72 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. the said book :-And that they should have given their consent to the unlawful form of ordination, wherein are these words, Receivethe HolyGhost, &c." They conclude ' by expressing their concern for their bereaved flocks, and how desirous they were of being restored to their former labour and usefulness, earnestly soliciting the favour of the queen, and the lords and commons in parliament.> Though the case of these pious divines was deserving the utmost compassion, they could not obtain the least redress. They had wives and large families of children, now reduced to extremepoverty andwant, and, as they expressed in the above supplication, if God in his providence did not interfere, they shouldbe obliged to go abegging; yet they could procureno relief. The distress of these zealous and laborious servants of Christ, was greatly increased by the ignorance and insufficiency of their successors. They could scarcely read so as to be understood, and the people were left in a great measure untaught. Instead of two sermons every Lord's day, which each of them had regularly delivered, the new incumbents did not preach more than once in a quarter of a year, and frequently not so often. The numerous parishioners among whom they had laboured, signed petitions to the bishop for the restoration of their former ministers ; but all to no purpose. They must subscribe and take the oath, or beburied in silence.+ It does not "appear how long Mr. Wake remained under the ecclesiastical censure, or whether he was ever restored to his benefice. He was living in the year 1593, and at that time minister at St. John's Hospital in Northampton4 Hewas adivine of good learning, great piety, and a zealous, laborious, and useful preacher. He was father to Sir Isaac Wake, a learned and eloquent orator at Oxford, afterwards ambassador to several foreign courts, and a member of parliament.§ WILLIAM WHITAKER, D. D.-This most celebrated divine wasborn atHolme, in the parish of Burnley, in Lanca- shire, in the year 1547, and descended from an ancient and a respectable family. His mother was Elizabeth Nowell, sister to Dr. Alexander Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's, who married Thomas Whitaker, in 1530, and survived her >. MS. Register, p. 202. + Ibid. p. 198, 199. t Bridges 's Hist. of Northamptonshire, vol. i. p. 487. S Wood's Athena Oxon. vol. i. p. 491,
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