1753. The LIFE of Bishop BURNET. he accepted, and was ordained priest by the bishop of Edinburgh. Here he not only performed exactly and diligently all the duties of the paftoral office, but often by his charity affifted or relieved fuch of his parishioners as were in any distress; and obferving that the bishops then in Scotland were very negligent of their du- A ty, he drew up a memorial of their abuses, which brought upon him fome very harsh treatment. However, as his cu.e was near Edinburgh, he was cften fent for and confulted by the chief men entrusted with the government of Scotland, and was appointed one of the managers for the church, in the fcheme then on foot, 81 In 1673, whilft the duke of Lauderdale was in Scotland, as king's commiffioner to the parliament, he published his Vindication of the Authority, Conftitution and Laws of the Church and State of Scotland, wherein he fo ftrongly maintained the caufe of epifcopacy, and the illegality of refiflance, merely on account of religion, that he was a rain courted to accept of a bishoprick, with the promifs of the next archbishoprick that fhould become void; but he till perfifted in his refufal. In 1673, he was again obliged to take a journey to London, to obtain a licence to print his Memoirs of the Dukes of for an accommodation between the epifco. B Hamilton, when he was often fent for pal and prefbyterian parties, which introduced him to the acquaintance of the then dutchefs of Hamilton, who not only invited him to Hamilton, but engaged him to undertake the writing of the memoirs of the dukes of Hamilton, from the materials with which the furnished him. C both by the king and the duke of York, and was appointed one of the king's chaplains, which was the only favour he could be prevailed on to accept, as he was far from approving the meafures pursued by the court. After having obtained a licence for publishing his book, he returned to Scotland, and finding that a new breach had happened between Lauderdale and Hamilton, and that the animofity between them had rifen to a height not to be compofed, he retired to his ftation at Glasgow, and refused to stir from thence all that winter; but as the measures of the court had proved unsuccessful in parliament, and as Lauderdale threw the whole blame upon him, he was obliged once more to return to court in 1674, in order to vindicate himfelf, where he was not only received coldly by the king, but ordered to be ftruck out of the lift of chaplains. However, the duke of York endeavoured to reconcile him with Lauderdale, but the latter infifting on fuch terms as he difdainEed to comply with, a reconciliation became impracticable, and therefore his royat highnefs was fo kind as to warn him, that if he returned to Scotland he would be clapped up in prifon, and detained there perhaps as long as the fame interest prevailed at court; whereupon he found himfelf under a neceffity to refign his profef. forship at Glafgow, and to refolve to fet Whilft he was at Hamilton, he was, without his knowledge, chofen profelfor of divinity in the university of Glafgow, which with fome difficulty he accepted, but as he thought it inconfiftent with his cure at Saltoun, he refigned the latter, and removed to Glasgow in 1669, where he was more than tfually diligent in inftructing the young ftudents of divinity in that univerfity. Upon the duke of Lauderdale's D hearing that he was employed to write the memoirs of the dukes of Hamilton, he preffed him to come to court, to receive fuch informations as he was able to furnish; whereupon he went to Lendon, and four bishopricks in Scotland, becom ing vacant whilft he was at London, he was offered his choice of them, but he thought himself too young for fuch a high dignity in the church, and therefore refufed the offer, making no other ufe of the confidence which Lauderdale repofed in him, than to negotiate a reconciliation between that minifter and the duke of Hamilton, which he effected, and obtained for the latter an affignation upon the revenues of the crown in Scotland, for Ftle in England, which he accordingly did. Soon after his fettling at London, he was offered the living of St. Giles's Cripplegate by the dean and chapter of St. Paul's; but as they had before defigned it for Dr. Fowler, he thanked them for the favour, but faid he did not think himfelf at liberty to take it, as he heard they had intended it for fo worthy a divine. Thus he remained for fome time without any fettlement, but in 1675, Sir Harbottle Grimstone, mafter of the Rolls, appointed him preacher at the Rells chapel, and and perfifted in his appointment, tho' exprefsly injoined by the court to revoke it ; and he was foon after chofen lecturer at St. Clement's, having become one of the moft followed preachers in town. B In 1679, he published the first volume of his Hiftory of the Reformation, which procured him the thanks of both houfes A of parliament, with