Scottish Highland Christianity

Notice by the Editor

The Memoirs of the Life of Mr Thomas Hog, which form the next article of biography in our collection, were originally published by ‘Andrew Stevenson, writer in Edinburgh,’ the well-known author of ‘the History of the Church and State of Scotland.’ The original edition, which is the only one that ever appeared, and which has now be come exceedingly scarce, was printed at Edinburgh in the year 1756. Mr Stevenson, who takes the humble title of ‘the Publisher’, states in his advertisement the sources, chiefly manuscript, from which he compiled these Memoirs. Had these manuscripts .been extant or accessible, an original work might have been produced, richer in matter, and more regular in execution. It has, however, been found impossible even to procure the use of the scanty materials which time has left, and which, in all likelihood, will continue to exist in the form of learned lumber for some years to come. But it is not probable that any new facts in the personal history of Mr Hog could have been elicited; and the simple and pious narrative of Stevenson is perhaps, after all, the best account that could now be given of one of the most remarkable men of his age. At the same time, owing to the peculiar form into which he has thrown his materials, it may be necessary to state very briefly the leading events in Mr Hog’s life, in the order in which they occurred.

Mr Thomas Hog was born about the commencement of the year 1628, and ordained in the parish of Kiltearn about 1654 or 1655. He was thus introduced to public service in the Church during the heat of the unhappy controversy between the Resolutioners and Protesters, occasioned by some public resolutions agreeing to the admission of persons notoriously hostile to the cause of the Reformation into places of power and trust. Mr Hog adhered to the opinions of the Protesters with such conscientiousness, that he was deposed by the Synod of Ross in 1061, because he would not decline that party judicially; but neither in this nor in any other controversy of the day, did he advocate extreme measures.

In 1662, he was ejected from his charge along with many other faithful ministers, for non-submission to Prelacy. From this time he became the victim of a series of persecutions, and was not allowed to remain long in any place. In July 1668, we find him delated by the Bishop of Murray for preaching in his own house and ‘keeping conventicles’ in Murray; on which occasion he was incarcerated for some time in Forres, till the Earl of Tweeddale procured an order to liberate him and his companions in tribulation, upon their giving bail to appear when called. Mr Hog does not seem to have desisted from the practice, so obnoxious to the tyrannical rulers of that period, of preaching the gospel wherever he found an opportunity; for in August 1675, we find letters of inter-communing issued against him among many others, by which they were driven out of the pale of society, and all were forbidden, under penalty of death, to harbour them in their houses or give them any support.

And, in February 1677, the Council order Mr Thomas Hog, whom they term ‘a noted keeper of conventicles’, to be transported from Murray to Edinburgh tolbooth. From the tolbooth, this good man was carried to the Bass, and there, at the instigation of Archbishop Sharp, thrown into the lowest and most noisome vault of that abominable prison. In October of the same year, by some influence used in his favour, he was brought back to the tolbooth, and thereafter liberated from prison, but confined to the bounds of Kintyre, under the pain of a thousand merks. Two years after, in 1679, we find him again brought to Edinburgh before the Council, again remanded to prison, and again liberated. After this, he seems to have laboured without molestation till the year 1683, when he was again dragged before the Council, charged with ‘house-conventicles’; and the libel being referred to his oath, and he refusing to swear, he was held as confessed, and fined in five thousand merks. He was then banished out of Scotland, and ordained to remove himself out of the country in forty-eight hours. They offered him, indeed, six weeks to provide for his banishment, if he would give bond, as some had done, not to exercise any part of his ministerial functions during that time. He told them that, ‘being under much frailty of body, it was not likely he would be able; but as he had his commission from God, he would not bind up himself one hour, if the Lord called him and gave him strength.’ So, having ordered a coach to take him up at the tolbooth door, he set off for Berwick, and from thence to London. After remaining there for some time in great straits, he repaired to Holland, where he was introduced to the Prince of Orange, who held him in high esteem, and afterwards made him one of his chaplains.

After the Revolution, he was restored, in 1691, to his parish church at Kiltearn, as he had predicted at the time when he was ejected, thirty years before. He died the following year, January 4, 1692, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, amidst the tears of his affectionate parishioners, who had welcomed back their aged pastor, so miraculously restored to them, after all the tossings and troubles in which the latter half of his life had been spent. It is said, that he gave charge on his deathbed to dig his grave in the threshold of his church, that his people might regard him as a sentinel placed at the door to keep out intruders. And on his tombstone was written the following striking inscription:

THIS . STONE . SHALL . BEAR . WITNESS .

AGAINST . TIIE . PARISHIONERS . OF . KILTEARN .

IF . THEY BRING . ANE . UNGODLY . MINISTER . IN . HERE .

Few men have lived who have been more highly esteemed by their contemporaries, or whose memory has been cherished with more veneration by posterity, than the subject of the following Memoirs. Wodrow speaks of him in his Correspondence, as ‘that great, and, I had almost said, apostolical servant of Christ, Mr Thomas Hog.’

ADVERTISEMENT BY THE PUBLISHER.

[MR ANDREW STEVENSON, WRITER, EDINBURGH]

The lives of eminent saints, wherein are represented their experiences of the divine all-sufficiency, goodness, condescension, and immutable fidelity; their attainments in a holy and heavenly frame of heart and conversation, and their extensive usefulness in the various spheres to which Providence had assigned them, have been justly accounted amongst the most agreeable productions of the press. They bestow pleasure and profit, amusement and edification, at once: while the reader diverts his curiosity with the historical incidents, his mind is insensibly led into an high esteem, and emulation of that goodness by which the subject of the piece was distinguished; they set the truth and power of religion in a strong and affecting light, and may not, without reason, be regarded as additional credentials, whereby the excellency of the religion of Christ is attested and recommended anew. In them we behold what the wisest of men could not think of without astonishment, ‘That God does in very deed dwell with men on the earth’; nay more, dealeth familiarly with them, while he makes them previously acquainted with his secret designs both of judgment and mercy, and displays his divine power, and the efficacy of his grace, through their infirmities, subduing and conquering the most hardened obstinate sinners to himself; and while he, as it were, resigns himself to the command of their prayers, and makes them the subject of the angelic care and superintendence. Thus also the lives of the saints are perpetuated on earth, and these stars which once shone in our hemisphere, though now translated to the regions of glory, yet continue their benign influence upon us. To supply the want of these sacred intercourses, whereby Christians have been accustomed to edify one another, we hereby partake the fellowship of the saints in passages, and learn, for our spiritual improvement, the exercises of their hearts under the various dispensations of divine Providence, and their happy experiences of the Lord’s care over them, and gracious manifestations of himself unto them for their encouragement, and relief from all their difficulties.

There is not any of these purposes which the Life of Mr Thomas Hog does not seem qualified to answer in an high degree. Considered both in his private and public character, he was an ornament to religion; his doctrine and life joined to recommend the truths and ways of God to men. He had entered fully into the spirit of true godliness, and found its sufficiency for supporting all the charges of life. Hence he carried on a daily intercourse with heaven, and few enjoyed more evident expressions of the divine regard and condescension than he enjoyed.

Several passages related concerning Mr Hog are indeed of a pretty extraordinary nature: And lest the scepticism of the present age, in relation to them, should prevail in some against the credit due to the evidence upon which the following facts are related, it is presumed to remind the reader, that as they imply nothing contrary to reason, they do not forfeit a title to his belief by being above it; especially if they are otherways well attested, since they are obviously referred to a Cause, whose ways and thoughts are as far above the ways and thoughts of men, as the heavens are above their heads. Nor is there a necessity of resolving such matters wholly into the inscrutable deeps of the divine sovereignty. There are grounds laid down in Scripture for expecting great things at the hand of God: ‘He is able to do far above, and beyond all we can ask or think,’ and has positively engaged to ‘withhold no good thing from them that walk uprightly.’ The sacred history affords us examples of a more transcendent nature than any thing here recorded, the truth of which we are at as little liberty to question, as the divinity of the Book in which they are related. And if the historical accounts left us, by Messrs Fleming, Livingston, and others, of some of these great divines, and eminent saints, the Church of Scotland has had the honour to produce, are consulted, the reader will find great numbers of more extraordinary instances than these which follow, and that so circumstantiated as to leave no room for distrusting their certainty.

The flatness in some of the familiar expressions used through these Memoirs will be found more than compensated by the ingenuousness, which discovers itself in the natural dialect of an open and overflowing heart, above any language wherewith we can possibly clothe them. One thing more the reader is entitled to know, that the following narration is extracted from several manuscripts written by different hands, of which there are a good many copies extant; and that every fact and principle contained therein, may be found in one or other of the following ac counts, viz.:

1. A letter by Mr William Stuart, who succeeded Mr Hog as minister of Kiltearn, and was afterwards transported to the burgh of Inverness, to the honourable Mr James Erskine, late Lord Grange. Mr Stuart’s eminence and probity is yet well remembered by many. From him we have the greatest part of what may be accounted anywise extraordinary; and he declares that he learned the same either from Mr Hog himself after his return to Kiltearn, or from old members of the Session of Kiltearn, or from William Balloch, who served Mr Hog upwards of thirty years.

2. A letter to the same Lord Grange, by way of supplement to the former, by Mr James Hog, late minister at Carnock whose amiable character is well known. He became acquainted with Mr Thomas Hog about the year 1676, when he was brought south to stand trial for conventicles (as private meetings for worship were then nicknamed), and they were for a time fellow-refugees in Holland. His information, which contains all that respects Mr Thomas before his ordination, with several passages of his after life, and the casuistical remarks in the appendix, were received immediately from Mr Thomas Hog’s own mouth, except a particular or two, which he had from William Balloch, to whom both Mr Stuart and Mr James Hog give the character, that he was one of the most judicious, faithful, and eminent persons they ever knew of his station.

3. A letter by the said Mr James Hog to Lord Grange concerning John Card, William Balloch, etc.

4. A particular or two is borrowed from the Life of J. N. late merchant in E––––h, (1) who was much with Mr Hog from a little after he came to the County of Murray, till near the time of his death; but that life having, it is said, been written only for private use, we are not at liberty to be more special here.

5. Some few particulars are borrowed from the Memoirs of Mrs Ross, which are in print; and,

6. The only other authority we have access to, is a small MS. entitled, Remarkable Passages of the Life and Death of Mr Thomas Hog, &c. to which is subjoined a Letter to D. S. in Holland, subscribed by D. C., who calls himself the unworthiest of Mr Hog’s converts. This, though a sort of anonymous authority, coinciding much with the other accounts, by persons of known probity, we think ourselves entitled to use it for illustrating some things which the others do but touch on.

Mr Thomas Hog was born in the beginning of the year 1628, of honest parents, native Highlanders, somewhat above the vulgar rank, who lived in the burgh of Tain in the county of Ross. They were careful to give their son a liberal education; for which purpose he was early sent to school, and from his first commencement to the study of letters he discovered an uncommon genius, and soon made such proficiency as rendered him respected. During his youth he was much addicted to the harmless diversions of that age; yet they never did abate his progress in his studies, nor his detestation of every thing immoral, or unbecoming the character of a scholar.

When Mr Hog had finished his education at the grammar school, he was put to the University in the New Town of Aberdeen, where he made great proficiency, till at last he was admitted Master of Arts, with the universal approbation of the Regents. An incident very remarkable fell out about this time, which both confirmed Mr Hog’s aversion at drunkenness, and his belief of an overruling Providence. He had contracted familiarity with a merchant in Aberdeen, who being to go on a sea voyage, paid him a visit ere his departure; and Mr Hog, in return of his courtesy, accompanied him to the mouth of the River Dee, off which the ship then lay; and it being the evening, lest the college gate, within which he lodged, had been shut ere he returned, he took the janitor’s servant along with him. After he had seen the gentleman go aboard, he was returning with two burgesses, who had gone out upon the same errand when, through the importunity of one of them, they turned all aside to take a bottle in an inn by the way. There he tarried with them till he thought they had drunk sufficiently, when finding they were not yet disposed to return home, he laid down his share of the reckoning, and was going away. On this the company being averse to part with him, and resolute on their cups, they laid hold on him to detain him by force; but he being full six feet high, and proportionably strong and vigorous, soon twisted himself out of their grips, and went off. When he had gone a little way, finding the porter’s servant was willing to have staid longer, he gave him a little money, came home alone to his chamber, and went to bed at his usual hour; but though in good health, he tossed from one side to the other, and could get no rest till after the clock struck one, when he fell asleep, and rested quietly till his wonted time of arising in the morning; at which time coming forth to his class, the aforesaid servant met him, and told him with weeping, that the two men he left yesternight, after continuing a while at their cups, fell a contending and then afighting, in which the one killed the other; and that the murderer being taken in hot blood, was to be tried and executed quickly. Mr Hog asked at what time the crime was committed, and finding it was just at one o’clock, he adored that Providence which had both disposed him to leave that company seasonably, and made him uneasy while such a complication of sin was committing.

