Burman, Francis

, the first upon record of a very learned family, and professor of divinity at Utrecht, was the son of Peter Burman, a Protestant minister at Frankendal, and was born at Leyden in 1632, where he pursued his studies. At the age of twenty-three he was invited by the Dutch congregation at Hanau, in Germany, to be their pastor, and thence he was recalled to Leyden, and chosen regent of the college in which he had been educated. Before he had been here a year, his high reputation occasioned his removal to Utrecht, where he was appointed professor of divinity, and one of the preachers; Here he acquired additional fame by his learning, and the flourishing state to which he advanced the university. He was reckoned an excellent philosopher, an eminent scholar in the learned languages, and a good preacher. He died Nov. 10, 1679. His principal works are Commentaries on some of the books of the Old Testament, in Dutch, | besides which he wrote in Latin: 1. “An Abridgment of Divinity,” Utrecht, 1671, 2 vols. 4to, often reprinted. 2. “De Moralitate Sabbati,” 1665, which occasioned a controversy with Essenius. 3. “Narratio de controversiis nuperius in academia Ultrajectina motis, &c.” Utrecht, 1677, 4to. 4. “Exercitationes Academic^,” Rotterdam, 1683, 2 vols. 4to. 5. “Tractatus de Passione Christi,” 1695, 4to. 6. His “Academical discourses,” published by Grasvius, with some account of the author, Utrecht, 1700, 4to, and the same year they were translated and printed in Dutch. ¹