BURN. See St 111.1..lt Y.
Bf I; N ar cordin Tram al up aioti, founded on an inadyertent CNI)11•`. .10 1 a Wood, was born un Scotland ; but it aim( at , I. the nio•e r( spectable authority of Bird'', Lif Ti its,n, that 1 native ',lac( was Croft in Yorkshire. \t the •,Iananu1 • school of c mutt he made '~rent protic'ency, was often held up b'' I is toaster as an e.:• mph t t1 c r•-,• of the chular,. In he was admito d in Cambridge, „her., 11•• had for his tutor 'All Tillotson. who was ;Stens ards archbishop of Cantelbury ; and, it 1654., he went to Christ College, or V. hid' II Dr Cudv.orth had obtained the mast( r .hip. In 1657, In was chosen f( llow of that hotly:. 1 n 10,58. Ih• wok the degree of A. JI. ; and, in 1661, etas chosen sf !dor pro( tor of the university. lie trar Ilcd f some time wit! the Earl of Wiltshire ; and, beside s this. was governor to Charles, Duke of Bohol', and to J, me s, Earl of OssorY who was grandson to James, the first Duke of On nond Through the patronage and influence of the Duke, he was chosen master of the charter-house in London, and soon after took orders in the church. While in that situ ation, he distinguished hints( If by. opposing, with equal yigour and success, an attempt on the part of James II to place one Andrew Popham, a Papist, as a pensioner on the charter-house foundation. The other governors, with the exception of Chancellor J. fferys, supported hint in this bold measure ; and the monarch, meeting with such determined resistance, abandoned his purpose In 1680, he published his Telluris T/z-oria Sacra, a work which was much celebrated in its day, but has long since given place to new speculations, more accordant to the phenomena of nature, though e fli fly insufficient to ac count for them all. It received high applause from seve ral authors of repute. particularly front Bayle (Letter to L'Enfant), The Spectator No. 14 "0, and Mr Addison individually, yr Ito hulked a line Latin ode on the occasion; and it must be allowed to have a just claim to the praise of great learni ingenious eisluisition, and elegant latinite, But it is y ere extravagant in some things, very unsound in others, upon tr hole, amounts to lit tle than a Itc;?utilul geological romance. point both of philosophy and religion, it has been deemed highly objectionable ; and ie no sooner made its appear ance, than it was answered and condvineed in various pamphlets, to which the author replied 'a ith Among many others, Mr Neill the nrathernatieem. in ..n examination of the theory, pointed out 'ts ;la onsistcheies as a work of science ; and Herhert Cis fts, BisI op of Hereford, animadverted with great keenness un its ha te rodox and anti-seriptural principles. Some very judicious and candid remarks on the merits of tais theory. are to be found in Dr Wallace's Various Prospects cf .Manktnal, Nature, and Providchcr. _liter the revolution, Dr Bur net was appointed chaplain in ordinary to King William.
He was also, through the interest of Archbishop Tillot son, appointed clerk of the closet to that prince. But from this place he was removed in 1692, on account, it is said with some appearance of probability, of the offence which he had given to the clergy by the publication of his Archxologix Philosophicte. 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 understood, that this circumstance, along with the general suspicion entertained of his religious sentiments, produced a combination among the superior clergy to prevent him fi om obtaining that preferment 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, l•as he accounted, and so strong was the prejudice against him, that all thoughts of his promotion were laid aside. He died in the year 1715. After his death, two posthumous treatises were publish ed. The one was entitled De fide et Officiis Christiano rum, in which he endeavours to give a compend of the doctrines and duties of Christianity, excluding what ap pears to him to be doubtful or unimportant, 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 fairly executed by a man, who, like Dr Burnet, considered rather what should be, than what actually is, in the Christian revelation. The other trea tise was entitled De State Jllortuorum et Resurgentium. 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 sentimental philosophers than by scriptural divines, the author perceived the dangerous consequences ; and fearful, if not certain, that it would materially injure the interests of virtue among the bulk of mankind, he earnestly protested, in a note, against its being translated. The caution, however, was despised; for Dennis translated not only the book which contained the doctrine, but the note also in which its immoral ten dency was acknowledged. Besides the productions alrea dy mentioned, it was discovered, after Dr Burnet's de cease, that he had written three tracts against Locke's Essay concerning 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 Bri tannica ; Birch's Life of Tillotson ; and the Life of Dr Thomas Burnet, prefixed to the translation of the Arch = logic. (r)