The only other particular I have learned concerning Mr Hog while at the college, is, that he having, during the study of theology, been boarded in a private house, it was his happiness to have several well-disposed young men for his comrades, with whom he joined in worship daily; and one of them being a probationer for the ministry, he took a sort of inspection over the rest. After reading a portion of scripture, he used to propose questions and difficulties to the rest from what they had read, which proved of special use, both for their mutual information, and incitement to close study of the scriptures, and examination of commentaries, that they might be in a capacity to speak to equal advantage with their companions.

Though Mr Hog was adorned with those natural and acquired accomplishments which constitute a truly amiable person, heightened with the lustre of an unblemished life, and strong appearances of sincere piety, he still, as himself acknowledged to Messrs Stuart and James Hog, remained a stranger to the saving operations of the Spirit of God. This, however, the divine goodness soon after made him acquainted with, at a time when the arm of the Lord was gloriously revealed in the revival of a work of reformation in this land, which commenced from the year 1638, and the influences of his grace were plentifully poured out upon multitudes through the nation. Having finished his courses of academical literature, he was called to the knowledge of things supernatural, and led into an experimental acquaintance with the great mystery of godliness. His convictions and subsequent conversion were the more endearing to him, that the innocence and apparent sanctity of his former life tended to exclude any suspicion of a bad state, and thus to strengthen him in a fatal mistake. For,

1. His conversation was strictly moral; whatever is ordinarily called vice, he detested, and kept at a distance from it, and plied the duties of his station with great diligence.

2. He frequented praying societies, and conversed and prayed with them; and in respect of knowledge, utterance, and an unexceptionable walk, he was by them esteemed a godly, well-qualified young man.

3. He sincerely sought the Lord, and was diligent in the use of means for attaining knowledge, especially of the principles of religion, and the meaning of the scriptures, as to which, his reach was greater than modesty would allow him to express.

4. With reference to the public state of religion and reformation in this Church, he was not only sound and strict, but also resolute and forward to adventure to the utmost in that cause.

5. In straits he acknowledged the Lord, and brought these difficulties before him in prayer, to which he got sometimes notable returns.

Mr James Hog having objected, That perhaps some efficacious work of saving power might have been wrought upon Mr Thomas Hog’s soul more early than he believed, and that the several pieces of deportment now related, might have flowed thence; he answered with fervent concern, That if he was then in a state of grace and salvation, he was not in that state afterward; for that the whole of the following work, which by the Spirit and word of God was wrought on his heart, was founded upon a strong, clear, and pointed conviction of his having been at that time out of Christ, notwithstanding all the afore-mentioned lengths.

The objector desired to know how a conversation so lovely could have place without a principle of saving grace to support it? Mr Hog replied, that there was nothing in all the particulars mentioned beyond a reformation merely legal, and that the convincing work of the Spirit held forth in John 16:8, 9, was yet wanting. And for detecting the objector’s mistake, he observed,

(1) As to a moral walk, and the performance of religious duties, there is nothing in them that demonstrates a gracious state, (Luke 18:10, 11, 12; Isa. 58:2; Rom. 2:17-20). Neither,

(2), was there any thing, said he, in his being well reputed amongst the godly, nor in that there were mutual endearments betwixt them that could confirm this charity; for his endowments of knowledge, utterance, and moral seriousness procured estimation from them; and the account they made of him, and kindness which they expressed to him, procured a reciprocation of love and kindness from him.

(3) He said, his soundness and strictness of principle was owing to the information of his judgment, by an impartial search and inquiry into principles and facts, which any man of sound understanding may attain to; and though in a time, when religion flourished, and ordinances were accompanied with much life and power, the common gifts of the Spirit did abound more than ordinary, this was not strange, as he illustrated from Hebrews 6\; 4, 5, 10; Psalm 88:34; Hosea 6:4.

(4.) With reference to public zeal and resolutions, &c., there are many instances of such adventurers, who have given sad proofs of what they were at bottom, (1 Cor. 13:3; Matt. 7:22, 23; Luke 10:19, 20). And

(5), as to his acknowledging the Lord in prayer, and obtaining returns of prayer, he said, it was about worldly things and difficulties of that nature, which gave no evidence of everlasting love; for many such returns the body of Israel and their kings had, and the men of Nineveh were heard and delivered (Judg. 2:15, 16; Psa. 78:38; Jon. 3:10, etc).

What the manner and means of Mr Hog’s saving conversion were, we are at a loss to describe. In general, Mr Stuart says, after being favoured with a good part of two days conference on that head, ‘That a clearer account of the work of grace could not be, than that which dropt from his lips, and this attended with so much humility and self-denial as did bear proportion to the excellency of the work; but the particulars,’ says he, ‘would overswell my purpose.’ And Mr James Hog assures us, ‘That the issue of Mr Thomas Hog’s convictions was so clear, and had so much of glory in it, that the weak vessel could scarce bear it; but, as to particulars, the only method wherein I am in case to relate them, is to repeat the ingenuous information he was pleased to give me of his own experiences, as the subject-matter of my straits required; for that great man was so far above me, who am but a mere child in grace, that it never entered into my thoughts to seek a detail of the particular circumstances and distinguishing marks of his conversion.’

But in general he says, Mr Thomas Hog was under a very deep and severe law work; that his convictions were very close, particular, and pointed. His sins were set before him with much of awful majesty, which produced amazement and deep abasement on his part; that during this work, which was of long continuance, whole crowds of sins were charged home upon him without number and measure, insomuch that he concluded it would be an endless business, and was nigh to despair.

At this tune he was chaplain to the Earl of Sutherland, where the work of God nourished in several happy souls. A great measure of charity was due to the Earl and several others in the family. The lady was a most eminent Christian, and of great experience in soul exercise; another lady, related to the family, was so remarkably countenanced of God, that Mr Hog came afterwards to know she was sometimes heard on his account; and the butler was at the same time under a law work much like his own, yet the one did not know of the other. Notwithstanding, the Countess wanted not, as they afterwards found, some discerning of what was working with them both, and had a watchful eye over them; and she was particularly moved to this towards Mr Hog (no doubt by her unerring Guide) on the following emergency, the only one of the kind he was ever troubled with.

One time, when Mr Hog was sitting alone in his chamber, in extreme anguish, nothing but wrath in his view, and his hope of relief at a very low ebb, a horrible temptation was thrown in like a thunderbolt, viz. Why do you continue under such intolerable extremity of distress? Put rather an end to a miserable life. Immediately upon the suggestion, he resented the temptation and the tempter with indignation; and his pen-knife, at which the enemy had pointed in his suggestion, lying upon the table before him well sharpened, lest the assault should have been renewed and heightened, he rose up and threw it over the window. After this, he sat down and fell a musing upon the intricacies of his complicated distress; and while in the midst of this terrible whirlpool, the Countess, contrary to her custom (though she had been ever affable at table) knocked gently at his door, and invited him to go and partake with her of a present made her of summer fruit. So away he went with her, and though he behaved before her as if all had been quiet within, she discovered, both by her speech and her very kind behaviour, that she either was impressed with his being in danger, or that she suspected how matters were with him. After he had been thus kindly entertained for a good space, he returned to his room, found the damp mercifully removed, and his soul moulded into a more sub missive frame, and disposed to wait patiently for the Lord.

As to the manner of Mr Hog’s relief, we learn in general, that from a conviction of actual sins he was carried up to original sin, as the fountain-head, and to a conviction of unbelief, as the seal on this fountain, and found himself concluded in unbelief, or in a state of sin, according to Romans 11:32, John 16:8, 9, 10. The Lord having in this manner laid a solid, clear, and excellent foundation, Mr Hog was at length blessed with faith’s views of the glory of Christ in his person and offices; and the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, did so ravish and satiate his soul, as to render him most willing, through grace, to forego, endure, and in his strength adventure, upon any thing in his cause and for his sake.

About this time, Mr Hog having been long engaged in secret prayer, with uncommon enlargement, received so strong a confirmation of his being an object of everlasting love, from that passage in Joshua 1:5, repeated by the apostle (Heb. 13:5), ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,’ that his soul was filled with the consolations of God. Then, thought he, what could he want, or what harm could want do unto him, while the Lord was with him? Neither should deceit and violence prevail against him. But, while in this frame, he was longing for an opportunity of expressing his obligation to his gracious God and Saviour, and saying within himself, What would I not suffer for such unbounded goodness? That instant he was called to perform worship in the family, and went out of his room full of divine joy, expecting to pray as in his former rapture and transport; but, behold, on a sudden, he was overclouded, and deserted to that degree, that with much difficulty he got a few sentences uttered, and was obliged to cut short. When going away, the truly noble Countess whispered to him, ‘Mr Thomas, be not discouraged; the Lord is trying your submission to his sovereign disposure.’ When returned to his room, he fell a musing on his sudden change from the better to the worse; and while he was humbly inquiring why the Lord contended with him, he called to remembrance what he had upon the matter said in his secret prayer, and, as if one were reasoning with him, it was suggested, Did not you say in the time of your consolation, What would you not suffer for God? and see now ye cannot bear, without confusion, to be straightened in prayer before a few of your fellow-creatures? By this he was convinced of his weakness, and made to admire that sovereign Wisdom which took such a gentle trial of him: upon which his confusion was removed, a pleasant submission succeeded, and his consolation was renewed. On this providence Mr Hog used to make the following observation, That submission to the sovereign will of God under desertions, afflictions, and trials, is preferable to the strongest consolations; because, said he, ‘consolation pleaseth us, but submission pleaseth God.’

Another thing on which he puts a special remark, was a signal power and presence that attended social prayer some times when the Countess and her friend were present, more than on other occasions. This to carnal minds may seem a jest; but as in natural things a threefold cord will draw more strongly than a single withe, it holds likewise in the economy of grace, that ‘where two or three’ such believing persons shall, under the influences of the Spirit of grace, ‘agree to ask any thing’ of their Heavenly Father, ‘in Christ’s name, it shall be granted unto them’ (Matt. 18:19).

But the last and most considerable adventure I shall relate concerning Mr Hog, while he abode in that noble family, was his having been the instrument of converting a young gentleman of the name of Munro, who was related to the family and frequented it often.(2) This gentleman at that time, void of real religion, but of a sober deportment, took great pleasure in Mr Hog’s company, and wasted much of his time with frothy, idle, and useless converse. Mr Hog had a due regard to the gentleman, and reckoned himself obliged to use him with discretion, on which account he did bear with him for a good time; but it grieved him that these interviews turned out at best to a wasting his precious time; and therefore he took the matter to serious deliberation, and asked counsel of the Lord, what was proper for him to do in such a case. At length he was determined to deal freely with the gentleman about his eternal state: he foresaw that if his freedom were taken amiss, their converse would be broken off, and he would be eased of part of his burden; if otherwise, then their conversation would be carried on to other and better purposes. Accordingly, an opportunity having soon presented itself, Mr Hog, after some introductory converse, and a little pause, during which he was exercised in ejaculatory requests, addressed the gentleman to this effect, ‘Sir, I have a just respect to the family from which you are descended, and to yourself also; my parents were acquainted with your ancestors, and I am under several obligations to them. On these and other accounts, I have been deliberating how I may most fitly express the respect I owe you, and, as the best service in my power, have resolved to use a piece of open-hearted freedom with you about the concerns of your immortal soul.’ This unusual address was very surprising to the gentleman, yet he took it not in bad part, but desired him to say on.

Upon this Mr Hog proceeded, and after he had mentioned some qualities in the gentleman, desirable in their own place, he added this grave admonition, ‘Sir, I must be free with you, and therefore I tell you in sincere love, and with an ardent desire of your soul’s everlasting salvation, that you are manifestly guilty of a notable evil; and pray observe it carefully. It is a transgression, or set of transgressions, that consists not with a state of grace. “If any man among you seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain” (Jas. 1:26), ‘They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children’ (Deut. 32:5). The sin is, you keep not a watch over your own tongue, but have a sort of roving conversation, not adverting to your speech, but talking at random, and showing no concern that God may be honoured, and your neighbour get profit by your words. Man’s tongue is in scripture called his glory, “My glory rejoiceth,” “Awake up, my glory” (Pss.. 16:9, and 57:8). Speech we have peculiar to us as reasonable creatures, and therefore it should be savoury and useful, for every idle, inoperative, or unuseful word, we shall give account at the great day.’

