Life

He was born at Barrow, near Leicester, and baptized there February 21, 1637. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....

, and was rector of Ealing

Ealing

Ealing is a suburban area of west London, England and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Ealing. It is located west of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically a rural village...

, 1661–72, and of St. Peter's, Cornhill, London, 1672–1704, when he became bishop. He died in London March 5, 1708.

Works

In his day he was styled "the great reviver and restorer of primitive piety" because in his sermons and other writings he dwelt on the Church of the early centuries. His collected works (incomplete) are in the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology

Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology

The Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology was a series of 19th-century editions of theological works by Church of England writers, devoted as the title suggests to significant Anglo-Catholic figures...

in 12 vols. (Oxford, 1842–48) and contain

• six volumes of sermons;
• The Doctrine of the Church of England Consonant to Scripture, Reason, and the Fathers: A Complete System of Divinity (2 vols.);
• Codex canonum ecclesiæ primitivæ vindicatus ac illustratus, with the appendices, I. Prolegomena in Συνοδικὸν, sive pandectas canonum; and II. Præfatio ad annotationes in canones apostolicos (2 vols.);
• Private Thoughts on Religion, and Church Catechism Explained.

His Institutionum chronotogicarum libri duo, una cum totidem arithmetices chronologicæ libellis (London, 1669) was once an admired treatise on chronology.