a defire that he would profecute his undertaking and compleat that valuable work. And as he was not only become a famous preacher, but had great credit among the people in London, king Charles, during the enquiry into the Popish plot, often fent for and confulted him upon the ftate of the nation, and of fered him the bishoprick of Chichefter then vacant, on condition he would entirely come into his interefts; to which he anfwered, that he knew the oaths he was to take upon fuch an occafion, which he would religiously obferve, but as he did not know how far fuch a general condition might be thought to extend, he could accept of no preferment upon fuch a condition. However, his free accefs to the king, tho' it procured him no preferment, it engaged him to write a letter to his majefty, wherein he gave him his advice, as well with regard to ftate affairs as to reJigious matters, in fo fincere and free a manner, as plainly fhewed he did not aim at preferment, but at a strict discharge of his duty both as a faithful fubject and D true churchman. And yet, tho' he was one of the keeneft advocates and most fuccefsful writers against Popery, he used his endeavours to fave the lives of the lord Stafford and other Papifts; and his temperate conduct in regard to the exclufion of the duke of York, and the fcheme of a prince regent propofed by him, in lieu of that of an exclufion, very much offended all the zealous exclufionists. About the fame time an accident furnifhed him with an opportunity of making a convert and fincere penitent of the famous and witty earl of Rochester, who had been a moft lewd liver, and a profeffed freethinker, rather from want of thinking, as most of fuch men are, than from thinking freely; for tho' the doctor had no parochial cure, yet he never refufed his attendance upon any fick perion who defired it; and amongst others he was called on to vifit a fick lady, who, he foou found, had been engaged in a F the opportunity, the confequence of which was, that he not only convinced the earl's judgment, as to the genuine truths of the Chriftian religion, but made him a fincere penitent, as appears from a letter under his lordship's own hand ftill extant. In 1682, he was offered the maftership of the Temple, on condition of his breaking off correfpondence with fome of his old friends, which he rejected; and as he had before loft the favour of the earl of Shaftsbury and the exclufionifts by his moderation, and his connection with the earl of Halifax; fo now he chofe to facrifice all the advantages he might have expected from the earl's great intereft at court, rather than to abandon the earl of Effex, the lord Ruffel and Sir William Jones; foon after which the earl of Effex offered him a prefentation to a living worth 3col. a year, upon condition he would promife ftill to refide in London; but as he thought refidence abfolutely neceffary for a cure of fouls, and as his friends at London could not part with him in the then posture of affairs, the living was given to another. Tho' he never would engage in any plots against the government, yet his behaviour at and after the trial and execution of the lord Ruffel raised the refentment of the court fo high against him, that he was foon after difcharged from his lecture at St. Clement's, by the king's exprefs mandate to Dr. Hafcard, reator of that parish; and in 1684, by an extraordinary order from lord keeper North to Sir Harbottle Grimfton, he was forbid preaching any more in the chapel of the Rolis. Upon king James's acceffion, by the means of his freind the then marquifs of Halifax, he obtained the king's leave to go out of the kingdom, and went to Paris, where he lived very retired until after the defeat of Monmouth's rebellion. He then ventured to travel into Italy, and in his paffage through Geneva, he remontrated fo ftrongly against forced fubfcriptions to articles of faith, that they altered their church government, fo that their clergy were no more obliged to fubfcribe their belief of any doctrine, but only to be fubje& to punishment or cenfure, in cafe of writing or preaching against that which was established. After a tour through Italy, Switzerland, and fome parts of Germany, he ar criminal amour with the earl of Rochef-Grived at Utrecht in 1686, and was preter: The manner in which he treated her during her illness, gave that lord a great curiotity of being acquainted with him; and his lordship's profligate character was fo far from being with him a motive to rejet, that it made him readily embrace fently invited by the Dutch ministers to come and pay his refpects to the prince and princefs of Orange, which he accordingly did, and not only met with a most gracious reception, but was admitted in * See our Magazine for iaft Month, p. 32. to 1753. The LIFE of Bishop BURNET. to their moft fecret councils, and his advice followed in many of their future tranfactions. In a little