This admonition was well supported with several texts of scripture, particularly the two above cited; and as an antidote against this evil in time coming, Mr Hog recommended to him to maintain the awe of the majesty of God upon his soul; and added he, ‘The presence of a prince, or a person of respect and honour, would have so much influence upon us, as to procure some careful observance of what we say or do under his eye; and much more would a rooted faith of God’s all-seeing eye prove operative in this manner.’

The gentleman heard all with the closest attention; and when Mr Hog had finished what he had in view, he answered, ‘Sir, I always looked on you as my true friend, and now you have given the best demonstration of it. By what you have said, I am persuaded of the evil of the sin charged on me, and of my danger by it; and now that you have obliged me beyond what any have done hitherto, I beg a continuance of your favour, and that I may have free access to converse with you afterward.’

This request was joyfully complied with; and if the gentleman visited Mr Hog frequently before, he made him many more visits after this, but never gave occasion to impeach him. Their communication after this turned principally, and almost wholly, upon the concerns of his salvation, and, through the Lord’s blessing, their labour was not in vain. The gentleman became eminently gracious; and for an evidence that this free dealing was blessed, the good man in his after conduct did so much excel in the virtues opposite to the blemishes found fault with, as astonished those who formerly knew him; and he discovered so much understanding, deliberateness, prudence, and discretion, that he was much esteemed for accommodating differences, and several gentlemen did submit their contests to him, and acquiesced in his sole determination.

The gentleman being thus established in the Lord’s way, was honoured ‘to adorn the doctrine of God his Saviour’, without any extraordinary interruption, until a difference fell in betwixt his father and him about marriage. The old man would have him take a wife, whose portion would have relieved their little estate, then under some burden. But the young man, finding no satisfying evidence of her experience of religion, would not comply; his father resented his aversion so far, that they could not live amicably together; and to procure peace, the son was obliged to betake him to an itinerary life amongst his friends for a time, by whose intercession he hoped to make peace with the father, but in vain. In this undesirable way the young gentleman did no small service, by stirring up several of his friends to a concern about the great salvation.

One incident which, as expressive of that just regard he had for Mr Hog, may be here inserted. It was his custom to travel much in the summer nights, that under the silence and retirement of the season, he might, with less interruption, apply himself to secret prayer, an exercise to which he was extraordinarily addicted. One of his female friends having found fault with him for this practice, as an inversion of the order of nature, an endangering of his health, and exposing himself to robbers or evil spirits; the gentleman replied, That his walking in summer nights was owing to his love of solitude, which that season afforded, without disturbance. For his health, he blessed the Lord, it was good and firm; having for some time been acquainted with a military life, the night and day in that season were nearly alike safe for his health. As to wicked men, he believed they had little encouragement to travel in the night in these parts; and as for apparitions, he could say, through grace, that he feared not devils, unless one of them were permitted to appear in the likeness of Mr Thomas Hog, for such a devil might, he said, impose upon him, and deceive him.

The order of time, according to the plan laid down, would seem to call for a stop here; but that we may have this gentleman’s story all at once, we observe, That some time after Mr Hog was ordained minister of Kiltearn, Mr Munro made him a visit, and their meeting was accompanied with very great mutual endearments. After some little time, the good man addressed himself to Mr Hog in this amazing style: ‘Sir, my course is nigh finished, and I am upon my entrance into a state of eternal rest. The Lord hath his own way of giving the watchful Christian previous warning concerning the end of his warfare. “Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me” (2 Pet. 1:14); and I being so privileged, have been seriously pondering where it may be most convenient to breathe out my last, and quietly lay down this tabernacle: and seeing, after deliberation, I can find no place or company so fit as with you, I have adventured to come and die with you.’

At this time the gentleman was in good health, and ate his meals as well as ever; wherefore Mr Hog endeavoured to divert him from the thoughts of a present dissolution; but he firmly persisted in maintaining his persuasion thereof, and accordingly, in a few days, he was seized with a fever, whereof he died.

During his sickness, Mr Hog took special care of him, and used all the means for his recovery which the place could afford, but without success; the fever proved mortal, yet notwithstanding the height and violence of the disease, the patient was never heard to rove; his concern for the honour of God was indeed so great, that he behoved to entertain every incomer with some discourse suited to what he apprehended to be their case; yet so sensible was he, and had such a reverence for Mr Hog, that he kept silence or spoke very little when he was present, referring all to him, whom he importuned to speak and pray often.

When the Lord’s day came, knowing that Mr Hog, who ordinarily attended him, was engaged in the public worship of the day, he found an errand for the person to whose care lie was committed, and in the keeper’s absence, he quickly put on his clothes, and went into the church as secretly as he could. Ere sermon was ended, Mr Hog perceived him, and was greatly perplexed at seeing him there; but being ignorant what aim God might in his providence have in bringing him thither, and persuaded that no private concerns could supersede the duty of his public calling, he pursued his discourse. Public worship being ended, the gentleman returned in all haste, and composed himself in his bed; and when Mr Hog came into the room to inquire into the dangerous adventure, he prevented him, saying, ‘Sir, I had the first sermon that did me good, from you, at the Earl of Sutherland’s house of Dunrobin, and since that time I have had the prospect that I would get my last preaching from you also; I want no more, neither will I get more in time: and as to my bodily state, so far as I can perceive, it is just the same as before; say now whatever you please.’ But after this representation, Mr Hog judged that he was called to be still and reverence Providence. What was the text upon this occasion I have not learned; but Mr James Hog says, in general, that it was most suitable to the good man’s case, and that he often repeated and fed upon it and the purposes delivered from it, till he entered triumphantly into the joy of his Lord.

Mr Hog was licensed to preach the gospel in the twenty-sixth year of his age, and ere one year elapsed, several parishes were competing for him, from some of which he might have had a greater living than ever he had at Kiltearn; but he preferred that parish to the rest, because he understood that sovereign grace was pursuing some elect vessels there, and he knew that several gentlemen in it were friends to religion, especially the Baron of Fowlis, a worthy gentleman, truly zealous for religion, as that family had been from the beginning of the Reformation.(3) There Mr Hog was ordained minister, in the year 1654 or 1655, with the unanimous consent and approbation of all concerned.

Mr Hog, having been thus settled, applied himself heartily to his work, taking heed to himself and to his doctrine, that he might both save himself and them that heard him.

With regard to himself, he was temperate both in diet and sleep. Gluttony, said he, is a great incentive to lust; and rising betimes is not only good for the health, but best adapted for study, wherein he had much pleasure. His more serious work, his necessary diversion, as visiting of friends and acquaintances, and even meaner things, were all gone about by rule: he kept time and measure in every thing. However lively the frame of his own soul was, he never insisted long in social duties, though he frequently enjoyed the breathings of the Holy Spirit to a very high degree. He often expressed his dissatisfaction with the length of social exercises (a fault very common amongst formal professors), as what could not be managed by many to a good account, and as encroaching upon other necessary duties belonging to our respective stations; yet he utterly disliked a coming reeking hot from the world into the presence of God, and it was his constant practice, both before and after family-worship, to retire a little into his closet. In self-examination he was very exact, and set time apart for it once a month, and sometimes oftener, accounting, that without this spiritual book-keeping, a trade with heaven could not be carried on to great advantage. Amongst his other properties, that of singular humility and modesty did excel. He was most reserved as to every thing that tended to his own reputation, and averse from speaking of such things as the Lord had wrought in him, by him, or for him, except to some few of his most entire acquaintances, or when the case of distressed souls did require it.

But he was more especially remarkable in his public character. His concern for, and sympathy with the ignorant, was exceeding great. The bulk of the people in that parish, having, through the long infirmity of their former pastor, and the intervening vacancy, been neglected in their examination, and become very ignorant, Mr Hog was at great pains to spread the catechisms, and other abstracts of our received principles amongst them; and going about from house to house, he prayed with, exhorted and instructed them in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

As an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ, his deportment was attended with as much majesty, proper to that function, as had been observed in any; and no wonder, for few are favoured with so many testimonies of the Divine presence in the discharge of their ministry, as it appears he had. His people, says his successor (Mr. Stuart), ‘were awakened to hear, and he was encouraged to preach Christ Jesus unto them, so that the dry bones began to revive, and pleasant blossoms and hopeful appearances displayed themselves every where through the parish.’ In like manner, after he was forced from his charge by persecution, having come south to Murray, and settled for a time at a place called Knockgaudy, near Oldearn, and preached the gospel in his private house, he was greatly owned of God, and became the happy instrument of converting or confirming many souls, amongst whom the same person reckons James Nimmo, and Elizabeth B–e, his spouse; B–––a B–––e, her sister, afterwards Mrs S–––d; Katherine Collace, alias Mrs Ross, &c., all since fallen asleep.

The same Mr Nimmo observes concerning Mr Hog, ‘That though the Lord did not bless Mr Hog with children, he once gave him the powerful assurance of that promise, “I will give thee a name better than of sons and daughters” (Isa. 46:5); which he signally fulfilled to him, in making him the instrument of begetting many sons and daughters to the Lord; to do which the Lord assisted him more I judge than any in his day.’(4)

Mrs Ross also gives a large testimony to the success of Mr Hog’s ministry in the Memoirs of her life. When speaking of Satan’s being let loose upon her with his temptations, by which her hope was almost vanquished; ‘The Lord,’ says she, ‘sent Mr Thomas Hog, ‘an interpreter, one of a thousand, who was directed to put me upon a right way of recovery, and quieting my mind under present trouble, which was, when I could not resist temptation, to suppose all true that Satan could charge me with, and then make application to the blood of Jesus, that cleanseth from all sin; and he taking me to his house, where I staid for the space of a month, the Lord thoroughly restored my soul before I returned.’ Again, speaking of Mr Hog’s liberation from prison (which I learn elsewhere was first at Forres), she says, ‘He preaching for eight years thereafter in his own house, was the instrument of converting many, and ministers about did also wax bold by his example to fall about the work of preaching.’

And to carry this account down to the latter period of his life, ‘I have,’ says Mr James Hog, ‘had the desirable occupation to hear him preach at the Hague, and his sermons were accompanied with the greatest measure of life and power I have ever had the opportunity to observe in my poor life. This is he,’ says the writer of the remarkable passage, ‘of whom I may truly, and without disparagement to any, say, that he was the father of the most eminent, as well ministers as private Christians, in the land, viz. the famous and judicious John Munro, in Ross, who had been before a great enemy to him, but at length was by his labours begotten unto God; also, the learned and faithful Mr Thomas Taylor had a most deep, distinct, and long exercise under Mr Hog’s ministry, and in the end got a clear and safe out-gate, and was thereafter an eminent and shining light both in Scotland and Ireland. As also, that brand plucked out of the burning, Mr Angus Macbean, minister at Inverness: the Lord had indeed begun to work upon Mr Macbean, and brought him out from among the curates before he saw Mr Hog in the face, but he never had any distinctness in his exercise, far less out-gate from his trouble, till the Lord brought him to this eminent seer, who, by converse and otherwise, was the instrument of opening his eyes, and of drawing him most effectually to Christ, after he had been about four years under a deep and heavy exercise of law-work. But time would fail me to speak of the strength, settlement, and establishment in grace, and in the ways of God, that holy Mr Thomas Ross, and zealous Mr John Welwood, together with several others, did get by his ministry and means, and of the many eminent Christians in every place to which the Lord called and sent him, who were converted or confirmed by his ministry.’

