Case, Thomas

, an eminent nonconformist divine, the son of George Case, vicar of Boxley in Kent, was born there in 1598 or 1599, and became student of Christ church, Oxford, upon the recommendation of Toby Mathew, archbishop of York, in 1616. After taking his degrees in arts, he went into the church, and preached for some time in Oxfordshire and Kent, and held the living of Erpingham in Norfolk, from which he was ejected for nonconformity. In 1641, he joined in principle and practice with the parliament, and about that time was minister of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk-street, London, in the room of a sequestered loyalist. One of the party jour nafs of the time informs us that in administering the sacrament, he used to say, instead of “Ye that do truly and earnestly repent, &c.” “Ye that have freely and liberally contributed to the parliament, &c.;” but this was probably the squib of the day. Case, with all his republican zeal, was a man of real piety but | the former certainly betrayed him into extreme violence in his discourses, which is poorly excused by his biographer telling us of his having been ejected from his living by bishop Wren. When in London he wasthe institutor of the Morning Exercise, which was kept up in the city many years after, and produced some of the ablest sermons of the nonconformist clergy. From the living of Milk-street he was turned out, for refusing the engagement*, and was afterwards lecturer at Aldermanbury and St. Giles’s Cripplegate. He was imprisoned six months in the Tower, for being implicated in Love’s plot, but Love only was made a sacrifice, and Mr. Case and his fellow-prisoners Mr. Jenkyn, Mr. Watson, &c. were released and restored to their livings. He was afterwards rector of St. Giles’s in the Fields. In 1660, he was one of the ministers deputed to wait on the king at the Hague; and in 1661, one of the commissioners at the fruitless Savoy conference. He appears to have retained his living in Milk-street after the restoration, as it was from that he was finally ejected. He died May 30, 1682, and was buried in Christ church, Newgate-street. Dr. Jacomb, who preached his funeral sermon, gives him an excellent and probably a just character: and it is certain that he lived to repent of the intemperance of his harangues at the commencement of the rebellion. This led him to subscribe the two papers declaring against the proceedings of the parliament in 1648, and the bringing king Charles to a trial. His works consist chiefly of sermons preached on public occasions, before the parliament and at funerals, enumerated by Calamy. ¹