Edwards, Thomas

Edwards, Thomas on English divine, was born about 1579, passed A.B. at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1605, and A.M. in 1609. He did not become a Nonconformist, but yet was always a Puritan in theology. "I never," says he, "had a canonical coat, declined subscription for many years before the Parliament, though I practiced the old conformity; much less did I bow to the altar and at the name of Jesus," etc. He was lecturer at Hertford, and afterwards in London. When the Long Parliament declared against Charles I he sided with them, but when the Independents came into power he opposed them with great virulence both by writing and acting. He published Reasons against the Independent Government of particular Congregations (1641, 4to): — Antapologia, or a full answer to the apologetical Narration of Mr. Goodwyn, Mr. Nye, Mr. Sympson, Mr. Burroughs, Mr. Bridge, Members of the Assembly of Divines, wherein are handled many of the Controversies of these Times (1644, 4to: the chief design of this work we learn from himself, in the preface to it: "This Antapologia," says he, "I here recommend to you for a true glass to behold the faces of Presbytery and Independency in, with the beauty, order, and strength of the one, and the deformity, disorder, and weakness of the other"): — Gangraena, or a Catalogue and discovery of many of the Errors, Heresies, Blasphemies, and pernicious Practices of the Sectaries of this Time (1645, 4to): — Gangraena, part 2 (1646, 4to): — Gangraena, part 3: — The casting down of the last and strongest hold of Satan, or a Treatise against Toleration (part 1:1647): — Of the particular Visibility of the Church: — A Treatise of the Civil Power in Ecclesiastica's, and of Suspension from the Lord's Supper. He died August 24, 1647. He professed himself "a plain, open-hearted man, who hated tricks, reserves, and designs; zealous for the Assembly of Divines, the Directory, the use of the Lord's Prayer, singing of psalms, etc., and so earnest for what he took to be the truth that he was usually called in Cambridge young Luther." — Kippis, Biog. Brit. volume 5.