As a further evidence of that special conduct vouchsafed to Mr Hog in the dispensing of gospel ordinances, it was remarkable, that he was several times led to speak particularly to persons and cases, without any foreknowledge of the special occasions calling for it. One time, William Balloch, his faithful servant, whom the Lord had powerfully brought over from darkness to light by his ministry, was seized with a fever; and, in that condition, the tempter endeavoured by several specious arguments to deprive him of his peace. By this he was made almost insensible to bodily distress; and for relief he adventured to scramble up stairs upon his hands and feet, that he might impart his difficulties to his master; but Mr Hog being to preach in a short space after, refused to speak with him at that time; so with great difficulty he returned to his bed, and in a little he found that God had provided for his relief. As Mr Hog preached in his dwelling-house, William’s bed was so situated that he could hear his master distinctly, and was surprised to find himself prevented as to all he had to impart; for each of the several temptations, which pressed him so exceedingly, were distinctly mentioned, and the fallacies detected in the sermon. Thus the Lord, by his own ordinance, made known to his poor servant all that was in his heart; and in that manner a happy cure was bestowed on his soul, which issued in the recovery of his health.(5)

In like manner one Christian Macintosh, a poor woman, in the depths of soul distress, having several times gone to hear Mr Hog at a good distance from her house, and staid in his house sometimes two or three nights at a time; some of her acquaintances took the opportunity one night in their way home, to reprehend her for being absent from her family, because it might provoke her husband, who was of a different mind from her, and be an occasion of blackening religion itself, as if it gave a handle to idleness. With this, and more to the like purpose, the poor woman was exceedingly affected. She replied with great humility, that the worthy minister had detained her, that the entanglements she was under about her soul-concerns might be the more easily removed; and that his instructions had been of great use for this purpose; that her family was small, and the business of it could be the more easily overtaken, or what was wanting made up more conveniently, when matters of higher importance were brought to some desirable issue. After parting to their several abodes, Christian stopped at a retired place in her way, where she poured out her heart to the Lord, and at her return home, her husband received her with, the most tender affection. Of all this Mr Hog knew nothing, yet the very next Lord’s day he was led to preach from these words in Matthew 26:10, ‘Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me’; and in handling the same, to obviate every objection, which Christian’s honest friends had, from no evil design, made use of; which wrought so with them, that they all acknowledged their mistake to her, and when it pleased the Lord further to establish her, the occasion for such umbrage ceased.(6)

To instance only one particular more of the kind: Munro of Lumlair, an heritor in the parish, having been guilty of some sin wherewith it seems his own conscience accused him, fell to applying some reprehensory expressions uttered by Mr Hog, as if designed for exposing him to contempt, though Mr Hog had no eye to him; and being incensed to a dreadful degree, he came to the Session to demand satisfaction of Mr Hog; otherwise he threatened, not only to withdraw himself and family from his ministry, but to lay his strictest commands upon his tenants to do so likewise. Mr Hog heard all without interrupting the gentleman; and then addressed the Session, of which the gentleman’s chief, Sir John Munro of Fowlis, was a member, unfolding the insult in most weighty and significant terms, and required them to take cognizance of the scandal; and lest it should have been alleged, any of the members would be influenced by his continuance with them, he retired to his closet. After Mr Hog’s departure, Sir John accosted his friend, and by threats (as he was of the greatest authority in the place) and arguments together, he prevailed with him ere they parted, to come in the minister’s will. Mr Hog was ready to overlook what respected himself personally; but the ministerial office being attacked, and the offence become flagrant, the Session ordered that Lumlair should be rebuked in his seat the next Lord’s day; to which he submitted, and made his confession with many tears, to the affecting of the congregation. Nor was the gentleman’s penitence confined to that occasion, but he ever after looked on Mr Hog as his best friend, and laid out himself to great purpose, to promote the success of his ministry.(7)

So soon as it pleased the Lord to bless Mr Hog’s parochial labours with a gracious change wrought upon a considerable number of the people, he took care to join the more judicious amongst them in a society for prayer and conference; these he kept under his own special inspection and did heartily concur with, and assist them in exciting and edifying one another.

In prayer he was most solemn and fervent; the profoundest reverence, the lowest submission, and yet a marvellous boldness and intimacy with God, attended his engagements m this exercise. It might be truly said of him, as of Luther, When he prayed, it was tanta reverentia, ut si Deo, et tanta fiducia, ut si amico (‘with as much reverence as if he were speaking to God, and with as much boldness as if he had been speaking to his friend’). The strength of his faith was proof against discouragement; none ever beheld him perplexed on account of difficulties Having once committed his cause unto the Lord, he could wait with assurance of a happy event; and he obtained many remarkable and even extraordinary returns, of which several instances shall be here taken from the author of the Remarkable Passages, and Mr James Hog’s account; such as,

1. A good woman having come to Mr Hog with a sore lamentation that her daughter, C L , was distracted, Mr Hog charged one or two devout persons (for he frequently employed them on extraordinary occasions) to set apart a day and night for fasting and prayer, and then to join with him in prayer for the maid the next day. Accordingly, when the time of their appointment for a joint concurrence in the duty came, he wrestled for the distressed person till she recovered her senses, and became as quiet as ever she was before. This the writer declares he knew.

2. A daughter of the Laird of Parks, his brother-in-law, being lodged with him, and being seized with a high fever, and little hope of life left, Mr Hog, who loved the child dearly, consulted with his wife whether there was any cause, either in him or her, of the Lord’s contending with their friend while under their care; and acknowledging their offences jointly to the Lord in prayer, with the iniquity of the child, the fever instantly left her, and she was restored to health. This passage, says the writer, I read in Mr Hog’s diary, which he concludes with admiration of the mercy and condescendence of his good and gracious God, to whom he ascribes the praise of all.

3. In like manner, a child of the Rev. Mr Thomas Urquhart having been at the very point of death, those present pressed Mr Hog to pray (for he was now become so revered, that none other would, in such cases, pray when he was present); upon which he solemnly charged them to join fervently with him; and having wrestled in prayer and supplication for some time, the child was restored to health. A like instance is found in his diary, with respect to a child of Kinmundy.

4. One David Dunbar, who lived at a distance, being in a frenzy, and coming to Mr Hog’s house in one of his roving fits, Mr Hog caused him to sit down; and having advised with Mr Fraser of Brae, and some other persons who were occasionally present, what could be done for the lad, some were of opinion that blood should be drawn of him; but, said Mr Hog, the prelates have deprived us of money wherewith to pay physicians, therefore we will make use of the Physician who cures freely, and so he laid it on Brae to pray; but Brae having put it back on himself, he commanded the distracted man, in a very solemn awful manner, to be still; after which he prayed most fervently for the poor man, and he was immediately restored to his right wits. This, says the waiter, I both read in his diary, and had from eye and ear witnesses.

5. Mr Hog having gone once to see a gracious woman in great extremity, and sad distress both of body and mind, he prayed with and for her; and in prayer he had this remarkable expression among many others, ‘Lord, rebuke this tentation, and we, in thy name, rebuke the same.’ Immediately after which, the person (as she told the writer of these passages) was restored to entire health both of body and mind.

And yet notwithstanding the Lord honoured him so eminently, it is doubtful if any in his day did more heartily detest and carefully guard others against delusion than he did; ordinarily, when he bowed his knee, it was his fervent request to be saved from delusion, and therefore, when any word of scripture was brought to his mind, as suiting any case he was exercised about, he would not close with it, till, after much fervent supplication, and diligent inquiry in the use of all suitable means, he had examined the same, and found it from God; for, said he, Satan comes many times with his temptations as an angel of light. Wherefore it was his constant judgment, wherewith his practice agreed, that as it is only by the word wherein is clear light, and by the Spirit’s opening the eyes and giving sight to discern this light, that we are to expect any solid instruction, direction, or comfort. To where these two concur, there is satisfying evidence of our light coming from the Lord. There is first light in the understanding, which works on the will, and the affections follow. The Spirit of truth acts like himself in a gentle, sweet, sure, sanctifying, humbling, and quieting manner.

But passing this: amongst the means which Mr Hog used for the good of the people, the following method was much countenanced of God. He set time apart to converse fully and freely with those who sought the privilege of baptism to their children; and, if he found them ignorant of the nature and ends of that sacrament, he was at as great pains to bring them to repentance and reformation, as if they had been really scandalous, and kept them from the benefit of baptism till he discovered a change on them to the better. Of the marvellous use of this course several instances might be given, but one may serve at present, and a most remark able one it is.(8)

There was in this parish a bold young fellow, John Munro, alias Card, so called from his occupation, being a tinker by trade, to distinguish him from the other Munros with whom that country abounds. This man, who loved to give and take his bottle, and was accounted witty and facetious, happened to have a child to baptize; but accounting Mr Hog too rigid in his examination, he had no will to go to him; but go he must, for the discipline of the Church in those days permitted no man to go without the bounds of his own parish for baptism, without a license from his minister, which did mightily strengthen the authority of ministers. So John Card being shut up in this dilemma, either to want baptism to his child, or go to his minister, at length resolves upon the latter. Mr Hog received him courteously, and knowing his errand, took him apart and examined him, but finding him unqualified to receive that seal of the covenant, he told him so much in plain language, and gave him his best advice to agree with God, ‘while he was in the way’ of life; and recommended to him to get the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism by heart, and to come next week to give account of his success.

John goes home, but being as yet insensible of his mercy, was in no haste to comply with the advice given him, nor to return to his minister at the time appointed; however, the case straitened him, and therefore return he must once more, and he was resolved it should be but once. So he comes again to his minister, and in an insulting manner asks him, how long he would be so cruel as to keep his child from baptism? Mr Hog answered him with meekness, that the cruelty was on his own side, who was at no pains for his salvation, and the salvation of his child; and added, ‘If I should administer baptism to your child without warning you of your hazard, I should be more cruel than you, for you would perish in your iniquity, and God would require your blood at my hands.’ To enforce the reproof, Mr Hog asked some questions concerning the nature of sin and wrath; but John fretted therewith, said, in a peremptory manner, ‘Well, minister, will you give me baptism to my child or not?’ and Mr Hog answering, ‘The Lord’s time is the best time; when you are fitter to receive that privilege, I shall be more willing to grant it.’ John was angry, and said, ‘Well, sir, keep it to yourself, you’ll give me baptism when I ask it again, farewell.’ And so he went off in a huff.

But by the tune John Card reached his own house, he found great uneasiness in his mind. The thoughts of what Mr Hog represented to him did pursue him, and particularly what he said concerning sin, wrath to come, and the necessity of being reconciled to God. When night came he went to bed as usual, but could not sleep, his thoughts troubled him; so up he arose, and set about prayer, a duty to which he was a very great stranger, and finding his distress to grow, he goes next day to the minister. Mr Hog, knowing the haughtiness of the man’s spirit, was surprised to see him come so soon back, yet he received him kindly, and asked what brought him today? The other answered that he had had no rest in his mind since he was with him; that he was followed, as with a familiar spirit, with the thoughts of God’s wrath against him for sin; and was so full of ignorance of God, and of sin and duty, heaven and hell, that he could form no right judgment concerning them.

Upon this information, Mr Hog instructed him at great length concerning the important subjects above named, and then prayed with him; and finding remarkable assistance vouchsafed to him in both these duties, and having otherwise an excellent discerning of the gracious operations of the Spirit of grace, he gave the man such directions as he judged proper for a person in his condition, and desired him to bring forward his child for baptism with the first opportunity; for now (said he) I hope God hath begun to convince you of sin and misery, and will, in his own good time, discover the remedy unto you.

But John refused to do this as peremptorily as before he had requested for the benefit of it; and being filled with a sense of his rebellion against God, he added, ‘No, no; no baptism for me, I have no right to it; nothing is due to me but hell and damnation.’ Mr Hog still urged him to bring forward his child, but he would not be prevailed on to do so, and away he went in tears, requesting the minister to continue his prayers, if peradventure God would have mercy on him. A work of conviction continued with this man, which was found to be real, clear and permanent. Mr Hog, whose concern for him was very great, found the work of grace advancing most sweetly in his soul; yet all this time his mind was not calmed, his disquiet continued for several months after, when, to his sweet experience and exceeding joy, the hand which wounded him did also heal him, which happened as follows.

Upon a certain Lord’s day, John Card arose early, and his cries unto God vied with the dawning of the morning. In this prayer he got such a sight of sin, as filled him with great abasement; and he was made to cry to God for mercy, with all the arguments he could form; and gave not over till he obtained a glimpse of hope, that God would have mercy on him; yet in a little the former load on his spirit recoiled upon him. When he came to church, he found more uneasiness than he expected. Atheism and heart plagues did fiercely assault him, and he was afraid lest he should perish by them; but to his great surprise, the hour came when his dead soul was made to hear words of eternal life. The minister was directed to preach Christ so clearly to his very soul, that he found it a time of love, and a day of salvation, so that he was in a very transport of joy; and after the first sermon, he comes to the minister’s closet door, which, contrary to his custom at other times, he had forgotten to bolt at that time; so in the man comes, and though he found worthy Mr Hog on his knees, such was honest John’s transport, for now I may call him honest, that he cried, ‘Mr Thomas, Mr Thomas, turn your prayers to praises on my account, for this day salvation is come to my soul.’

