Gouge, William, Dd

Gouge, William, D.D., an eminent Puritan divine, was born in Bow in 1575, and educated at Eton and Cambridge. He entered the ministry at the age of thirty-one, and was minister of St. Ann's, Blackfriars, London, for forty-five years. He was esteemed as the father of the London ministers, and the spiritual oracle of his time. In 1643 he was called to be a member of the Assembly of Divines, and was in such reputation that in the moderator's absence he frequently filled the chair. He was appointed one of the annotators on the Scriptures, and performed, as his part, from the beginning of 1 Kings to the book of Job, in a manner that gained high approbation. He also published several works, the principal of which are: Domestical Duties, and The Whole Armor of God: — The Lord's Prayer Explained; all to be found in his Works, revised and enlarged (Lond. 1626, fol.) —a learned and very useful Commentary on the Hebrews (Lond. 1655, 2 volumes, fol.), containing a thousand of his Wednesday lectures. He died December 12, 1653. — Neal, History of the Puritans, 2:611; Darling, Cyclop. Bibliog. s.v. Middleton, Evangelical Biography, 3:267; Life, by his Son, prefixed to his Works (1665).