BUR 
Burnet owns himfelf the author of, alarmed kin" James; 
and were the occafion of his writing twice againft hint to 
the princefs of Orange, and inllfling by his ambalfador on 
liis being forbid the court, which after much importunity 
was done.; though lie continued to be trufied and em¬ 
ployed as before, tiie Dutch minitiers confulting him 
daily. To put an end to thefe frequent conferences with 
the miniilers, a profccution for high treafon was let on 
foot again!! him both in England and Scotland ; but Bur¬ 
net, receiving the'news before it came to the dates, avoid¬ 
ed the (lorm, by petitioning for, and obtaining without 
any difficulty, a bill of naturalization, in order to his in¬ 
tended marriage with Mary Scot, a Dutch lady of cond- 
derable fortune, who, with the advantage of birth, had 
thole of a fine perfoa and underltanding. 
After his marriage with this lady, being legally under 
the protection of Holland, he undertook, in a letter to 
the earl of Middleton, to anfwer all tire matters laid to 
Iris charge ; and added, that, being now naturalized in Hol¬ 
land, his'allegiance was, during his day in thefe parts, 
transferred from his majefty to the dates-general; and, in 
another letter, that if, upon non-appearance, a fentence 
ihould be palled againd him, lie might, to judify himfelf, 
be forced to give an account of the diare lie had in af¬ 
fairs, in which lie might led to mention what he was 
afraid would not pleafe his majefty. Thefe expreffions 
gave fuch offence to tire Eugliih court, that, dropping 
tlie former profecution, they proceeded againd him as 
guilty of high treafon ; and a fentence of outlawry was 
paffied upon him : and thereupon the king fird demanded 
him to be delivered up, and afterwards infided on his 
being banidied the Seven Provinces; which the dates re- 
fufed, alleging, that he was become their fubjedt ; and, 
if the king had any thing to lay to Dr. Burnet’s charge, 
judice fhould be done in their courts. This put an end 
to all farther application to the dates ; and Dr. Burnet, 
Secured from any danger, went on in afliding and forward¬ 
ing the important affair of the revolution. He gave early 
notice of it to the court of Hanover, intimating, that tIre 
fuccefs of that projedt mud naturally end in a fucceffion 
in that illudrious houfe to the Britidr crown. He wrote 
alfo feveral pamphlets in fupport of the prince of Orange’s 
defrgns, and aflided in drawing up his declaration, &c. 
and, when he undertook the expedition to England, Dr. 
Burnet accompanied him as his chaplain. After his land¬ 
ing, at Exeter he j ropofed and drew up the affociation, 
and was of no fmall fervice on feveral occafions by a fea- 
fonable difplay of pulpit eloquence, to animate the prince’s 
followers, and gain ovei others to his intered. Nor did 
his fervices paf's unrewarded; for king William had not 
been many days on the riirone before Dr. Burnet was ad¬ 
vanced to the fee of Salifbury, in the room of Dr. Seth 
Ward, deceafed, being confecrated' May 31, 1689. He 
didinguifired himfelf in the houfe of lords, by declaring 
lor moderate- meafures with regard to the clergy, who 
fcrupled to take the oaths, and for a toleration of the pro- 
tedant difienters. A paffage in his padoral letter to the 
clergy ol his diocele, concerning the oaths of allegiance 
and (upremacy to king William and queen Mary, dated 
May 15, 1689, which feemed to ground their title to the 
crown on tire l ight-of conqued, gave fuch offence to both 
hotifes of parliament, that they ordered it to be burnt by 
the hands of the common hangman. As foon as the fedion 
of parliament in 1689 was ended, he went down to his 
diocefe, where he was very exadt in the difeharge of his 
fundtion, and was particularly {'crapulous in, conferring 
orders and admitting to livings. In 1698. he loft his wife 
by the fmall-pox ; and, as he was almoft immediately after 
appointed preceptor to the duke of Gloucelter, in vvhofe 
education he took great pains, this employment and the 
tender age of his children induced him the fame year to 
fupply tier lofs, by,a marriage with Mrs. Berkeley, elded 
daughter of Sir Richard Blake, knight. In (699 he pub- 
lilhed his Expofition on the Thirty-nine Articles of the 
Church of Engiand. In 1704, he had the fatisfaction to 
N E T. 53, 
fee his projedt for augmenting poor livings carried into 
execution. The lad five or lix years of his life lie grew 
more abltradtod from the world than he had been in the 
former part of it. He lived to fee a fuccedion take place, 
and that family edablilhed," in whofe intereds he had been 
fo zealous. He died March 17, 1715, in the feventy- 
Tecond year of his age, and was interred in the parifli- 
church of St. James, Clerkenweil. After his death, hrt 
Hidory of his own Times, with his Life annexed, was 
publifhed by his Ton, Thomas Burnet, Efq. 
