HENRY, second son of Patrick Scougal, bishop of Aberdeen, was born, June 1650, at Salton in East Lothian, where his father, the immediate predecessor of Bishop Burnet, was rector. His father, Scougal, designing him for the sacred ministry, watched over his infant mind with peculiar care; nor was his care bestowed in vain. He had soon the satisfaction of perceiving the most amiable dispositions unfold themselves, and his understanding rise at once into the vigour of manhood. Relinquishing the amusements of youth, young Scougal applied to his studies with ardour; and, agreeable to his father's will, at an early period he directed his thoughts to sacred literature. He perused the historical parts of the Bible with peculiar pleasure, and then began to examine its contents with the eye of a philosopher. He was struck with the peculiarities of the Jewish dispensation, and felt an anxiety to understand the reason why its rites and ceremonies were abolished. The nature and evidences of the Christian religion also occupied his mind. He perused sermons with pleasure, committing to writing those passages which most affected him, and could comprehend and remember their whole scope. Nor was he inattentive to polite literature. He read the Roman classics, and made considerable proficiency in the Greek, in the Hebrew, and other oriental languages. He was also well versed in history and mathematics. His diversions were of a manly kind. After becoming acquainted with the Roman history, in concert with some of his companions he formed a little senate where orations of their own composition were delivered.

At the age of fifteen he entered the university, where he behaved with great modesty, sobriety, and diligence. He disliked the philosophy then taught, and applied himself to the study of natural philosophy; that philosophy which has now happily got such footing in the world, and tends to enlarge the faculties. In consequence of this, we may here observe, that when he was yet about eighteen years of age, he wrote the reflections and short essays since published; which, though written in his youth, and some of them left unfinished, breathe forth so much devotion, and such an exalted soul, as must convince us his conversation was in heaven.

In all the public meetings of the students he was unanimously chosen president, and had a singular deference paid to his judgment. No sooner had he finished his courses, than he was promoted to a professorship in the university of Aberdeen, where he conscientiously performed his duty in training up the youth under his care in such principles of learning and virtue as might render them ornaments to church and state. When any divisions and animosities happened in the society, he was very instrumental in reconciling and bringing them to a good understanding. He maintained his authority among the students in such a way as to keep them in awe, and at the same time to gain their love and esteem. Sunday evenings were spent with his scholars in discouraging against vice and impiety of all kinds, and encouraging religion in principle and practice. He allotted a considerable part of his yearly income for the poor; and many indigent families, of different persuasions, were relieved in their straits by his bounty; though so secretly that they knew not whence their supply came.

Having been a professor of philosophy for four years, he was at the age of twenty-three ordained a minister, and settled at Auchterlefs, a small village about twenty miles from Aberdeen. Here his zeal and ability for his great great Master's service were eminently displayed. He catechised with great plainness and affection, and used the most endearing methods to recommend religion to his hearers. He endeavoured to bring them to a close attendance to public worship, and joined with them himself at the beginning of it. He revived the use of lectures, looking on it as very edifying to comment upon and expound large portions of Scripture. And though he endured several outward inconveniences, yet he bore them with patience and meekness. But as God had designed him for an eminent station, where he could be of more universal use in his church, he was removed from his private charge to that of training up youth for the holy ministry and the care of souls. In the twenty-fifth year of his age he was admitted professor of divinity in the king's college, Aberdeen; and though he was unanimously chosen, yet he declined a station of such importance, from a modest sense of his unfitness for it: And as he had been an ornament to his other stations of life, so in a particular manner he applied himself to the exercise of this office. After he had guarded his students against the common artifices of the Romish missionaries in making profelytes, he proposed two subjects for public exercises; the one, of the pastoral care; the other, of casuistical divinity: but there were no debates he was more cautious to meddle with than the decrees of God; sensible that secret things belong to God, and to us things revealed.

The inward dispositions of this excellent man are best seen in his writings; and the whole of his outward behaviour and conversation was the constant practice of what he preached; as we are assured by the concurring testimony of several respectable persons who knew him. How unsuitable then would panegyric be, where the subject was full of humility? and therefore let it suffice to say, that after he began to appear publicly, you see him as a professor, earnest at once to improve his scholars in human and sacred learning; as a pastor, he ceased not to preach the word, to exhort, to reprove, and to rebuke with all authority: and as a professor of divinity, he bestowed the utmost pains to convince the candidates for the ministry, of the weight and importance of that high office; that it was not to be followed for lucre, but purely to promote the worship of God and the salvation of men. Again, if we consider his private life, how meek, how charitable, and how self-denied! how disinterested in all things, how resigned to the divine will! and above all, how refined his sentiments with regard to the love of God! How amiable must he then appear! How worthy of imitation, and of the universal regret at his death! In this light we see clearly that the memory of the just is blest.

At length his health began to be impaired by incessant study, and about the twenty-seventh year of his age he fell into a consumption, which waited him by slow degrees. But during the whole time of his sickness he behaved with the utmost resignation, nor did he ever show the least impatience.

When his friends came to visit him, he would say, "he had reason to blest God it was no worse with him than it was. And (says he) when you have the charity to remember me in your prayers, do not think me a better man than I am; but look on me, as indeed I am, a miserable sinner." Upon the twentieth day of June 1678 he died, in the greatest calmness, in the twenty-eighth year of his age, and was buried in the King's College church in Old Aberdeen. The principal work of Scougal is a small treatise intitled, The Life of God in the Soul of Man. This book is not only valuable for the sublime spirit of piety which it breathes, but for the purity and elegance of its style; qualities for which few English writers were distinguished before the revolution.