BUR 



122 



BUR 



Burnet. 



Burmannia two market-houses, and the best jail in the state. 

 Burlington is a free port, and possesses a very com- 

 modious harbour ; but its vicinity to Philadelphia 

 renders these advantages of little consequence. In 

 the island are 160 houses, and about 1000 inhabi- 

 tants, of which above 100 are negroes. North lati- 

 tude 40 5', We?t longitude 73 54'. See Morse's 

 American Geography, p. 299. (L) 



BURMANNIA, a genus of plants of the class 

 Hexandria, and order Monogynia. See BOTANY, 

 p. 183. 



BURN. See SURGERY. 



BURNET, THOMAS, according to the general 

 opinion, founded on an inadvertent expression of 

 Anthony Wood, was born in Scotland ; but it ap- 

 pears, from the more respectable authority of Birch's 

 Life of Tillotson, that his native place was Croft in 

 Yorkshire. At the grammar school of North Al- 

 verton he made great proficiency, and was often held 

 up by his master as an example to the rest of the 

 scholars. In 1651, he was admitted of Clarehall in 

 Cambridge, where he had for his tutor Mr Tillot- 

 son, who was afterwards archbishop of Canterbury ; 

 and, in 1654, he went to Christ College, of which 

 the learned Dr Cud worth had obtained the master- 

 ship. In 1657, he was chosen fellow of that house. 

 In 1658, he took the degree of A. M. ; and, in 1661, 

 was chosen senior proctor of the university. He 

 travelled for some time with the Earl of Wiltshire ; 

 and, besides this, was governor to Charles, Duke of 

 Bolton, and to James, Earl of Ossory, who was 

 grandson to James, the first Duke of Ormond. 

 Through the patronage and influence of the Duke, 

 he was chosen master of the charter-house in Lon- 

 don, and soon after took orders in the church. While 

 in that situation, he distinguished himself by oppo- 

 sing, with equal vigour and success, an attempt on 

 the part of James II. to place one Andrew Popham, 

 a Papist, as a pensioner on the charter-house foun- 

 dation. The other governors, with the exception 

 of Chancellor Jefferys, supported him in this bold 

 measure ; and the monarch, meeting with such de- 

 termined resistance, abandoned his purpose. In 

 1680, he published his Telluris Thcoria Sacra, a 

 work which was much celebrated in its day, but has 

 long since given place to new speculations, more ac- 

 cordant to the phenomena of nature, though equally 

 insufficient to account for them all. It received high 

 applause from several authors of repute, particularly 

 from Bayle (Letter to L'Enfant), The Spectator 

 (No. 146'), and Mr Addison individually, who in- 

 dited a fine Latin ode on the occasion ; and it must 

 be allowed to have a just claim to the praise of great 

 learning, ingenious disquisition, and elegant latinity. 

 But it is very extravagant in some things, very un- 

 sound in others, and, upon the whole, amounts to 

 little more than a beautiful geological romance. In 

 point both of philosophy and religion, it has been 

 deemed highly objectionable; and it no sooner made its 

 appearance, than it was answered and condemned in va- 

 rious pamphlets, to which the author replied with abili- 

 ty. Among many others, Mr Keill the mathematician, 

 in an examination of the theory, pointed.out its incon- 

 sistencies as a work of science ; and Herbert Crofts, 

 Bishop of Hereford, animadverted with great keen- 



ness on its heterodox and anti-scriptural principles. 

 Some very judicious and candid remarks on the me- 

 rits of this theory, are to be found in Dr Wallace's 

 Various Prospects of Mankind, Nature, and Provi- 

 dence. After the revolution, Dr Burnet was ap- 

 pointed chaplain in ordinary to King William. He 

 was also, through the interest of Archbishop Tii- 

 lotson, appointed clerk of the closet to that prince. 

 But from this place he was removed in 1692, on ac- 

 count, it is said with some appearance of probabi- 

 lity, of the offence which he had given to the clergy 

 by the publication of his Arc/urologies Philosophical. 

 That work, indeed, was by no means orthodox. It 

 called in question the literal history of the fall ; and 

 contained an imaginary dialogue between Eve and the 

 serpent, so extremely objectionable, that the author 

 himself, who was sufficiently firm and opinionative in 

 other cases, was very solicitous to have it suppressed 

 in the subsequent editions of his book. It was un- 

 derstood, that this circumstance, along with the ge- 

 neral suspicion entertained of his religious senti- 

 ments, produced a combination among the superior 

 clergy to prevent him from obtaining that prefer- 

 ment in the church which, through the friendship of 

 Tillotson, and the favour of King William, he might 

 otherwise have expected to receive. So sceptical, 

 indeed, was he accounted, and so strong was the 

 prejudice against him, that all thoughts of his pro- 

 motion were laid aside. He died in the year 1715. 

 After his death, two posthumous treatises were pub- 

 lished. The one was entitled Defide et Officiis Chris- 

 tianorum, in which he endeavours to give a compend 

 of the doctrines and duties of Christianity, exclud- 

 ing what appears to him to be doubtful or unim- 

 portant, and insisting only on what he conceives to 

 be of essential moment in both. This plan, it is 

 evident, is liable to great abuse, and could not be 

 very fairly executed by a man who, like Dr Burnet, 

 considered rather what should be, than what actual- 

 ly is, in the Christian revelation. The other trea- 

 tise was entitled De Statu Mortuorum et Resurgen- 

 tiiim. The leading point which he here maintains is, 

 that the future punishment of the wicked is to be 

 but temporary, and to terminate in salvation. Of 

 this doctrine, which has been more taught by senti- 

 mental philosophers than by scriptural divines, the 

 author perceived the dangerous consequences ; and 

 fearful, if not certain, that it would materially in- 

 jure the interests of virtue among the bulk of man- 

 kind, he earnestly protested, in a note, against its 

 being translated. The caution, however, was de- 

 spised ; for Dennis translated not only the book 

 which contained the doctrine, but the note also in 

 which its immoral tendency was acknowledged. Be- 

 sides the productions already mentioned, it was dis- 

 covered, after Dr Burnet's decease, that he had 

 written three tracts against Locke's Essay concern- 

 ing Human Understanding, the first of which was 

 animadverted upon by Locke himself, and all of 

 which were answered by Mrs Cockburn in her able 

 defence of that celebrated essay. See Biographia 

 Britannica ; Birch's Life of Tillotson ; and the Life 

 of Dr Thomas Burnet, prefixed to the translation of 

 the Archaiologice. (r) 



BURNET, GILBEUT, Bishop of Sarum, was 



Burnet, 

 Thomas. 



