The third essay in The British Particular Baptists, Volume 1 Revised, is on Benjamin Coxe (1595-ca.1676)

From pupil to priest to Puritan to pastor, Benjamin Coxe’s history illustrates the tumultuous nature of seventeenth-century life. The shifting cultural, political, and religious forces of that time are visible in Coxe’s initial education in Oxford and ordination in the Church of England followed by years of intra-ecclesial struggle and reform. Coxe emerged from this struggle as an outsider, a discarded Puritan. He came to independent views, Baptist views, and worked hard to plant Particular Baptist churches and to strengthen associations throughout the country. The Particular Baptist heritage owes a great deal to Benjamin Coxe’s dedicated investment of energy and effort in its foundation and development. --Samuel Renihan