Samuel Cox

Samuel Cox. Picture used with kind permission of the Angus Library and Archive, Regent’s Park College.

Samuel Cox (19 April 1826 – 27 March 1893) was an English nonconformist divine and Christian universalist, born in London.

Biography He was born on 19 April 1826 near London, and educated at a school at Stoke Newington. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed at the London docks, where his father was employed, but on the end of his indentures he resigned his position and entered the Stepney College to prepare himself for the Baptist ministry.

After passing the college course and matriculating at London University, Cox became in 1852 pastor of the Baptist chapel in St. Paul's Square, Southsea. In 1854 he accepted an invitation to Ryde, Isle of Wight, where he remained till 1859.

A disorder in the throat compelled him to desist from preaching, and caused him to turn his attention seriously to literature. Expository Essays and Discourses, London, 1877. Salvator Mundi; or, Is Christ the Saviour of all Men? London, 1877. This was the most widely read and most influential work. It was followed in 1883 by a sequel, The Larger Hope, London; in which the author defined his position on universalism, and answered some critics. The Doctrines of Annihilation and Universalism . . . With critical notes and a Review of "Salvator Mundi" (London, 1881), by Thomas Wood was a retort. Its postscript of challenges Cox's impartiality as editor of the Expositor, an instance of the sort of complaint that brought about his resignation. A Commentary on the Book of Job, with a Translation, London, 1880.