ADAMS, THOMAS. - English Protestant preacher, b. c. 1590, d. c. 1653. In 1612 he was an Anglican minister at Willington; in 1614 he obtained the pastorate at Wingrave, which he probably retained until 1636. From 1618 onward he frequently preached in London, at St. Gregory’s, St. Paul’s, and Whitehall.
He was also observant chaplain to Sir Henry Montague, Chief Justice of the realm, to whom he dedicated in 1618 The Happines of the Church; or a description of those Spiritual Prerogatives wherever Christ hath endowed her considered in contemplation upon part of the twelfth chapter to Hebrew; being the sum of divers sermons preached in St. Gregorie's, London. He enjoyed friendly relations with the most prominent figures of the English Church and State; but his anti-Catholic zeal aroused Laud’s hostility, to the detriment of his career.
His sermons, which, despite certain incongruities and lapses of taste, possess an irresistible charm and display imposing learning, first published occasionally and later collected in volumes (for the first time in 1629), rank him among the most celebrated preachers of his time. He was rightly called the Shakespeare of prose among Puritan theologians, comparable to Geremia Taylor and Thomas Fuller, whom he surpasses in richness of ideas, though perhaps being less brilliant. In 1633 he published in London the great Commentary on the Second Epistle of S. Peter. His works were reprinted by Th. Smith in Nicol’s Puritan Divines (3 vols., London, 1862), preceded by a biography written by Angus.