Anthony Burgess

BURGESS, ANTHONY (fl. 1652), divine, was a son of a schoolmaster at Watford, but not related to Cornelius Burgess the minister, or John Burgess [q. v.] his predecessor at Sutton Coldfield. He entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1623, and became fellow of Emmanuel. Here he was a tutor of the famous John Wallis, who mentions him with respect in the autobiographical notes prefixed to Hearne's edition of 'Langtoft.' He became vicar of Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. During the civil war he took refuge in Coventry, and lectured the parliamentary garrison. He was a member of the Westminster Assembly. After the Restoration he was ejected from Sutton Coldfield, and lived at Tamworth. The bishop of Lichfield (Hacket) is said to have begged him to conform, declaring that he was fit to be professor at a university. He published various separate sermons, including a funeral sermon on Thomas Blake, which Wood had not seen, but a copy of which is in the British Museum, and 1. 'Vindiciæ Legis, a Vindication of the Moral Law . . . (against Antinomians) in twenty-nine lectures at Lawrence Jury,' 1646. 2. 'The True Doctrine of Justification asserted . . . (against Arminians, &c.), in thirty lectures at Lawrence Jury,' 1648. 3. 'Spiritual Refining' (120 sermons), 1652. 4. 'Expository Sermons (145) on the 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John,' 1656. 5. 'The Scripture Directory ... a Practical Commentary upon the whole third chapter of the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, to which is annexed the Godly and Natural Man's Choice, &c.,' 1659. 6. 'Doctrine of Original Sin asserted,' 1659. [Palmer and Calamy, iii. 350; Wood's Athenæ (Bliss), iii. 432; Chronicle of Peter de Langtoft (Hearne), 1725, i. cxlviii; Sylvester's Baxter, iii. 93.]