly and indirectly, a far-reaching influence,
both without and within the Church of England.
It seems true to say that the early origin of the
movement is to be found in Scougal and in the
religious life as depicted by him. Both the teaching
and example of this young Scottish saint and teacher
stamped themselves upon this band of young workers
at Oxford. All Scougal's works, as we have sketched
them, were before them : not least of aU Dr Gairden's
Sermon, which deals so well and so sympathetically
with his personality.
The ' Life of God in the Soul of Man ' was first
pubUshed in 1677, with an introduction by Bishop
Burnet, and that edition was long known at Ep
worth. Mrs Wesley distinctly says so. Again,
this book was patronised by the Society for Pro-

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. 101
moting Christian Knowledge, and was reprinted
in 1726, with the addition of the 'Nine Discourses
on Important Subjects,' and the funeral sermon by
Dr Gairden.i About the same period was published
his 'Private Reflections and Occasional Maxims,'
and these volumes were all known to the Oxford
Methodists. It was Charles Wesley who was the real founder
of the little society at Oxford known as the Holy
Club, during the time that John Wesley was
assisting his father at Epworth. When John
Wesley returned to Oxford, he was soon at the
head of the society, but Charles Wesley was the
founder of it. He had become impressed with the
sense of vital religion, and had resolved to devote
himself to a religious life. He formed and gathered
around himself a small company of like-minded
students, for intellectual and spiritual improvement.
On week-days they read the classics, but chiefly the
Greek Testament ; on Sundays, Divinity, and were
regular in their attendance on Holy Communion.^
When Whitefield joined the society in 1732,
there were or had been connected with it WilUam
1 Chalmers's General Biographical Diet., vol. xxvii. p. 288.
2 The society was thus both academic and religious, like
* Scougal's (see p. 13).

102 HENRY SCOUGAL.
Morgan, Clayton of Brasenose, Ingham of Queen's,
Gambold of Christchurch, Hervey and Wesley of
Lincoln, Broughton of Exeter, Kinchin of Corpus
Christi, Hutchins, Whitelamb, and AVestley Hall
at Lincoln. These were earnest students, resolved
on the better part ; and when Whitefield joined
the club, he came as a perplexed truth - seeker.
Now the book that Charles Wesley gave him in
this condition was Scougal's ' Life of God in the
Soul of Man.' It was thus well known to Charles
Wesley, and he considered it as adapted to the
spiritual condition of his friend : it was known,
we may infer, to all the other members, and the
following is George Whitefield's own testimony
to its influence over him, and the change it pro
duced within him. Referring to an interview
with Charles Wesley, Whitefield writes thus : —
"I thankfully embraced the opportunity (and,
blessed be God ! it was one of the most profitable
visits I ever made in my life). My soul at that
time was athirst for some spiritual friends to lift
up my hands when they hung down, and to
strengthen my feeble knees. He soon discovered
it, and, like a wise winner of souls, made all his
discourses tend that way. And when he had put
into my hand Professor Frank's treatise against

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. 103
the ' Fear of Man ' and a book entitled ' The
Country Parson's Advice to his Parishioners,' the
last of which was wonderfully blessed to my soul,
I took my leave.
"In a short time he let me have another book
entitled 'The Life of God in the Soul of Man'
(and, though I had fasted, watched, and prayed,
and received the sacrament so long, yet I never
knew what true religion was till God sent me
that excellent treatise by the hands of my never-
to-be-forgotten friend).
" At my first reading it I wondered what the
author meant by saying 'that some falsely placed
reUgion in going to church, doing hurt to no one,
being constant in the duties of the closet, and
now and then reaching out their hands to give
alms to their poor neighbours.' 'Alas!' thought
I, ' if this be not religion, what is ? ' God soon
showed me ; for in reading a few lines further,
that ' true religion was a union of the soul with
God, and Christ formed within us,' a ray of divine
light was instantaneously darted in upon my soul,
and from that moment, but not till then, did I
know that I must be a new creature. . . . From
time to time Mr Wesley permitted me to come
unto him, and instructed me as I was able to

104 HENRY SCOUGAL.
bear it. By degrees he introduced me to the
rest of his Christian brethren (the Methodists).
They built me up daily in the knowledge and
fear of God, and taught me to endure hardness
like a good soldier of Jesus Christ." ^
Again he says at a later period of his life
(1769): "I must bear testimony to my old
friend, Mr Charles Wesley. He put a book
into my hands called ' The Life of God in the
Soul of Man,' whereby God showed me that I
must be bom again or be damned. I know the
place : it may perhaps be superstitious, but when
ever I go to Oxford I cannot help running to the
spot where Jesus Christ first revealed Himself to
me, and gave me the new birth. I learned that
a man may go to church, say his prayers, receive
the sacrament, and yet not be a Christian. How
did my heart rise and shudder like a poor man
that is afraid to look into his ledger lest he
should find himself a bankrupt. ' Shall I bum
this book 1 shall I throw it dovsTi ? or shall I
search it ? ' I did search it ; and, holding the
book in my hand, thus addressed the God of
heaven and earth : ' Lord, if I am not a Christian,
for Jesus Christ's sake show me what Christianity
1 Tyerman's Life vol. i. p. 17.

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. 105
is, that I may not be damned at last.' I read a
little further, and discovered that they who know
anything of religion know it is a vital union with
the Son of God — Christ formed in the heart. O
what a ray of divine life did then break in upon
my soul ! I fell a-writing to all my brethren and
to my sisters. I talked to the students as they
came into my room. I laid aside all trifling con
versation. I put all trifling books away, and was
determined to study to be a saint, and then to
be a scholar. From that moment God has been
carrying on His blessed work in my soul. I am
now fifty-five years of age, and shall leave you
in a few days ; but I tell you, my brethren, I
am more and more convinced that this is the
truth of God, and that without it you can never
be saved by Jesus Christ." ^
Such is Whitefield's clear and decided testimony
to the impression Scougal made on him, and he does
not hesitate to aver that he was the infiuence that
led to his spiritual awakening and conversion. And
thus a quiet Scottish teacher, who died at the early
age of twenty-eight, was the means of shaping the
thought and ideal of the greatest pulpit orator of
1 Eighteen Sermons preached by Rev. George Whitefield,
revised by Dr Gifford, p. 359.

106 HENRY SCOUGAL.
last century, who riveted thousands by his message,
who began the Evangelical revival, originated itin
erancy, restored field-preaching, was welcomed in
England, Ireland, America, and became a strong
spiritual force in the Church of Scotland, and, in the
dead days of Moderatism, did so much in Scotland
to commend the Evangelical party to the Church
and awaken the country. Dr GilUes of Glasgow,
a Scottish minister who wrote his biography, thus
refers to him : " One thing remains to be mentioned
of an infinitely higher order — namely, the power of
God which so remarkably accompanied his labours.
It is here that Mr Whitefield is most to be envied.
When we consider the multitudes that were brought
under lasting religious impressions, and the multi
tudes that were wrought upon in the same manner
by the ministry of others, excited by his example, we
are led into the same sentiment with Mr Wesley in
his funeral sermon, " What an honour hath it pleased
God to put upon His faithful servant." ^
Such is the testimony of an eye-witness and friend,
who was in the heart of the movement, and knew
about what he wrote. Whitefield's fourteen visits
to Scotland had a far-reaching result in awakening
the Church of Scotland. He was heartily invited
1 Whitefield and Wesley in Scotland, p. 60.

