Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/315

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Burgess
309
Burgess

mixing unction with ‘incoherence and ribaldry' (Tatler, 10 Sept. 1709). Tom Brown, who takes his Indian to Russel] Court, deals chiefly with the congregation, but his hint of Burgess's ‘pop-gun way of delivery’ is in harmony with his style of composition. It is full of epigram, terse, quaint, clear, and never meaningless or dull. Caulfield reproduces it curious contemporary print of Burgess and his congregation. Among current stories of his pulpit wit the best is that which makes him say that the Jews were called Israelites because God did not choose that. his people should be called Jacobites. His very sensible discourse on ‘Foolish Talking and Jesting described and condemned' (Eph. v. 4), 1694, 16mo, is of moment in view of his own practice and repute. Briefly, he contends that ‘no jesting is lawful but what is medicinal, and restorative of spirits for nobler thoughts’ (p. 69). In theology he was Calvinistical.

Burgess’s last years were damped by the defection from his flock and by sickness. ‘If I must be idle,’ he said, ‘I had rather be idle under ground than idle above ground.’ He died on 26 Jan. 1713, and was buried on 31. Jan. in the church of St. Clement Danes. Matthew Henry preached his funeral sermon.

Of Burgess's publications Bogue and Bennett give, after Henry, an imperfect list of thirty-two without gates, beginning with ‘Soliloquies’ which he printed in Ireland, and ending with a Latin defence of nonconformity, ‘Appellatio ad Fratres exteros.’ Among his works are: 1. ‘A Call to Sinners,’ 1689, 8vo (written at the request of Baron Rotheram, for the use of condemned criminals). 2. ‘Seasonable Words for English Protestants,’ 1690, 4to. 3. ‘The Characters of a Godly Man,’ 1691, 8vo. 4. ‘Eighteen Directions for Saving Conversion to God,’ 1691, 8vo. 5. ‘The Death and Rest, Resurrection and blessed Portion of the Saints’ (Dan. xii. 13), 1692, 12mo. 6. ‘A Discourse of the Death and Resurrection of good Men’s Bodies,’ 1692, 8vo. 7. ‘The Confirming Work of Religion,’ 1693, Svo. 8. ‘The Sure Way to Wealth . . . even while Taxes rise and Trades sink,’ 1693, 8vo. 9. ‘Rules for hearing the Word of God,’ &c., 2nd ed. 1693, 8vo. 10. ‘Holy Union and Holy Contention, &c.’ 1695, 8vo. 11. ‘Rules and Motives to Holy Prayer,’ 1696, 8vo. 12. ‘Causa Dei; or Counsel to the Rich,’ 1697, 8vo. 13. ‘The Golden Snuffers’ [Ex. xxxvii. 23], 1697, 12mo (a favourite illustration with him, see Foolish Talking, p. 93. This was the first sermon preached to the Societies for the Reformation of Manners). He superintended the third edition (?1681) of Robert Fleming's ‘The Fulfilling of the Scripture.' The famous whig tract, ‘The Craftsmen: a Sermon . . . composed by the late Daniel Burgess, and intended to be preached by him in the High Times, but prevented by the Burning of his Meeting House,’ in ‘Indep. Whig,’ ii. 236, and separate, 2nd ed. 1720, 8vo, is by Thomas Gordon. Burgess married a Mrs. Briscoe, and had two daughters and a son.

Daniel Burgess, M.A. (d. February 1747), son of Daniel Burgess (d. 1718), seems to have had the status of a minister, for ‘Daniel Burgess’ appears among the signatures to the non-subscribers’ advices for peace at Salters’ Hall, 10 March 1719; but in 1702 he received a government appointment, and in 1714 was sent to Hanover as secretary and reader to the Princess Sophia. He held the same post to the Princess of Wales, and, according to Calamy, ‘of his own head’ made the Hrst motion to Viscount Townshend for an English regium donum, which was paid (500l. half-yearly) through him from April 1723. He published ‘A Letter to the Bishop of Salisbury, occasioned by his Son’s Letter to the Earl of Halifax,’ 1715, 8vo (anon.); and ‘A Short Account of the Roman Senate,’ 1729, 4to.

[Henry’s Funeral Sermon for Burgess, 1713; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, p. 872; Walker’s Sufferings of the Clergy, 1714. ii. 92 (wrongly numbered 94), 336, 373; Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial, 1802, pp. 296, 330; Prot. Diss. Mag. vol. vi.; Bogue and Bennett’s Hist. of Dissenters, 1809, ii, 270 seq.; Salmon's Chron. Hist. 1733, p. 320; T. Brown's Works, 9th ed. 1760, iii. 100; Caulfield’s Portraits, 1819, i. 52; Calamy’s Hist. Account of my own Life, 2nd ed. 1830, ii. 465 seq.; Walter Wilson's MSS. in Dr. William's Library.]

A. G.

BURGESS, HENRY, LL.D. (1808–1886), divine, born in 1808, was educated in the Dissenting College at Stepney, where he obtained a high standing in Hebrew and classical learning. After ministering to a nonconformist congregation, he was ordained deacon in 1850 and priest in 1861 by Dr. Lee, bishop of Manchester. He took the degree of LL.D, at Glasgow University in 1851 and that of Ph.D. at the university of Göttingen in the following year. He held the perpetual curacy of Clifton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, from 1854 to 1861, when he was appointed by the lord chancellor to the vicarage of St. Andrew, Whittlesea, Cambridgeshire, in recognition of his services to theological learning. That benefice he held till his death on 10 Feb. 1886.

His principal works are: 1. A translation from the Syriac language of the ‘Metrical Hymns and Homilies of St. Ephrem Syrus,