Mr Hog was amazed to find any giving him disturbance in time of secret prayer; but cut short, as if he had been at a close; and being wise and composed he did conceal his surprise, and examine the other gravely and composedly, and found a most comfortable and satisfying account of the impression made by that sermon upon his mind, will, and affections, viz. upon his mind, while the minister was representing the glory of Christ, and how wonderfully well fitted he is for the salvation of sinners. ‘God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness shined on his soul, giving him the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,’ which turned his will to the acceptation of the Saviour, and to resign himself to him on his own terms; upon which he found his soul filled with wonder, joy, and peace unspeakable.

Of the truth and ingenuousness of this account, Mr Hog was very well satisfied, and, according to John Card’s request, he turned his prayers into praises on his account; and good reason he had for doing so, for this man proved one of the most remarkable converts in this country, or perhaps in the kingdom, and continued to adorn the doctrine of God his Saviour to the end of his life, which was not for many years after this. And it was observable in him, that he carried a great resemblance of Mr Hog ever after, in a solid discerning of persons and spirits in matters of religion, as it was in several other worthy persons, who acknowledged Mr Hog as their spiritual father in Christ Jesus.

‘I had,’ says Mr James Hog, ‘the happiness to see him twice or thrice, and to converse a considerable while with him by the means of the reverend Mr William Stuart, minister of Inverness, who interpreted for us both; and I must say, that except the great Mr Thomas Hog, no person ever tried me, and went so much to the very bottom of my heart, as he was directed to do, both as to the ground-work, and the most important concerns of a Christian life. He was then of a great age, not many years under a hundred, and though very frail in body, yet fully ripe in understanding, memory, and other soul faculties, and advanced in saving grace to a prodigy. While conversing with him I thought I was as it were at the feet of one of the old prophets, for besides a wonderful penetrating reach, his aspect was full of majesty and gravity.’

As Mr Hog’s care was great in admission to the sacrament of baptism, he was fully more strict in his admission to the sacrament of the supper, which was the reason he did not dispense that ordinance for several years after he was settled minister at Kiltearn. He had indeed the profoundest regard for that solemnity, and would most gladly have had it sooner; but the ignorance of the people was so great when he entered amongst them, that it was long ere they were in any readiness to receive it: but when he had been about four years in the ministry, and observed that his labours were countenanced of the Lord, he set about preparation for that holy ordinance, and proceeded with the greatest caution, allowing none to communicate who could not give some tolerable satisfying account of a work of grace upon their souls.(9) And having thus fenced that solemn ordinance, great was the encouragement found in it: several told him how graciously God had dealt with their souls, both before and after the communion. ‘I cannot’ (says Mr Stuart, from whom I am now gleaning) ‘give account of particulars, but I have heard some eminent Christians, who were present at that occasion, tell, that the Lord bowed his heavens and came down, and displayed his saving power on that occasion most comfortably and signally; and I’ (says the same reverend minister) ‘found a still more persuasive evidence of the efficacy of that solemnity remaining forty years after it. In the year 1699 or 1700, when I was minister of Kiltearn, Donald Munro, the oldest man in the parish, fell sick, and died. He was 96 years of age, and lived two miles from the church, yet he attended there punctually every Sabbath. His conversation was very agreeable, but he was not reckoned amongst either the first or second rate of Christians for profession or power of religion. When I heard of his sickness, I went to visit him, and being somewhat weary with walking, I sat down softly at some little distance from the sick man, without letting him know that I was there, and in a little time I heard him pronounce these words, Remember my death till I come again; and these he repeated three or four times, and his affections were so moved with them, that he broke out in tears. At first I suspected that might be the effects of sickness or old age, but to my great joy, I was soon undeceived, for when I drew near, and asked him what death is that you speak of, and repeat so often? he, turning towards me, said, with a lively voice, and pleasant countenance, “The death through which I look for victory over a body of sin and death; the death that supports me in this dark valley and shadow of death; the death through which I look for eternal life; the death of Jesus Christ the Prince of life, – that, sir, is the death of which I speak.” Being much refreshed with this answer, I asked him, how he came by the sense of eternal mercy through the death of Christ? He answered me with much warmth of affection, that when Mr Hog gave the sacrament, above forty years ago, he preached on the death of Christ, and the infinite virtue of it for poor sinners, which filled him with such wonder and joy at the love of Christ, as made him precious to his soul above all things in time and eternity; and though he lost the sense of it for many years, that it had now recurred with such vigour, as if he had heard it with the same power that moment. I received several other comfortable answers from him, and then asked if he would have me pray; to which, without answering me, he looked up, and with great emotion said, “O Lord, be pleased to hear this prayer.” And in a short time after I had prayed, he resigned his soul to God, in a pleasant assurance of eternal life through Christ.’

Mr Hog seems not to have administered the holy supper again while he was at Kiltearn, for when after he had re tired to Knockgoudy, finding his ministry in private blessed with success, he gave that sacrament for the second time,(10) which was a bold attempt, considering the severity of the laws against them; nevertheless several of the most exercised in godliness in these parts attended that solemnity, which was remarkably countenanced with the divine presence and glory: communicants returned to their habitations with joy unspeakable, and the spirits of their adversaries were so bound up that they gave them no disturbance.

Amongst the things reckoned extraordinary on this occasion, the admission of a Highlander, who could speak no English, is accounted worthy of a place both in Mr Stuart’s and Mr Hog’s accounts. This man, John MacLeod by name, known to Mr Thomas Hog as a man sweetly exercised in religion, and by whom others say they were afterward greatly refreshed, had come up from Ross-shire to that solemnity, and wanted to communicate, but because Mr Hog knew he had no English, he hesitated to admit him. Here upon, the good man being very intent on communicating, and knowing that Mr Hog had the Irish language, says to him in that dialect, ‘Would ye stop me, who came hither obeying the command of my exalted Redeemer, and who understand what you was just now preaching in English so well as if every word had been delivered in my own tongue.’ And thereupon he repeated the substance of the discourse that had been delivered. This having been interpreted by Mr Hog to those who were present, filled them with wonder, and the good man was allowed to communicate, which he did with great joy.

But as God sent Mr Hog to be an ambassador of mercy to many, so also to be a messenger of wrath to some. Of this several instances are related [by Mr Stuart]; and I shall repeat the following. About the beginning of Mr Hog’s ministry, a certain gentleman in the parish having lost one of his family, intended to bury within the kirk; but because, on account of the vulgar superstition, the General Assembly had made an act against burying in churches, and that Mr Hog was a strenuous defender of the acts of the Church, the gentleman was at a nonplus what to do: upon which, one William Munro, a strong hectoring fellow, engaged to the gentleman to make good his way against all opposition, and had succeeded so far, that the people who attended the corpse were entering the church-yard, when Mr Hog, getting notice, went out, and setting his back to a door, through which the corpse was to be carried, began to reason with the people, to convince them of the error of breaking through good order, and the rules of the Church. This had not, however, the desired effect on all, for the fellow who had occasioned this .disturbance laid violent hands on Mr Hog, to pull him from the door; but Mr Hog, having the spirit of a man as well as of a Christian, turned on his adversary, wrested the key out of his hand, and having told the assailant, that were he to repel force with force, probably he would be no gainer, he did next speak to the people, saying, ‘This man hath grieved the Spirit of God, and you shall see either his sudden repentance, or a signal judgment befall him.’ Accordingly, the poor wretch continuing in his wicked courses, met with the judgment foretold him in a few months after, and a very signal judgment it was; for he, having in one of his drunken revels made a violent attack upon a mean man, and thrown him into the fire, the man, in his extremity, drew out the wretch’s own sword or dagger, and therewith thrust him through the belly, so that his bowels burst out, and he expired most miserably.

A second instance of this kind happened while Mr Thomas Hog was lecturing one evening in the house of the Laird of Lethem, in the county of Murray.(11) During the time of worship he observed a servant laugh once and again; the first time he gently called for attention and reverence, and at the second transgression he rebuked what he saw more severely, and then went on in his purpose with great composure; but a little after, observing the same person relapse into his contemptuous carriage, he paused for some time, and then said with an air of awful seventy, ‘The Spirit of God is grieved by one of the company, for mocking at these great truths: therefore, I am bold to say, such offers of grace shall be visibly and more suddenly punished, than any here would wish, and that the guilty person would give much for our prayers when he cannot have them.’ After the family had supped, and retired to their several apartments, a message came to Mr Hog’s chamber, telling him that the foresaid mocker was suddenly seized with violent sickness, and that he cried bitterly for him. Upon this, Mr Hog arose quickly, cast on his night-gown, and came downstairs to see him, without losing a minute’s time, but before ever he came, the poor creature was dead.

These awful providences did very justly fill the hearers with the fear of God’s judgments, and confirmed many of them in the belief that the secret of the Lord was with Mr Hog, which was also verified by many other evidences.

The two following instances [taken from Mr Stuart] are of still greater consequence. In the year 1685, when the Duke of Monmouth landed in England, and the Earl of Argyll in Scotland, Mr Hog being then in London, his servant brought him in the news of their landing, expecting that it would be very acceptable to his master, but he was disappointed; Mr Hog shook his head, and William Balloch adding, ‘O, Sir, what is the matter? Honest people were under dreadful apprehensions of popery coming in amongst us like a deluge, and now they hope these two great men may be the happy instruments of delivering those nations.’ Mr Hog knowing him to be a gracious man, and that he was prudent, and might be confided in, said, ‘I tell you, man, God will not honour any of these men to be the instruments of our deliverance, and I have good reason to think so as to both; for when some worthy patriots who saw the danger of popery, and what danger King Charles was in from popish councils, met together, in order to confer about the properest measures to be taken in these circumstances, Monmouth, who was in the concert, declined to act the honourable part which fell to his share, upon which all measures broke up, and some of the worthiest in the land were exposed to suffering on that account; and because he would not embrace the Lord’s time of working, God will not accept of his time. And as for the Earl of Argyll, I believe he is a good man, and that he will get his soul for a prey; yet, considering his hand hath been deep in the defection and apostasy of the time, I am under no expectation of deliverance by him.’

Much about the same time some Protestants, who attended the court, knowing that Mr Hog was in the city, and that he was endued with somewhat of a prophetic spirit, spoke liberally of him at court, which drew King James’s attention so far, that he wanted Mr Hog should be consulted concerning the state of affairs at that juncture. This being communicated to Mr Hog by his friends, he concealed his mind for some time, till he had consulted the Lord in prayer, and prepared for his departure thence, and then he complied with their importunity, and told them (what also he charged them to report faithfully) ‘That if King James had sincerely adhered to the principles of our holy reformed religion, his throne had been established in righteousness; yea, if his majesty would yet give sincere evidence of his turning from popery, matters might be well with him; but if he did it not suddenly, and sincerely, the land would spew him out.’ This answer having been faithfully reported to the king, orders were quickly issued out to apprehend Mr Hog, and a strict search was made for him, but he, having foreseen this evil, eschewed it by a speedy flight to Holland.

Nor was Mr Hog’s prophetic spirit confined only to things on the dark side of the cloud; some events of mercy were also foretold by him [from Mr Stuart], such as,

1. When he knew that he was to be put out of his charge at Kiltearn, anno 1662 (as the most of our faithful ministers were put out of theirs much about the same time), he had a farewell sermon to them, in which he took God and their own consciences to witness, that he had not shunned to declare to them the whole counsel of God, and that he had foretold them the things they now saw coming. He further told them, That the storm would be of long continuance, but after all, the sky would clear, and he would live to see it, and be called to his own charge again as minister of Kiltearn, and die with them. ‘The truth of this I had attested to me (says Mr Stuart) by several old men in the parish, who were my Elders.’ And added Mr Hog, ‘If any of you shall decline from that good way, and these truths wherein ye have been taught, and shall comply with the wicked designs now carried on, I take heaven and earth to be witnesses against you; I take the stones of these walls I preach in, every word that was spoken, and every one of you to be witnesses against another.’ With these, and many other words, he warned and exhorted them, and his labour was not in vain, for there was not a parish in Scotland which complied less with the corruptions and defections of the time than his did.

