ABSTRACT
The History of Dissenters was published in four volumes between 1808 and 1812, by Calvinist Independent ministers David Bogue and James Bennett. It covered the history of Old Dissent since the ‘glorious revolution’ of 1688, focusing on the traditional denominations of Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists and Quakers, but with coverage also of the new Methodist movements. This chapter demonstrates that the work’s major apologetic thrust was an attempt to show the importance of Dissent for religious liberty and gospel progress in England. It argues that although Bogue and Bennett did not focus in typical evangelical fashion on the role of the Holy Spirit in the eighteenth-century revivals, their work should nonetheless be interpreted as a significant contribution to evangelical historiography.
