Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/401

 for such men shows the bent of his mind towards tolerance and broad learning—were Leighton, just appointed bishop, and Charteris. Of Leighton he says he reckons his early knowledge of him, and his long and intimate conversation of twenty-three years with him, among the greatest blessings of his life. Of Nairn and Charteris—with the latter of whom his connection did not begin until after his return from abroad in 1664—he speaks in a similar way: ‘It was a great happiness for me, after I had broke into the world by such a ramble as I had made, that I fell into such hands. They both set me right and kept me right.’

In 1663, following the practice common with Scotch clergymen who could afford it, Burnet visited for a while the English universities, where he became acquainted with Cudworth, Pearson, Fell, Pococke, Wallis the mathematician, and other distinguished divines and men of science. From Oxford he went to London with an introduction to Boyle. The friendship, however, which he valued most, and to which he often refers as his chief good fortune in life, was that of Sir Robert Moray, the most learned of living Scotchmen.

Burnet meanwhile had been a careful observer of public affairs in his own country. He had formed his views of the probable results of the oppressive policy carried on by the archbishops, Sharp and Alexander Burnet, and by Rothes, the high commissioner. On the granting of a special commission to execute more stringently the ecclesiastical laws, he displayed the confidence which characterised him through life by freely expostulating with Lauderdale, the secretary, to whom, probably through Moray, Lauderdale's chief intimate, he had become known. He applied also to Sharp himself, though of course with no result. He was at this time but twenty-one years of age.

Burnet returned to Scotland after an absence of about six months. He was immediately offered the living of Saltoun in East Lothian, upon its approaching vacancy, by his father's friend, Sir Robert Fletcher of Saltoun, whose death not long after Burnet's final acceptance of the living was the occasion of his earliest published work, ‘the rude essay of an unpolished hand,’ viz. a discourse on his patron (Bannatyne Club Miscell. iii. 393). Apparently his services were sought elsewhere as well. In an unpublished letter, dated 17 March 1664, Robert Moray, writing to Kincardine from London, says: ‘Mr. Burnet delivered me on Tuesday last your letter of 26 Feb. I find him as much satisfied with you as you are with him. If there be no engagement upon him already, he will, I think, admit of none till he return, at least if it can be prevented; but it seems he conceives some to lie upon him already; and I am afraid my L. Lauderdale hath already been moved to procure a presentation for him from the king to Saltoun by the archbishop; but I mean to send in a word for delay if I find it true.’

Burnet, who was anxious to travel, wished the living to be given to Nairn; but Fletcher determined to keep it open for him until his return. Accordingly he went to Holland during this year, residing for some time in Amsterdam, where he mastered Hebrew, and became acquainted with the leading men of all religious persuasions. His stay in Holland still further strengthened his liberal views. From Holland he passed into France, where, through the friendship of the English ambassador, Lord Hollis, he enjoyed the best opportunities of observation, and where he had frequent intercourse with Daillé and Morus, the leading protestant ministers of Charenton. His visit to France established him, he says, in his love of law and liberty, and in his hatred of absolute power.

On his return to England at the end of the year Burnet stayed some months at the court, where he took care to make himself acquainted with all the men who were engaged with Scottish affairs. His intimacy with Moray and Lauderdale, who were for lenity in the treatment of the covenanters, and his friendship with Leighton, drew upon him the jealousy of the Scotch bishops, who regarded him as set up by Lauderdale to oppose their action. It was now that, upon the introduction of Robert Moray, the first president, Burnet became a member of the newly established Royal Society. Saltoun being now vacant, Fletcher again pressed it upon Burnet, who officiated for four months, at his own desire, upon probation, at the end of which time he received a unanimous call from the parishioners. He went through his first trials during November and December 1664, was inducted on 29 Jan. 1665, instituted on 15 June of the same year, and ‘approved’ at the visitation of 5 July 1666. On 9 May 1667 he became clerk of the presbytery of Haddington (Bannatyne Club Miscell. iii.) During the five years of his ministry he devoted himself, in a spirit very different from that of most of the Scottish clergy, to the duties of a parish priest. So entirely did he gain the affections of his people by his unwearied diligence and by his generosity, that, if we may believe the biography left by his son, he overcame the hostility even of the rigid presbyterians, in spite of the fact that he stood almost alone in making use of the Anglican prayers.