He was appointed a Fellow of Queens' College in 1664, Taxor in 1673–4, and was elected President of Queens' College on 29 July 1675 (by royal mandate). He served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1683–4 and 1696–9, was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity in 1699. As Regius Professor, he presided over the doctoral disputation in 1710 of Samuel Clarke as examiner. He paid light-hearted tribute to a virtuosic performance by Clarke, turning the traditional Latin saying for termination against himself as name me probe exercuisti (you have exercised me enough); and suggested he might as well retire from the chair. But Clarke had not in fact convinced him that his Trinitarian views were orthodox.