The only other instance I shall name of the kind was his predicting the glorious deliverance at the Revolution, by the means of the Prince of Orange. When he foretold that miscarriage of Monmouth and Argyll, he added, ‘Yet I am under apprehensions that our deliverance is reserved for another happy instrument of the divine glory.’ And when he went to Holland, he was soon introduced to the Prince of Orange, who had him in great esteem for his singular piety and prudence, and therefore he took him into the secret of his resolutions to do what he could to deliver these nations from popery and tyranny; in which that good man being desired to declare his sedate thoughts, and most deliberate sentiments, encouraged his Highness perhaps as much as any who ever spoke to him upon the head, upon topics of revelation and experience; and assured him, if he undertook the great work of delivering these nations from Popery, and of securing the Protestant religion, with a sincere eye to the glory of God, the Lord would be with him, and make him successful, for he had the strongest impressions that his Highness would be the happy instrument of Providence in that deliverance.(12)

Yet, notwithstanding this extraordinary gift became thus familiar to Mr Hog, he was exceeding cautious about it, and afraid of an itching desire after it. Blind impulses, violent, sudden, and unreasonable injections, he could not with, but many times testified against them; as also against light by dreams, visions, and voices, or any such signs, as an adulterous generation, going a whoring from God and the more sure word of prophecy, do seek after; and therefore it was his custom to examine these much in the same way he did the answers to his prayers, which we formerly noticed.

The interpositions of the providence of God for this his gracious servant, in the time of his extremity, are also very remarkable, and deserve a special memento.

The first time Mr Hog was imprisoned for the truth was at Forres, anno 1668, upon a complaint for keeping conventicles, etc. There he was wonderfully strengthened and comforted, and had great joy in his sufferings. The godly who knew him, or heard of him, were also incessant at a throne of grace on his account; and several, experienced in religion, amongst which number Mrs Ross was one, declared afterward, that they never saw, or at any time found, such a measure of the spirit of supplication as was then poured out on many in Moray; and their prayers, as one saith of the Church’s prayers for Peter while in a like case, ‘set God a-working.’ The effect was, that Mr Hog, without his own knowledge, and most unexpectedly of all his friends, was set at liberty without any concessions on his part.

A second instance of this kind is yet more remarkable.(13) Mr Hog having, about the beginning of the year 1676, been again apprehended for private conventicles, and sent up to Edinburgh, he said to some persons in company, ‘I thank my God, this messenger was most welcome to me’; and giving a scratch with his nail upon the wall, he said, ‘I trust in the living God, that before my conscience shall get that much of a scratch, this neck (pointing to it) shall go for it.’ Accordingly, when put to the trial, he joyfully submitted to a prison, rather than bind up himself from preaching, and was therefore sent to the Bass, where his Christian carriage and conversation, composure, courage, and pleasantness of spirit, proved very comfortable to the other suffering ministers there. However, the air of the place, and close confinement, affected his health very soon, and he fell into a bloody flux, which, in his case, was attended with peculiar and very great danger.

In this situation, a physician was called to his assistance from Edinburgh, who gave it as his opinion, that unless he was liberated from that confinement, there was no hope of his recovery; and he advised him to supplicate the council for liberation for some short space, that means might be used for the recovering of his health. Mr Hog hesitated to address them; whether because they were a mongrel court, consisting of clergymen as well as laymen, or because he judged they had no right to deny what he asked, or because he had no prospect of succeeding, is uncertain. However, the doctor, of his own accord, and without owning Mr Hog in it, drew up a petition for him to the council, in the strongest terms he could devise; and the better to ensure a hearing, the clerk’s dues were liberally paid.

The petition was read, and some of the lay lords interceded for Mr Hog, and said, while he was at liberty he lived more quietly, and traversed not the country so much as other Presbyterians did. Upon which, Archbishop Sharp, taking up the argument, said, That the prisoner did, and was in a capacity to do, more hurt to their interests, sitting in his elbow chair, than twenty others could do by travelling from this land to the other; and if the justice of God was pursuing him to take him off the stage, the clemency of the government should not interpose to hinder it; and therefore it was his opinion, that if there were any place in the prison worse than another, he should be put there. This motion having been seconded by some other of the prelates and their supports, was accordingly put to the vote, and it carried, The closest prison in the Bass for him; which was speedily put in execution.

When the keeper intimated the order, Mr Hog raised himself up, with some difficulty, in his bed to read the sentence, ‘which,’ said he, ‘was as severe as if Satan himself had penned it.’ William Balloch, his servant, being with him when he was carried down to a low nasty dungeon in the Bass, fell a-weeping, and cried, ‘Now, master, your death is unavoidable.’ Upon this, the good man’s eyes were directed to the Lord as his physician, and turning to his servant, with a countenance full of joy, he said, ‘Now that men have no mercy, the Lord will show himself merciful; from the moment of my entering this dungeon, I date my recovery.’ And so it fell out, for the very next day he recovered to admiration, and was in a short space as well as ever. And yet afterwards, when any would have been speaking of the arch-prelate (Sharp) in his hearing, he never showed any resentment, but sometimes would have said somewhat merrily, ‘Commend him to me for a good physician!’

The last instance I shall give is, in respect of the construction put upon it, as remarkable as any of the former. About the year 1683, Mr Hog, who had some time before that been liberated from the Bass, but on what condition I have not learned,(14) fell again under the displeasure of the managers; and being convicted for holding private conventicles, he was banished by the Privy Council, and ordained to remove forth of the kingdom within forty-eight hours, unless he would find caution not to exercise any part of his ministry under a penalty of 5000 merks, over and above performance. This condition he would by no means submit to, and therefore he retired to Berwick within the time limited; and some time after he went up to London, with a design of transporting himself from thence to Carolina with the first opportunity. But the report of a plot by the Presbyterians against the King and Duke of York having been then industriously propagated by some about the Court, Mr Hog was apprehended as a suspected person, and thrown into prison. After he had lain there a good time, with great patience, his money being near spent – for beside his own and servant’s maintenance, he paid ten shillings sterling weekly to the keeper for a room, that he might have a place of retirement by himself, and not be put down amongst common felons and ruffians – he says to his servant, ‘William, I’ll set tomorrow apart for prayer, and see that no person be allowed to come in to interrupt me.’ Accordingly he arose early, and continued close at meditation, prayer, and reading such scriptures as were suggested as matter of argument in prayer, till about twelve o’clock, when a person in the habit of a gentleman desired to speak with him. William Balloch told him his master was retired, and behoved not to be interrupted at that time; but the other interceded that he might tell his master a friend wanted to see him: upon which William, seeing him of a grave and pleasant aspect, reported his desire to his master, who ordered him to show the gentleman into his chamber. Mr Hog received him courteously, and the other entertained him with a discourse about sufferings for a good God and a good cause, and showed that ‘our light afflictions are but for a moment, and not to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed.’ And having insisted on this subject a few minutes, with great pertinence, power, and spirituality, he arose and embraced Mr Hog most lovingly, exhorted him to a patient continuance in well doing; and then he took out of his pocket a white paper, and gave it to him. Mr Hog finding its weight, understood it was money, and said to the stranger, ‘Upon what account, Sir, do you give me this money?’ The other answered, ‘Because I am appointed by our great and exalted Master to do so.’ Mr Hog asked his name, and he refusing to tell, Mr Hog said, ‘Sir, it is not curiosity that prompts me to ask; but I hope to be enlarged, and then I should account it my duty to call for you at your dwelling in this city, for I suppose you are a citizen of London.’ The other replied, ‘You must ask no more questions, but be faithful unto death, and thou shalt have a crown of life’; and then he retired, and Mr Hog never saw him nor heard from him any more. ‘This story I had’ (says Mr Stuart) ‘from William Balloch, a gracious man, and accounted a person of as great veracity as any of his station in the kingdom, who was an eye and ear witness to what he reported, and said, there was so much majesty and sweetness in the man, and so great an aversion to tell who he was, that he inclined to think he was an angel.’ But whatever be in that, the interposition of Providence for Mr Hog was extremely seasonable and signal, and he was made to see the Lord humbling himself, and answering his prayer, for when he opened the paper, there was five pounds sterling in it, which to the good man was sweeter than he had got £1000 settled on him yearly, without seeing the glory of infinite wisdom, love, and faithfulness, in the conveyance which shone forth in the gift now made him.

Having now seen that to Mr Hog it was given, on the account of Christ, not only to believe on his name, but also to suffer for his sake, and that the language of the Lord’s procedure towards him was like that to the Prophet Daniel, ‘O man, greatly beloved!’ it may be of use for others, that, from Mr James Hog’s account of his life, we do shortly represent his principles, with respect to public matters controverted in his day.

Mr Thomas Hog was in his judgment on the side of those called Protesters, and, according to the historians, Messrs Wodrow and Crookshank, he was, in the beginning of the year 1661, deposed by the Synod of Ross, because he would not disclaim that party judicially.

He was clear against hearing the curates, and when questioned for this, he answered, that he looked on himself as obliged by the equity of the thing, and the rather, because of the superadded solemnity of the covenants which he had sworn, to lay out himself in just and regular ways, towards the extirpation of prelacy, with whatsoever belongs to that antichristian hierarchy. And considering the laws enjoined hearing of the curates, as a public test of approbation of, and compliance with His Majesty’s ecclesiastic government, or the supremacy, as explained and declared to be an inherent right of the crown, and prelacy, as the king’s government ecclesiastic: when he further considered, that all protestations, remonstrances, and other testimonies against the same, were by law discharged as seditious, he could see no other method left of keeping his solemn and sacred oath, but that of not hearing them; neither could he see that the patron’s presentation, and collation from the bishop, was the door of access to his ministry, appointed by the Great Shepherd of the sheep, and therefore could not look upon a person having these, and no more, as authorized by God to carry his message to his people. And, according to Mrs Ross, he was the main instrument of licensing the first that was licensed in Scotland, without compliance of Episcopacy; and that the first person so licensed was Mr James Fraser of Brae, we further gather from the original copy of that gentleman’s life, written by himself (chap. ix. sect. 1), though that whole section, with several other parts of his life, are omitted in the printed copy.

For the public oaths of that time, Mr Hog was in no hesitation as to their being established in downright opposition to our vows and covenants, and in several respects incompatible with Christian liberty and a good conscience. Touching the indulgences granted by King Charles II, he agreed with worthy Mr John Brown and Mr Robert MacWard, and thought honest ministers, as Mr John Welsh, Mr John Blackader, and others of that sort, were in their duty, who chose rather to jeopard their lives by preaching in the fields, than to take shelter under that ensnaring gourd; yet he upon all occasions expressed a just regard to the image of Christ wherever he saw it, notwithstanding of their having different views about matters disputed, and was utterly against withdrawing from Presbyterian ministers, who either had not taken the benefit of the indulgence, or, having taken it, were afterwards ejected, and exposed to suffering for their integrity; and as he pitied well-meaning people, who abstained from hearing all except Mr Cameron, and disapproved what was singular in their opinion, he was at pains to reclaim such of them as he had occasion to see, and prevailed with some, for which others of them were filled with indignation against him, and resented it by names and ways, which some gracious persons amongst them did afterward repent.

Neither could he go all the length that some went in disowning the civil government. That Charles II and James VII were our kings were facts (said he) sadly felt, and what no body could reasonably deny. The Lord in his adorable providence had, for our trial, brought us under these yokes (as his people of old were captives under the Babylonish Monarch for seventy years), and required us patiently to bear his indignation, until it should please him to open a way for our relief; yet he was of opinion, that in some instances the case was so stated as subjection might be warrantably refused. For instance, in that ticklish case of refusing to pray for the king, wherewith many of the sufferers, towards the end of the persecution, were stigmatized, he could find few, if any, who, when the question was fairly stated, were not disposed, in sincerity, to pray for the king’s happiness and salvation, as for their own: but when the barbarous officers, or soldiers, would have required poor labouring men to say off hand, ‘God save the king,’ and explained it as meaning in downright terms a praying for God’s blessing his Majesty, and prospering him in the (then) present administration of his government, there the ground of suffering was so clearly stated that several found their hearts filled with joy at being accounted worthy to suffer upon that point alone.

The toleration granted by King James VII for ushering in his darling popery, in July 1687, was what he did greatly dread, and he did still more detest the flattering and disingenuous addresses sent up to that Prince; yet when he understood that other Presbyterians were improving that liberty with great advantage to their people, and found the infirmities of old age increase upon him, he returned to Scotland about the beginning of the memorable year 1688, where he staid till the year 1691, at which time his old parishioners finding the way cleared for his reception, sent commissioners to accompany him back to his parish of Kiltearn, where he was received with great joy in June or July that year. But his constitution being broken, he was very unable to discharge his function much in public after that; however, his private conversation became ever the more heavenly, till he entered into the joy of his Lord, the fourth day of January 1692.

