In 1746 he entered St John's College, Cambridge, but migrated the following year to Clare Hall, graduating B.A.
[1] He was ordained deacon 1751, and priest 1753, by Frederick Cornwallis, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry.
In 1758 he became master of the free grammar school and rector of St. John the Baptist, Coventry.
In 1759 Edwards, published The Doctrine of Irresistible Grace proved to have no foundation in the Writings of the N. T., a book of some importance in the Calvinist and Arminian controversy, and in 1762 Prolegomena in Libros Veteris Testamenti Poeticos,[3] to which he added an attack upon Robert Lowth's Metricæ Harianæ brevis Confutatio, which led to a controversy of some length.
In 1766 he proceeded D.D., and in 1770 was presented to Nuneaton in Warwickshire, where he passed the rest of his life, having severed his connection with Coventry in 1779.