He was educated at Queens" College, Cambridge, took degrees in arts, and afterwards proceeded Bachelor of Divinity In a letter to Baxter (1650) he says that "he sat at the feet of Bishop Davenant", who was Margaret Professor of Divinity from 1609 to 1621, and Master of Queens from 1614 to 1621.
Davenant"s successor in the professorship was Doctor Samuel Ward, and from these two Bedford affirms that his own theology was mainly derived. A Latin letter from Davenant to Ward on baptismal regeneration was copied by Bedford, and afterwards published by him, at Ussher"s suggestion, as a preface to his thesis for the degree of Bachelor of Divinity held before Doctor Ward. In the above-mentioned letter to Baxter, Bedford explains that he was convinced of "the efficacy of the sacrament to the elect" by reading a book of Doctor Burges.
This Baxter admitted in a reply called A friendly Accommodation with Mr.
Bedford (1656). He received the rectorship of Street Martin Outwich in the city of London some short time before 1649, for in that year he dedicated his Sacramental Instructions to the congregation as his "first-fruits" to them. And Thomas Pierce, the former rector, had been sequestrated a little before.
How long Bedford continued as rector is not certain, but Matthew Smalwood was appointed previously to the Restoration (v Newcourt, ""Representative"" i 420). His theological writings are marked by a temperance alien to his time, and show an extensive reading, especially in the fathers of the church and in the continental theology of his time.
