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Published. Feb 1826, for the Congregational Mag.ty B.J.Holdsworth. StPauls Church Yard, London.

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MEMOIR OF THE REV. DAVID BOGUE, D.D.

LATE TUTOR OF THE HAMPSHIRE AND MISSIONARY ACADEMY, AND PASTOR OF THE INDEPENDENT CHURCH, GOSPORT.

(Continued from page 5.)

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AMONGST other calumnies which plication to study, especially in were circulated against the found-foreign theology and biblical criers of the Missionary Society, was ticism, was continually enlarging the ungenerous imputation, that his capacity for usefulness at home, they were ready to transport their and this literary diligence could brethren to ungenial climates, to not be concealed. On the death labour amongst savage and hea- of Mr. Welsh, the patron of Gosthen nations, while they continued port Academy, it was found that to enjoy the delights of home. This he had made no provision for its reproach was as untrue as it was continuance by bequest, and thereunkind, for Dr. Bogue, joined fore that useful institution would with his friends, the Rev. Greville have ceased, but for the reputaEwing, and the Rev. William tion of its tutor, which commandInnes, about the year 1796, in ed the liberal support of several several memorials and petitions to friends till 1800, when Robert the Directors of the East India. Haldane, Esq. of Edinburgh, a Company, requesting permission gentleman of distinguished intellithat they and their families might gence and Christian philanthrogo to Bengal, and devote their py, proposed to subscribe £100 future years to the propagation of annually, one fourth of the exthe Gospel in our Hindoo empire. pense, towards the support of ten These repeated requests were most additional students, if the churches peremptorily refused, though made in Hampshire would supply the in language of earnest expostu- remaining sum requisite for their lation and Christian eloquence: education and support. This was one of these memorials was accepted, and the County Assoprinted in their joint names, and ciation of Hampshire has concirculated amongst leading and tinued to patronize the institution influential persons; and though no to the present time. immediate effect resulted from it, yet it abides a monument of the personal devotion of its authors to the missionary work, and doubtless contributed to diffuse opinions, which have since so happily changed the policy of the Honourable Court. Though shut out from foreign labours, his assiduous apNEW SERIES, No. 14.

Amongst other schemes of usefulness, which arose out of the religious excitement produced by the establishment of the Missionary Society, was the admirable plan of a Religious Tract Society, "to print and distribute small pieces on subjects purely religious." This valuable institution I

68

was founded in May, 1799, and the subject of this memoir took a prominent part in describing its character, and asserting its claims. He penned the first Tract in the Series, An Address to Christians, recommending the distribution of cheap Religious Tracts, in which he proclaims, that "PURE TRUTH" is to be the exclusive subject of its publications; and adds, nor should any worldly scheme be interwoven with the truth, nor attempted to be concealed under its folds. Here should not be seen the slightest vestige of any carnal end, in any form, or for any purpose, however laudable some may think it; nothing but divine truth, unmingled, unadulterated, and pure, as it came from heaven, fit for the whole human race to imbibe." Such wise principles naturally commended their author to the managers of this Catholic Society, and they requested him to advocate its cause from the pulpit of Dr. Hunter, where he preached an able sermon, in May, 1800, from Psalm xliii. 30, and which discourse he afterwards gave to the public, entitled, "The Diffusion of Divine Truth;" in which he re-asserts those principles which cannot be too much enforced on the attention of the religious public at the present

moment.

