Alasdair Thanisch and Peter Thanisch[1]
Present-day
readers of James Hogg’s The Private
Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner[2]
(abbr. Private Memoirs) may find it
difficult to interpret Hogg’s depiction of the religious persuasion of Robert
Wringhim and his mentor, Rev. Wringhim. In the past, commentators assumed that
those persuasions were intended to be either a bizarre Calvinist jihadism or a
satire on Scottish mainstream religion. In this article, we propose the
alternative view that the thoughts and actions of the Wringhims are
fictionalized parallels of the main religious controversies in Scotland in the
late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Gordon Donaldson summarises
the doctrinal tensions within the Church of Scotland (abbr. Kirk) at that time in
the following, carefully nuanced terms:
Perhaps there is
a narrow borderline between proclaiming that Christ died to save [sinners] and
asserting that those who had made an act of commitment and believed themselves
numbered among the Elect were assured of salvation irrespective of their way of
life. [Extreme] positions were adopted
by – or at any rate attributed to – both sides. At one end of the scale were
those who were disposed to eliminate divine action altogether and teach a mere
moral code. At the other end justification by faith was distorted into
antinomianism.[3]
Those two “ends of the scale” were the
subjects of the two major doctrinal controversies in the early eighteenth
century Kirk, both of which have fictionalized parallels in Private Memoirs and both of which involved
Rev. James Hog (1658?-1736)[4].
Hog was the leader of the Kirk’s evangelical wing, a loose network of like-minded
ministers who saw themselves as defending traditional doctrine and
ecclesiastical practices. In a forthcoming paper, we
discuss Rev. James Hog’s involvement in one of those doctrinal controversies,
the so-called Simson affair.[5]
In the present paper, we discuss Rev. James Hog’s other doctrinal controversy
in which Hog was accused of promoting the heresy of antinomianism. We look at
how James Hogg wove that controversy into the plot of Private Memoirs.[6]
Looking
back on the period of his life immediately prior to Rev. Wringhim’s
pronouncement of his supposed justification, Robert Wringhim explained his lack
of repentance for his sins in these terms:
I always tried
to repent of these sins […] and though not always successful in my endeavours,
I could not help that; the grace of repentance being withheld from me, I
regarded myself as in no degree accountable for the failure. (p. 78)
Robert
refers to repentance as a “grace,” reflecting the Calvinist credendum that an
individual only starts to experience true
repentance at a time of God’s choosing; moreover such repentance is only
actually experienced by the elect.[7]
James Hogg uses Robert’s self-analysis to articulate what a sizeable minority
of early eighteenth century ministers in the Kirk perceived as a widespread
malaise of spiritual apathy brought on by the brand of Calvinist doctrine
(“hyper-Calvinism”) then prevalent in the Kirk. Robert’s
observation concerning his lack of repentance is significant because the role of
repentance does (in our opinion) materially
affect the plot of Private Memoirs.[8]
On 14 May 1717, the Kirk’s highest court,
the General Assembly, strongly criticized the Auchterarder Presbytery for deviating
from the Kirk’s doctrinal stance that repentance must precede justification in
an individual’s spiritual life. The Auchterarder Presbytery had been demanding
that their candidates for the ministry should adhere to the so-called Auchterarder Proposition:
I believe that
it is not sound and orthodox to teach that we must forsake sin in order to our
coming to Christ, and instating us in Covenant with God.[9]
Applied to Robert’s case, the Auchterarder
Proposition means that Robert’s lack of repentance does not preclude his becoming
one of the justified.
Rev. James
Hog was a prominent supporter of the Auchterarder Proposition. Hog’s
evangelicals included several ministers of the Auchterarder Presbytery, one of
whom, John Drummond of Crieff, gave Rev. James Hog a copy of a book, The Marrow of Modern Divinity[10], “The
Marrow” for short.[11]
On the subject of repentance, The Marrow
concurred with the Auchterarder Proposition:
No man can turn
to God, except he be first turned to God: and after he is turned, he repents.[12]
The Marrow was already known in Scotland and in earlier
years, it had even been recommended reading for divinity students[13]
without attracting any official opprobrium from the Kirk. However, the Auchterarder
Proposition incident caused the hierarchy in the Kirk to become increasingly
nervous and defensive. Hog was impressed by The
Marrow, but he discovered that it was out of print: Drummond had bought his
copy second-hand from an Edinburgh bookseller. One of Rev. James Hog’s strategies
for promoting his brand of evangelical Presbyterianism was to arrange for the
re-publication of older religious tracts that supported the doctrinal stance of
his evangelical party. Consequently, in 1718 Rev. James Hog arranged for The Marrow to be reprinted, writing a
highly flattering preface to be included in the new impression. Being no
stranger to controversy, Hog would have been fully aware that the Kirk’s General
Assembly would see the reprinting as a provocative attempt to flout their
recent ruling on the Auchterarder Proposition. Sure enough, in 1720, the General
Assembly prohibited recommendations of The
Marrow on the grounds that it encouraged the heresy of antinomianism[14].
