EDWARDS. 
27S 
highly acceptable to his parishioners. In 1699, he was 
admitted to the degree of doCtor in divinity. He conti¬ 
nued in a courfe of diligent Study till near his death, 
which took place in 1716, when he was in the feventy- 
ninth year of Im age. That Dr. Edwards was a man 
of extensive learning cannot be denied ; and that he was 
distinguished by ardent piety, and an exemplary moral 
conduct, there is not the lead reafon to difpute. He, 
however, rendered himfelf obnoxious by the zeal which 
on all occasions he difplayed for the calviniftic doCtrine ; 
a zeal which he certainly carried to the excefs of bigotry, 
by contending for the abfiird notion of the old puritans, 
that there is a clofe connection between arminianifm and 
popery. His works, which are written much in the 
fcholaftic manner, will be chiefly acceptable to readers of 
the calviniftic fchool. They confift of a great number 
of trails in religious controverfy : alfo, Twelve Sermons, 
preached on Special Occasions and SubjeCls, Svo. i' 69S ; 
A Survey of the different Difpenfations of Religion, 
from the Beginning of the World to the Confummation 
ot all Things, in two volumes, 1699; The Preacher, in 
three parts; Tkcologia Reformata , or the Subftance and 
Iloay ot the Christian Religion, in two volumes, folio; 
t > which was added a third volume folio, ten years after 
the author’s death. 
ED'WARDS (Thomas), a learned divine of the church 
of England, born at Coventry in 1729. His grammatical 
education he received, partly at the free grammar-fchool 
in his native city, but principally under the tuition of 
his own father, who was a clergyman there ; and he early 
Showed an uncommon eagernefs for acquiring knowledge. 
In 1747, he was entered at Clare-hall, in the university of 
Cambridge, where he took his degree of bachelor of arts 
in 1750, and of matter of arts in 1754. He was, likewife, 
ehofen a fellow of his college. Before Mr. Edwards had 
completed the twenty-fixth year of his age, he afforded 
a Striking .proof of the diligence of his application to the 
Study of the learned languages, and the acquifition of fa- 
crcd literature, by publishing A new English Translation 
o‘ the Plaints from the original Hebrew, reduced to Metre 
by the late BiSltop Hare, with Notes, critical and expla¬ 
natory, Illuftrations of many of the Railages drawn from 
the daffies', &c. Svo. In 175S, he was appointed, by the 
corporation of Coventry, matter of the free grammar- 
fchool, and prefented to the rectory of St. John the Bap¬ 
tist, in that city. The next work which Mr. Edwards 
lent into the world was in 1759 ; it is intitled The Doc¬ 
trine of irrefiftible Grace proved to have no Foundation 
in the Writings of the New Testament. This work re¬ 
flects great honour on his abilities as a feripture critic, cn 
? his liberality, and on his candour, and is of confiderable 
importance in the controverfy between the CalviniSls and 
the Arnrinians. In 1732, lie published Prolegomena in Libros 
Veleris Tejlamenti pocticos, &c. fubjicitnr metrica Lowthiana 
Confutatio, &c. Svo. In 1766, Mr. Edwards was admitted 
to the degree of doftor in divinity; and in the following 
year published two dilfertations : the firft, On the Abfur- 
dity and Injustice of religious Bigotry and Perfecution ; 
the fccond, On the principal Qualifications, &c. necef- 
fary for the right and accurate Interpretation of the New 
Teftament, 8vo. Thefe differtations are entitled to con¬ 
siderable praile-; on account of the enlarged and liberal 
fentiments which they inculcate, and the ufeful affiftance 
which they afford to theological Students in attaining a 
critical knowledge.of the Christian feriptures. In 1770, 
Dr. Edwards was prefented by the crown to the valuable 
vicarage of Nuneaton in Warwickshire, whither he retired 
in 1779, a fc er having resigned his fchool and reCtory at 
Coventry, and where he refided during the remainder of 
his life. In the year laft mentioned lie published his laft 
work, intitled Se/ebia quadam Theocnti Idyllia rccenjuit , va¬ 
riorum Notas adjecit, fuafque Animadverfioncs , partim Latinc, 
partim Ariglicc,jcriWas immifeuit Thoinas Edzuards, S.T.P. Svo. 
