Second edition of these three religious treatises by John Preston (1587-1628), master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The 'Remaines' was one of the many unauthorised editions of sermons by Preston to appear in the wake of his death, much to the dismay of his authorised editors. 'Undoubtedly Preston's greatest legacy was the subsequent flood of published editions of his sermons, through which he continued to have a great influence on the 'godly' in England and new England' (ODNB), and which brought the total number of editions to over one hundred. The first sermon, Judas's Repentance, is on repentance, confession and restitution, with discussions of the nature of sin and temptation; the second, the Saints' Spiritual Strength, is a treatise on the nature of the Holy Spirit; and the third, Paul's Conversion, is on the necessity of being humble. Preston was for many years a fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, where he became renowned for Puritan divinity and, on the occasion of the master Humphrey Tyndall's death, riding overnight to Whitehall, where he secured the mastership for John Davenant before his rivals had even heard of the vacancy; thereafter he had only to 'tip his hat' to Davenant in order to secure a favourable room or study for his pupils. Preston gained a reputation for Puritanism and nonconformity, which drew the ire of Lancelot Andrewes, the recently departed Bishop of Ely, but he recanted and became increasingly associated with great men of the court, including the Duke of Buckingham. He thereafter adopted a 'moderate Calvinism'. In 1622 Preston succeeded John Donne as preacher to the Society of Lincoln's Inn and became master of Emmanuel, where his court connections helped to restore Emmanuel's reputation as a former hotbed of subversive Puritanism. Thomas Shepherd (1605-49), a student at Emmanuel and later minister of the first church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and first minister of Harvard University, attributed his spiritual awakening to Preston's sermons; Willliam Prynne was also a great admirer. Legal documents place Calverley, Lancaster and possibly the Taylors near Whalley, Lancashire; Lancaster appears to have been the executor of Calverley's will in 1618.
