Thomas Gilbert (minister)
Thomas Gilbert (1613–15 July 1694) was an English
Biography
Thomas Gilbert, son of William Gilbert of
He sided with the Independents, according to
Later years
Gilbert did not again take charge of a congregation. He was badly off in his later years, ‘his children having drained him,’ and was assisted by private friends, including several heads of colleges. He was deeply versed in school divinity, and a better Latin than English poet. Anthony Wood calls him ‘the common epitaph-maker for dissenters;’ Calamy says he wrote but three, for Thomas Goodwin, D.D., John Owen, D.D., and Ichabod Chauncey. When Calamy was at Oxford (1691–2), he found Gilbert regularly attending the ministry of John Hall (1633–1710), bishop of Bristol and master of Pembroke, for one of the Sunday services, and for the other that of Joshua Oldfield at the Presbyterian meeting, an example followed by other Oxford dissenters. He was on intimate terms with Hall, Ralph Bathurst, master of Trinity, Aldrich, Wallis, and Jane. Calamy describes him as ‘very purblind,’ as ‘the completest schoolman’ he ever knew, in his element among ‘crabbed writers,’ yet sometimes ‘very facetious and pleasant in conversation.’ Calamy has preserved some of his stories, told after a supper of ‘buttered onions.’ Gilbert died at Oxford on 15 July 1694, and was buried in the chancel of St Aldate's Church.[1]
Publications
He published:[1]
- Vindiciæ supremi Dei Dominii … oppositæ nuper Doct. Audoeni Diatribæ de Justitia, 1655, (disputes the necessity of satisfaction, against Owen).
- An Assize Sermon at Bridgnorth (James ii. 12), 1657
- Julius Secundus, Oxford, 1669, (preface, assigning this dialogue to Erasmus); 2nd edit., Oxford, 1680, (with addition of Jani Alex. Ferrarii Euclides Catholicus).
- England's Passing-Bell, a Poem, 1675, (commemorates the plague, the great fire, and the Dutch war).
- Super auspicatissimo regis Gulielmi in Hiberniam descensu … carmen, 1690.
Probably posthumous was 6. A Learned and Accurate Discourse concerning the Guilt of Sin, 1695, though Calamy speaks as if it had been first printed in Gilbert's lifetime. It was written before 1678 and reprinted, 1708, from Gilbert's manuscript; again reprinted, Edinburgh, 1720. It teaches that pardon covers future as well as existing sin. He had a hand in the Annus Mirabilis for 1661 and following years, and wrote the largest part of a Latin version (Amsterdam, 1677) of Francis Potter's Interpretation of the Number 666 Oxford, 1642.[1]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Gordon, Alexander (1890). "Gilbert, Thomas (1613–1694), ejected minister". Dictionary of National Biography Vol. XXI. Smith, Elder & Co. Retrieved 28 April 2009.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Gilbert, Thomas (1613-1694)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.