This work reflects honour on the extent and accuracy of 
the author’s clafiical literature, and will be.found of great 
iife to young Students, for whole benefit it was chiefly cle- 
flgned. He died at Nuneaton, in 1785, in the fifty-fixtfr 
year of his age. 
ED'WARDS (Thomas), a critic and poet, born in 
1699, fon of a gentleman in the profeSTion of the law in 
London. After receiving a clafiical education, he was en¬ 
tered of Lincoln’s-inn, and was called to the bar, though 
a hefitation in his fpeech prevented.him from ever en¬ 
gaging much in professional practice. It appears too 
that his favourite Studies were of another kind, and the 
belles-lettres occupied more of his attention than books 
of law. Shakefpeare, in particular, was the objeCb of his 
ftudy ; and the appearance of Warburton’s edition of that 
dramatist firft induced him to become an author. He 
published, in 17447 A Letter to the Author of a late 
Epistolary Dedication, addreffed to Mr.Warburton. This 
was followed, in 1747, by A Supplement to Mr. Warbur- 
ton’s Edition of Shakefpeare, a work which paSTed through 
feveral editions, and became famous under its fubfequent 
title,of The Canons of Criticifm. As. a poet, Mr. Ed¬ 
wards chiefly distinguished himfelf by his attempts to 
revive the fonnet, then a fpecies of composition little ufed 
in English poetry, to which, indeed, it feems but indif¬ 
ferently adapted. He compofed fifty of thefe pieces, of 
which feveral were printed in Dodfiey’s and Pearch’s cck 
ledtions of poems. Their general character is feriousj 
moral, and unaffected ; correct in their formation, but 
cold and fomewhat Stiff. They are more creditable to 
the jufrnefs of his fentiments.than to the powers of his 
imagination. He was likewise a Skilful critic in the 
English language; and the feventh edition of his Canons 
of Criticifm, published in 1765, befides ids fifty fonnets, 
contains An Account of the Trial of the letter Y, alias Y, 
in which are difeufied the principles of English ortho¬ 
graphy. A pofthumous traCt on the doCtrine of predesti¬ 
nation, finishes the lift of his performances. Mr. Edwards 
palled his life in literary leifure, and maintained a friendly 
intercourfe with many of the 1110ft refpedtable characters 
of his time, lie died, unmarried, in 1757. 
ED'WARDS (Bryan), a Weft-India merchant, and a 
writer of confiderable eminence. A little before his 
death, he drew up the following biograghical Sketch of 
his own life, which he committed to the care of fir Wil¬ 
liam Young, bart. with diredtions to have it prefixed to 
his Hiftory of the Weft Indies. 
“ I was born tire 21ft of May 1743, in the decayed 
town of Weftbury, in the county of Wilts. My father 
inherited a fmall paternal eftate in the neighbourhood, of 
about iool..per annum ; ,which proving but a fcanty 
maintenance for a large family, he undertook, without 
any knowledge of the buftnefs, as I have been informed, 
to deal in corn and malt, but with very little fuccefs. 
He died in 1756, leaving my excellent mother, and-fix 
children, in diftreSTed circumstances. Luckily for my 
mother, Site had two opulent brothers in the Weft Indies, 
one of them a wife and worthy man, of a liberal mind, 
and princely fortune. This was Zachary Bayly, of the 
island of Jamaica, who, on the death of my father, took 
ray mother and her family under his protection, and, as 
I was the eldeft fon, directed that I Should be well edu¬ 
cated. I had been placed by my father at the fchool of 
a diffenting minister in Bristol, whofe name was William 
Foot, of whom I remember enough to believe that he 
was both a learned and good man ; but, by a Strange ab- 
furdity, he was forbidden to teach me Latin and Greek, 
and directed to confine my Studies to writing, arithmetic, 
and the English grammar. I Should therefore have had 
little to do, but that the fchoolmafter had an excellent 
method of making the boys write letters to him on dif¬ 
ferent fubjeCts, fuch as the beauty and dignity of truth, 
the obligation of a religious life, the benefits of a good, 
education; the mifehief of idlenefs, &c. previously Slating 
to them the chief arguments to be urged; and infilling 
on correClnefs in orthography and grammar. In this 
employment I had Sometimes the good fortune to excel 
the other boys; and, when this -happened, my mailer 
never failed to praife me very liberally before them all; 