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. 107
into its pulpits, and his work left its mark on the
religious temper of the period. He knew no sec
tarian distinctions, and his preaching was throughout
in its message an interpretation of Scougal's teach
ing, with additions. So deeply did it penetrate
him, that he is not only possessed of Scougal's ideas,
but even unconsciously produces his words — a true
and lasting testimony to the infiuence of the man
over him. Scougal was not his only teacher — there
were others too ; but if ever the message of a re
ligious book became living within a religious teacher,
it was surely here. To take but one example, which
reproduces both the idea and language of 'The
Life of God in the Soul of Man ' — we have in " The
Almost Christian, " the following : " One reason why
so many are only almost Christians is, because they
set out with false notions of religion. Though they
live in a Christian country, they know not what
Christianity is : some place religion in being of this
or that com/munion ; more in inorality ; most in a
round of duties ; and few, very few, acknowledge it
to he, what it really is, a thorough inward change of
nature, a divine life, a participation of Jesus Christ,
a union of tlie soul with God. Hence it happens
that so many, even of the most knowing professors,
when you converse with them concerning the

108 HENRY SCOUGAL.
essence, the life, the soul of religion, I mean our
new birth in Jesus Christ, confess themselves quite
ignorant of the matter, and cry out with Nico
demus, How can this thing be ? " ^ " Heavenly-
mindedness is the very life of a Christian. It is
aU in all." 2
" Oh for a plerophory of faith ! to be filled
with the Holy Ghost ! This is the grand point.
All our lukewarmness, all our timidity, all our
backwardness to do good, to spend and be spent
for God, — all is owing to our want of more of
that faith which is the inward, heartfelt, self-
evident demonstration of things not seen." ^
Leighton used to say that if he were to choose
a place to die in, it should be an inn. In such
a place he thought a Christian believer might
properly finish his pilgrimage ; the whole world
being to him but a large and noisy inn, and he
a wayfarer, tarrying in it as short a time as
possible, and then hasting away to his Father's
house. Besides, he considered it undesirable to
be surrounded by weeping friends and officious
domestics, whose attentions might distract the
mind, when it ought to be wholly centred upon
1 Tyerman's Life of Whitefield, vol. i. p. 96.
2 Ibid., p. 615. 3 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 507.

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. 109
God — ^no such distraction being likely to result
from the unconcerned ministry of strangers. This
singular wish was gratified, for Leighton died in
the Bell Inn, Warwick Lane.^ Scougal has the
same thought in one of his sermons. Speaking
against sadness and dejection of spirits, he says :
"Why should not religious people who have the
friendship of God, and so many divine blessings
in present possession, and the certain expectation
of more and greater, cherish a perpetual joy, and
ever be of good comfort 1 What should afflict
them, or cast them down ? Is it worldly crosses
or fears ? — they have not their portions in things
of this world ; they are strangers and pilgrims
on earth, and cannot in reason he much solicitous
about their accommodation in an inn, which they
are so shortly to leave." ^ The same idea filled
Whitefield's mind : he called himself a Gospel-
rover,^ yet was as happy as a man could be
outside of heaven * — so catholic as to love the
image of his Master, wherever he saw it.^ His
one diversion on his wanderings was that of
doing good : ^ his motto was, " Poor, yet making
' Pearson's Life of Leighton, vol. i. p. 80.
5 Sermons, pp. 185, 186. ' Tyerman's Life, vol. i. p. 64.
4 Ibid., p. 87. 5 Ibid,, p. 113. « Ibid. , p. 298.

no HENRY SCOUGAL.
many rich ; " ^ and towards the close of his life
he added, "A pilgrim's life is to me the sweetest
on this side eternity " ^ — " Field - preaching, field-
preaching for ever." ^ He died far from his native
land, at Newbury Port, New England.
As to Charles Wesley, it cannot be doubted
that he must have been deeply influenced and
helped by Scougal's book before he would recom
mend it to Whitefield.* He too was penetrated
by the same spirit, and the inward view of re
ligion, as a participation of the divine nature for
which he pleads and of which he sings, was similar
to that of the Scottish professor. Scougal's book
was among the earliest influences brought to bear
on Charles Wesley, both at Epworth and Oxford,
and his mind was profoundly affected by it. He
emphasises more than. Scougal the direct, imme
diate action of the Holy Spirit on the soul ; but
the manifested life of religion as love of God,
love of man, purity and humility, is grasped and
expressed in his lovely hymns. Thus in " 0 for
a heart to praise my God," we have —
" A humble, lowly, contrite heart.
Believing, true, and clean.

1 Tyerman's Life, vol. i. p. 522. 2 Itid., vol. ii. p. 559.
3 Ibid. , p. 560. ^ See Jackson's Life, vol. i. p. 225.

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. Ill
Which neither death nor life can part
From Him that dwells within.
A heart in every thought renewed.
And full of love divine.
Perfect and right and pure and good,
A copy. Lord, of Thine !
Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart:
Come quickly from above ;
Write Thy new name upon my heart.
Thy new, best name of love."
Again, it is in —
" O Love Divine, how sweet Thou art !
When shall I find my willing heart
All taken up by Thee ?
I thirst, and faint, and die to prove
The greatness of redeeming love.
The love of Christ to me.

God only knows the love of God :
0 that it now were shed abroad
In this poor stony heart !
For love 1 sigh, for love I pine :
This only portion. Lord, be mine.
Be mine this better part."
Again —
" Love Divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven, to earth come down.

112 HENRY SCOUGAL.
Fix in us thy humble dwelling.
All Thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure, unbounded love Thou art :
Visit us with Thy salvation.
Enter every trembling heart.
Come, almighty to deliver :
Let us all Thy life receive ;
Suddenly return, and never.
Never more Thy temples leave."
In " Jesus, lover of my soul " we have —
" Thou of life the fountain art ;
Freely let me take of Thee :
Spring Thou up within my heart ;
Rise to all eternity."
Such is the language of spiritual genius and
spiritual experience ; but does that forbid us rec
ognising the influence of an early teacher 1
As to John Wesley, we have direct testimony.
During his Christ Church days (1720-1726) we
know that two favourite books were those of
Thomas h, Kempis and Henry Scougal. He
probably used 'The Life of God in the Soul of
Man ' from the time that he was about eighteen
years of age till he was twenty - three ; and is

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. 113
not that a period open to influence that ever
abides 1 — a time, to use Anselm' s apt figure, i when
the mind is as wax fitly tempered for the seal,
receiving impressions most vividly, and retaining
them most pervasively ? Is not that the epoch
when belief can best be moulded 1
When John Wesley was considering the question
of taking orders, he wrote to his mother regarding
his mental difficulties, and the book she specially
commended to him was 'The Life of God in the
Soul of Man.' - Of it she says two things : (1)
"an excellent good book," and (2) "an acquaint
ance of mine many years ago."^ We know that
he was afterwards influenced by Jeremy Taylor's
'Rules for Holy Living and Dying,' by Law's
'Christian Perfection' and 'Serious Call,' by
Luther's 'Preface to the Epistle to the Romans,'
by intercourse with the Moravians ; but the
Scottish influence from Aberdeen, through ' The
Life of God in the Soul of Man,' was among
the earliest, and certainly it was not the least
potent. His mother's judgment of it, and her
statements regarding it, lead one to believe that
' Dean Church's Anselm, p. 88. 2 Overton's Life, p. 14.
3 See Dr Clarke's Wesley Family, vol. ii. p. 103 ; also Life
of Susanna Wesley, by Eliza Clarke, p. 174.
H

