Morgan Edwards

{{Short description|American religious historian and Baptist pastor}}

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| death_place = Pencader, New Castle County, Delaware

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Morgan Edwards (May 9, 1722 – January 25, 1792) was an American historian of religion and Baptist pastor. He was a trustee in the chartering of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, later named Brown University.

Biography

Edwards was born in Trevethin parish, Pontypool, Wales, and attended Bristol College, after which he began preaching in 1738. He pastored several small Baptist churches in England for seven years, then moved to Ireland, where he pastored for nine years. In May 1761 he emigrated to the American colonies, and became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.{{cite book|last1=Spencer|first1=David|title=The Early Baptists of Philadelphia|date=1877|publisher=William Sycklemoore|location=Philadelphia|page=85|isbn=9780524042410 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GG4UAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=22 October 2017}}{{cite book|last1=Cross|first1=Anthony R.|title=Useful Learning: Neglected Means of Grace in the Reception of the Evangelical Revival among English Particular Baptists|date=2017|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|location=Eugene, Oregon|isbn=978-1-4982-0255-8|page=413|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2PdDgAAQBAJ|accessdate=26 October 2017}} He was one of the few Baptist clergyman to side with the Tories in the American Revolution.{{cite book|last=Torbet|first=Robert|title=A History of the Baptists|year=1963|publisher=Judson Press|location=Valley Forge, PA|isbn=0817000747|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofbaptist0000torb}}

Edwards was a friend to the Academy of Philadelphia, afterwards the University of Pennsylvania, which in 1769 honored him with an honorary Master of Arts.{{cite journal|last1=Paschal|first1=G.W.|title=Morgan Edwards' Materials Towards a History of the Baptists in the Province of North Carolina|journal=The North Carolina Historical Review|date=1930|volume=7|issue=3|pages=365–399|jstor=23514982}}

Edwards resigned as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia in 1771 and retired to Pencader Hundred, near Newark, Delaware where he lived until his death in 1795.{{cite journal|last1=Jones|first1=Horatio Gates|title=History of the Baptists in Delaware|journal=The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography|date=1885|volume=9|issue=1|pages=45–61|jstor=20084689}} His grave is located at the Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Brown University

In 1764, Edwards joined James Manning, Ezra Stiles, Isaac Backus, John Gano, Samuel Stillman, William Ellery, and former Royal Governors Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Ward and several others as an original trustee for the chartering of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (the former name for Brown University), the first Baptist college in the original Thirteen Colonies and one of the Ivy League universities.{{cite book|last1=Guild|first1=Reuben Aldridge|title=History of Brown University: With Illustrative Documents|date=1867|publisher=Providence Press Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/histofbrownuniv00guilrich/page/151 151]|url=https://archive.org/details/histofbrownuniv00guilrich|quote=morgan edwards baptist brown university.|accessdate=25 October 2017}} In 1766, the college authorized Edwards to travel to Europe to "solicit Benefactions for this Institution".{{Cite book |last=Phillips |first=Janet M |url=https://www.brown.edu/web/documents/short-history-of-brown.pdf |title=Brown University:A Short History |date=1992 |publisher=Office of University Relations, Brown University |location=Providence, RI |language=English |oclc=30582651 |access-date=April 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109150423/https://www.brown.edu/web/documents/short-history-of-brown.pdf |archive-date=January 9, 2021 |url-status=live}} During his year-and-a-half stay in the British Isles, Edwards secured funding from benefactors including Thomas Penn and Benjamin Franklin.

Premillennialism

Edwards's eschatology was based on a literal interpretation of scripture.{{Cite book |last1=McKibbens |first1=Thomas R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VlvkAAAAMAAJ |title=The Life and Works of Morgan Edwards |last2=Smith |first2=Kenneth L. |date=1980 |publisher=Arno Press |isbn=978-0-405-12438-9 |pages=123–124 |language=en}} Because his view was premillennial, and he wrote in his 1788 book Millennium, Last Days Novelties of the first resurrection taking place with Christ in the air, he is referenced by dispensational premillennialists such as Tim LaHaye to support the view that a pretribulation rapture theology existed prior to John Nelson Darby (1800–1882).{{Cite book |last1=LaHaye |first1=Tim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TFEO-Xrq2dQC |title=Are We Living in the End Times? |last2=Jenkins |first2=Jerry B. |date=2011-04-01 |publisher=Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. |isbn=978-1-4143-5130-8 |pages=135–136 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=DeMar |first=Gary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=buqrg75iYIoC&dq=%22Millennium%2C+Last+Days+Novelties%22&pg=PA219 |title=End Times Fiction: A Biblical Consideration of the Left Behind Theology |date=2001-11-06 |publisher=Thomas Nelson Inc |isbn=978-1-4185-1501-0 |pages=219 |language=en}}

Personal life

His wife, formerly Mary Nunn of Cork, Ireland died in 1769.{{cite web|title=Edwards, Morgan|url=http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=E0060|website=www.brown.edu|accessdate=26 October 2017}}

Works

Edwards was a Baptist historian. He wrote the first Baptist church manual in the United States titled "Customs of Primitive Churches".{{cite web |last1=Shurden |first1=Walter B. |title=Materials Towards A History of the Baptists by Morgan Edwards |url=http://centerforbaptiststudies.org/resources/edwards.htm |accessdate=26 October 2017 |website=www.centerforbaptiststudies.org}} His major work, Materials Toward A History of the Baptists (1770) is an important source describing the Baptists in America. He later wrote a companion volume, Materials Toward A History of the Baptists in New Jersey (1792).

In his Materials for a History of the Baptists in Rhode Island, Edwards wrote:

"The first mover [himself] for it [a Baptist college] in 1762 was laughed at as a projector of a thing impracticable. Nay, many of the Baptists themselves discouraged the design (prophesying evil to the churches in case it should take place) from an unhappy prejudice against learning."

{{cite book|author=Morgan Edwards|title=A Farewell Discourse [on Acts XX. 25, 26] delivered at the Baptist Meeting in Rye|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UUFpAAAAcAAJ|year=1762|location=Dublin}}
{{cite web|title=Materials Towards a History of the Baptists in Pennsylvania|author=Morgan Edwards|url=https://archive.org/details/materials00edwa/page/n5|publisher=Joseph Crukshank|location=Philadelphia|year=1770}}
{{cite web|title=Materials Towards a History of the Baptists in Jersey|author=Morgan Edwards|url=https://archive.org/details/materialstowards00edwa/page/n6|publisher=Thomas Dobson|location=Philadelphia|year=1772}}
{{cite web|title=Materials Towards a History of the Baptists in the Provinces of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia|author=Morgan Edwards|url=https://cdm16821.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/jbt/id/241/rec/1|publisher=South Carolina Digital Library|year=1772}}
{{cite journal|author2=Horatio Gates Jones|author1=Morgan Edwards|title=History of the Baptists in Delaware, Part One|journal=The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography|volume= 9|number=1|year=1885|pages=45–61| jstor=20084689}}
{{cite journal|author=Morgan Edwards|title=History of the Baptists in Delaware (concluded)|journal=The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography|volume=9|number=2|year=1885|pages=197–213|jstor=20084702}}