of the court. He was, soon after, chosen a lecturer of St. Clement's, and became one of the preachers that were most followed in town. In 1679, he published his "History of the Reformation," for which he had the thanks of both houses of parliament. The first part of it was published in 1679, and the second in 1681. The next year, he published an abridgment of these two parts.

Mr. Burnet, about this time, happened to be sent for to a woman in sickness, who had been engaged in an amour with the Earl of Rochester. The manner in which he treated her during her illness, gave that lord a great curiosity for being acquainted with him: whereupon, for a whole winter, he spent one evening in a week with Dr. Burnet, who discoursed with him upon all those topics, upon which skeptics and men of loose morals attack the Christian religion. The happy effect of these conferences occasioned the publication of the life and death of that earl. 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 went, for above a year through a course of chemical experiments. Not long after, he refused a living of 3001. a year offered him by the Earl of Essex, on the terms of his not residing there, but in London. When the inquiry concerning the popish plot was on foot, he was frequently sent for and

consulted by King Charles, with relation te the state of the nation. His Majesty 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. About this time he published several pieces.

On King James' accession to the throne, having obtained leave to go out of the kingdom, he first went to Paris, and lived there 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 II. hearing of our author's arrival, sent the captain of the Swiss guards to acquaint him he would give him a private audience in bed to avoid the ceremony of kissing His Holines's slipper. But Dr. Burnet excused himself as well as he could. Some disputes which our author had here, concerning religion, beginning to be taken notice of, made it proper for him to quit the city: which, upon an inimation given him by the Prince Borghese, he accordingly did.

He pursued his travels through Switzerland and Germany. In 1688, he came to Utrecht. with an intention to settle in some one of the Seven Provinces. There he received an invitation from the Prince and Princess of Orange (to whom their party in England had recom

mended him) to come to the Hague, which he accepted. He was soon made acquainted with the secret of their counsels, and advised the fitting out of a fleet in Holland, sufficient to support their designs and encourage their friends. This, and the "Account of his Travels," in which he endeavoured to blend tyranny and popery together, and represent them as inseparable, with some papers reflecting on the proceedings of England, that came out in single sheets, and were dispersed in several parts of England, most of which Mr. Burnet owned himself the author of, alarmed King James; and were the occasion of his writing twice against him to the Princess of Orange, and insisting by his ambassador, on his being forbid the court which, after much importunity, was done, though he continued to be trusted and employed as before, the Dutch minister consulting him daily. To put an end to these frequent conferences with the minister,sa prosecution for high treason was set on foot against him, both in England and Scotland. But Burnet receiving the news thereof before it arrived at 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 Scot, a Dutch lady of considerable fortune, who, with the advantages of birth, had those of a fine person and understanding.

After his marriage with this lady, being le

gally under the protection of Holland, when Mr. Burnet found King James plainly subverting the constitution, he omitted no method to support and promote the design the Prince of Orange had formed of delivering Great-Britain, and came over with him in quality of chaplain. He was soon advanced to the sea 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 declaring for the toleration of nonconformists. His pastoral letter concerning the oaths of allegiance and supremacy to King William and Queen Mary, 1689, happened to touch upon the right of conquest, gave such offence to both houses of parliament, that it was ordered to be burnt by the hands of the common executioner. In 1698, he lost his wife by the small pox; and as he was almost immediately after appointed preceptor to the Duke of Gloucester, in whose education he took great care, this employment, and the tender age of his children, induced him the same year to supply her loss by a marriage with Mrs. Berkely, eldest daughter of Sir Richard Blake, knight. In 1699, he published his "Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles;" which occasioned a representation against him in the lower house of Convocation, in the year 1701; but he was vindicated in the upper house. His speech in the House of Lords, in 1704, against the bill to prevent occasional conformity, was se

verely attacked. He died in 1715, and was interred in the church of St. James, Clerkenwell, where he has a monument erected to him. He formed a scheme for augmenting the poor livings; which he pressed forward with such success, that it ended in an act of Parliament, passed in the second year of Queen Anne, "for the augmentation of the livings of the poor clergy."