114 HENRY SCOUGAL.
it was valued at Epworth, and found help
ful in the remarkable religious education which
all the members of the Wesley family received
from their saintly father and mother. At any
rate, we know that John Wesley, at the time
when his mind was becoming very serious on
religious matters at Christ Church, used it, and
not unlikely also at Lincoln ; and it had no little
influence in shaping that inward view of religion,
that sense of the intimate relationship between the
soul and God which mellowed until it reached full
maturity and explicitness in the meeting in Alder-
gate Street on May 24, 1738, and which really
forms a new epoch in the religious history of Eng
land. The period when Scougal influenced Wesley
was anterior to his great decision, but not the less
must it have helped toward it, for in spiritual growth
it is always true that what comes after has an or
ganic relationship to what goes before — that progress
comes through development, and not through any
breach of continuity. Scougal's ideas and words
left an indelible impression on Wesley's mind, and
the following words, written by him in 1734, em
bodying the aim of the revival of religion in which
he discharged such an important part, reflect both.
"Religion," he said, "is not the bare saying over

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. 115
SO many prayers, morning and evening, in public
or in private; not anything superadded now and
then to a careless or worldly life : but a constant
ruling habit of the soul; a renewal of our minds
in the image of God ; a recovery of the divine
likeness ; a still - increasing conformity of heart
and Ufe to the pattern of our most holy Re
deemer." 1
Again, with regard to reading, Wesley wrote :
" I intend to spend my uncertain remainder of
time in studying only what makes for the moral
improvement of my mind, and the regulation of
my life. More particularly I shall apply myself
to read such books as are persuasive rather than
instructive : such as warm, kindle, and enlarge the
affections, and awaken the divine sense in the
soul — being convinced, by every day's experi
ence, that I have more need of heat than , light ;
though were I for more Ught, still I think the
love of God is the best light of the soul of
man." ^
The lingering influence of Scougal's thought
and diction, assimilated into the inner life, and
vividly retained in memory, may be felt in such
1 Tyerman's Oxford Methodists, p. 19.
2 Tyerman's Life and Times of Wesley, vol. i. p. 368,

116 HENRY SCOUGAL.
words, as well as in the verse with which, in Janu
ary 1738, Wesley expressed the desire" of his life : —
" 0 grant that nothing in my soul
May dwell but Thy pure love alone !
O may Thy love possess me whole.
My joy, my treasure, and my crown :
Strange flames far from my heart remove !
My very act, thought, word be love." ^
It is to be acknowledged that it is chiefly
in the formative period of the Holy Club at
Oxford that Scougal's influence is most to be
perceived, and as an example of it, let the fol
lowing scheme of self-examination, to which the
young men agreed, and which they constantly used,
be considered. It gives a striking view of the
spirit and aims that governed it. The scheme was
drawn up at the time, when John Wesley was
Moderator of the society.
Sunday. — Love of God and Simplicity : Means of which
are Prayer and Meditation.
1. Have I been simple and recollected in everything
I said or did? Have I (1) been simple in everything,
that ia, looked upon God, my Good, my Pattern, my one
Desire, my Disposer, Parent of Good : acted wholly for
Him ; bounded my views with the present action or
1 Diary, vol. iii. p. 206.

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. 117
hour ? (2) Recollected ? — that is, has this simple view
been distinct and uninterrupted ? Have I, in order to
keep it so, used the signs agreed upon with my friends,
wherever I was 1 Have I done anything without a
previous perception of its being the will of God, or
without a perception of its being an exercise, or a
means of the virtue of the day ? Have I said anything
without it ?
2. Have I prayed with fervour ? at going in and out
of the church ? morning and evening in private ?
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with my friends, at
rising? . . . Have I paused before I concluded in His
name, and adverted to my Saviour now interceding
for me at the right hand of God, and oilering up these
prayers ?
3. . . . Have I every hour prayed for humility, faith,
hope, love, and the particular virtue of the day ? . . .
4. Have I duly prayed for the virtue of the day ? —
that is, have I prayed for it at going out and coming
in — deliberately, seriously, fervently ?
6. Have I duly meditated ? . . .
Monday. — Love of Man.
1. Have I been zealous to do, and active in doing,
good ? . . . (8) Have I in speaking to a stranger ex
plained what religion is not ? (not negative, not exter
nal) and what it is ? (a recovery of the image of God ;) —
searched at what step in it he stops, and what makes
him stop there ? exhorted and directed him ? (9) Have I
persuaded all I could to attend public prayers, sermons.

118 HENRY SCOUGAL.
and sacraments, and in general to obey the laws of the
Church catholic, the Church of England, the State,
the University, and their respective colleges ? (10)
Have I, when taxed with any act of obedience, avowed
it, and turned tjie attack with sweetness and firmness ?
(11) Have I disputed upon any practical point, unless
it was to be practised just then ? . . .
2. Have I rejoiced with and for my neighbour in
virtue or pleasure? grieved with him in pain, for
him in sin?
3. Have I received his infirmities with pity, not
anger ?
4. Have I thought or spoken unkindly of or to
him ? have I revealed any evil of any one, unless it
was necessary to some particular good I had in view ?
Have I then done it with all the tenderness of phrase
and manner consistent with that end? Have I any
way appeared to approve them that did otherwise ?
5. Has good - wUl been, and appeared to be, the
spring of all my actions towards others?
6. Have I daily used intercession ? (1) Before. (2)
After speaking to any? (3) For my friends on Sun
day ? (4) For my pupils on Monday ? (5) For those
who have particularly desired it, on Wednesday and
Friday ? (6) For the family in which I am, every
day ? 1
Surely here, if anywhere in this world, the prin
ciples of religion as a "divine life in the soul of
1 Jackon's Life of Charles Wesley, vol. i. pp. 27-29.

