# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hog, James

​HOG or HOGG, JAMES (1658?–1734), minister of Carnock, the leader of the ‘Marrow men’ in the church of Scotland, was the son of Thomas Hog, minister of Larbert, Stirlingshire (d. 1680?) (cf. Hew Scott, Fasti, pt. iv. p. 706). After graduating M.A. at Edinburgh University in 1677 James studied theology in Holland. He was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Edinburgh, and ordained minister of Dalserf parish, in the presbytery of Hamilton, 20 Jan. 1691. He declined on principle to take the oath of allegiance in 1693. Against his own desire he was in 1695 elected a member of the general assembly, but declined to take the requisite oaths. The lord high commissioner thereupon objected to his taking his seat, and Hog, having been publicly and privately entreated either to take the oaths or retire, consented to the latter alternative, on condition that the assembly should ‘attest his diligence.’ Owing to bad health he demitted his charge, 12 Nov. 1696, but in August 1699 he was installed in the parish of Carnock, Fifeshire, and held the charge till his death, 14 May 1734. Hog belonged to the stricter section of the church of Scotland, who cherished the old covenanting traditions, upheld popular rights, and took their stand against the more tolerant methods of thought and discipline that had latterly arisen in the church. Hog originated the ‘Marrow’ controversy by the republication in 1718, with a preface, of the ‘Marrow of Modern Divinity’ [see Boston, Thomas, the elder; Fisher, Edward, fl. 1627–1655; and Hadow, James]. The book was denounced by an act of the assembly in 1720, whereupon Hog and eleven other ministers, entitled on that account the ‘Marrow men,’ and also the ‘twelve apostles,’ presented a protest. The bitter controversy which followed was an indirect cause of the ‘secession’ of 1733. He is eulogised by Ralph Erskine [q. v.] as
blest Hog, the venerable sage, The humble witness 'gainst the haughty age.
Hog was married, and had two daughters. Besides prefaces to other religious treatises, Hog was the author of a large number of theological pamphlets, a list of which will be found in Hew Scott's ‘Fasti Eccles. Scot.’ vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 580. Among the principal are ‘A Casuistical Essay on the Lord's Prayer,’ 1705; ‘Notes on the Covenant of Works and Grace,’ 1706; ‘The Covenants of Grace and Redemption displayed,’ 1707; ‘Otia Christiana,’ 1708; ‘Letters on the lawfulness of imposing Forms of Prayer,’ 1710; ‘Letters to a Gentleman detecting the Gangrene of some Errors vented at this time,’ 1714; ‘Vindication of the Doctrines of Grace from a charge of Antinomianism,’ 1718; ‘Some missives written to a Gentleman detecting and refuting the Deism of our Time,’ 1718; ‘Explication of Passages excepted against the Marrow,’ 1719; ‘On Covenanting,’ 1727; and ‘On Professor Campbell's Divinity,’ 1731.
[Memoirs of the Public Life of Mr. James Hog, and of the Ecclesiastical Proceedings of his Time previous to his Settlement at Carnock. Written by himself as a Testamentary Memorial, 1798; Wodrow's Correspondence; Frazer's Life of Ralph Erskine; Hew Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scot. pt. iii. pp. 279–80, pt. iv. pp. 579–80.]
T. F. H.