Thomas Long was an English clergyman and writer on Church politics. He spent almost all of his life in Exeter

Exeter

Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...

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Life

He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...

, where he graduated B.A. in 1642. He was prebendary of Exeter from 1600 to 1701.

Writings

In 1678 he attacked the late John Hales

John Hales

John Hales was an English theologian born in St. James's parish, Bath, England. As eminent divine and critic, his singular talents and learning have procured him by common consent the title of the "Ever-memorable".-Life:...

, incidentally taking a swipe at Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet, Parliamentarian, and the son of a Church of England clergyman . As a metaphysical poet, he is associated with John Donne and George Herbert...

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After the Glorious Revolution

Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...

 he wrote from the Whig perspective, in A Resolution of Certain Queries (1689), advocating submission to the new government. He replied, however, to John Locke

John Locke

John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...

's A Letter Concerning Toleration

A Letter Concerning Toleration

A Letter Concerning Toleration by John Locke was originally published in 1689. Its initial publication was in Latin, though it was immediately translated into other languages. Locke's work appeared amidst a fear that Catholicism might be taking over England, and responds to the problem of religion...

(1689), by writing like Jonas Proast

Jonas Proast

Jonas Proast was an English High Church Anglican clergyman and academic. He was an opponent of latitudinarianism, associated with Henry Dodwell, George Hickes, Thomas Hearne and Jonathan Edwards. He is now known for his controversy with John Locke, over Locke's Letter concerning...

 a High Church

High church

The term "High Church" refers to beliefs and practices of ecclesiology, liturgy and theology, generally with an emphasis on formality, and resistance to "modernization." Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term has traditionally been principally associated with the...

 critique of Locke’s advocacy of religious toleration

Religious toleration

Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...

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After the 1690 republication of Eikonoklastes

Eikonoklastes

Eikonoklastes is a book by John Milton, published October 1649. In it he provides a justification for the execution of Charles I, which had taken place on 30 January 1649. The book's title is taken from the Greek, and means "iconoclast" or "breaker of the icon", and refers to Eikon Basilike, a...

, he entered the controversy over the authorship of the Eikon Basilike

Eikon Basilike

The Eikon Basilike , The Pourtrature of His Sacred Majestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings, was a purported spiritual autobiography attributed to King Charles I of England...

, writing against Anthony Walker and supporting Richard Hollingworth. He also attacked the Unitarian tract The Naked Gospel (1690), the work of Arthur Bury

Arthur Bury

Arthur Bury, D.D. was an English college head and Anglican theologian of controversial views. His 1690 antitrinitarian work, The Naked Gospel, first published anonymously, was commanded to be burnt at Oxford, and, in a complex sequence of events involving legal action, Bury lost his position as...

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Works

• Mr. Hales's Treatise of Schism Examined and Censur'd (1678)
• A Resolution of Certain Queries (1689)
• The letter for toleration decipher’d, and the absurdity and impiety of an absolute toleration demonstrated (1689)
• An Answer to a Socinian Treatise called 'The Naked Gospel" (1691)
• Dr. Walker's true, modest, and faithful account of the author of Eikon basilike, strictly examined, and demonstrated to be false, impudent, and deceitful (1693)
• Apostolic communion in the Church of England (1702)