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. 119
man " were rigidly observed, and their spirit accu
rately interpreted.
Take again the rules, drawn up by John and
Charles Wesley in 1752 for their preachers, when
misunderstanding was aroused, and opposition cre
ated : —
It is agreed by us, whose names are undersigned —
I. That we will not listen, or willingly inquire after,
any ill concerning each other.
II. That if we do hear any ill of each other, we will
not be forward to believe it.
III. That as soon as possible we will communicate
what we hear, by speaking or writing, to the person
concerned. IV. That till we have done this we will not write
or speak a syllable of it, to any other person what
soever. V. That neither will we mention it after we have
done this to any other person.
VI. That we will not make any exception to any of
these rules unless we think ourselves absolutely obliged
in conscience so to do.^
It is not too much to claim that here again the
early principles which Wesley received through
Scougal are again interpreted and applied to the
position of his preachers. An interesting study is to
1 Jackson's Life of Charles Wesley, vol. ii. p. 57 C:

120 HENRY SCOUGAL.
compare these rules with Scougal's sermon (No. II.)
on " the indispensable duty of loving our enemies " ^
— and the recognition of the early influence, assimi
lated and made potent by a fine spiritual genius,
does not in the remotest degree lessen its splendour.
On the contrary, it shows that this great Christian
saint, preacher, organiser, and statesman grew as
other men, and that one of the tributaries that
nourished his spiritual development was the Scot
tish professor. Scougal's book supplied the basis of
religious experience for which Wesley throughout
his honoured ministry so efficiently contended ; and
although other elements were emphasised in later
years, still it is true to say that they were implicit in
the dominant conception of religion found in 'The
Life of God in the Soul of Man,' and Wesley's
spiritual development made them explicit. No one
can fail to observe, who is acquainted with his spirit
ual development, that, like Luther's and Chalmers's,
it was the result of a long struggle, but that strug
gle was an evolution and not a revolution, — what
afterwards became explicit was from the first im
plicit, — and the growth was along the line of the
expanding divine life within the soul. Surely it
is an honour to this Scottish teacher, that with
1 Cf. pp. 87, 88 ; also pp. 76, 81, 84 in text.

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. 121
Thomas h Kempis and other such spiritual powers
he was enabled to help in the religious devel
opment of one who was a religious creator like
Luther — who changed the religious life of England
— whose movement became a power within all
the Churches, and powerfully affected religion in
America. The latest tribute to his spiritual power
avers : " England, as a whole, is as truly interested
in Wesley as in Shakespeare ; and it may well be
doubted whether in the long course of her history
any one person has ever infiuenced her life in so
direct, palpable, and powerful a way as has John
Wesley. ... As Rousseau aroused Europe from
dead beliefs to living ideas, so did Wesley rouse
England from death in ' trespasses and sins ' to a
new Ufe of divine possibilities. . . . We owe it
largely to the Methodist movement that, while the
French could only renew their outworn structure by
violent revolution, the English could transform theirs
by peaceable means. Yet Wesley was no quietist, no
retiring ascetic. He faced the evils of his time as
boldly as Savonarola. . . . We also cannot fail to
connect Wesley's movement with that later Oxford
movement, so different in many ways but yet like it,
a part of that great spiritual uprising against the
tyranny of the world and the things of sense. ... If

122 HENRY SCOUGAL.
we regard these diverse movements as phases of the
spiritual life of England, out of which all manner of
noble growths (including the inevitable tares which
spring up vsdth the wheat) have come, enriching and
enlarging our vast heritage, then we can trace back
to Wesley in a supreme degree the source of this
great and beneficent influence to which England
owes so much. And the movement in its main issue
and character has largely expressed the nature of its
founder. We have our fanaticisms and our ridiculous
sects, as Voltaire told us in those days of brilliant
sceptical criticism before Wesley's career began ; but
the same religious belief in the main holds the
nation as it held Wesley himself. He was a man of
culture as well as a man of piety : while burning
with zeal for his fellow-men, he was never vain,
egotistic, or blundering. He carried into his re
Ugion a flne instinct for the ' minor moralities of
life.' . . . We associate Wesley with ' sound learning '
as well as 'religious education,' and we recognise
that his genius for organisation was as remarkable
as his genius for piety. His memorable mission to
America showed that spirit in him which justifies
his saying that the world was his parish. May the
country which bore him and the University which
reared him give us in the coming century such

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. 123
another religious leader to aid us, in the spirit of so
briety and truth, in the eternal contest with the evils
and sins which grow like weeds in our human soil." ^
Such is a worthy testimony to Wesley's genius
and work ; but as the mighty river is fed in its
beginning from the mountain rill or the stream far
up and hid among the moorlands, so Wesley's great
spiritual nature received impulse and help from the
teaching and example of the Scottish teacher and
saint. Surely it is worthy to recall this little stream,
where the great man drank in early years, as from
a crystal fountain, the waters of eternal life.
In this respect it is not uninteresting to recall
that Wesley was both a writer of books and an
editor of literature ; and it may be taken as a trib
ute of his personal gratitude that he published an
edition of Scougal's 'Life of God in the Soul of
Man,' ^ with a preface. I could not discover the
year in which it first appeared under his editorship,
1 Wesley's Services to England: the 'Spectator,' July 15,
1899, pp. 81, 82.
2 A French translation of this book appeared at The Hague in
1727. Dr Thomas Chalmers .also edited it, and Bishop Jebb
of Limerick includes it among his list of "piety without
asceticism.'' In a letter it is described as "that beautiful
epitome of revealed religion." (Correspondence between Bishop
Jebb and A. Knox, Esq., vol. i. p. 139.)

124 HENRY SCOUGAL.
for the British Museum copy bears the mark " third
edition," and the date 1773. Wesley also pub
Ushed in his large "Christian Library" series
several sermons of Scougal's, and these will be
found in vol. xxiu. pp. 325-456 ; and this was the
literature with which he nourished the spiritual Ufe
of his societies. To have received an imprimatur
along vsdth Leighton and Halyburton ^ from such
a man was no small honour indeed, and no small
testimony to the inherent worth of his teaching.
It seems established from the foregoing evidence
as beyond doubt that during the early formative
period of the religious society at Oxford, Scougal's
' Life of God in the Soul of Man,' with the ser
mons, were known to the Oxford Methodists and
extensively used by all of them. Their influ
ence over Charles Wesley, John Wesley, George
Whitefleld — the hymn - writer, the organiser, the
preacher of the movement — was beyond ques
tion ; and although from the letters and testi
monies published in Mr Tyerman's volume, ' The
Oxford Methodists,' it is impossible to gather direct
reference from the other members to them, their
general spirit is identical, and the books may
safely be inferred to have been a fountain of light
' See Whitefield and Wesley in Scotland, p. 26, note.

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. 125
and life to all of them. Influence is not the less
real when it is assimilated as part and parcel of
the spiritual life and acts unconsciously, and a
rivulet in that mighty stream of religious earnest
ness that emanated from Oxford was assuredly the
message of the Scottish teacher. It was embodied
in the remarkable set of rules drawn up for the
society by Wesley, and so it had no little power in
controlling, shaping, and directing the religious aims
of the whole society. The kind of life it helped
to produce in George Whitefield, who gives the
strongest testimony to its power, is best learned
from the words of his fellow-student, James Hervey,
who thus speaks of him in 1750 : " Surely people
do not know that amiable and exemplary man : or
else, I cannot but think, instead of depreciating, they
would applaud and love him. For my part, I never
beheld so fair a copy of our Lord — such a living
image of the Saviour — such exalted delight in God
— such enlarged benevolence to man — such a steady
faith in the divine promises — and such a fervent zeal
for the divine glory : and all this without the least
moroseness of humour or extravagance of behaviour;
sweetened with the most engaging cheerfulness of
temper, and regulated by all the sobriety of reason
and wisdom of Scripture, insomuch that I cannot

126 HENRY SCOUGAL.
forbear applying the wise man's encomium to this
eminent minister of Christ, ' Many sons have done
virtuously, but thou excellest them all.' " ^
Reference has thus been made to the influence of
Scougal's teaching, but can it be doubted that far
more potent was that of his life as realising that
teaching ? Truth embodied in a life is the most
powerful of instruments, and no one can for a
moment hesitate in averring that the life, as por
trayed in the earlier parts of this narrative and
founded upon the information of the literature that
was well known to the Wesleys and their associates,
must have impressed them all very deeply. Scougal
in fact realised in a smaller and more limited sphere
what they accomplished in a larger, and he was in a
true sense their forerunner. If the true historical
perspective be observed, and if it be recalled that
both before and during the period when the Ox
ford Society was formed Scougal was the religious
teacher best known to them, then it cannot be
doubted that his example would be most helpful in
guidance to them all — ^not least to the Wesleys.
If his teaching brought them spiritual vision, his
life brought them a brilliant example of saintli-
ness, and, acting invisibly within the region of the
1 Tyerman's Oxford Methodists, pp. 259, 260.

