Burton, Hezekiah

, a divine of distinguished abilities, was educated in Magdalen college, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow, and where he was an eminent tutor. He was ordained priest by bishop Sanderson; and, in 1667, was appointed chaplain to lord keeper Bridgeman, by whom he was presented to a prebend of Norwich, and to the rectory of St. George’s in Southwark. In 1668, he was engaged, with Dr. Stiliingfleet and Dr. Tillotson, in the treaty proposed by sir Orlando Bridgeman, and countenanced by lord chief baron Hale, for a comprehension;vith the Dissenters. About a year before his death, Oct. 19, 1680, Dr. Burton, by the interest of his friend Tillotson with the Chapter of St. Paul’s, obtained the rectory of Barnes in Surry, at which place he died, of a malignant fever, in 1681. The only thing of his that appeared during his life, was the short “Alloquium ad Lectorem,” prefixed to Dr. Cumberland’s treatise “De Legibus Naturae.” After Dr. Burton’s decease, dean Tillotson published two volumes of his discourses, which reflect great credit on his memory, from the piety and just sentiments they abound with on the nature and end of religion. ²