ON ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: TO WHICH IS ADDED, AN ESSAY ON CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE AND SELF-DENIAL. BY THE LATE GEORGE CAMPBELL, D.D. PRINCIPAL OF MARISCHAL COLLEGE, ABERDEEN. WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THE AUTHOR. BY THE REV. GEORGE SKENE KEITH, KEITH HALL, ABERDEENSHIRE. THE SECOND EDITION. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. ABERDEEN: PRINTED FOR A. BROWN AND CO.; T. HAMILTON, FATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON; AND OLIPHANT, WAUGH, AND INNES, EDINBURGH. 1815. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ADVERTISEMENT. THE following discourses on Church History are a considerable part of a course of Theological Lectures, delivered in Marischal College. The Author had transcribed and revised them, and was every year making considerable alterations and additions to the Work. For more than the last twenty years of his life, his Lectures to the Students of Divinity occupied the greater part of his time, and those now offered to the Public were distinguished as the most curious and entertaining branch of the whole. By the hearers, and many others, the publication has been called for with a degree of earnestness, which now seldom attends the appearance of a theological performance. Those who have read the other writings of the Author, will naturally expect here something of that clearness of apprehension, and acuteness of investigation, so eminently displayed in the Dissertation on Miracles, in answer to Mr. Hume. And such as are acquainted with the subject, will admire the Author's well-digested learning, and will readily perceive the importance of an accurate historical deduction of the progress of church power, and the establishment of a hierarchy, and how clear and decisive it is, in all that may be termed the hinge of the controversy between high church and others. Seldom, very seldom indeed, has the subject been treated with the perspicuity, candour, and moderation, which distinguish the writings of Doctor Campbell. SOME FEW men, in the republic of letters, have been more generally, or more deservedly, esteemed than the late Dr. George Campbell. The powers of his mind were very great, and those powers were highly cultivated. He was certainly one of the most acute metaphysicians, one of the deepest philosophers, and one of the best critics, and most learned divines, which modern times have produced. It may naturally be expected, that along with this posthumous work, some account should be given of his life and writings. To gratify this expectation, the following paper is drawn up by one who knew him long, and who was honoured with his friendship. But the principal value of this account will be its fidelity in the relation of facts, joined to the writer's veneration for the memory of Dr. Campbell. For he is very sensible of his inability to do justice to the character of one, whose understanding A 3 was |