INFLUENCE OVER OXFORD METHODISTS. 127
spirit as well as embodying the realisation of their
own quests and aims, must have been most potent
to beckon onwards and upwards. The type of relig
ious character that shone in the Aberdeen professor,
and that which shone in the Wesleys and their
associates, was identical, and the first in time can
not have failed to attract and impress those who
chose him as their guide. If Scougal's book was
so influential, the personality of which it was an
expression must have been more so ; and one
cannot study the formative period of these Oxford
Methodists, catch their spirit, enter into their aims
and strivings, without failing to see that the
gifted and saintly Henry Scougal exercised over
them, both by his teaching and his life, a power for
which he has not had a sufficient acknowledgment.
His memory passed away in the mighty spiritual
force that he helped to originate, yet if it be true
that he who first animates is the true creator, then
the name of this short-lived but brilliant Aberdeen
professsor ought to have an honourable place amid
the honoured names of the religious leaders of this
country.

128

CHAPTER IX.
SCOTTISH EELIGIOUS SOCIETIES. WAS SCOUGAL's
EELIGIOUS SOCIETY AT ABEEDEEN THE PEOTO-
TYPE OF THE OXFOED ONE ?
Religious societies have discharged an important
part in Church history — a part which has not always
had a sufficient acknowledgment given to it. They
were managed by the people for the people, and were
at one and the same time the expression and the
sustaining power of the religious life at the heart
of the people. They had never an ecclesiastical,
but always a purely religious, origin ; and in the
dark days of the Church these reUgious or prayer
societies exercised no unimportant influence in
keeping alive the religious ideal, vision, and faith.
The few that met together, here and there over
the country, seriously concerned about the things

SCOTTISH PRAYER-SOCIETIES. 129
that belong to God and the peace of the soul —
that sought to quicken piety and make their walk
closer with God — that endeavoured to help their
brothers around by bringing them to the same
centre of repose, and brightening time and eternity
with the light of an immortal hope — were really
the " salt of the earth " and the " light of the
world." When theological wrangling dishonoured
God, and ecclesiastical strife lessened His glory,
these reUgious societies were witnesses for personal
religion, and for the life that is hid with Christ
in God. In medieval times the " Reformers before
the Reformation " did their most important work
through these societies, and by them they leavened
the minds of the people. The followers of Wycliffe,
and the Lollards of Kyle, did their best work
through such societies, and by them they kept
the religious light from being extinguished by the
corruption and superstition of the period. It was
in these societies that the reformed spirit was
fostered, and apart from them it is very question
able if the Reformers could have carried the people
so extensively with them. Even after the separ
ation of the Reformed Church from the Church of
Rome was made, the people were educated in the
doctrine of the Reformed Church by means of these
I

130 HENRY SCOUGAL.
religious societies, conducted by Christian laymen for
the people : references are made to them through
out Knox's 'History of the Scottish Reformation.'
Luther estabUshed them throughout Germany, and
his idea regarding them was that all individuals
who were Christians in earnest, and were willing
to confess the Gospel, should enrol themselves by
name, and meet together for prayer, for reading
the Scriptures, for administering the sacraments,
and for exercising works of Christian piety. For
assemblies of this kind, which existed purely for
the satisfaction of spiritual requirements in an
evangelical sense, Luther contemplated no elabo
rate form of liturgy, but, on the contrary, simply
a "short and proper" means of "directing all in
common to the Word and prayer and charity," and
in addition thereto, a regular exercise of congre
gational disoipUne, and a Christian care for the
poor, after the example of the apostles.^
These societies were most helpful in advancing
the interests of the Reformed religion; and while
Church statesmen moulded the ecclesiastical poUcy
through Synods and Presbyteries and Assemblies,
such societies helped what is far more important —
the spiritual life of the people. They were centres
^ Kostlin's Life of Luther, p. 296.

SCOTTISH PRAYER-SOCIETIES. 1 •'^1
of spiritual light and life, and as the kingdom of God
cometh without observation, their true history can
not be recorded in detail, but lives in the spiritual
results which they brought about, and as a stream
of spiritual life in the hearts of the people.
In Scotland, especially, these religious or praying-
societies were a strong spiritual force : they were
chiefly connected with Presbytery, and had no little
influence in maintaining it as a form of Church
government among the people. They existed from
before the Reformation, and had a continuous his
tory after it. During the Covenant periods they
were to be found over the greater part of Scotland,
and maintained ordinances in the way the majority
of the Scottish people desired them. They were
throughout their history witnesses for the revival
of religion, and were everywhere homes of piety.
The Revolution Settlement brought peace to the
persecuted Church of Scotland, but it was by
no means the return of the Golden Age for the
Church. This period of compromise brought its
chilling breath, and the refusal of the Cameronian
remnant to accept it, with their final withdrawal,
led to the reign of Moderatism, with its lifeless
morality, as a substitute for the Evangel of Christ.
Moderatism is a dark period in the history of the

132 HENRY SCOUGAL.
Scottish Church, and, with an enforced patronage,
was the source of all its troubles, and the cause
of all its secessions. It brought a chill to the
strong piety of the country ; it stified the religious
aspirations of the people, and spiritual life driven
out from one place must appear in another, for the
spiritual nature of man is eternal and will assert
itself. "The light of an active religion is always
burning somewhere, but the inevitable tendency
is for that Ught to die away in one place and
reappear in another." ' And that spiritual light
which largely disappeared in the Church appeared
in the praying societies, that were chiefly situated
in the Lowlands and in midland Scotland. There
were many faithful clergy in the Church who were
true to Christ's Evangel, and their parishes were
centres of light and life ; but where these were
not, the praying societies did most efficient and
helpful work ; they were witnesses and sustainers
of personal piety, and represented it often amid
contempt and obloquy. The religious history of
Scotland is not to be understood, in the eighteenth
century especially, unless these are taken into ac
count as efficient factors in the life of the Scottish
1 'Spectator,' .July 15, 1899, p. 80.