About the same time, the Missionary Society's Directors wisely resolved to place their fu

ture Missionaries under a course of preparatory studies, and in deliberating on the best means of establishing the proposed seminary, they observe, in their report for 1801, "the superintendence of a person of eminent abilities, of exemplary piety, and of a true missionary spirit, seemed to be an acquisition, first in order and importance in this business. With these views, they were directed to their reverend brother, Dr. Bogue, whose laudable zeal and efficient

labours they have before acknowledged and recorded, and whose disposition to promote the designs of the Society, and his devotedness to the cause of God, were again manifested by his consenting to accept the office of Tutor to the Missionary Society." He therefore added to his other lectures a course suited to form ministers for foreign missions, and three students were, for this purpose, immediately placed under his care. The public mind had been powerfully excited by the entire abolition of papal authority in France, and the Directors of the Missionary Society felt, in common with all pious minds, that if the fabric of superstition had been demolished in that country by the hand of infidelity, it could never be the design of Divine Providence, that infidelity should acquire a permanent influence over the popular mind; and they were, therefore, called to deliberate what was their duty, as Christians, towards their unhappy neighbours. The state of political hostility which subsisted between the two countries, prevented, at that time, all personal intercourse; it was therefore suggested, we believe, by Dr. Bogue himself, that it was most important to circulate, in France and Belgium, a large edition of the French New Testament, with a suitable preliminary dissertation on the evidences of its divine inspiration. This proposal was deemed important, and its projector was naturally requested to prepare the intended introduction. This led to the publication of his " Essay on the Authority of the New Testament;" a work which condenses a great mass of evidence into a small volume, and places it in a most perspicuous and convincing light, and which claims the attentive perusal of every intelligent Christian.

The providence of God having, however, by the cessation of a destructive war between this coun

try and France, in October, 1801, unexpectedly opened that country to the agents of the Missionary Society, it was resolved to send a deputation to Paris and the departments, to promote the intended publication. Dr. Bogue had travelled, when young, in France and the Netherlands, and having acquired a command of the French language, was too well qualified and too deeply interested, to be overlooked; he therefore was appointed, with other gentlemen, to this difficult mission. They, however, succeeded beyond their best hopes; a respectable member of the Legislative Assembly engaged to trans late the Essay into French; and an Italian bishop, disgusted with the absurdities of Papacy, was willing to engage with his Protestant fellow Christians, by translating it into his own language. Many other plans of extensive promise were suggested by the deputation on its return, but the short duration of peace closed again those fields of usefulness which had been opened before them.

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The neglected and deplorable state of our sister country, Ireland, justly attracted the attention of English Protestants at the close of the year 1806, and led to the formation of the Hibernian Society, for the diffusion of religious knowledge in Ireland. The committee were intreated, by their Irish correspondents, to send to that country a deputation to obtain the required information on the spot; and in the summer of 1807, Dr. Bogue was associated with the Rev. Messrs. Charles and Hughes, and S. Mills, Esq. in visiting it. The tour occupied the party about a month, and it designedly lay through some of the most miserable and unfrequented districts. In the cities, they obtained that class of information, which the cabins of wild Connaught could not furnish, and the result of the whole was presented to the public under the

title of "Report of a Deputation from the Hibernian Society, respect-. ing the Religious State of Ireland," and produced an impression upon the public mind, powerful enough to place that Society amongst the most effective for the reformation of the popish inhabitants of that country. Napoleon Buonaparte having succeeded in dragging "his most Holy Lord, Pope Pius the VII." to Paris, to figure in the pageant of his self-performed coronation, he rewarded his holiness and the popish clergy, by authorising "a Catechism for the use of all the Churches in the French empire ; which contained a revival, in the 19th century, of the absurdities which the Romish Church had taught in the darkest ages. This was a document to Dr. Bogue of melancholy interest. He saw in it a cloud which was again to darken a sky, which he trusted the revolutionary storm had cleared for for ever, yet he did not

bate a jot

Of heart or hope

but obtained its translation, and gave it to the British public, with an introduction and notes, which display his abhorrence of popery, and his confident expectation of its final overthrow. The following passage is selected from the former, as it presents us with the grounds to hope, that even the increased zeal of the Bourbon priests will not be able to destroy what was obtained for the cause of religious liberty at so fearful a cost.

