Henry Scougal (1650 - 1678) was a godly young Scotch Puritan who produced a number of works in his brief life while a pastor and professor of divinity at King's College, Aberdeen. His greatest production is by consensus, The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man, which was originally written to a friend to explain Christianity and give spiritual counsel. This short treatise displays unusual perception and maturity for one so young. In fact, this work was almost universally well-spoken of by the leaders of the Great Awakening, including George Whitefield, who said he never really understood what true religion was till he had digested Scougal's treatise. In addition to his literary productions, Henry Scougal was also noted for his piety and his clear grasp of scripture, aided in turn by his proficiency in Latin, Hebrew, Greek, and some of the cognate oriental languages. Taken out of the world at the young age of twenty-eight by tuberculosis, perhaps the words preached at his funeral service most aptly characterize the man, for there it was declared of Henry Scougal that - "he truly lived much in a few years and died an old man in eight and twenty years."

The Works Of Henry Scougal may be obtained in hardcover from Soli Deo Gloria Publications.

"I cannot speak of religion without lamenting that, among so many pretenders of it, so few understand what it means. Some place it in the understanding, orthodox notions and opinions; and all the account they can give of their religion is that they are of this or the other persuasion, and have joined themselves to one of those many sects whereinto Christendom is most unhappily divided. Others place it in the outward man, in a constant course of external duties and a model of performances; if they live peaceably with their neighbors, keep a temperate diet, observe the returns of worship, frequenting the church and their closet, and sometimes extend their hands to relieve the poor, they think they have sufficiently acquitted themselves." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"True religion is a union of the soul with God." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"The love which a pious man bears to God and goodness is not so much by virtue of a command enjoining him to do so as by a new nature instructing and prompting him to it; nor does he pay his devotions as an unavoidable tribute just to appease divine justice or quiet his clamorous conscience. But those religious exercises are the proper emanations of the divine life, the natural employments of the newborn soul." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"He who has given himself entirely unto God will never think he does too much for him." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"If a man has enough reason as to consider the prejudice which intemperance in inordinate lust bring upon his health, his fortune, and his reputation, self-love may suffice to restrain him; and one may observe the rules of moral justice in dealing with others as the best way to secure his own interest and maintain his credit in the world." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"The glorious things that are spoken of heaven may make even a carnal heart be in love with it; the metaphors and similitudes made use of in Scripture, of crowns and scepters, and rivers of pleasure, will easily affect a man's fancy and make him wish to be there, though he neither understands nor desires those spiritual pleasures which are described and shadowed forth by them. And when such a person comes to believe that Christ has purchased those glorious things for him, he may feel a kind of tenderness and affection towards so great a Benefactor, and imagine that he is mightily enamored with him, and yet all the while continue a stranger to the holy temper and spirit of the blessed Jesus." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"Faith has the same place in the divine life that sense has in the natural life, being indeed nothing else but a kind of sense or feeling persuasion of spiritual things." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"Humility imports a deep sense of our own weakness, with a hearty and affectionate acknowledgment of our owing all that we are to the divine bounty. This is always accompanied with a profound submission to the will of God, and great deadness towards the glory of the world and the applause of men." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"Love is the greatest and most excellent thing we are masters of, and therefore it is folly and baseness to bestow it unworthily... The true way to improve and ennoble our souls is by fixing our love on the divine perfections so that we may have them always before us, and derive an impression of them on ourselves. Then, beholding with open face, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, we may be changed into the same image, from glory to glory." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"Love must be miserable, full of trouble and disquiet, when there is not enough worth and excellency in the object to answer the vastness of its capacity... But divine love has no mixture of this gall. Once the soul is fixed on that supreme and all-sufficient good, it finds so much perfection and goodness as not only answers and satisfies its affection, but masters and overpowers it, too. It finds all its love to be too faint and languid for such a noble object, and is only sorry that it can command no more. It wishes for the flames of a seraph, and longs for the time when it shall be wholly melted and dissolved into love; and because it can do so little itself, it desires the assistance of the whole creation, so that angels and men would concur with it in the admiration and love of those infinite perfections." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"Nothing can be more clear than that the happiness of love depends on the return it meets with. And herein the divine Lover has unspeakably the advantage, having placed his affection on Christ whose nature is love; whose goodness is as infinite as his being; whose mercy prevented us when we were his enemies; and therefore cannot choose but to embrace us when have become Christ's friends. It is utterly impossible that God should deny his love to a soul wholly devoted to Christ, and which desires nothing so much as to serve and please him." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"How happy are those who have placed their love upon Him who can never be absent from them." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"Never does a soul know what solid joy and substantial pleasure are till once, being weary of itself, it renounces all property, and gives itself up to the Author of its being... A person molded into this temper would find pleasure in all the dispensations of providence... and chastisements, though they are not joyous but grievous, would hereby lose their sting; the rod as well as the staff would comfort him; he would snatch a kiss from the hand that was smiting him, and would gather sweetness from that severity." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"It is impossible to express the great pleasure and delight which religious persons feel in the lowest prostration of their souls before God when, having a deep sense of the divine majesty and glory, they sink to the bottom of their beings, and vanish and disappear in the presence of God by a serious and affectionate acknowledgement of their own nothingness, and the shortness and imperfections of their attainments." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"Never did any haughty and ambitious person receive the praises and applauses of men with so much pleasure as the humble and religious renounce them." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"Is not He who made our souls able to rectify and mend them again?" The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"The Holy Ghost must come upon us, and the power of the Highest must overshadow us, before that holy thing can be begotten and Christ be formed in us." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"It is the highest folly to regulate our actions by any other standard than that by which they must be judged. If ever we would cleanse our way, it must be by taking heed according to the Word of God." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"The love of the world and the love of God are like the scales of a balance: as one falls, the other rises." The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man

