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BURNET, THOMAS (b. Croft, Yorkshire, England,
ca. 1635; d. London, England, 27 September 1715),
cosmogony, geology.
containing two additional books, and in 1691 he
completed a similar English edition that included his
“Review of the Theory of the Earth” and a reply to
Warren's objections.
The Sacred Theory of the Earth was Burnet's attempt
to combine the idealism of the Cambridge Platonists,
Scripture, and an explanation of the features
of the earth's surface in order to account for the past
and present states of the earth and to offer a prophecy
about its future. He believed that there were four major
events in the earth's history: its origin from chaos,
the universal deluge, the universal conflagration,
and the consummation of all things. The first two of
these had already happened; the last two were yet
to come. These four events divided the history of the
earth into three periods. The first, from the Creation
to the Deluge, Burnet described as the state of
paradise and the antedeluvian world. This earth
differed in form and constitution from the present
earth. Its surface, which covered the waters and a
great abyss, was smooth, regular, and uniform, without
mountains or seas. The material of this surface
was moist, oily earth suitable to sustain living things.
When the surface caved into the abyss, an event due
to the continued drying action of the sun, and was
no longer smooth, the fluctuations of the waters over
this irregular earth caused the universal deluge. This
marked the end of the first period.
The second, or present, era was for Burnet the age
between the Deluge and the Conflagration. During
this time the surface and interior of the earth undergo
slow but continual change and thus, when the time
comes in the plan of Divine Providence, the earth
will be ready and able to burn. The final period, that
of the millennium, is the era following the universal
conflagration, when there will be a new heaven and
a new earth in which the blessed will enjoy a life of
peace and tranquillity. At the end of the millennium
the earth will be changed into a bright star, and the
consummation of all things predicted in Scripture will
be fulfilled.
The expanded theory occasioned more controversy
and more replies from Burnet. In 1692 he attempted
to reconcile the account of creation in Genesis with
his theory in Archaelogiae philosophicae. This book
aroused such opposition for its allegorical treatment
of Scripture that Burnet, although he had dedicated
the book to William III, was forced to resign his
position at court. He retired to the Charterhouse and
remained there until his death. He was buried in the
vault of the Charterhouse chapel a week after he
died.
Burnet spent the last years of his life writing in
defense of his theory. Most of the attacks upon it were
upon religious grounds. Warren, Crofts, John
Beaumont, and others accused him of a too liberal
or allegorical interpretation of Scripture or of eliminating
the necessity of God's working in the universe.
John Keill, however, attacked the Cartesian mechanical
basis of the theory and refuted it in terms of
Newtonian mechanics. In his replies to these, Burnet
either reiterated his own interpretation of Scripture
or, when unable to refute a logical or mathematical
argument against him, pointed out a minor inconsistency
in his opponent's work. In his later, minor
writings, he applied his method of scriptural interpretation
to theological questions.
Burnet's importance in the history of scientific
thought is due less to his theory itself than to certain
aspects of it that became standards in the then growing
science of geology. For more than a hundred years
after Burnet, writers discussing the origin of and
changes in the surface of the earth felt impelled to
reconcile their theories with the account of creation
in Genesis. His emphasis on the importance of the
Deluge and on the explanation of the formation of
mountains continued in geologic writings. Finally,
Burnet's style was such that The Sacred Theory of the
Earth was considered readable long after his death
and the ideas expressed in it were widely disseminated.
Whether accepted or ridiculed, the theory
helped popularize the idea that the features of the
earth's surface were constantly changing.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. ORIGINAL WORKS.
Burnet's writings are Telluris
theoria sacra (London, 1681, 1689, 1702; Amsterdam, 1694,
1699), trans. into English as The Sacred Theory of the Earth
(London, 1684, 1690-1691, 1697); and Archaelogiae philosophicae
(London, 1692, 1728), trans. into English as
The Ancient Doctrine Concerning the Originals of Things
(London, 1692 [this contains only chs. 7-10 of Bk. 2], 1729,
1736).
Burnet's replies to works about The Sacred Theory of
the Earth are An Answer to the Exceptions Made by Mr.
Erasmus Warren, Against the Sacred Theory of the Earth
(London, 1690); A Review of the Theory of the Earth and
of Its Proofs: Especially in Reference to Scripture (London,
1690); A Short Consideration of Mr. Erasmus Warren's
Defense of His Exceptions Against the Theory of the Earth.
In a Letter to a Friend (London, 1691); Some Reflections
Upon the Short Considerations of the Defense of the Exceptions
Against the Theory of the Earth (London, 1692); and
Reflections Upon the Theory of the Earth, Occasioned by
a Late Examination of It. In a Letter to a Friend (London,
1699).
Other works by Burnet are De statu mortuorum et resurgentium
liber. Accessit epistola (ad virum clarissimum
A.B.) circa libellum de archaelogiis philosophicis (London,
