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 called. He was uniformly regular in his private conduct, and though constitutionally of very impetuous passions, and a fervid imagination, at no time of his life was he ever seduced into the practice of what was immoral or vicious. The Christian principles, with which he seems to have been impressed very early in life, afforded him sufficient protection against the allurements or snares to which he was exposed. He prosecuted his studies with the most unremitted industry, and with great care prepared the discourses prescribed by the professor, and publicly delivered in the Hall.

While he attended the lectures on divinity, the University of St Andrews, and indeed the Church of Scotland in general, were placed in a very unpleasant situation, by the agitation of a question which originated with Dr Archibald Campbell, professor of Church History in St Mary's College. He maintained "that the knowledge of the existence of God was derived from Revelation, not from Nature." This was long reckoned one of the errors of Socinus, and no one in Scotland, before Dr Campbell's time, had ever disputed the opinion that was generally current, and consequently esteemed orthodox. It was well known that the Doctor was not a Socinian, and did not favour any of the other dogmas of that sect. The constitutional tendency of his mind was metaphysical, and he certainly was possessed of great acuteness, which enabled him to perceive on what point his opponents were most vulnerable, and where they laid themselves open to attack. He published his sentiments without the least reserve, and was equally ready to enter upon a vindication of them. He considered his view of the subject as a foundation necessary to be laid in order to demonstrate the necessity of revelation. A whole host of opponents volunteered their services to strangle in the birth such dangerous sentiments. Innumerable pamphlets rapidly made their appearance, and the hue and cry was so loud, and certain persons so clamorous, that the ecclesiastical courts thought that they could no longer remain silent. Dr Campbell was publicly prosecuted on account of his heretical opinions, but after long litigation the matter was compromised, and the only effect it produced was, that the students at St Andrews in general became more zealous defenders of the Doctor's system, though they durst not avow it so openly. Among others, Mr Barclay with his accustomed zeal, and with all the energies of his juvenile but ardent mind, had warmly espoused Dr Campbell's system. Long before he left College he was noted as one of his most open and avowed partizans. These principles he never deserted, and in his view of Christianity it formed an important part of the system of revealed truth. It must not be imagined, however, that Mr Barclay slavishly followed, or adopted all Dr Campbell's sentiments. Though they were both agreed that a knowledge of the true God was derived from revelation and not from nature, yet they differed upon almost every other point of systematic divinity. Mr Barclay was early, and continued through life to be a high predestinarian, or what is technically denominated a supralapsarian, while Dr Campbell, if one may draw an inference from some of his illustrations, leaned to Arminianism, and doubtless was not a decided Calvinist.

Mr Barclay having delivered the prescribed discourses with the approbation of the professor of Divinity, he now directed his views to obtain license as a preacher in the establishment, and took the requisite steps. Having delivered the usual series of exercises with the entire approbation of his judges, he was, on the 27th September, 1759, licensed by the presbytery of Auchterarder as a preacher of the gospel. He was not long without employment. Mr Jobson, then minister of Errol, near Perth, was advanced in years, in an infirm state of health, and required an assistant. Mr Barclay, from his popularity as a preacher, and the reputation he enjoyed through a great part of Perthshire, as well as of Angus and