ADAMS, THOMAS. - English Protestant preacher, b. ca. 1590, d. ca. 1653. In 1612 he was Anglican minister at Willington; in 1614 he took charge at Wingrave, retaining the post probably until 1636. From 1618 onward he often preached in London, at St. Gregory’s, St. Paul’s, and Whitehall.
He was also chaplain (observant chaplain) to Sir Henry Montague, Lord Chief Justice of the realm, to whom in 1618 he dedicated *The Happines of the Church*, or a description of those *Spiritual Prerogatives wherein Christ hath endowed her considered in contemplation upon part of the twelfth chapter to Hebrews*; being the sum of divers sermons preached in St. Gregorie's, London. He maintained friendly relations with leading figures in the English Church and State, yet his anti-Catholic zeal incurred the hostility of Laud, to the detriment of his career.
His sermons, though not without occasional incongruities and lapses of taste, possess an irresistible charm and display impressive erudition; first published separately, they were later collected in volumes (first in 1620) and place him among the most celebrated preachers of his time. He was justly styled the Shakespeare of Puritan prose, comparable to Jeremy Taylor and Thomas Fuller, whom he surpasses in wealth of ideas, though perhaps lacking their brilliance. In 1633 he published in London his major *Commentary on the Second Epistle of S. Peter*. His works were reprinted by T. Smith in *Puritan Divines* (3 vols., London 1862), prefaced by a biography by Angus.