Principal James Hadow[15]
who led the Kirk’s case against The
Marrow (and, by implication, against Rev. James Hog), observed that
the Marrow teacheth that repentance goeth not
before justification. […] This Doctrine
of Repentance is of very nigh Affinity with the Auchterarder Position […].[16]
In Private Memoirs, James Hogg alludes to this
controversy, sparked by Rev. James Hog, by having Rev. Wringhim announce to a
surprised Robert that
I am assured of your acceptance […] your
sanctification and repentance unto life
will follow. (p. 79, our italics)
Thus the
order of repentance in Rev. Wringhim’s soteriological prospectus concurs with
the order posited by Rev. James Hog, the Auchterarder Proposition and The Marrow, but goes against the teaching
of the mainstream Kirk.[17]
Immediately
after the unrepentant Robert is pronounced to be justified, a few words of
flattery from his new acquaintance, Gil-Martin, are sufficient to trigger
Robert’s fall into the deadly sin of pride[18]:
“My spiritual pride being greatly elevated by this address […]” (p. 81). Robert
then murdered Rev. Blanchard, a Church of Scotland minister who held views that might seem innocuous to the modern reader, but which were highly controversial during
the period in which the novel is set, i.e. the early eighteenth century.
Blanchard’s views correspond closely to those of a real-life Church of Scotland
minister, John Simson, whom James Hog accused of heresy[19],
eventually destroying Simson’s career by getting him banned form teaching and preaching.
To sum up,
we are saying that these major events in Robert’s career, that is his supposed
justification and his first killing, are both based on the heresy controversies
involving Rev. James Hog.
Although
there is no direct evidence that James Hogg took an interest in Rev. James Hog,
there are several indications that Rev. James Hog’s memoirs[20],
published posthumously in 1798, might have come to the attention of James Hogg.
Take, for example, the similarities in the layout of the title pages of Hogg’s Private Memoirs (Figure 1) and Hog’s
Memoirs (Figure 2). With respect to the title “The Memoirs of the Public Life of Mr. James
Hogg”[21],
we note that in some of Rev. James Hog’s publications, he is referred to as
“Mr.” rather than “Rev.” and his surname is given as “Hogg” rather than
“Hog.” We also note that in both cases,
the memoirs are described as "written by himself."
Figure 1. The title page of James Hogg’s Private Memoirs.
Figure 2. The title page of Rev. James Hog’s Memoirs of a Public Life
(Reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library for Scotland)
(Reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library for Scotland)
With regard
to the content, Hog’s Memoirs also
resemble Hogg’s Private Memoirs in
that both contain prefatory remarks written anonymously by someone identified
only as “The Editor”[22].
As for the memoirs themselves, consider the second paragraph of Robert’s
printed pamphlet:
I was born an outcast in the world, in which I
was destined to act so conspicuous a part. My mother was a burning and a
shining light, in the community of Scottish worthies, and in the days of her
virginity had suffered much in the persecution of the saints. (p. 65)
Compare it
with the first paragraph of Rev. James Hog’s Memoir:
[I] was born of
religious parents, who had their share of suffering among other conscientious
Presbyterians, while persecution raged in Scotland.[23]
In conclusion, we stress that we do not regard Robert Wringhim’s Private Memoirs as allegorical. We claim, however, that reading this difficult novel can become easier if we interpret some key passages as fictionalized parallels of the life and times of Rev. James Hog.
If our
observations are correct, then we have identified yet another double associated
with Private Memoirs. In one way a
Hog connection can simplify our reading of the novel by making explicable some
of the apparently bizarre opinions and behaviour of Robert and Rev.