"Amongst all the stratagems whereby the great enemy of mankind plots and contrives their ruin, few are more unhappily successful than this fond persuasion he has filled them with: namely, that heaven and everlasting happiness are easily attainable." There Are But A Small Number Saved

"Many might have reached heaven if they had not been so confident of it." There Are But A Small Number Saved

"Interest and self-love so strongly blind the minds of men that they can hardly be stopped from believing that which they would have be true. Hence it is that, notwithstanding all that we are told to the contrary; the opinion of the broadness of the way that leads to heaven, and the easy access unto it, is still the most epidemic; and I think it is the most dangerous heresy." There Are But A Small Number Saved

"Duty obliges us, and the holy Scriptures warrant us, to assure you that there are very few who shall be saved; that the whole world lieth in wickedness; and that it is a little flock to whom the Father will give the kingdom." There Are But A Small Number Saved

"Men are wont to frame a notion of God according to their own wishing, as if he were but an empty name; and this is the common shelter against every convincing reproof; but this temerity shall at length sufficiently confute itself, and feel that justice which it will not believe." There Are But A Small Number Saved

"That compassion which made God give his dearest Son for the redemption of mankind will never prevail for the pardon and deliverance of any impenitent sinner. Abused goodness will certainly turn into fury; and infinite mercy, being despised, shall bring down upon sinners all the dreadful effects of an omnipotent vengeance." There Are But A Small Number Saved

"Shall heaven and everlasting happiness slide into our arms when we are asleep? No, certainly. God will never disparage the glories of that place to bestow them on those who have not thought them worthy of their most serious endeavors." There Are But A Small Number Saved

"A serious consideration of the laws and precepts of the gospel, will fully convince us of the straitness of the gate and the narrowness of the way that leads unto eternal life." There Are But A Small Number Saved

"Alas, we have arrived at such a height of impiety that virtue and vice seem to have shifted places; evil and good seem to have changed their names. It is counted a gallant thing to despise all divine and human laws and a childish scrupulosity to forbear any thing that may gratify our lusts. A strong faith is accounted an argument of weak judgment; dependence upon providence is judged want of foresight; and there is no wit but in deceiving others." There Are But A Small Number Saved

"Religion does not stand in negatives, and being free of gross and scandalous vices is a poor plea for heaven. Look how the soul is furnished with those divine graces, which ought to qualify you for it. I shall name but one, and that is the love of God... Are his glory and honour the dearest things to you; would you rather hear yourself and all your friends reviled than his holy name blasphemed? Is it your greatest care and business to please him, and are you watchful against every sin? Is there nothing in the world so dear to you, but you would part with it for his sake, and still desire that he should do his own will rather than yours? Is nothing so delightful as to converse with him? And does every thing seem burdensome which detains you from him for long? If we would examine ourselves by these measures, I fear most of us would find our confidence built on a sandy foundation." There Are But A Small Number Saved

"Will your lusts be more easily overcome when strengthened by longer custom? Will it be more easy to return after you have wandered farther out of your way?" There Are But A Small Number Saved

"Perhaps you have grounded your hopes on a deathbed repentance; you resolve to part with your lusts when you can keep them no longer, and serve God Almighty with the dregs of your time... if we consider what a great matter true repentance is, the shortness of the time, hindrances of a distempered body, and the ordinary relapses of men who have promised fair on such occasions, and have outlived that sickness they thought had been mortal, we cannot but acknowledge that a deathbed repentance is seldom sincere, and that it is an unfit time to begin to fight with principalities and powers when perhaps we do not have the strength to turn ourselves on our beds. In a word, of those who thus delay and put off the business, very few shall be saved." There Are But A Small Number Saved

"O what folly and madness is it for sinful men to set rules unto the divine goodness, and draw conclusions from it so expressly contrary to what he himself has revealed... they cannot think it consistent with the goodness and mercy of God that the greatest part of mankind should be damned... but this we know: that God was infinitely happy before he made any creature; that he does not need the society of the holy angels, and will never admit the company of wicked and irreligious men." There Are But A Small Number Saved