time after his arrival at the Hague, he became acquainted with, and was feon after married to Mrs. Mary Scot, a Dutch lady of a large fortune, and noble extraction, being originally A defcended from a younger brother of the family of Buccleugh in Scotland, and related to feveral of the nobleft houses in Zealand. In order to this marriage he was naturalized in Holland, which furnifhed the Dutch with a good reafon for not delivering him up, when required fo to do, by the court of England, upon a profecution for high treafon being commenced against him here; and when our court found that they could not get him delivered up, a defign was formed to get him affaffinated, and an order for 3000l. actually lodged in the treasury here, to be paid to any perfon that should destroy him; but he escaped all the machinations for this purpofe, and attended the prince of Orange in his enterprize upon England, where he greatly contributed to his fuccefs. C 8༣ and the princefs Sophia, dutchefs, afterwards ele refs of Hanover, which lafted as long as the lived; and as he was now bishop of Salisbury, and as fuch introduced into the houfe of lords, when the bill for fettling the fucceffion of the crown was brought into that houfe, king William appointed him to be the perfon, that should propofe the naming of the princefs Sophia and her heirs, next in fucceffion after the princefs Anne and her iffue; but this farther limitation the parliament would not agree to until 1701. As foon as the first feffion of parliament after the acceffion of king William and queen Mary was ended, the bishop B repaired to his diocefe, where he formed fuch a plan, for executing the duties of his epifcopal office, as he feldom after had occafion to alter, and he diligently purfued it through the whole courfe of his life. This plan we have not room to give an account of here, but it is fuch a one as ought not only to be formed but pra&ifed by every bishop in England; and tho' he was always zealous and steady in his own principles, yet he was extremely mild towards the diffenters, and often employed his whole intereft, which was very great, both with king William and queen Mary, in favour of those whofe principles were widely different from his, as appears by letters to him from the earl of Rochefter, Sir John Fenwick, Dr. Beach, a nonjuring clergyman, who kept a private meeting-houfe in the very city of Salisbury, and feveral others. Upon the establishment of the revolution, Dr. Crew, bifhop of Durham, thought, that the leaft punishment he could expect, for the part he had acted in the high commiffion under king James, D was the lofs of his hifhoprick; therefore, to fecure a friend, and at the fame time a fubuiflence for himfelf, he propofed to reign his bitheprick to Dr. Burnet, and that he would trust to his generofity for an allowance of 1000l. a year out of the epifcopal revenue during his the doctor's Le, which propofal he fent by the lord Montague to the prince of Orange; but E when the meffage was carried to the doctor, he rejected the propofal as being of a fimoniacal nature; and even when the bishoprick of Salifoury became vacant by the death of the incumbent, the doctor follicited king William for it, in favour of his old friend, Dr. Lloyd, then bishop of St. Afaph, to which the king coldly F answered, that he had another perfon in view, and next day in council nominated the doctor himfelf for that fee. As Dr. Burnet had been the first who by letter gave notice to the court of Eanover of the defigned enterprise upon England, and at the fame time intimated, that the fuccefs of that enterprife would naturally end in an entail of the British G crown upon that illuftrious houfe *, it brought on a correfpondence between him As he beheld with concern the deftitute condition of many poor benefices attended with a great cure of fouis, he was the first who formed the fcheme for augmenting the maintenance of the poor clergy, which he fift laid before queen Mary, and after her death before king William, but could not get it made effectual until the fecond of queen Anne, when an act of parliament was paffed for that purpose. During the life of queen Mary, the af fairs and promotions of the church paffed wholly though her hands; but upon her death, a commiffion was granted to the two archbishops, the bishop of Salifbury, and three other prelates, whereby they, or any three of them, were appointed to recommend to all preferments in the church, fignifying the fame to his majefty, under their hands; and in his majeily's abfence, to prefent to all benefices, in the girt of the crown, under 140l. a year; which commiffion was reL 2 newed Frem hence, it fems, that the exclufion of king James and his infant fon was refulwed attle Hague, before the prince of Orange embarked ju England, and fome months before srat tog's abdication. newed in 1700, and the bishop of Salifbury ftill continued to be one. It