BISHOP BURNET'S

HISTORY OF HIS OWN TIME.

BISHOP BURNET'S

HISTORY OF HIS OWN TIME:

FROM THE

RESTORATION OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND

TO THE TREATY OF PEACE AT UTRECHT,

IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.

A New Edition,

WITH HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

LONDON:

WILLIAM S. ORR & CO., AMEN CORNER,
PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCL.

INTRODUCTION.

APPILY for his own mental tranquillity, but unfortunately for his contemporary fame, Dr. Gilbert Burnet was a firm advocate

for universal toleration. Living at a period when political partisanship and religious bigotry were stimulated to frantic excesses, it ceases to be a cause of astonishment that he was never entirely trusted, or unreservedly praised, by either of the extreme parties who then convulsed the nation-each was then struggling to obtain supreme dominion over the other, in the civil and religious institutions of our constitution. Dr. Burnet was a bishop, and he stood unflinchingly by the episcopal church: so far he was approved by the high church or Tory party; but he found fault with the conduct of the bishops, who were forced upon, and who rode rough-shod over the Scottish people; at the same time he deprecated the persecution of men whose only offence was that they preferred a presbyterian form of church government. This was enough to convince those, who lay it down as a principle that an opponent must be wrong in the superlative, that Burnet was a presbyterian at heart, though an episcopalian from interest: they, therefore, never trusted, much less did they advance him. He supported their measures when he approved of them, and was drily thanked: he reproved them, not even sparing the monarch for his sins, and in return was hated.

As the advocate of toleration for all political and religious creeds, he was admired and courted by those who suffered by the laws and government, which were actuated by a contrary spirit; yet he did not go far or fast enough to satisfy them: he would not have them punished, or even deprived of their civil rights, merely because they differed with him in certain opinions; but as he did not prefer a presbyterial to an episcopal church-as he always held it as a fixed principle, that resistance to an established government is not lawful

Dr. Burnet's father was the younger brother of a family distinguished for its antiquity, and considerable for its influence, in the shire of Aberdeen. He was educated for the profession of a civilian; and although his excessive modesty prevented him appearing to advantage at the bar, yet he was generally esteemed a proficient in the knowledge of the civil law. He was eminent for probity and generosity in his practice: from the poor he never took a fee, nor from a clergyman when he sued in the cause of his church. In the year 1637, when the troubles in Scotland were breaking out, he censured so warmly the conduct of its bishops, and was so remarkable for his exemplary life, that he was generally called a puritan. But when he saw that, instead of reforming the abuses of the bishops, episcopacy itself was struck at, he declared himself its supporter with zeal and constancy. He as firmly maintained the rights of the crown against the attacks of the party which afterwards prevailed in both nations; for, although he agreed with Barclay and Grotius that resist

ance is lawful when the laws are broken through by a limited monarch, yet he did not think that was then the case in Scotland.

Dr. Burnet's mother was very eminent for her piety and virtue. She was a sister of the celebrated sir Archibald Johnston, called lord Warriston, who, during the civil war, headed the presbyterian party. Of their religious discipline she was a zealous admirer; but neither her influence, nor the exercised power of her brother, could ever induce her husband to swerve in his adhesion to the cause of monarchy and the episcopal church. Exile, and the offers of preferment made to him by Oliver Cromwell, were alike unavailing; so that, when permitted to return to Scotland, he lived retired upon his own estate, until the Restoration. He was then made one of the lords of session.

Under his parents, the early education of our author was pursued, and the fruits of their instruction and example are apparent throughout his career.-Life by the Author's Son.

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