John Preston
John Preston [1]
a noted English Puritan divine, was born at Heyford, Northamptonshire, in 1587, and educated at King's College and Queen's College, University of Cambridge, was made fellow and tutor of Queen's College, and finally became chaplain to Prince Charles. In 1622 he was appointed preacher of Lincoln's Inn, and subsequently lecturer in Trinity Church, Cambridge. He became so celebrated as a speaker that the towns-people went to his lectures on week-days as they would to his sermons on Sunday, and he was complained of by those who looked with envy upon his fast-growing reputation. He also became noted as an able advocate of Calvinism, and in a controversy with the famous Arminian, Dr. Montague, sustained the elective theory with much adroitness and boldness. He was certainly a man of great learning, a popular preacher, and a powerful writer. He died in 1628, greatly lamented not only by Calvinists, but by all lovers of the good cause. He wore himself out with work; and when his friends would remonstrate, his answer was always, "Our life, like iron, consumes with rust, as much without as by employment; that every one cannot be said to have lived long that is old, as seven years in the life of some men are as much as seventy in others; and therefore the question is not so much How long I have lived as How I have lived."
He was naturally reserved and only figured in public because his zeal for the doctrines of Calvin would not suffer him to let go unanswered those who maintained the opposite theories. Of his works (published 1615-58) which have never been collected, an abridgment by William Tennent was published in 1658 (1648 also [?]), 12mo. The best-known of his publications are, The New Covenant, fourteen sermons (Lond. 1629, 4to; ninth ed. 1639, 4to; again in 1655, 4to): — The Breastplate of Faith and Love, eighteen sermons (1630, 4to; 5th ed. 1634, 4to): — Life Eternal, eighteen sermons (1631, 4to; 4th ed. 1634, 4to): — The Saint's Daily Exercise, five sermons on Prayer (1633, 4to; 9th ed. 1635, 4to): — The Saint's Qualifications, ten sermons on Humiliation, nine on Sanctification, and three on the Sacrament (1634, 4to; 3rd ed. 1637, 4to). — Four Treatises (sermons): 1. Covetousness; 2, Spiritual Death and Life (separate in 1633, 4to); 3, Self Denial (separate in 1632, 4to); 4, Lord's Supper (together in 1635, 4to; 4th ed. 1636, 4to): — Sermons before his Majesty, etc. (5th ed. 1637, 4to): — Sinner's Overthrow, or Mortification (1635, 4to; 4th ed. 1641, 4to): — Remacins (three treatises): 1, Judas his Repentance; 2, Saint's Spiritual Strength; 3, Paul's Conversion and Sermons, etc. (2nd ed. 1637,4to): — The Golden Sceptre, etc. (1638, 4to): — Doctrines of the Saints' Infirmities, a sermon (1638, 4to): — A Lifeless Lie, a sermon (4th ed. 1641, 4to): — Fullness of Christ for Us, a sermon (1640, 4to): Divine Love of Christ, five sermons (1640, 4to): — Two Treatises (1641, 4to): — Thesis de Gratice Convertendis Irresistibilitate (1652, Svo; in English, 1654): — Riches of Mercy to Men in Misery (1658, 4to). See Dr. R. Sibbs's preface; Middleton, Evangel. Biog. 2, 460 sq.; Perry, Hist. Ch. of England (see Index); Clark, Lives; Neal, Hist. of the Puritans; Burnet, Own Times; Fuller, Worthies; Darling, Cyclop. Bibl.; Jonathan Edwards, Works; Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v. (J. H. W.)