would be tedious to enumerate the many marks of favour he received from king William; and yet there is not one fingle inftance wherein he follicited a favour for himfelf or his family. In 1698, the king, with the approba- A tion of the princefs, afterwards queen Anne, appointed him preceptor to the duke of Gloucester, which with great difficulty he was prevailed to accept of, on condition that he fhould either have leave to refign his bithoprick, or that the duke fhould refide all the fummer at Windfor, from whence he could easily go at any time to Salisbury, and that he hould have ten weeks allowed him every year to vifit the other parts of his diocefe; which laft was agreed to. A little before this he had, to his great forrow, loft his lady, and his children being young made it neceffary to look out for a proper miftrefs to his family: Accordingly, he foon after married Mrs. Berkeley, a lady of uncommon learning, as well as piety and virtue. conveyable to the meaneft understandings by the simpleft terms, in a profusion of words. His vanity and conceit force him upon an eternal egotifm; these accompanied with a ftrong flow of fpirits, and great natural warmth of conftitution, render him impatient of contradiction; and when he oppofes you, it is not with reafon, but declamation, and he does not argue but harangue. As his natural capacity is fuperior to that of the bulk of mankind, he has the art of conciliating himself to perfons of known inferiority of parts, by falling in with their fentiments; and taking the topick out of their hands, will display it with Ball the arts of oratory, all the figures of rhetorick, for he lofes no opportunity of talking; he will oppofe for the fake of triumphing, and talk against his own sense of things merely for the fake of victory: How often have I feen him with an impudent torrent of words, bear down a man of fuperior knowledge, whofe modefty has rendered him unequal to the conteft? Notwithstanding this, Euphronius hath the power of pleafing, and frequently doth, where he meets with no contradiction, and in company whofe inferiority induces them to revere him as an oracle. It is true, I have feen Euphronius filent, but it has been when he could not maintain the character he had affumed in the prefence of a man, whom as he knew to be wifer than himself, fo he knew likewife he had boldness enough to detect him. C The last five or fix years of his life, he grew more abftracted from the world, and to avoid the diftraction of ufelefs vifits, he fettled in St. John's court, Clerkenwell, where he kept up an intercourfe only with his most felect and intimate acquaintance; and he just lived to fee that fet- D tlement take place, to which he had fo much contributed; for in March, 1714-15, he was taken ill of a cold, which turned to a pleuretick fever, and put an end to his life on the 17th of that month, in the 72d year of his age *. The following Contraft of Characters, as it is not very uncommon, may be agreeable to our E Readers. Dear EUGENIO, F you remember, in a vifit we lately made to Eufebius, when we fell in with fome mixt company, you was struck with the very different behaviour of two gentlemen: Being a ftranger to the company yourfelf, and finding me very well acquainted with them, you preffed me to let you into their characters, or, to ufe your own words, draw their pictures; in obedience to your commands I have undertaken the office. Euphronius, the eldest of the two, and who rendered himself remarkable at that time for his loquacity, is a man of flender education, and pretty extenfive fuperficial reading, by which, joined with a ready elocution, and uncommon affurance, he is able to pass upon common company for a thorough mater of all the arts and sciences. He fmothers truth, F The reverse of this gentleman is Camillus, who, tho' young, has made mankind his study, and is an admirable judge of human nature; but an exceffive modesty, that frequent attendant upon true merit, prevents his appearing what he really is, to any but a few intimate acquaintance: He hath not the quicknefs of apprehenfion of Euphronius, but he hath abundantly more judgment; he has a thorough knowledge of antient and modern hiftory, and a judicious manner of introducing and applying it. You justly obferved, that his tafte was excellent, and that he was no bad judge of poetical and dramatick compofitions; his praises were always juft, and his cenfures delivered without oftentation, and with a degree of candour, that spoke a heart overflowing with tenderness and humanity: Camillus is indeed poffeffed of every talent that can render him entertaining and edifying; but by an infuperable modefty is prevented from doing either, and is conftantly filent where Euphronius appears, who with fmall knowledge, fupported by an unparalleled impudence, is conftantly triumphing over him. *He lies buried in the church of St. James, Clerkenwell. A |