London, Thomas Parkhurst, 1674. 8vo. In contemporary full calf with double ruled fillets to boards. Small paper-label pasted on to top of spine. Wear to extremities, leather cracked and boards with scratches. Inner hinges partly split but bookblock firmly attached. Internally with a few doodles in contemporary hand. (24), 388, (10), 31, (8) pp.
Rare first edition of Whitaker’s eighteen sermons which had been taken in shorthand and published by his widow, with a dedication to Elizabeth, countess of Exeter. William Whitaker (1629–1672), a Puritan divine, entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, at fifteen, where he distinguished himself in classical and oriental languages. He earned his B.A. in 1642. Two years later, he became a fellow of Queens' College by parliamentary ordinance and received his M.A. from the same institution in 1646. In 1652, he was ordained and became the minister of Hornchurch, Essex. He succeeded his father as rector of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, in 1654. Whitaker was one of the London ministers who petitioned the king against the Act of Uniformity's oppression.