B U R N R T. 



183 



Burner, 



born at Edinburgh in 1643. Hit father, who was 

 ;d of Session under the title of Lord Crimond, 

 and a younger son of the family of Leyi in I 

 cardineshirc, was attached to the Episcopalian, hit 

 mother to the Presbyterian, discipline ; a circum- 

 stance which perhaps contributed to the liberali- 

 ty with which he always regarded lesser nligious 

 differences. At the age of 14, he commenced mas- 

 ter of arts in the college of Aberdeen ; and, having 

 abandoned his original study of the civil law, he be- 

 came probationary preacher when about 18. His 

 rejection of a good living at that age, frum a doubt 

 of his competency to the charge, was a promising 

 indication of the integrity of his future lite. Hav- 

 ing spent about three more years in theological stu- 

 dii s in Scotland, and in visits to the English univer- 

 sities, he passed over to the Continent, and made 

 some stay at Amsterdam and Paris. The year fol- 

 lowing, he returned to his native country received 

 priest's orders from the Bishop of Edinburgh and 

 was presented to the living of Saltoun, where he 

 read the liturgy of the English church. When not 

 more than 23 years of age, he ventured to draw up 

 a memorial of the abuses practised by the Scotch bi- 

 shops, which he defended with such success, that 

 Archbishop Sharp thought fit to abandon his design 

 of punishing him for his uncourtly remonstrance, by 

 deprivation and excommunication. Three years af- 

 ter, he was appointed professor of divinity in the uni- 

 versity of Glasgow, and conducted himself with such 

 moderation to the Conformists and Non-conformists, 

 as to gain the censure of bigots of both classes. 



A Scotch bishopric was twice offered him about 

 this time, which he judged it prudent to refuse. He 

 published, however, in 1672, A Vindication of the 

 Authority, Constitution, and Laws of the Church 

 and State of Scotland, which was dedicated to the 

 Earl of Lauderdale ; and the principles of which 

 very well accorded with that nobleman's well-known 

 zeal on the side of prerogative and power. On his 

 visiting London in 1673, he was appointed one of 

 the king's chaplains in ordinary, and appeared to be 

 in the high road of preferment ; but for the present, 

 his strong attachment to the Pn testant cause was 

 in the way of his ambition, and he was too honest 

 a man to sacrifice principle to promotion. He soon 

 lost the friendship of Lord Lauderdale ; and having 

 resigned the professorship at Glasgow, and removed 

 to London, he was presently struck out of the list 

 of chaplains to the king. Being now freed from the 

 shackles of court-connection, Burnet devoted him- 

 self, with his characteristic assiduity and zeal, to the 

 service of his country, by resistance to the Catholic 

 encroach menta. With this view, he published, in 

 1679, the first volume of his History of the Refor- 

 mation in England a production of labour and au 

 thority, to which the state of the times added so 

 much of incidental value, that a vote of thanks to 

 the author passed both houses of parliament, accom- 

 panitd with a request that he would complete the de- 

 sign. The second volume appeared two years after ; 

 and a third, which is supplementary, not till the 

 year 17 14. Burnet, both from disposition and on 

 principle, was inclined to moderate measures ; and 

 proposed, at a time in which the public mind was 

 violently agitated by the Popish plot, that lome mea- 





sure of compromise should be attempted, instead of 

 so harsh a proceeding at the exclution of the Duke 



the hue-cession. Notwithttanding this *" 

 i y proposal, hit connection, particularly 

 ! RuMcll, his publications, and hit ur.uik- 

 warmth of attachment to the Protestant io- 

 rendeml hitti so obnoxious to the king and 

 his friend*, tint, in 16*3, he prudently determined 

 .re to KIMS. 'J'd- following year, be was dis- 

 charged, by the king's order, from luc lectureship 

 at St Clement'* ; and on the accetuon of James, be 

 became, for some time, a resident in Paris. At 

 length, after having made the tour of Italy, Su.t- 

 zerland, and the south of France, by the invitation 

 of the Prince and Princess of Orange be tettled at 

 the Hague, and obtained naturalization. Having 

 lost his first wife, Lady Margaret Kennedy, daugh- 

 ter of the Earl of Cassilis, he now married a Dutch 

 lady of fortune, descended from the Scotts of Buc- 

 cleugh in Scotland. The widow Berkeley was hi* 

 third wife, whom he married in 1698. 



The Prince of Orange was too good a politician 

 not to see, that the principles, talents, connection*, 

 and reputation of Burnet, all conspired to make him 

 a valuable auxiliary to his cause, it he once espoused 

 it warm. He therefore did not hesitate to refuse the 

 surrender of him to the English government when it 

 was formally demanded he should be delivered up ; 

 and in the progress of the preparations for the great 

 enterprise which placed William on the throne of 

 England, his experience of the fidelity and service* 

 of Burnet induced him to nominate him his chaplain, 

 in which capacity he accompanied him in the expedi- 

 tion to England. On the successful isiue of that 

 great design, Burnet found himself in the road to 

 promotion, without any obstacle, either from prin- 

 ciple or feeling. His well-known moderation suited 

 the temper of the present government, and both his 

 public services and private worth recommended him 

 to ecclesiastical elevation. In 1689 he was raised to 

 the see of Sarum, the duties of which he discharged 

 in a manner the most exemplary, devoting himself to 

 the labours of the pulpit and of the diocese, with a 

 zeal and assiduity which have rarely been equalled, 

 and never surpassed. An institution of a nursery of 

 students in divinity at Salisbury, under his own im- 

 mediate inspection, shewed how great was his anxiety 

 to secure a pious and enlightened clergy. He was* 

 however, induced to abandon that favourite project, 

 on being informed that it was regarded as a censure 

 on the universities. 



It is a singular fact, that in a pastoral letier to 

 his clergy, the bishop maintained the nght ot 

 'iam ana Mary to the crown on the ground of con- 

 quest. But his aversion to Popery, and his zeal for 

 the Protestant succession, were so gnat, that to his 

 mind, conquest was a better title in a Protestunt, 

 possession in a Papist. It is rather more extr.u.rdi- 

 nary, that the celebrated philosophical and bicptval 

 writer, Charles Blount, should have nr.'in.i .c 



same doctrine in a pamphlet, entitled, / ittim 



and Queen Mary, ('u/.-yMr/w*. Tl.: .-. ). rs alter 

 the publication >jf the pastoral letter, it was ordered 

 by parliament to be burnt, together with bioaut's 

 pamphlet, by the hands of the common hangman. 



Besides a number of minor productions, Burnet 



., .-, 



