248
death a third volume of his History of the Reforma-
tion. In the month of March, 1715, he was attacked
with a pleuritic fever, which carried him off, being
in the seventy-second year of his age. He was
married first to the Lady Margaret Kennedy, daughter
to the Earl of Cassillis, celebrated for her beauty and
her wit. Secondly, to Mrs. Mary Scott, a Dutch
lady of noble extraction and large fortune, by whom
he had three sons. Thirdly, to Mrs. Berkeley, a
widow lady of singular talents and uncommon piety,
by whom he had no issue.
From the brief sketch which we have given of the
principal events of his life, it is evident that Dr.
Burnet possessed a vigorous understanding, and was
a man of great piety and unwearied perseverance.
Early prepossessions, however, which, vigorous as
his understanding was, he evidently could not over-
come, made him the dupe of a system antiscriptural
and superstitious—a system which, whatever it may
seem to promise in theory, has in practice been found
cumbersome and inefficient—a system which, while
it provides for a few of the privileged orders of the
clergy, leaves all the rest, together with the great
body of the people, to want, contempt, and ignorance.
What man as a bishop could do, Dr. Burnet, while
Bishop of Salisbury, appears to have done; but he
was hampered on all hands by insurmountable abuses,
originally inherent, or growing naturally out of the
legalized order of things. His consistorial court he
found to have become a grievance, both to clergy
and laity, and he attended for years in person to
correct it. But the true foundation of complaint he
found to be the dilatory course of proceedings, and
the exorbitant fees, which he had no authority to
correct. He could not even discharge poor suitors
who were oppressed with vexatious prosecutions
otherwise than by paying their fees out of his own
pocket, which he frequently did, and this was all the
reform he was able to accomplish. In admitting to
orders, he met with so much ignorance and thought-
less levity, that, for the benefit of the church, he
formed a nursery at Salisbury, under his own eye,
for students of divinity, to the number of ten, to each
of whom he allowed a sum of money out of his own
income for his subsistence, and in this way he reared
up several young men who became eminent in the
church; but this was soon discovered to be a designed
affront put upon the method of education followed
at Oxford, and he was compelled to give it up.
Pluralities he exclaimed against as sacrilegious rob-
bery; and in his first visitation at Salisbury quoted
St. Bernard, who, being consulted by a priest
whether he might not accept of two benefices, re-
plied, "And how will you be able to serve them?"
"I intend," said the priest, "to officiate in one of
them by deputy?" "Will your deputy be damned
for you too?" said the saint; "believe me, you may
serve your cure by proxy, but you must be damned
in person." This quotation so affected one of his
hearers, Mr. Kilsey, that he resigned the rectory of
Bemerton, worth £200 a year, which he held along
with one of still greater value. The bishop was, at
the same time, from the poverty of the living, fre-
quently under the necessity of joining two of them
together to have them served at all, and sometimes
he found it necessary to help the incumbent out of
his own pocket into the bargain. These, with other
evils, it must be admitted, the doctor lost no oppor-
tunity to attempt having redressed, but alas! they
were and are inherent in the system. He travelled
over his diocese, which he found "ignorant to
scandal," catechizing and confirming with the zeal
of an apostle; and when he attended his duty in
parliament, he preached in some of the London
churches every Sabbath morning, and in the evening
lectured in his own house, where a number of persons
of distinction attended. So much conscientious
diligence, confined to a legitimate locality, could
scarcely have failed to produce a rich harvest of
gospel fruits. Scattered as it was over such a wide
surface, there is reason to fear that it was in a great
measure unprofitable.
While Dr. Burnet was a diligent instructor from
the pulpit, he was not less so from the press, having
published in his lifetime fifty-eight single sermons,
thirteen treatises or tracts on divinity, seventeen
upon Popery, twenty-six political and miscellaneous,
and twenty-four historical and biographical, to which
we may add The History of His Own Time, published
since his death. Some of these, particularly the
Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, the History of
the Reformation, and of his own times, still are, and
must long continue to be, especially the latter,
standard works. The History of His Own Time, it
has been happily observed, has received the best
testimony to its worth from its having given equal
offence to the bigoted and interested of all parties.
Take him all in all, perhaps no juster eulogium has
been passed upon him than that of Wodrow, who,
speaking of him as one of Leighton's preachers, calls
him "Mr. Gilbert Burnet, well known to the world
since first professor of divinity at Glasgow, and
after that persecuted for his appearing against Popery,
and for the cause of liberty, and since the Revolution
the learned and moderate Bishop of Sarum, one of
the great eyesores of the high-fliers and Tories of
England, and a very great ornament to his native
country."
BURNET, JAMES, better known by his judicial
designation of Lord Monboddo, was born at Mon-
boddo, in Kincardineshire, in the year 1714. He
was eldest surviving son of James Burnet, by
Elizabeth Forbes, only sister to Sir Arthur Forbes of
Craigievar, Baronet. For what reason is not known,
instead of being sent to a public school, he was
educated at home, under the care of Dr. Francis
Skene, afterwards professor of philosophy at the
Marischal College, Aberdeen. This gentleman dis-
charged his duty to his pupil with the utmost faith-
fulness, and succeeded in inspiring him with a taste
for ancient literature. He was the first that intro-
duced him to an acquaintance with the philosophy
of the ancients, of which Mr. Burnet became so
enthusiastic an admirer. Dr. Skene, being promoted
to a professorship, was the more immediate cause of
his pupil accompanying him to Aberdeen, and of
his being educated at the Marischal College in that
city. It is probable that he lodged with his precep-
tor, who of course would direct and superintend his
studies. Dr. Skene was a professor in that seminary
for the long period of forty-one years, and was uni-
versally acknowledged to be one of the most diligent
and laborious teachers that ever held the honourable
office.
What contribued, in a great degree, to fix Mr.
Burnet's attention upon the literature and philosophy
of the Greeks, was not only the instructions he had
received at home from his tutor, but that, when he
entered the university, Principal Blackwell had for
several years been professor of Greek. This person
was the great means of reviving the study of this
noble language in the north of Scotland; and one
of his greatest admirers and zealous imitators in the
prosecution of Grecian learning was Mr. Burnet.
Esteeming the philosophical works transmitted to
us by the Romans as only copies, or borrowed from
the Greeks, he determined to have recourse to the