418 LIVES OF TIIE PURITANS. found sufficient reason for altering his opinions. In the year 1639 he was convened before Bishop Ha11, his diocesan, who sent him to Archbishop Laud, for preachinc, a sermon from Hosea iv. 4., in which he proved that the church of England did not maintain the calling of bishops to be jure divino. This sermon, it appears, made a great noise in the country. " But when he came to me," says the. archbishop, " it pleased God so to bless me, that I gave him satisfaction, and he went home very well contented, and made a handsome retraction.". Mr. Cox afterwards espousing the peculiar sentiments of the baptists, and opposing the presbyterian establishment of religion, the presbyterians upbraided him with his former superstitions and innovations. Mr. Edwards, whose pen was mostly dipped in gall, says, " he came out of Devonshire, was an innovator, and a time-server in the timeof the bishops ; and that against thewill of Dr. Hall, bishop of Exeter, he had brought innovations into the church."+ Admitting this ac- count to be correct, his change of sentiments was undoubtedly on conviction, and therefore no disgrace to his character. When the affairs of state led men to think and speak more freely upon religious subjects, Mr. Cox was among the first in promoting a further reformation, when he had flattering prospects of high preferment; but his sentiments upon bap- tism obstructed his advancement in the established church, and prejudiced against him those divines who were at the head of ecclesiastical affairs. He preserved, however, the character of a man eminently furnished with abilities and learning. , After episcopacy and the common prayer were laid aside, he was, for some time, minister at Bedford. In the, year 1643, some pious persons in Coventry having embraced the opinions of the baptists, invited Mr. Cox, being an aged minister and of good reputation, to come to them, and assist them in the formationof adistinct church, according to the peculiar sentiments of the baptists. Several presby- terian ministers, among whom was Mr. Baxter, had taken refuge in that city. Mr. Baxter, being zealous in opposing the peculiar opinions of the baptists, therefore challenged Mr. Cox to a disputation upon the points of difference. The challenge was accepted, and they disputed both by con- ference and by writing : but it was broken off by the in- terference of the committee, who required Mr. Cox to depart from the city, and to promise not to return. As he refused to observe their tyrannical requisitions, he was ilium- . Wharton's Troubles of Land, vol. i. p. 565. + Edwards's Gangrtena, part i.p. 95.
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