(Gilbert), bishop of Salisbury in the latter end of the 16th century, was born at Edinburgh, in 1643, of an ancient family in the shire of Aberdeen. His father being bred to the law, was, at the restoration of king Charles II, appointed one of the lords of session, with the title of lord Grimond, in reward for his constant attachment to the royal party during the troubles of Great Britain. Our author, the youngest son of his father, was instructed by him in the Latin tongue; at ten years of age he was sent to continue his studies at Aberdeen, and was admitted M.A. before he was 14. His own inclination led him to the study of the civil and feudal law; and he used to say, that it was from this study he had received more just notions concerning the foundations of civil society and government, than those which some divines maintain. About a year after, he changed his mind, and began to apply to divinity, to the great satisfaction of his father. He was admitted preacher before he was 18; and Sir Alexander Burnet, his cousin-german, offered him a benefice; but he refused to accept of it.

In 1663, about two years after the death of his father, he came into England; and after six months stay at Oxford and Cambridge, returned to Scotland; which he soon left again to make a tour for some months, in 1664, in Holland and France. At Amsterdam, by the help of a Jewish rabbi, he perfected himself in the Hebrew language; and likewise became acquainted with the leading men of the different persuasions tolerated in that country; as Calvinists, Arminians, Lutherans, Anabaptists, Brownists, Papists, and Unitarians; amongst each of which he used frequently to declare, he met with men of such unfeigned piety and virtue, that he became fixed in a strong principle of universal charity, and an invincible abhorrence of all severities on account of religious differences.

Upon his return from his travels, he was admitted minister of Salton; in which station he served five years in the most exemplary manner. He drew up a memorial, in which he took notice of the principal errors in the conduct of the Scots bishops, which he observed not to be conformable to the primitive institution; and sent a copy of it to several of them. This exposed him to their resentments; but, to show he was not actuated with a spirit of ambition, he led a retired course of life for two years; which so endangered his health, that he was obliged to abate his excessive application to study. In 1669, he published his "Modest and free conference between a conformist and non-conformist." He became acquainted with the duchess of Hamilton, who communicated to him all the papers belonging to her father and her uncle; upon which he drew up the "Memoirs of the dukes of Hamilton." The duke of Lauderdale, hearing he was about this work, invited him to London, and introduced him to king Charles II. He returned to Scotland, and married the lady Margaret Kennedy, daughter of the earl of Cassilis; a lady of great piety and knowledge, highly esteemed by the presbyterians, to whose sentiments she was strongly inclined. As there was some disparity in their ages, that it might remain past dispute that this match was wholly owing to inclination, and not to avarice or ambition, the day before their marriage our author delivered the lady a deed, whereby he renounced all pretensions to her fortune, which was very considerable, and must otherwise have fallen into his hands, she herself having no intention to secure it. The same year he published his "Vindication of the authority, constitution, and laws of the church and state of Scotland;" which at that juncture was looked upon as so great a service, that he was again offered a bishopric, and a promise of the next vacant archbishopric; but but did not accept of it, because he could not approve of the measures of the court, the grand view of which he saw to be the advancement of popery.

Mr Burnet's intimacy with the duke of Hamilton and Lauderdale occasioned him to be frequently sent for by the king and the duke of York, who had conversations with him in private. But Lauderdale conceiving a resentment against him on account of the freedom with which he spoke to him, represented at last to the king, that Dr Burnet was engaged in an opposition to his measures. Upon his return to London, he perceived that these suggestions had entirely thrown him out of the king's favour, though the duke of York treated him with greater civility than ever, and dissuaded him from going to Scotland. Upon this, he resigned his professorship at Glasgow, and sailed for London. About this time the living at Cripplegate being vacant, the dean and chapter of St Paul's (in whose gift it was), hearing of his circumstances, and the hardships he had undergone, sent him an offer of the benefice; but as he had been informed of their first intention of conferring it on Dr Fowler, he generously declined it. In 1675, at the recommendation of lord Hollis, whom he had known in France, ambassador at that court, he was, by Sir Herbert Grinstead, master of the rolls, appointed preacher of the chapel there, notwithstanding the opposition 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 1697, 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. 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 sceptics and men of loose morals attack the Christian religion. The happy effect of these conferences occasioned the publication of his account of the life and death of that earl. In 1682, when the administration was changed in favour of the duke of York, being much referred 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 300l. 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 to 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's accession to the throne, having obtained leave to go out of the kingdom, he first went to Paris, and lived 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 killing his holiness'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 intimation given him by 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 of the seven provinces. There he received an invitation from the prince and princess of Orange (to whom their party in England had recommended 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 Popery and tyranny 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 ministers, a 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 advantage of birth, had those of a fine person and understanding.

After his marriage with this lady, being legally 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 of 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 see 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, happening 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 Berkeley. Burnet, eldest daughter of Sir Richard Blake, knight. In 1699 he published his Exposition of the 39 articles; which occasioned a representation against him in the lower house of convocation in the year 1701; but he was vindicated by the upper house. His speech in the house of lords in 1704 against the bill to prevent occasional conformity was severely 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 2nd year of queen Anne, "for the augmentation of the livings of the poor clergy."

Burnet (Thomas), a polite and learned writer in the end of the 17th century, was born in Scotland, but educated in Cambridge under the tuition of Mr John Tillotson, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. In the beginning of 1685, he was made master of Sutton's hospital in London, after which he entered into holy orders. During the reign of king James, he made a noble stand in his post as master of the charter-house against the encroachments of that monarch, who would have imposed one Andrew Popham, a Papist, as a pensioner upon the foundation of that house. In 1680 he published his Telluris theoria sacra, so universally admired for the purity of the style and beauty of the sentiments, that king Charles gave encouragement to a translation of it into English. This theory was however attacked by several writers. In 1692 he published his Archaeologia philosophica, dedicated to king William, to whom he was clerk of the closet. He died in 1715.

Since his death hath been published, his book De flatus mortuorum et resurgentium, and his treatise De fide et officio Christianorum.

botany. See Poterium and Sangui-sorba.