King William, of happy memory, having, by the time Mr Hog took possession of his old charge, got leisure to attend to his domestic affairs, and to reward the merit of his friends, resolved on having this good man near him: and for that purpose he sent him a commission to be one of his family chaplains, which was no mean evidence of the sense that penetrating sovereign had of his merit, and of the truth of his prediction concerning himself; but before that honour was bestowed on him, he was seized with the trouble, or rather the complication of troubles, whereof he died.

Amongst the many who visited Mr Hog, ‘I,’ says Mr Stuart, ‘was one. The first time I visited him I preached for him, and the excellency of his conversation (which I shall never forget) engaged me to stay eight days with him. At an after visit, he asked me if I was pre-engaged to settle at Inverness? for I was then a helper there. I told him, I was not to that, nor any place else. “Then,” said he, “have thought of your settlement in this place, for, if I live, I think I will be importuned to go elsewhere”; and thereupon he showed me his patent to be one of King William’s chaplains; “and, if I die soon, as I think I shall, in either case, I incline you should succeed me”; and having told me the disposition of the people, and what qualifications he judged necessary for their edification, he recommended to me to pray upon it, and ask counsel of God concerning it. The greatest length I could, however, go in a matter of that importance while he lived, was to entertain serious thoughts about it; and notwithstanding I found it my duty to conceal the motion, the parishioners were acquainted with his desire, and after his death they were harmonious and zealous in promoting it. In this the desire of his heart was accomplished. It was indeed a great weight on my spirit to succeed so great a man; but I can say, to the praise of sovereign grace, that while I was there, I was powerfully and sweetly supported.’

Mr Hog’s last sickness was considerably long, and accompanied with great pain. One time, his judicious servant, hearing the heavy moans he made, humbly asked him whether it was soul or bodily pain that extorted such heavy groans from him. To which he replied pleasantly and composedly, ‘No soul trouble, man, for a hundred and hundred times my Lord hath assured me that I shall be with him for ever; but I am making moan for my body’; and thereupon he entertained him agreeably, concerning the Lord’s purging away sin from his own children in this manner (Isa. 27:9). At another time he said, ‘Pity me, ye my friends, and do not pray for my life; you see I have a complication of diseases; allow me to go to my eternal rest’; and then with deep concern of soul he cried, ‘Look, my God, upon mine affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins.’ And yet, says his servant, never was his conversation more heavenly and spiritual than when he was thus chastised. Towards his end, he was much feasted with our Saviour’s comfortable message to his disciples, ‘I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God’ (John 20:17). To the writer of the Remarkable Passages he said, ‘He could not give a look to the Lord, but he was fully persuaded of his everlasting love.’ And to Mr Stuart he said at another time, ‘Never did the sun in the firmament shine more brightly to the eyes of my body, than Christ the Sun of Righteousness hath shined on my soul.’ ‘Some time after this,’ continues the same writer, ‘When I understood that he was very low, I made him my last visit, and when I asked how he did, he answered, ‘The unchangeableness of my God is my rock.’ Upon Sabbath evening, for I staid with him that week, when I came in from the church, his speech was unintelligible to me, but his servant said he desired me to pray, and commit his soul and body to his God. After prayer I retired a little, and when I returned, I found all present in tears at his dissolution, especially his wife and his faithful servant William Balloch.’ Mr James Hog and the writer of the Remarkable Passages add, that as Mr Thomas Hog had many times foretold that his Lord and Husband was coming, so in the end he cried out, ‘Now he is come, he is come, my Lord is come! Praises, praises to him for evermore! Amen.’ And with that word, death closed his eyes.

First, he laid down some preliminary observations; as,

1. That declining or shifting a fair and scriptural inquiry in any concern of religion, is a shrewd sign that matters are utterly wrong (John 3:19, 20).

2. That something like a convincing work may have place in some cases, and yet prove delusive, especially,

(1) In the case of melancholy: where this dreadful malady is, it putteth a dismal garb on every thing, and consequently sin must appear terrible also. Evil spirits do ordinarily make a special handle of this disease, to lead to desperate courses. Thus, sin proves in so far a considerable part of the disease. In this case the mind is dark and confused, and according as the malady prevails or abates, the mind is sad or cheerful; and yet the poor creature can give no reason for either. Besides, melancholy doth ordinarily utterly indispose the patient for action, and rendereth him both unfit and entirely averse from it; whereas convictions set home upon the conscience by the Spirit of God from the word, are made effectual for exciting to a diligent use of means, as one would do when his house is all in a flame about his ears. Melancholy may be taken off by medicines; but saving conviction admits of no cure, till the same Spirit which awakened, drop in the healing salve as deep as the wound. Yet in the case of several awakened persons, there is a mixture of this malady; but the Lord overrules it so, as, contrary to its nature, it issues into a distinct concern about their eternal state. When this is the posture of matters, it is happy if the malady be carried off by medicines, and the soul’s concern continue and grow; yet ordinarily in this complex case, the soul’s cure bringeth health to the body also, according to Job 33:23-25; Psalm 103:1-3.

(2) Somewhat like to convictions on the mind may be the effect of discontent upon the account of some worldly loss or trouble. This is that sorrow which worketh death (2 Cor. 7:10). Such a pretended malady would be cured by bettering the worldly circumstances; yet sometimes this malady hath been blessed of the Lord for ushering in convictions, (2 Chron. 33:11-13; Job 36:8, 9; Ps. 107:10-13).

And (3) specious resemblances of soul exercise are sometimes derived from a secret consciousness of some atrocious and scandalous crime, punishable by the civil powers, or censurable by the church; but here the shame, and not the sin, is that which troubles the soul (Gen. 4:13, 14; Matt. 27:3-5). Yet even such dismal occasions may be made effectual for bringing the soul under a genuine concern about its eternal state; and where that is the case, the patient will be found very willing to glorify God by an open and free acknowledgment, (Ps. 51).

3. A third preliminary he laid down was the detection of the sinner’s true estate as a child of the first Adam who had sinned in him, and was now fallen with him, who therefore is in the same state wherein to Satan brought us all by that conquest, and further hardened therein by a course of transgressions.

4. That there is no attaining of any thing that is good and acceptable to the Lord, antecedent to saving faith; or in other words, till we be in Christ. (Heb. 11:6; Rom. 14:23; Matt. 7:17-19).

And 5. That there is an enlightening work about sin as well as about righteousness carried in upon the conscience by the Spirit of God, in a suitableness to the sinner’s circumstantiated case (John 16:8-10).

Secondly, For discovering whether the Holy Spirit was preparing his way towards a saving change on the soul, Mr Hog used to inquire,

1. Where? On what occasion, and from what places of scripture it had pleased the Lord to carry home a conviction of sin upon the conscience? Whether it was particular? Whether the conviction carried from the streams to the fountain of our guilt? And, upon the whole, Whether such a discovery of sin had been diffused through the soul with a strong hand, so as the patient was made to acknowledge his former ignorance of the exceeding sinfulness of his sins, and that he never saw them in the light he now does (John 4:29; Rom. 3:9)?

2. Whether the patient had ever found himself under the condemnatory sentence of the broken covenant of works, and so bound justly over to the wrath to come? However various the methods are of the Lord’s disposure of his creatures, yet still this holds, that the Spirit of God giveth a true detection of the sinner’s state, as it is in reality; for he is the Spirit of truth, and setteth in a true light, what he manifesteth from the word to the conscience (Heb. 4:12; Eph. 5:13).

3. He further inquired, How the patient found himself affected with this sentence? This inquiry consisted more especially of two parts: (1) Whether the weight of this sentence had fallen more heavily upon the conscience than any worldly loss, pain or trouble, could affect the mind? (Prov. 18:14; John 6:2-4; Acts 2:37 and 16:30, 31). And (2) In the event of much felt hardness and confusion, which is usually the case of the patient thus circumstanced, he inquired, Whether this confusion and hardness was looked upon as an evil greater, and to be more lamented, than any worldly loss or trouble (Isa. 1:6)?

Thirdly, For discovering the more rude and unformed beginnings of a gracious and distinguishing change, the heads of inquiry were,

1. Whether in the above case the patient hath had his mouth stopped in the persuasion of the entire and spotless equity of the Lord’s disposure, being fully convinced that no person did ever so thoroughly deserve to be cast into utter darkness? Hence the exercised soul admireth and adoreth the justice of the Judge, and is filled with wonder at his long suffering patience; and when his proud and daring spirit putteth forth itself in murmurings, he condemns and abhors himself for them. These are the gall and wormwood in his cup (Judg. 10:15).

2. Whether, while the patient is pointing towards the rich and free mercy of his sovereign Lord, he is troubled with a two-fold impediment? (1) A thick and dark vail of ignorance upon his mind: he knoweth not how to manage, and is utterly unacquainted with the method of grace, and he finds that no human instruction can remove this vail (Isa. 25:7). And (2.) a haughtiness of spirit which hindereth him from submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ as his righteousness; and he is made to acknowledge himself as truly destitute of righteousness, as Christ was entirely free of sin in his own person, and that of all mankind he stands most in need of a perfect righteousness.

Fourthly, For discovering the further dawning and nearer approach of the day of grace, Mr Hog inquired, Whether, while this matter continued in suspense, the patient found a firm resolution in the Lord’s strength, never to return to former lords and lovers; and, on the other hand, a firm resolution, in the same strength, to wait prostrate at the footstool of sovereign grace, until the day of grace and mercy break forth, however heavy the delay be? And where this was the case, it was his opinion, that a gracious issue was ordinarily near at hand? (Psa. 40:12; Mic. 7:7-9; Pss. 27:14, and 62:1, 2).

Fifthly, For discovering the issue of convictions of the right kind, Mr Hog inquired,

1. Whether (which is chiefly decisive in this matter) the mind was enlightened to know Christ as he is offered in the gospel, as our prophet, priest, and king, as made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). But more especially his character, as ‘The Lord our righteousness’ (Jer. 23:6), hath its peculiar relation unto the lost, miserable, and undone situation, wherein the sinner findeth himself at the time (2 Cor. 4:6; Acts 26:18).

2. Whether the soul hath been drawn forth by invincible power to close with the person of Christ, as standing in a marriage relation to him, and to receive and rest upon him, not only as the Saviour in general, but as his Saviour in particular (according to John 1; 12; Heb. 10:39; Isa. 26:3, etc)?

3. Whether the poor tossed sinner hath found somewhat of quiet rest in pointing this way under Christ’s drawing, after all his legal resolutions, prayers, fasting, vows, etc., had utterly failed? (Matt. 11:28-30; Luke 15:16-18; Psa. 89:19; Jer. 17:5, 6; Acts 4:12; Heb. 4: 3).

4. Whether, according to the measure of the knowledge that the person hath got of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, a pleasant sense of gratitude, and impression of the love of Christ, have strongly and sweetly engaged the soul to the whole of new obedience, without exception or reserve (Pss. 18:1 and 116:1; 2 Cor. 5:14)?

And, 5. Whether under all subsequent burden by sin, of whatsoever sort, or by the fruits of the same, the main propensity of the soul be to seek ease and relief in the humble acknowledgment of guilt before the Lord, and by faith imploring pity and pardon for Christ’s sake alone? (Ps. 32:2-5; Prov. 28:13; 1 John 1:9; Hos. 5:15, Lev. 26:40-42).

But, upon the whole, it was Mr Hog’s opinion that in judging of soul-exercise, we should have a special respect to the issues, for that it is very difficult, if at all possible, before the respective issues to fix the difference betwixt what is right and kindly, and that which may issue in a further strengthening of Satan’s kingdom (Luke 11:24-26). Much depends upon the cool, or cure, of these soul fevers, which will prove either health or ruin to the patient, if sovereign and free mercy set not matters right again (John 16:8, 9). Conviction of sin is best verified by the subsequent conviction of righteousness, and that again by conviction of judgment.

