sufficiently evident that the match was wholly owing to inclination, and not to avarice or ambition, the day before their marriage he delivered to the lady a deed, by which he renounced all pretensions to her fortune, which was very considerable, and must otherwise have fallen into his hands, she herself having no intention to secure it. His Vindication of the Authority, Constitution, and Laws of the Church and State of Scotland was printed at Glasgow, in 8vo, in the year 1673. This was considered so material a service to the Government, that he was offered a bishopric, with a promise of the next vacant archbishopric; but he did not accept of it, because he could not approve of the measures of the court, the great aim of which he perceived to be the advancement of popery. The publication itself was one of those which the author could not afterwards recollect with much satisfaction.
His intimacy with the dukes of Hamilton and Lauderdale procured him frequent messages from the king and the duke of York, who had conversations with him in private. But Lauderdale, who was the most unprincipled man of the age, conceiving a resentment against him on account of the freedom with which he spoke to him, represented at last to the king that Dr Burnet was engaged in an opposition to his measures; and on his return to London he perceived that these suggestions had entirely deprived him of the king's favour, though the duke of York treated him with greater civility than ever, and dissuaded him from going to Scotland. He accordingly resigned his professor ship at Glasgow, and settled in London. About this time the living of Cripplegate being vacant, the clean and chapter of St Paul's (in whose gift it was), hearing of his circumstances, and the hardships which he had undergone, made him an offer of the benefice; but, as he had been informed of their first intention of conferring it on Dr Fowler, he generously declined it. In 1675, at the recommendation of Lord Hollis, whom he had known in France as ambassador at that court, he was appointed preacher at the Rolls chapel, by Sir Harbottle Grimstone, master of the rolls, notwithstanding the opposition of the court; and he was soon afterwards chosen lecturer at St Clement's, and became one of the most popular preachers in town. The first volume of his History of the Reformation of the Church of England was published in folio in 1681, the second in 1683, and the third in 1715. For this great work he received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament. Of the first two volumes he published an abridgment in the year 1683.
In 1682, when the administration was changed in favour of the duke of York, being much resorted to by persons of all ranks and parties, in order to avoid returning visits, he built a laboratory, and for above a year pursued a course of chemical experiments. Not long after he refused a country living of £300 a year offered him by the earl of Essex on condition that he should reside in London. When the inquiry concerning the popish plot was on foot he was frequently sent for and consulted by the king, who offered him the bishopric of Chichester, then vacant, if he would engage in his interests; but he refused to accept it on these terms. He preached at the Rolls till 1684, when he was dismissed by order of the court.
On the accession of James II. to the throne, having obtained leave to quit the kingdom, he first went to Paris, and lived in great retirement, till, contracting an acquaintance with Brigadier Stouppe, a Protestant gentleman in the French service, he made a tour with him into Italy. He met with an agreeable reception at Rome. Pope Innocent XI. hearing of his arrival, sent the captain of the Swiss guard to acquaint him he would give him a private audience in bed, to avoid the ceremony of kissing his holiness's slipper; but Dr Burnet excused himself as well as he could. Here, with more zeal than prudence, he engaged in some religious disputes; and, on receiving an intimation from Prince Borghese, he found it necessary to withdraw from this stronghold of priestcraft, and pursued his travels through Switzerland and Germany. He afterwards came to Utrecht, with an intention to settle in some of the seven provinces. There he received an invitation from the prince and princess of Orange (to whom their party in England had recommended him) to come to the Hague, and accepted the invitation. He was soon made acquainted with the secret of their councils, and advised the preparation of a fleet in Holland sufficient to support their designs and encourage their friends. His known share in the councils of the Prince of Orange, and the pamphlets which he sent over to England, excited against him the intensest enmity of James.
A prosecution for high treason was commenced against him both in England and Scotland; but having received the intelligence before it was announced to the States he avoided the storm by petitioning for, and obtaining without any difficulty, a bill of naturalization, in order to his intended marriage with Mary Scott, a Dutch lady of considerable fortune.
Being now legally under the protection of Holland, he omitted no opportunity of supporting and promoting the design which the prince of Orange had formed of deliver ing Great Britain ; and, having accompanied him in the capacity of chaplain, he was in the year 1689 advanced to the see of Salisbury. He declared for moderate measures with regard to the clergy who scrupled to take the oaths, and many were displeased with him for advocating the toleration of Nonconformists. " As my lord of Salisbury," says the earl of Shaftesbury, " has done more than any man living for the good and honour of the Church of England and the Reformed religion, so he now suffers more than any man from the tongues and slander of those ungrateful churchmen ; who may well call themselves by that single term of distinction, having no claim to that of Christianity or Protestant, since they have thrown off all the temper of the former, and all concern or interest with the latter." The same noble writer has elsewhere mentioned him in the following terms of commendation : " The bishop of Salis bury s Exposition of the Articles is, no doubt, highly worthy of your study. None can better explain the sense of the church than one who is the greatest pillar of it since the first founders, one who best explained and asserted the Reformation itself, was chiefly instrumental in saving it from Popery before and at the Revolution, and is now the truest example of laborious, primitive, pious, and learned episcopacy."[1]
In 1693, after the publication and condemnation of Blount s anonymous pamphlet, King William and Queen Mary Conquerors (see Blount), an opportunity was taken by Burnet s enemies to bring a pastoral letter of his before the House of Commons. After a warm discussion the letter was condemned to be burned by the common hangman.
- ↑ Shaftesbury s Letters, p. 28, 37.
