 He entered Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1621, obtained a fellowship in 1627, graduated in arts, and in 1637 proceeded B.D.Siding with the presbyterians on the outbreak of the First English Civil War, he was nominated in 1643 one of the Westminster Assembly, and took the Solemn League and Covenant.In 1648, submitting to the parliamentarian visitors, he was appointed by the committee for the reformation of the University of Oxford to succeed Dr. Robert Sanderson as Regius Professor of Divinity.