Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/309

 was brought to trial, Burges was the foremost, at great personal risk, in protesting against the proceeding with his usual freedom and vigour. On 14 Jan. 1649, the day preceding that on which the king was brought from Windsor to be arraigned before the high court of justice, Burges preached at Mercers' Chapel, denouncing the measure in the strongest terms. He and his friends had taken up the cause of the parliament, as he declared in the ‘Vindication,’ published while the trial was in progress, ‘not to bring his majesty to justice (as some now speak), but to put him in a better capacity to do justice.’ About 1650 Burges obtained an appointment at Wells as preacher in the cathedral. In July 1656 there was a warm dispute about his exclusive right to officiate there. Burges objected to an arrangement by which the inhabitants of St. Cuthbert's parish were to hold their services in the cathedral. The ground of his objection does not appear; Stoughton conjectures that the other congregation was of the independent sort. His preaching was unwelcome. The citizens walked up and down the cloisters all sermon-time, and the constables had to be called in. About this time Burges invested his property in the purchase of alienated church lands, including the manor of Wells and the deanery which he rebuilt. He is said to have behaved with great rapacity, to have stripped the lead from the cathedral, to have used the proceeds to enlarge the deanery in which he lived, and to have let out the gatehouses as cottages. At the Restoration his investment (for which he had been offered over 12,000l. in the previous year) was taken from him without recompense. Hence he was reduced to want, his pension was gone, he was suffering from cancer in the neck and cheek. He still had a house at Watford, and there he lived, attending the church in which he had formerly preached; he was compelled to part with his library for bread. He made application to Sir Richard Browne, lord mayor of London in 1660, who promised to provide for him if he would preach a recantation sermon in St. Paul's, and on his refusal flung him a gratuity of 3l. Calamy describes him as ejected from St. Andrew's, Wells (which is the cathedral); this must have taken place before the Act of Uniformity. He was a worn-out man, yet, but for his maladies, he might have kept his old lead. It was his hand that drew up the ‘Reasons’ of the country ministers desiring reforms in the church at the Restoration, to which the authorities turned a deaf ear. He died at Watford, where he was buried in the church on 9 June 1665. He was married and left a son. By his will, dated Watford, 16 May 1665, he bequeathed his collection of prayer-books, the sole treasures saved from his library, to his ‘dear and much-honoured mother, the renowned university of Oxford.’ The opposite writers speak of him with a bitterness which may be explained by his proceedings at Wells. Wood gloats over his miseries, Echard and Zachary Grey load his memory with reproaches. There was a spice of the demagogue in his temper; he had the popular ear, and liked leadership. Yet in ecclesiastical politics he was for moderate measures; in civil affairs he stood as the consistent advocate of constitutional freedom.

He published: 1. ‘A Chain of Graces drawn out at length for Reformation of Manners,’ 1622, 12mo. 2. ‘A New Discovery of Personal Tithes; or the 10th part of men's cleere gaines proved due,’ &c., 1625, 8vo. 3. ‘The fire of the Sanctuarie newly uncovered, or a compleat tract of zeal,’ 1625, 12mo (this was answered in an anonymous pamphlet, ‘A Whip,’ &c., 1643; and the pamphlet answered by Francis Quarles in ‘The Whipper Whipt: being a reply upon a scandalous pamphlet called The Whip abusing that excellent work,’ &c., 1644, 4to). 4. ‘Baptismal Regeneration of Elect Infants professed by the Church of England, according to the Scriptures, the Primitive Church, the present Reformed Churches, and many particular Divines apart,’ Oxford, 1629, 4to. 5. ‘The First Sermon preached before the House of Commons at their publique Fast, 17 Nov. 1640,’ 1641, 4to (from Jer. 1. 5, published originally with a sermon by Marshall; it ran through three editions). 6. ‘A Vindication of the Nine Reasons of the House of Commons against the Votes of Bishops in Parliament; or a Reply to the Answers made to the said Reasons in defence of such votes,’ 1641, 4to (this is anonymous, but is given to Burges both by Wood and Calamy; the ‘Answers’ were by Bishop Williams). 7. ‘A Sermon before the House of Commons, 5 Nov.’ 1641, 4to (from Ps. lxxvii. 10). 8. ‘The Necessity and Benefit of Washing the Heart, a sermon before the House of Commons, 30 March,’ 1642, 4to (from Jer. iv. 14). 9. ‘The Vanity and Mischief of the Thoughts of an Heart Unwashed, a sermon before the House of Commons on their day of humiliation, 30 April,’ 1645, 4to (also from Jer. iv. 14; this and the preceding were reprinted together, ‘Two Sermons preached to the House of Commons at two publike Fasts,’ &c., 1645, 4to). 10. ‘The Necessity of Agreement with God; a sermon preached before the House of Peers, 29 Oct., being the monethly Fast,’ 1645, 4to. 11. ‘Sion College, what it is and doth. A Vindication of that Society against