SCOTTISH PRAYER-SOCIETIES. 133
people; and the historian of the future, if he is
to be true and not blinded to the facts of the
case, must give prominence to them as centres of
religious light and as helps to earnest souls. The
following description of them has been recently
given : " A lonely thatched cottage on the moor,
reached by miry roads and uncertain paths — the
long trudge through the darkness, with hearts lifted
up at the sight of distant yellow light which marked
their destination — the grizzled men, bowed with the
weariness of unending labour, and the strong, silent
women, still wearing the plaids which had sheltered
them from the rawness of the night air — the humble
furniture, and the dim light of the cottage, and
the reverence which sat on every face, and showed
itself at every word and in every gesture. When
they met they hardly greeted, and when they parted
it was with the driest words of farewell. For
strangers they would have even a scantier wel
come. They had not met for social amenities.
The business which had brought them from distant
homes was prayer, and the searching of Scripture,
and the discussion of the points of pure doctrine.
Their theology was Calvinism, tempered by the
tenderness of the theology of the Marrow, and

134 HENRY SCOUGAL.
their aim was personal holiness."^ Such is the
testimony of one who has made a special study
of the Lowland praying societies, and it is such
as brings these earnest Scottish people before
us in the fulness of life.
The members of these societies were loyal to
the Church of Scotland, and it was only at the
time when they felt that Moderatism was not help
ful to their spiritual life, and that patronage de
prived them of the right of appointing those whom
they desired to minister unto them in holy things,
that many of them joined the Erskines and their fol
lowers as spiritual guides. " The Secession Church
could not have come into existence had it not been
that the task of organising congregations had al
ready been practically accomplished." Such became
for many their ultimate goal ; and while the Church
of the Erskines aroused a strong evangelical spirit
apart from the Church of Scotland, and without
which the religious life of Scotland would have
been infinitely poorer, the Evangelical party within
the Church of Scotland, headed by Dr Erskine of
Edinburgh, was powerfully helped by those societies
that remained loyal as ecclesiolai in ecclesia, and by
1 Professor Davidson in the ' United Presbyterian Maga
zine,' June 1899, p. 252.

SCOTTISH PRAYER- SOCIETIES. 135
the great revival of religion produced through the
preaching of Whitefield and Wesley within the
pulpits of the Scottish Church. ^
These mutual improvement societies for spiritual
purposes, exercising a supervision and control over
the life and conduct of their members — -guided
occasionally by rules not dissimilar, in the main,
from those which Wesley gave to his societies —
were as leaven over the country, and form a
chapter in Scottish Church history that has not
had sufficient attention given to it. The Societies
increased personal piety both in the individual and
in the home, and maintained much of the earnest
ness of the covenant period. Whatever be our
ecclesiastical bias, it is only honourable to bear
testimony to the noble work done by the men of
these prayer-societies, and to recognise in them a
true branch of the Church of Christ. One can
apply to them the words that the late Principal
Cairns applied to the work of the Sunday-school
teacher : " Whenever I see a young man teaching
the Gospel to half-a-dozen children, I recognise a
Uving branch of the Church of Christ." ^ One can
also apply to them the words of John Craig of
•¦ See Whitefield and Wesley in Scotland.
2 Dr MacEwen's Life of Principal Cairns, p. 588.

136 HENRY SCOUGAL.
the Canongate to Queen Mary's secretary, Maitland
of Lethington, when presenting to him the Apology
of Magdeburg, and desiring him to read the names
of the ministers who had subscribed the defence of
that town to be a most just defence, and added,
"To resist a tyrant is not to resist God, nor yet
His ordinances." When Maitland read it, he wrote
" Homines obscuri " (" men of no note ") ; John
Craig answered, "Dei tamen servi" ("Nevertheless,
servants of God ").^ The members of these praying
societies were assuredly "obscure men," but they
were not the less "servants of God."
It may be argued that the encouragement of such
societies in connection with the Church, and meeting
apart from church hours, conducted by the people
for the people, would be a most efficient help to the
Church everywhere. Especially in Scotland, where
Presbytery brings prominently to the front the truth
of the universal priesthood of the Christian people,
these societies would be of great service in creating
and sustaining the religious life. To meet for
prayer, and for the purpose of inspiring each other
to being good and doing good, are objects that com
mend themselves to all. Such societies would call
into active service the spiritual force among the
• Dr Laing's Works of John Knox, vol. ii. pp. 453, 454.

SCOTTISH PRAYER-SOCIETIES. 137
laity that is often so dormant, because it has no
definite object to expend itself on; it would help
to make those who were not Christians, Christians,
and those who were Christians, better Christians.
What a good would ensue to the Church, and what
an army of Church workers along the line of the
daily vocations of life would be created, if the old
Scottish prayer-societies were restored throughout
the country — if they were to meet for prayer and
reading of the Scriptures at stated intervals, while
a definite practical scheme of work were added
thereto, such as is being carried on in the Church
of England by the new " Brotherhood of Saint
Andrew," that emphasises the responsibility of
every Christian for his godless neighbour, and asks
him to make an effort each week to bring such
nearer God, and to offer a prayer each day that the
effort may be successful ! Such work is quiet, solid
doing good, brings forward the redemptive ideal of
Christianity, and seeks by prayer and effort to help
and restore. Such societies, connected with all the
Churches, would commend themselves by the absence
of a cumbrous organisation — by the presence of the
Christian ideal of life as a Uving force in congre
gational work — and would centre the energies of
Christian people on a grand object. Such societies

138 HENRY SCOUGAL.
would bring forward the true conception of the
Christian Church as a great brotherhood, existing
to be good and to do good, after the manner of
Christ Himself ; such societies would banish sacer
dotalism, lessen unreasonable dogmatism, and bring
prominently forward the ideal of the Church as a
spiritual and beneficent brotherhood in Christ.
They would by the force created solve more than
half of our great modern problems, and bring to
bear upon the social sores the healing balm of
Christian love. In doing so, they would be true
to an honourable past, and would adapt an old
message to new and pressing needs. Fostered and
guided by the Church, they would most efficiently
help the Church, and give a definite object to the
Christian spirit which it jjroduces from week to
week. As has just been stated, these religious or prayer
societies were extensively scattered over Scotland
from before the Reformation period, and were
centres of light and life to the people : there
may also have been such at the universities —
at any rate, the record of Henry Scougal's life
seems to show that he either formed one such at
King's College, Aberdeen, in connection vsdth the
preparation for graduation, or found one there in

SCOTTISH PRAYER-SOCIETIES. 139
existence of which he became president, both
in his student and regent days, during the
period at least when he was professor of phil
osophy, and most probably when he was pro
fessor of divinity. The evidence has already
been quoted, but it may here be repeated.
Says Dr Gairden, his biographer: "Religion was
the matter of his [Scougal's] serious and im
partial choice, and not merely the prejudice of
custom and education. He used sometimes to
write essays of morality, and occasional medi
tations ; which, as they were singularly elegant
and ingenious, so they breathed forth the de
votion of his mind and the seriousness of his
spirit, and would very well become a riper age.
It being the custom of the youth to have private
meetings ^ about the ordering the concerns of their
commencements, where he [Scougal] tvas made con
stant president among his fello'ws, his discourses
to them were so grave and becoming (as some
of them have professed), that they looked upon
them as the sayings of a grey head, and thought
they savoured of the wisdom of a senator." ^
Examples of such addresses are to be found in
1 The meetings were both academical and religious, see p.
13 (note). 2 p. 337.

