John Douglas
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [1]
D.D., bishop of Salisbury, was born in 1721 at Pittenweem, Fifeshire, and was educated at Baliol College, Oxford. He was chaplain in the Guards at the battle of Fontenoy, became canon and dean of Westminster in 1762, was made bishop of Car lisle in 1787, and in 1791 was transferred to Salisbury. He died May 18, 1807. Dr. Douglas was intimate with Dr. Johnson, and all the most celebrated of his contemporaries. He was an accurate scholar and critic, and exposed Lander in his Milton no Plagiary, and ably attacked Hume in his Criterion of Miracles. Both these essays are given in Douglas's Select Works (Salisbury, 1820, 4to). He also wrote largely against Archibald Bower, aiming to show that he was a literary and religious impostor, in his Six Letters to Sheldon (Lond. 1756, 8vo), and in his Bower and Tillemont compared (London, 1757, 8vo). A new edition of his Criterion appeared from the Clarendon Press (1833). See Elliott, Delineation of Romanism (Lond. 1851), page 525; Van Mildert, Boyle Lectures.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [2]
Bishop of Salisbury, born at Pittenweem, Fife; wrote "The Criterion of, or a Discourse on, Miracles" against Hume; was a friend of Samuel Johnson's (1721-1807).
