Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time

the most obvious rules of Grammar. Sometimes the relatives are fo placed as to point to a wrong antecedent &mar the fenfe: fomtimes the conjunctive, & disjunctive particles, are fuch as mislead the Reader into a wrong meaning, and fometimes into a fenfe quite contrary to that which the Author intended. Most of these faults have without doubt been occafioned, by the frequent additions and interlineings the Author made at different & far diftant times in revifing his work, where he often fuits his words to the time he made the addition in and not to the time he is treating of. See p. 405. in fol. and 718. of this Edit. where treating of the affairs of 1677. be fays the late King told me, and means King William. A great many Such paffages must needs puzzle every Reader: fo they should have been corrected by the Editor in revifing the printed sheets, where they are much eafier to be perceived than in the Manufcript. There has been fume pains taken to correct moft of thofe faults in this Edition; Jo that the Reader will not be fo often stopp'd furt, and at a lofs tu find the Author's meaning. Yet care has been taken not to extend too far this liberty of correcting; it has only been used where the changing of a word or fyllable was necessary to make clear a phrafe or fenfe that was perplexed; or in spelling aright Several names of perfons and places that were. wrong Jpelled in the first Edition. Some knowledge of the perfons and matters treated of in this work has been very useful to me in revising it: and I have proceeded with fuch care and caution that. I am not fo much afraid of being blamed for ton much, as for too little correcting of the faults and negligences of the style. As for the correcting of the press, tho' I have taken a good deal of pains,

to do it well, yet it is not fo as I could wish it. I have laboured with unskilfull and incorrect workmen, who oftimes bave neglected to correct as I marked, and fomtimes have corrected wrong, fo as to make two faults where there was but one. The faults which I have found in reading over that may affect the fenfe, I have marked here below, that the Reader may if he pleases mend them with his pen; at for the other literal faults that do not affect the fenfe, the candid & Judicious will eafily pardon them, as knowing t'is not fo eafy as fome imagine to have any thing without faults: And to make or print a book without faults would be one of the best proofs of Infallibility that I know.

The Tables of this Edition are more full and more exact than in the former Editions, and will be of more ufe to the Readers.

I once intended to have prefixed to this Hiftory Some account of the Authors life, and of the works be has written and published, and I had prepared fome materials for it. But fince the Hiftory of bis own life written by himself, is to be published after the fecond part of this Hiftory, I find t'is better to wait for that, than to anticipate it by any imperfect account that could be given by any other perfon in comparison of what his own will be. Befides the Reader will find a good deal of the Authors life in this prefent work; and to fatisfy him further I have here added his Epitaph, taken from his monument in the Church of St. James Clerkenwell, Middlesex, where he was buried on the 22. of March 1715.

GILBERTUS BURNET S.T.P.

Epifcopus Sarisburienfis

Et nobiliffimi Ordinis à Perifcelide
Cancellarius.

Natus Edinburgi 18. die Septembris A. D. 1643. Parentibus Roberto Burnet Domino de Cremont, ex antiquiffima Domo de Lees, & Rachele Johnston, forore Domini de War riften.

Aberdonia literis inftru&tus, Saltoni cura animarum invigilavit: inde juvenis adhuc S. S. T. P. in Academia Glafgoenfi electus eft.

Poftquam in Angliam tranfiit, rem Sacram per aliquot annos in Templo, Rotulorum Londini adminiftravit; donec nimis acriter (ut iis qui rerum tum potiebantur vifum eft) Ecclefiæ Romane malas artes infectatus, ab officio fubmotus eft. E patria, temporum iniquitate, profugus, Europam peragravit; & deinceps cum PRINCIPE AURIACO reverfus, primus omnium a REGE GULIELMO & REGINA MARIA Præful defignatus, & in fummum tandem fiduciæ teftimonium, ab eodem Principe DUCI GLOCESTRIENCI Præceptor datus eft.

Tyrannidi & fuperftitioni femper infenfum fcripta eruditiffima demonftrant; nec non libertatis patriæ veræque Religionis ftrenuum femperque indefeffum propugnatorem: quarum utriufque confervande fpem unam jam

à longo tempore in illuftriffima Domo Brunfvicenfi collocârat.

Poftquam autem Dei Providentia fingulari REGEM GEORGIUM Sceptro Britanno potitum confpexerat, breve jam annorum & felicitatis fatur e vivis exceffit.

Duxit uxorem Dominam Margaritam Kennedy Comitis Caffilie filiam, dein Mariam Scott Haga-Comitis, quæ ei feptem liberos peperit, quorum adhuc in vivis funt Gulielmus, Gilbertus Maria, Elifabetha, & Thomas. Poftremo uxorem duxit viduam Berkeley, qua duos liberos fufcepit, fato præmaturo, non multo poft extinctos.

Ampliffimam pecuniam in pauperibus alendis, & in fumptibus ad utilitatem publicam fpectantibus, vivus continuo erogavit; moriens duo millia aureorum Aberdonia Saltonoque ad juventutem pauperiorem inftituendam teftamento legavit.

Obiit 17. die Martii A. D. 17. Ætatis fuæ 73.

ERRAT A.

Page 5.1. 11. read, a great defect. p. 47. in marg. r. The new model. p. 54. 1. 9. r. affairs. p. 226. 1. 3. from below, r. all the four. P. 357I. 25. r. in the Country. p. 363. 1. 9. r. he was made. p. 394. 1. 5. r. or to labour. p. 396. 1. 12. r. tho' this was ordered. p. 429. 1. 18. r. or as the French. p. 493. 1. 4. from below, r. to keep all things. p. 511. 1. 18. r. that knew not.

TABLE

OF THE CONTENTS

Of the firft Volume.

BOOK I

A fummary Recapitulation of the state of affairs

in Scotland, both in Church and State, from

the beginning of the Troubles to the Ref

toration of King Charles II. 1660.

'HE diftractions during King James's mino-

rity.

The practices of the Houfe of Guife.

King James in the intereft of England.