140 HENRY SCOUGAL.
a previous chapter, '^ and probably contained the
substance of what appeared afterwards as ' The
Life of God in the Soul of Man,' and how deeply
these must have influenced the members can well
be estimated from the contents. But just now we
have to consider this work of Scougal's in con
nection with the origin of the similar society at
Oxford ; and if a true historical perspective be
maintained, and it be recalled that just at the
period, and before it, when the Oxford club was
formed, Scougal was a favourite religious author
of the Wesleys, and his saintly life, work, and
religious society at King's College, Aberdeen, were
all familiarly known to them through the evidence
brought forward in the previous chapters, then is
it not more than possible — is it not most probable
— that the very suggestion of the society at Oxford
may have come to Charles Wesley through Henry
Scougal ?
It is also to be recalled that John Wesley is not,
strictly speaking, the founder of anything connected
with his name — he was pre-eminently the inspirer
organiser, and saint; and if George Whitefield
originated field -preaching, Charles Wesley was the
founder of the Oxford Methodist Club. John Wes-
1 Chap. vi.

SCOTTISH PRAYEU-SOCIETIES. 141
ley himself invariably dates the commencement of
Methodism from 1729, not from 1739.1 Charles
Wesley was the founder of the club, when his
brother, John Wesley, was at Epworth ; and if we
again recall that he was profoundly influenced by
Scougal's book — that he believed in it so much as
to give it to George Whitefield when he was in re
ligious doubt ; that it was a constant companion
of his throughout this formative period of his life ;
that Scougal's example, as a young saint, inspired
with the loftiest ideal, shaped him, — then what
more natural or probable than that the society over
which Scougal was president for years at Aberdeen
should suggest to his mind the idea of a similar
society at Oxford, and that the Aberdeen society
is after all the prototype of the Oxford club in its
early form 1 If Charles Wesley was influenced by
Scougal's teaching and life, if, as the son of an
English rector, he was drawn to him by the addi
tional fact that Scougal was in the Scottish Church
when that Church had an Episcopal form of govern
ment, — what could come as a more natural conse
quence than that he should find from Scougal's
Ufe the very idea for which he was in quest, and
that as a result of it he should seek the help of
1 Overton's Life, p. 24

142 HENRY SCOUGAL.
fellowship in the realisation of his endeavour ?
Charles Wesley founded the club at Oxford ; John
Wesley, on his return from Epworth, found it in
existence, and, with his strong genius for godliness,
was made its president ; both were at the time dis
ciples of Scougal, and, taking all the evidence of
the case into consideration, it seems to be a very
probable inference that, both in spirit and concep
tion, the Oxford club owes its inspiration to Henry
Scougal, and that the early origin of Methodism
is to be found in the northern university town.
Scougal inspired it, but Leighton's honoured name
must also be recalled in connection with Scougal,
who was his pupil ; and so the early impulse of
Oxford Methodism, and of the great Church and
religious revival which it afterwards created, moving
ever since as a mighty spiritual stream gladdening
the City of God, is to be traced to Scotland, through
one of the saintliest of her sons. It is no small
honour to this northern saint that he helped to
animate such a movement ; and while we deplore
his short life, we must rejoice over its far-reaching-
results : we worship the God whose instrument he
was, and by whose blessing he achieved so much.

143

CHAPTER X.
ESTIMATES AND TESTIMONIES FROM EMINENT MEN
AS TO HIS INPIiUEKCE.
Whethee the foregoing conclusion be accepted or
not, the lesson of the life cannot be doubted — the
message cannot be overlooked : and it is this, that
those who tell most potently on the spiritual life of
the Church are the prophets and saints. Church
courts knew Scougal but little : his study, and the
Mount of Communion with God, knew him much.
What made him as he was, and as he influenced
others, was his inner life of deep experience of God,
of aspiration, of meditation, of beneficent aim, of
prayer. His was a life that had the roots of its
being in God — that knew God not by the hearing
of the ear, but by the exjjerience of the heart — that
realised religion as a life in God — that made daily

144 HENRY SCOUGAL.
work a walk with God — that was in the world and
yet not of the world — that united learning with
piety, and piety with religion — that was rooted and
grounded in the love of God ; and the message and
example of that life became to great and humble
souls alike the fountain-light of all their day, the
master-light of. all their seeing. Across the gulf of
over two centuries both speak still : the form is
still radiant, the eyes have not lost their glow, nor
the message its power ; they are full of life yet.
If this little book will direct any to such pastures
by the quiet waters, it will not have been written
in vain.
Scougal combines piety with learning, and speaks
not least of all to divinity students. Why should
there not be still in all the universities such re
ligious societies as those that Henry Scougal pre
sided over at Aberdeen, and the Wesleys founded at
Oxford ? Surely their results are beyond any man
ner of question, for they reared great scholars who
were great saints, and history abundantly declares
their far-reaching results on the life of the country.
Who can doubt their infiuence, since God has so
visibly blessed their results, since God Himself in
spired the consciousness that made them victorious
over all opposition, and was their guiding spirit —

estimates and testimonies. 145
"the best of all is, God is with us" ? God strikes
down the workers, but carries on His work ; and how
potently could that work be helped by such societies,
both in the universities and in all the Churches,
guided by aims like those in Scougal's time at Aber
deen, and in the Wesleys' time at Oxford ?
If ever we are to be raised above the things that
divide and separate Churches, which ought all to be
one, even as God and Christ are one; if ever we
are to abolish all the barriers that come from the
divisions of the past ; if ever all the disciples of the
Lord Jesus are to be one in heart and mind, — then
it must be by a centring of the spiritual life on the
great things of the kingdom of God — on righteous
ness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost. All differ
ences disappear at the centre ; all radii that from
the outward circumference seem parallel converge
there : and if such aims can best be realised by
methods such as these saints of the Church devised
to make religion a life of thought, feeling, piety,
action in God and with God, then surely the mes
sage of their lives should not be in vain. Such
streams began at the universities, but did not end
there in the past ; and the message of the past ought
to be the hope of the present, and the certainty of
the future. And in an age when so much is ques-
K

146 HENRY SCOUGAL.
tioned, it is well to recall that there are permanent
elements in religion that are above all question,
and that the life of God in the soul of man is
one of such. It rests on the spiritual order of the
world, and comes from the law that God in creat
ing the soul, stamped upon it His own image, that it
might be for Himself. Can it be possible to recall the
examples of Henry Scougal, John Wesley, Charles
Wesley, George Whitefield, James Hervey, and doubt
the power of such reUgious societies in the university
life of the past ? May the message of the past be
the guidance of the present and the future !
Piety is eternal, and as it speaks to us from the
religious classics of the Church, never fails to find
the heart young, and to keep it so. What the age
needs is not more speculative knowledge of God,
but more of a known, felt life in God. Scougal
as a religious teacher must always be read, for his
message rests upon the eternal. His 'Life of God
in the Soul of Man ' was edited ^ by Wesley, by
Chalmers, by Bishop Burnet, and commended by
1 A recent edition has been issued by a society of the
Church of England, and another by Professor Cooper, D.D.,
with an account of the life and writings of the author, his
morning and evening service for the cathedral church of
Aberdeen, and a portrait.

