John Laurence, an illustrious German divine, was born in 1695. He was descended of a noble family, which might seem to open to his ambition a fair path to civil promotion; but his zeal for the interests of religion, his thirst of knowledge, and particularly his taste for sacred literature, induced him to consecrate his talents to the service of the church. The German universities loaded him with literary honours; the king of Denmark induced him to settle at Copenhagen; and the Duke of Brunswick called him thence to Helmstadt, where he filled the academical chair of divinity, was honoured with the character of ecclesiastical counsellor to the court, and presided over the seminaries of learning in the duchy of Wolfenbuttel and in the principality of Blackenburg. When a design was formed of giving an uncommon degree of lustre to the university of Göttingen, by filling it with men of the first rank in letters, Dr Mosheim was deemed worthy to appear at the head of it, in quality of chancellor; and here he died, in the year 1755, universally lamented. In depth of judgment, in extent of learning, in purity of taste, in power of eloquence, and in laborious application to all the various branches of erudition and philosophy, he had certainly few superiors. His Latin translation of Cudworth's Intellectual System, enriched with large annotations, discovered a profound acquaintance with ancient learning and philosophy. His illustrations of the Scriptures, his labours in defence of Christianity, and the light he threw upon religion and philosophy, appear in many volumes of sacred and profane literature; whilst his Ecclesiastical History, from the birth of Christ to the beginning of the eighteenth century, is unquestionably the best that has yet appeared. This work, written in Latin, has been translated into English, and accompanied with notes and chronological tables by Dr Archibald Maclean; and from the translator's preface to the second edition, 1758, in five vols. 8vo, this short account is taken.