Wringhim. On the other hand, such a Hog connection would raise difficult
questions about how James Hogg the novelist saw himself vis-à-vis Rev. James Hog.
[1] Peter Thanisch, Associate Professor, School of Information Sciences, University of
Tampere, Finland.
[2] James Hogg,
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a
Justified Sinner, ed. Peter Garside (Edinburgh University Press, 2001); henceforth, the title will be given as“Justified Sinner,” with
page references given within the text of the article.
[3] Gordon Donaldson, The Faith
of the Scots (London, Batsford, 1990), p. 105.
[4] C.I. Moffat, Junior, "James
Hog of Carnock (1658-1734), Leader in the Evangelical Party in Early Eighteenth
Century Scotland," PhD Thesis, Faculty of Divinity, Edinburgh, Scotland,
1960. For a more recent account, see John Callow, ‘Hog, James (d.1736?),’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University
Press, 2004, accessed 4 May 2015.
[5] A. Thanisch and P. Thanisch, "James Hog’s 'Old Errors digged out of
their Graves,'" forthcoming Studies
in Hogg and His World 26 (2015).
[6] A. Thanisch and P. Thanisch, "The Point of Confessions," Studies in Hogg and His World 21 (2010).
[7] Westminster Confession of
Faith, Chapter XV, states that “Repentance unto life is an evangelical
grace […] Repentance [is] of such necessity to all sinners that none may expect
pardon without it.. [There] is no sin so great that it can bring damnation on
those who truly repent.”
[8] A. Thanisch and P. Thanisch, "The Point of Confessions."
[10] E. Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity (Edinburgh: John Boyd, 1828), Google Books, accessed 1 June 2015; henceforth, the title will be given as The Marrow. This edition contains Rev. James Hog’s preface. We note that Rev. James Hog’s preface became
a standard feature of Scottish printings of The
Marrow.
[11] Hogg scholars have tended to over-emphasize the part played by
Thomas Boston in the controversy. Although he became more prominent later, at
this stage his only role was to recommend The
Marrow to Thomas Drummond. See Moffat, "James Hog of Carnock (1658-1734)...," p. 248.
[12] Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity, p. 129.
[13] James Hog was already aware of The
Marrow before he borrowed the book from John Drummond. James Osburn,
Professor of Divinity at Marischal College, University of Aberdeen from 1697 to
1711, used to recommend the book to his students and Hog originally found out
about it from that source. See Lachman, The Marrow Controversy 1718-1723, p. 261.
[14] H.B. de Groot, "Calvinism, Presbyterianism, Antinomianism: The
Theological Background of the Confessions," Studies in Hogg and His World 21 (2011), pp. 34-47.
[15] James Hadow was Principal of St. Mary’s College, St. Andrew’s University from 1707 until 1747. See
D. F. Wright, "Hadow, James (1667–1747)," Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004,
accessed 31 May 2015.
[16] James Hadow, The Antinomianism of The Marrow of Modern Divinity detected. Wherein the letter to a private Christian, about believers
receiving the law, as the law of Christ, is specially considered (Edinburgh, 1721), pp. 36-37 Eighteenth Century Collections Online, accessed 15 May 2015.
[17] We concur with Crawford Gribben’s observation that Wringhim’s
system of theology is "totally unrepresentative of the orthodox Calvinism of
any of the Scottish Presbyterian churches." See Crawford Gribben, "James Hogg, Scottish
Calvinism and Literary Theory," Scottish
Studies Review 5.2 (2004), pp. 9-26.
[18] A. Thanisch and P. Thanisch, "The Point of Confessions."
[19] A. Thanisch and P. Thanisch, "James Hog’s 'Old Errors digged out of their Graves.'"
[20] Hog, James. Memoirs of thepublic life of Mr. James Hogg; and of the ecclesiastical proceedings of histime, previous to his settlement at Carnock: particularly of some generalassemblies that met posterior to the Revolution. Written by himself, in atestamentary memorial. [Edinburgh], 1798. Eighteenth Century
Collections Online, accessed 18 May 2015.
[21] Hogg, Justified Sinner,
Title page.
[22] Hogg, Justified Sinner, page iii.
[23] Hogg, Justified Sinner, p. 9.