ESTIMATES AND TESTIMONIES. 147
Principal Wishart of Edinburgh aud Bishop Jebb ;
it was translated into French, and no doubt helped
many an earnest soul in France and elsewhere.
It has thus appealed to minds of diverse hues ;
it has appealed to all classes and creeds ; it has
helped many who do not accept what others hold
so dear. The Rev. James Walker, D.D., LL.D.,
a distinguished Unitarian minister, and in his last
years President of the Harvard College, thus spoke
of it : " When a young man comes to me to ask
my advice on entering the ministry, I always tell
him that if he enjoys reading Scougal's ' Life of
God in the Soul of Man ' and other books of
like character, he may do so, hut that must be
the test." 1 Thus Scougal's book has appealed to
minds theologically wide apart, and to thousands
from different communions who found in it light
and help. Such is, surely, a vindication of a life
that transcended all dividing barriers, and attained
a region which reconciled them. Such a life appeals
to all men still, for a revelation of the God-like
arouses the deepest in man, and is true to the
latent best in all men.
- I am indebted for this interesting reference to the Rev.
Dr John Hunter of Glasgow.

148 HENRY SCOUGAL.
In the ' Calendar of Ancient Scottish Saints ' we
find it as a remarkable fact that the saints of
the early Celtic Church were not reverenced be
cause they were martyrs, but simply because they
were founders of churches and faithful teachers
of Christianity.'^ Their life and work evoked the
admiration of their contemporaries, and were grate
fully commemorated by the names given to the
religious centres they had planted. Many of the
place-names of the country have thus both a his
torical and religious significance, and are charged
with the memories of holy lives, and piety has
even stamped itself on the ordinary speech of
daily life, which is unconsciously used by us who
forget its early significance. When we find in
the ordinary names of places a " kil " followed
by a proper name, we may safely infer that it
preserves - the record of a holy life.^ Such was
the gratitude of the distant past ; and although
1 Dr Joseph Anderson's ' Scotland in Early Christian Times, '
first series, p. 190.
2 E.g., Kilbride means the church of St Bride ; Kilbirnie,
the church of St Birnan ; Kilwinning, St Finan's church ;
Kirkcolm, St Columba's church ; Kilninian, the church ot
Nenuidius. (See Sir Herbert Maxwell's Scottish Laud-Names,
pp. 204, 205.)

ESTIMATES AND TESTIMONIES. 149
it may take a different form in the present hour,
surely the name of Henry Scougal of Aberdeen
ought to be recalled with reverence, and honoured
by the Church of Scotland as one of the greatest
among its many honoured teachers who have led
men onwards to better things.

INDEX.

Aberdeen and Scougal, 8-49 —
religious society at, 10-13,
138-142.
Aberdeen Cathedral, Scougal's
service for, 37, 38.
Alexander, Dr Lindsay, 96, 97.
Anderson, Dr Joseph, on early
saints, 148.
Andrewes, Bishoii, 48.
Angelico, Fra, 19.
Anselm, 113.
Aquinas, 73.
Auchterless and Scougal, 18-
24, 41, 86.
Augustine, 89.
Bacon, Lord, 15, 72.
Blair, Dr, 30.
Burnet, Bishop, 1, 23, 27, 51,
100, 145.
Cairns, Principal, 135.
Cameronians, 131.
Catholicity, 30, 97, 145, 146.
Chalmers, Dr Thomas, 5, 9, 15,
44, 61, 120, 123, 146.
Christ, Scougal on, 76-78.
Church, Dean, 49.
Coleridge, 51.
Cooper, Prof., 146.
Craig of Canongate, 136.
Davidson, Prof., 133, 134.

Donay, 26.
Douglas, William, 25.
Eckhart, 63.
Swing, Bishop, 47.
'Fasti Aberdonenses,' 8, 14
(note).
Forbes, John, 25, 27.
Francis de Sales, 21, 41.
"Friends of God," 3, 24, 71,
72.
Gairden, Dr, 3, 6, 12, 14, 16,
20, 36, 44 et seq_., 139.
GiUies, Dr, oi Glasgow, 106.
Greek philosophy, 55.
Gregory of Nazianzen, 89.
Halyburton, 124.
Hamilton, Sir William, 15.
Hegel, 72.
Herbert, George, 89, 90.
Hervey, James, 22, 125.
Humility, 42.
Hunter, Dr John, 147.
Hutton, R. H., 63.
Jansenists, 27, 64.
Jebb, Bishop, 123, 147.
Keith, Bishop, 1.
Kempis, Thomas a, 3, 112.

INDEX.

151

King's College and Scoujf.al, 8-
17, 18-49, 140-142.
Kingsley, 44.
Knox, 130.
Leighton and Scougal, 6, 18,
19, 23, 26, 27, 28-31, 64, 65,
90, 92, 98, 108, 124, 142.
Leuchars, 1.
' Life of God in Soul of Man,'
4, 11, 22, 51, 61-85, 100, 102-
127, 140, 141-148.
Liturgy, Greek, 91.
Lollards, 129.
Love, Divine, 56-60.
Luther, 120, 130.
Macleod, Dr Norman, 10.
Maitland of Lethington, 136.
Moderatism, 131, 132.
Mysticism, 68-72.
Orem, 38.
Oxford Methodists and Scougal,
48, 49, 92, 99-127, 138-142—
Leighton, 142.
Prayer, Scougal's, 79, 80.
Protestantism, catholicity of,
31.
Religious society at Aberdeen,
nature of, 13, 138-142.
Rules, Wesley's, 116-119.
Sacrament, 94-97.
Salton, 1.
Scottish religious societies,
128-142.
Scougal, Bishop Patrick, of
Aberdeen, 1-6, 8.
Scougal, Henry — his mother,
2, 4, 7 — like Thomas a
Kempis, 3 — childhood and
boyhood, 4-7 — meets Leigh
ton, 6 — at Aberdeen, 8-49 —
and Lord Bacon, 9 — influence
of his book and society, 10-
13, 99-127, 128-149 — pre

cursor of Methodism, 13, 48,
49, 92, 99-127, 138-142— pre
sident of religious society,
12, 138 - 141 — Regent and
Professor of Philosophy, 14-
17 — taught Baconian sys
tem, 15 — minister of Auch
terless, 18-24 — and Leighton,
23-25, 27-31 — Professor of
Divinity, 25-49 — death of,
35-37— works, 37, 38— char
acter, 38-49 — early writ
ings, 50-60—' Life of God hi
Soul of Man,' 61-85— ser
mons, 85-98 — Dr Chalmers's
early views compared with
Scougal's, 61, 6'2 — Scougal
and Oxford Methodists, 99-
127— personality, 126, 127—
religious society of, 138-142 —
piety of, 143, 146 — estimates
of, 146-149— a saint, 118, 149.
Secession Church, 134.
Smith, Dr Walter, 47.
'Spectator' ou Wesley, 121-123.
St Andrew, brotherhood of, 137.
Tauler, 24, 63-68.
Tennyson, 69, 70, 96.
'Theologia Germanica,' 63-68.
Thiers, M., 21.
Thorold, Bishop, 19.
Ullhorn, Dr Gerhard, 42.
Walker, Rev. Dr, 147.
Wesley, Charles, 10, 101, 102,
104, 110-112, 124, 135, 140-
142, 146.
Wesley, John, 5, 11, 13, 43,
44, 64, 92, 101, 112-120—
edits Scougal, 123, 124, 135,
140-142, 146.
Wesley's mother, 100, 113, 114.
Whitefield, George, 10, 63,
102-110, 124, 125, 140-14'2,
146.
Wishart, Principal, 147.
Wyclifle, 129.

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