THE

WORKS

OF THE

RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD

JOHN COSIN,

LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM.

NOW FIRST COLLECTED.

VOLUME THE FIRST.

SERMONS.

OXFORD:

JOHN HENRY PARKER.

MDCCCXLIII.

PREFACE.

BISHOP COSIN, the faithful and trusted adherent of King Charles the Martyr, the friend of Montague and Laud, the first who was deprived of his dignities in the University of Cambridge, and sequestered from his ecclesiastical benefices by the puritan faction, was no less distinguished by his unrivalled Annotations upon the Book of Common Prayer, than by his general powers as a controversialist. The writings of this eminent and illustrious person will be always, therefore, interesting, both to those who value his piety, judgment, and learning, as well as those who study his life and character. Some surprise has been consequently excited that his works have not been published a in a collected form. The present is the first attempt made to supply this deficiency.

The editor, although he has laboured under many difficulties in collecting the scattered works of Bishop Cosin, has still enjoyed many and important advantages. He begs leave in the first place to offer his thanks to the Warden and Senate of the University of Durham for their kindness

a In 1692, about twenty years after the death of Bishop Cosin, Dr. Thomas Smith, anxious, as he informs us, that the theological writings of such an eminent Divine should not be permitted to remain in obscurity, contemplated the publication of such of them as were then unprinted. Adverse circumstances

b

interrupted the execution of this project, and it was ultimately abandoned. The manuscripts collected by Smith for this purpose (which are neither numerous nor very important), are deposited in the Bodleian Library, and have been employed in the formation of the present edition.