‘How pleasant did the Lord at length make the godly in that place [Moray or Nairnshire] to me, and particularly that singularly holy man of God, Mr Thomas Hog, who was a true father to our Israel, and to whom all that feared the Lord, that knew him, had a great deference, yea, enemies themselves, he being not only endued with much of the mind of God, but also with much of a clear judgment and a solid sound mind; and albeit courteous to all, yet would not omit with authority to reprove sin in any, but still with such gaining wisdom, that all feared him, the godly loved him, and enemies could find nothing against him except in the matters of his God, when he would not yield a hoof; and yet managed with that respect and discretion towards enemies, that often they were made to admire him; for in his Master’s concerns he spoke as one having authority, yet without the least evidence of rancour or irritation always. In his younger years he, and that eminently pious woman Mrs Ross by her husband, and Katherine Collace by name, by providence were made acquaint, and both being deeply exercised in soul, by the blessing of the Lord were helped to build up one another in Christ Jesus. And thereby the Lord made them signally useful to others in like cases, and particularly Mr Hog, whom the Lord called forth more remarkably in his particular calling: who albeit the Lord gave him no children, yet the Lord once gave him powerfully that scripture, and fulfilled it to him, “I will give thee a name better than of sons and daughters,” making him the instrument of begetting many sons and daughters to the Lord. And it was his great care, as a father, to convince and humble them by the Lord’s assistance, and then to comfort and confirm them in due time; to do which the Lord, both by preaching and conference, singularly assisted him, more I judge than any in his day.’ He ‘had come from the south, where he had been prisoner long for his faithfulness, and at once eighteen months in the castle of the Bass.’ [pp. 37-39].

‘Some time before,’ January 29th 1682, he, ‘after long imprisonment, was come north, under bond given for his friends, to answer the king’s council when called’ [p. 29].

‘About the beginning of March 1683, Mr Hog had sent his godly servant, William Balloch, to warn Nimmo, that at a ball in Kilravoch, Lord Doune (son of the Earl of Moray) swore if he was in Murray he would have Nimmo laid in prison, who thereupon went south to Edinburgh, and thence to Berwick’ [pp. 67, 75].

Here, on its environs, they continued to reside, when on ‘the first of November [1683] our dear and worthy friend, Mr Thomas Hog, who was out of prison upon bond to answer the council at call, was then to appear before them’ [p. 86]. ‘Our dear and worthy friend, Mr Hog, was banished by act of council to be out of the kingdom of Scotland in forty-eight hours time under severe penalties. They indeed offered him six weeks to provide for his banishment, if he would give bond, as some had done, not to exercise any part of his ministerial function during that time. He told them, it was like, being under much frailness of body, he would not be able; but as he had his commission from God, he would not bind up himself one hour, if the Lord called him and gave him strength: and therefore so little time was allowed. So he caused a coach, agreed for, to come to the tolbooth door and take him in; and upon April 3, he came to Berwick, to the great comfort of our minds.’ ‘My wife’s intimate friend, Mrs Hog, also several others of some note of our own land’ [pp. 88, 89].

Nimmo and Hog had their houses near to each other, and ‘one day there came certain word of a general search through the town; and accordingly, after dinner the garrison began, and the ports were closed, and houses searched, and haylofts, the hay overturned with great pains. They began at the next house where Mr Hog and I went, and searched round, and so our house was last, and a mercy also. Mr Hog went to a private closet behind the hinging (bed-curtain), and I went up to a little place for doves, above a fore stair, where I could only sit or lie, but not stand, to which only a deal (deal-board) did lift and came down again, so exactly as made of purpose; and so we were in prisons till they went the round of search; and against they came back to our house it was growing dark, and they much fatigued, and *** our landlord, a true friend, met them at the entry, and said he judged they were weary; would they take a bottle of his ale and beer? to which they willingly agreed and accepted of. And he did carry pleasantly, and diverted them for some time, and told them, an old woman his mother lived in the lodging beside him, and if they pleased they might go in and "see there was none else there: which they refused, saying they would not trouble the old gentlewoman, and so were gone. And immediately the landlord came to Mr Hog and me, and took us in his arms, with as much joy as if he had got a prize, said that all was over, and so we mercifully escaped them’ [pp. 95, 96].

Kennoway having said, if Nimmo was out of hell he would have him (at hearing of which, blessed Mr Hog said, ‘If ye were in heaven, I fear he would not win there to seek you’ ) [pp. 110, 111], ‘I resolved, if the Lord would, to go abroad. And Mr Hog being to go for London, to see if there was any encouragement to go to Carolina, and thereby my faithful companion in tribulation, my wife, was to be left alone in a garrisoned town. About the 8th of April (1685), I was resolving to go to London with Mr Hog. The day before we were to go, Mr Hog asked me if the Lord had given me full clearance to go. I told him I had some peace, but not that desired clearance. He desired me to take some time apart to seek the Lord’s mind on that matter, and said, “Albeit you would be desirable to me, yet I advise either to get full clearance, or not to go.” Nimmo took time, and ‘resolved to stay, and had peace therein, but it displeased Mrs Hog; but her husband sweetly complied, and he and his godly servant went.’ In a little time after Mr Hog went, there was a great report of an invasion both to Scotland and England; and shortly after Mr Hog came to London, he was jealoused (suspected) for a spy and trafficker for Monmouth, taken, and the English oaths offered; and upon refusing to take them, both he and servant were sent to prison’ [pp. 115-117].

Before shipping at Burntisland, on 23d November 1685, ‘we heard some report that Mr Hog was liberated at London, and gone for Holland, which was ground of encouragement.’ ‘Before we came from Scotland, there had come a line from Mr Hog, giving account of his being safe at Rotterdam, to whom, when landed (4th December 1685), we went and staid with him some few nights, till we got the foresaid chamber; and, indeed, he and his wife were our parents to their power’ [pp. 127, 128].

20th October 1686, Nimmo having domestic anxieties, observes, ‘Our blest father and friend, Mr Hog, was gone the term of Whitsunday before to the Hague, where I some time went, and as his company and advice were refreshing, so my going there was refreshing. Some time after (after the 5th of November), as he had baptized our eldest son John, so we took this second to the Hague to him, where he was baptized James; at which time was such signal and observable power and presence of the Lord, that not only I but others were made to say, they never heard nor felt more of the authority of the Lord in any ordinance, than when he pronounced his name, and the names of the persons of the ever blessed Trinity’ [pp. 133, 134].

‘Even in this place, the fugitives in Rotterdam were not without danger from the enemy; for some were without order gripped, put aboard, and sent for England, and there hanged, some alleged murdered: in that place where we were, some, attacked by violence with sword in hand, to be carried off, and they defending themselves, resisting force with force, in wounds and blood, till the magistrates of Rotterdam took and imprisoned both till examined, and by the mob forced to justice, albeit inclinable enough to themselves; and some of these attackers were in prison when the Prince of Orange came over at the happy revolution. And sometimes there was a search procured by King James from the States; but they kindly gave some advertisement, that Scots people might be on their guard; as particularly one for Sir James Stewart, who narrowly escaped by the importunity of old Mr Hog, in whose house he was, that he would go out, having heard the search (which put us all in alarm) was to be that night’ [p. 135].

On King James toleration, ‘severals went home. Albeit our worthy friend Mr Hog never joined therewith, so as to preach by virtue thereof, yet, after seeking the Lord, he determined and went to Scotland, which was a great seeming loss to me’ [p. 136].

Mrs Hog came home with Nimmo to Edinburgh on the 1st of May 1688. Mr Hog gave Nimmo his advice in his household affairs. About January 1690, Nimmo’s third son was born, and named Thomas, ‘after blessed Mr Hog, who had married us, and baptized our three former children in three several nations’ [pp. 148, 138, 139, 145].

So well was the deprecated act (which overturned Presbyterianism and set up Episcopacy in its place) received by the time-serving Synod of Ross, that they urged it into effect against one of their own body, more than a year before the ejection of the other non-conforming clergymen. In a meeting of the Synod which took place in 1661, the person chosen as moderator was one Murdoch Mackenzie; – a man so strong in his attachments, that he had previously sworn to the National Covenant no fewer than fourteen times, and he had now fallen as desperately in love with the Bishoprick of Moray. One of his brethren, however, an unmanageable, dangerous person, for he was uncompromisingly honest, and possessed of very considerable talent, stood directly in the way of his preferment. This member, the celebrated Mr Hog of Kiltearn, had not sworn to the Covenant half so often as his superior, the Moderator, but then so wrong-headed was he as to regard his few oaths as binding; and he could not bring himself to like Prelacy any the better for its being espoused by the king. And so his expulsion was evidently a matter of necessity. The Moderator had nothing to urge against his practice: for no one could excel him in the art of living well; but his opinions lay more within his reach; and no sooner had the Synod met, than singling him out, he demanded what his thoughts were of the Protesters – the party of Presbyterians who, about ten years before, had not taken part with the king against the Republicans. Mr Hog declined to answer; and on being removed, that the Synod might deliberate, the Moderator rose and addressed them. Their brother of Kiltearn, he said, was certainly a great man – a very great man, but as certainly were the Protesters opposed to the king; and if any member of Synod took part with them, whatever his character, it was evidently the duty of the other members to have him expelled. Mr Hog was then called in, and having refused, as was anticipated, judicially to disown the Protesters, sentence of deposition was passed against him. But the consciences of the men who thus dealt with him, betrayed in a very remarkable manner their real estimate of his conduct. It is stated by Wodrow, on the authority of an eye-witness, that sentence was passed with a peculiar air of veneration, as if they were ordaining him to some higher office; and that the Moderator was so deprived of his self-possession as to remind him, in a consolatory speech, that ‘our Lord Jesus Christ had suffered great wrong from the Scribes and Pharisees’ (From Miller’s Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland).

While this portion of the Work was going through the press, the following notices of Hog were kindly transmitted by the Rev. William Barclay, minister of the Free Church, Arr, Nairn, which we consider too interesting to be omitted:

‘The tradition is still preserved here, and I never heard a doubt of the fact expressed, that Mr Thomas Hog settled for some time at Knockowdie, in this parish (of Auldearn) which is doubtless the same as what is called Knockgaudy, in the memoir to which you refer. The tradition also is, that he preached the gospel not only in his private house there, but also in other places in the neighbourhood. His principal preaching station was on the farm of Dalmore, belonging to the curate of Lethen, on which farm our Free Church is built; and there is a deep valley on that farm, through which a small stream flows, that is generally dried up in summer, but which is pretty large in times of rain, in which valley he was wont to assemble his congregation, and in which he dispensed to them the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. The place is called Hog’s Stripe to this day; and the stone on which he sat during the time the congregation was singing is still there. The place is very near to Knockowdie. Between these two places there flows a stream, called there the burn of Dalmore, and below that, the burn of Auldearn, over which there was a bridge, which was called the clattering brig. It was a very low bridge, and rude in its construction, being formed by laying a flag or two upon some stones rudely built up at each side; and the tradition says, that on one occasion, when Mr Hog was pursued by his persecutors, he hid himself under that bridge, and that while he was hid there, he heard his persecutors pass over it, swearing, that if he was on this side of hell, they would find him. The tradition also says, that he was in the way of preaching at Lethen; and that on one occasion, when he was preaching there, he observed a man laugh at something which he had said; upon which Mr Hog paused, and desired his congregation to mark that man, and see whether some signal token of the divine displeasure would not soon overtake him; and before the next morning the man was dead. This is the substance of the tradition which exists in this neighbourhood on the subject. The success with which God blessed his ministry is also spoken of.’

1. James Nimmo, Councillor and Treasurer of Edinburgh. Nimmo’s Life forms part of the Wodrow MSS (Editor).

2. Mr James Hog’s account.

3. See a further account of the family of Fowlis in the Appendix to Colonel Gardiner’s Life.

4. Memoir of his own life.

5. Mr James Hog’s account.

6. Mr James Hog’s account.

7. Mr James Hog’s account.

8. From Mr Stuart’s account.

9. Happy were it for the present generation, if ministers would universally tread this step of the eminent Mr Hog. By ‘separating,’ in this manner, ‘betwixt the precious and the vile,’ they would give evidence of their divine mission, and in doing so, they would at least save their own souls from accession to others guilt; whereas, by admitting too many, who, to say the best of them, show only negative qualifications, they not only partake of other men’s sins, but are guilty of leavening those with it who join them; whereby, on the one hand, they grieve the hearts of the gracious, and provoke them to make a schism in the body; and on the other, harden the impenitent, make the offering of the Lord to be abhorred, and, which puts the copestone on all, provoke the holy Lord to jealousy with their remissness. What the issue of this procedure must be, he that runs may read [Note by the Original Publisher].

10. From Mr Stuart’s account.

11. From Mr Stuart’s and Mr Hog’s accounts.

12. From Mr Stuart’s account.

13. From Mr Stuart’s and Mr Hog’s accounts.

14. He was confined to Kintyre on the pain of a thousand merks (Wod. ii. 356).