ON

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

BY THE LATE

GEORGE CAMPBELL, D.D.

PRINCIPAL OF MARISCHAL COLLEGE, ABERDEEN.

THE THIRD EDITION.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE.

1824.

Cameron & Hume, Printers,

Berwick.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following Lectures on Ecclesiastical History are an important branch of a course of Theological Lectures, originally delivered in Marischal College, Aberdeen, to the students of Divinity in that University. For more than the last twenty years of the Author's life, he devoted the greater part of his time to his Lectures delivered to the Students of Divinity, and those contained in the present volume, and now offered to the Public, were considered as the most important and entertaining of the whole. He had transcribed and revised them, and was every season making considerable amendments and additions to the Work. The Publication has been called for, by the Students and others, with an eagerness which of late has seldom attended the appearance of a theological piece. Those who are acquainted with the other works of Dr. Campbell, will na ́turally expect in these Lectures something of that clearness of apprehension, and acuteness of investigation, so conspicuous'y displayed in the Dissertation on Miracles, in answer to David Hume, Esq. nor will they be disappointed. And such as understand the subject, will admire the Doctor's well

digested learning, and easily discover the importance of a correct historical deduction of the progress of church power, the establishment of a hierarchy, and how clear and decisive it is, in all that may be termed the hinge of the controversy between what has been denominated high church and others. Very seldom, indeed, has the subject been treated with the ability, impartiality, and moderation, which characterize the following pages.

Page 1

LECTURE I.

THE SACRED HISTORY.

Of the Importance of a knowledge of Ecclesiastical His-

tory,

LECTURE II.

Of the nature and utility of the history of the Sacred Ca-

non, &c.

14

LECTURE III.

Of the rise and progress of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, -

27

LECTURE IV.

Of the nature and consequence of the question about the po-

lity originally established in the church, &c.

Of the constitution of the apostolic church, and the nature

of the episcopacy which obtained in the second and third

centuries,

49

82

99

LECTURE VII.

Of the extent of the bishop's cure in primitive times,

120

LECTURE VIII.

Of the origin of prelacy, or diocesan episcopacy,

LECTURES IX, X.

140

Of the change which the establishment of Christianity by the

imperial laws, and the numerous conversions from Pa-

ganism consequent thereon, occasioned in the church, 157, 175

LECTURE XI.

Of the office and ordination of Pastors,

LECTURE XII.

Of the Papacy, and the common plea on which the retainers

to Rome, found the right of papal dominion,

LECTURE XIII.

Of the principal causes which tended to raise the church

192

210