BUR'NET (Dr. Thomas), a mod ingenious and learn¬ 
ed writer, was born at Croft, in Yorklhire, in or about 
the year 1635. His fird education was at tiic free-fehool 
of North-Alverton in that county, from whence he was 
removed, in June 1651, to Glare-hall in Cambridge. Here 
he had the excellent Tillotfon for his tutor; under whom, 
it is probable, lie improved, if not imbibed, that noble 
way of thinking, for which he is fo much didinguidted, 
and will be ever memorable. The very learned Dr. Cud- 
W'orth was at that time mader of Clare-hall, but removed 
from it to the maderfhip of Chrid’s-college in 1654; and 
thither our author followed him. Under his patronage he 
was chofen fellow of it in 1657, commenced M. A. in 
1658, and became fenior prodtorof the univerdty in 1661 ; 
but how long afterwards he continued his reddence there, 
does not appear. The next fituation and character we 
find hint in, is that of governor to the young earl of Wilt- 
diire, Ion of the marquis of Winchefter, with whom lie 
travelled abroad ; and gave fuch fatisfadtion, that, foon 
after his return to England, he was invited and prevailed 
on by the fird duke of Ormond, to travel once more in the 
like character with the young earl of Offory, his grace’s 
grandlon and heir-apparent. Thefe honourable connec¬ 
tions introduced him into what may properly be called the 
world: in which he afterwards confirmed the reputation 
lie already had for fine parts and learning, by the publi¬ 
cation of his Telluris Theoria Sacra, orbis nodri origi- 
nem et mntationes generales, quas olimfubiit et fnbiturus. 
ed, compledtens. This facred theory of the earth was 
originally publilhed in Latin, in 2 vols. 4to. the two fird 
books, concerning the deluge, and paradife, in 1681 ; the 
two lad, concerning the burning of the world, and the 
pew heavens and new earth, in 1689. The uncommon 
approbation this work met with, and the particular en¬ 
couragement of Charles II. who was exceedingly taken 
with it, put the author upon tranflating it into Englilh. 
He did lo; and publilhed the two fird books in 1684, 
folio, with an elegant dedication to the king; as he did 
the two lad in 1689, "ith a no lets elegant dedication to 
queen Mary. “ 'I he Englilh edition (he tells us) is the 
lame in (ubdance with the Latin ; though, he confedes, 
not fo properly a trandation, as a new competition upon 
the'fame ground, there being feveral additional chapters 
in it, and feveral new moulded.” May 19, 1685, he was 
made mailer of the Charter-houfe, by the intered of the 
duke of Ormond, and foon after commenced LL. D. At 
what time he entered into orders is not exactly known ; 
but it is plain that he was a clergyman at his election to 
this maderdiip, from the objection then made againd him 
by fame of the bifhops who were governors, namely, “ that 
he generally appeared in a lay-habit.” This objedtion, 
however, was over-ruled by his patron the duke of Or¬ 
mond, who aliened' in his favour, that he had no living 
or other ecclefiadical preferment ; and that his life and 
converfation were in all refpeds fuitable to the clerical 
character. 
After the revolution, he was introduced to court by 
his honoured tutor and worthy friend archbifhop Tillot- 
fott; was made chaplain to the king, and foon after clerk 
of the clofer. He now appeared in the high road to great 
preferment, and had certainly a fine profpect before him 
when he ruined till by fome unadvifed drokes.of his pen. 
In 1692, he publidted Archteologite Philofophicre ; five 
dodtrina antiqua de rerum originilnis, in 4to, with a dedi¬ 
cation to king William, whole character he there, draws- 
wiiha 