"That popery will, by the means now used, revive so as to acquire any thing of able. A certain man of old spat in an idol's its former strength, is extremely questionface. The man was put to death; but the idol was worshipped no more. For near twelve years, every idol in France was spit upon by the multitude; how difficult must it be to bring them to worship these again? Besides, the disuse of the Romish worship by the rising generation, has left their minds empty of any veneration for popery and its rites. In such a case, especially at this period of the world's age, the difficulty of bringing the heart to feel the respect required, must be immense. A poor man

had his house burnt to the ground; but what grieved him most was, that the image which he had worshipped from his infancy, was consumed in the fire. His neighbour, a carpenter, endeavoured to console him, and promised to make him a handsome new one from a pear-tree in the garden, which had escaped the flames. It was done, and it far exceeded in beauty the old black smoky idol which had been made from his grand-father's pear-tree. But with all his efforts, the man never could feel the veneration for it which he had felt for the other. In France, at this time, there are hundreds of Virgin Marys, saints, and angels, with new hands, new feet, new legs, new arms, new noses, new ears, and new heads, for the old were broken off by revolutionary zeal; and there are, likewise, new Virgin Marys, &c. without number. Is it not then likely, that the young people at least, will view them in the same light that the bereaved man did his new peartree image?"

In 1808, appeared the first volume of an extensive work, The History of Dissenters, from the Revolution in 1688 to the year 1808, executed jointly by Dr. Bogue, and his friend and early pupil Dr. Bennett, which was followed, in the course of the four succeeding years, by three other volumes, which completed the design. We shall avail ourselves of the very intelligent remarks of Mr. Griffin on this publication; some parts of which certainly excited strong feelings of resentment amongst attached Churchmen, and of regret amongst candid Dissent

ers:

"It is a work of great importance to the Christian church, and will be read and referred to with increasing interest, as the light of truth increasingly beams on the nation, and its cause is advanced in the world. I say nothing in defence of the essay prefixed, which has given considerable pain to most of his friends, as being in a style unsuited to the dignity of the subject, and the respect which is due to the national church. We have an undoubted right to differ from it, but no right to treat it with disrespect. Persons in their opinions may have just cause for dissenting from the establishment on account of its union with the state, the nature of its discipline, and its remaining intolerance, in still making a religious test as essential to the service of the state; yet the evangelical character of its creed and articles, the excellent spirit which

pervades the greater part of its devotional services, and the very extensive learning of a large body of its clergy, entitle it to the respect of all who dissent from it, and especially of those who place themselves, with regard to it, in the situation of disputants. The Doctor, himself, was so impressed with a sense of the propriety of these sentiments, that he assured me, some time since, that in another edition, which was then in contemplation, the style and manner in this part of the work would be altered, and that I might mention it to as many as I might think proper. I think it, therefore, due to his memory, and to myself, in commending the general sentiments of the work, to mention this fact now. But with these remarks, I cannot refrain from expressing an opinion, that there are more important general principles connected with the welfare of the state, the prosperity of the kingdom of Christ, and the good of the world, in those four volumes, than are to be found in any work of a similar extent."

Dr. Bogue accompanied his friend and fellow-labourer, Dr. Bennett, in the summer of 1816, in a journey through the kingdom of the Netherlands, in the service of the Missionary Society; and his presence every where inspired that veneration and esteem which his character justly claimed.

A valuable and characteristic volume of Discourses on the Millenium was given to the public, by Dr. Bogue, in the close of 1818. They were first delivered, at various intervals, to his own people, as one of those many valuable courses of sermons with which they were favoured, and which must have been especially interesting to those candidates for missionary labours who were privileged to hear them.

It

"This work," says Mr. Griffin, "shows the great power of his mind in producing effect. It is a work considerably in advance even of this enlightened age. paints such a paradise upon earth as the faith of some is unable to contemplate or their hope to realize; but it is a copy from the word of God, and one day the. glorious reality shall be exhibited to the world of men and angels, as evidence of the love, the faithfulness, and the power of the great Head of the Church. The work contains no curious conjectures of miraculous events necessary to produce the millenial state, no representations of

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