The title Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner takes its reference from a theological belief, particularly the central reformation doctrine of "justification by faith". It concerns a strangely tormented character, Robert Wringhim, who believes he is one of the elect, but eventually murders his brother and finally takes his own life. To say that this novel has a multiplicity of interpretations is a literary commonplace. For the purposes of this paper I wish to suggest that it may be read as a warning not against intolerance, but against excessive rationalism.
             The novel is written in three parts. The Editor's narrative is written by a member of the Edinburgh Enlightenment literati and suggests to be the objective, rational account of Robert Wringhim and the strange events of his life. The Sinner's Confessions are Robert Wringhim's own subjective, irrational account of these same events. Robert, being an 'elect and justified person', believes that he cannot lose his Christian identity by any action however wicked. Strictly speaking, therefore, the novel is not so much about justification as its theological but heretical double - antinomianism. And finally there is a short final account by the Editor of the discovery of the Sinner's grave together with his Confessions.
             During the Sinner's narrative it becomes apparent that Wringhim fears the devil may have an interest in his soul and may at times possess him. Actions that seem inexplicable in the Editor's narrative, when told from the Sinner's point of view may be understood either as madness or occult possession.
             Wringhim has a friend he calls Gil-martin, who has close similarities to the devil as he is described in the Bible and in the Scottish folk tradition in which Hogg was steeped. It is apparent that Wringhim is a deeply troubled individual and describes in himself what the reader may recognize as the s...