Adams, Thomas

ADAMS, THOMAS: English preacher and commentator of the seventeenth century, called by Southey “the prose Shakespeare of Puritan theologians . . . scarcely inferior to Fuller in wit or to Taylor in fancy.” Little is known of his life beyond what may be gathered from the title-pages and dedications of his books. He was preaching in Bedfordshire in 1612; in 1614 became vicar of Wingrave, Bucks; from 1618 to 1623 preached in London; he was chaplain to Sir Henry Montagu, lord chief justice of England, in 1653 was a “necessitous and decrepit” old man, and died probably before the Restoration. He published many occasional sermons (collected into a folio volume, London, 1630), besides a commentary on the Second Epistle of Peter (1633; ed. J. Sherman, 1839). His works, ed. Thomas Smith, with life by Joseph Angus, were published in Nichol’s Series of Standard Divines (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1862-63).