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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28344	Vindiciæ foederis, or, A treatise of the covenant of God enterd with man-kinde in the several kindes and degrees of it, in which the agreement and respective differences of the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, of the old and new covenant are discust ... / [by] Thomas Blake ... ; whereunto is annexed a sermon preached at his funeral by Mr. Anthony Burgesse, and a funeral oration made at his death by Mr. Samuel Shaw.	Blake, Thomas, 1597?-1657.; Burgess, Anthony, d. 1664.; Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.	1658 (1658)	Wing B3150; ESTC R31595	453,190	558

to you on the Sea without a Pilate To you Orphans without a Spirituall Father and first you see what cause there is for our constant expectation and preparation for death Gods own Ministers and servants must dye God needeth no mans labours or parts Moses Joshua Paul Peter must die sola mors non habet fortasse said Austin only Death hath no may be It may be thou mayest be rich it may be thou mayest thrive in thy trading it may be thou mayest have comfort in thy Children and friends but thy death hath no may be Oh! let not the world let not your Shops let not trading take off your hearts from this Meditation but think you hear God speaking to you set not your house but your souls in order for thou must die And secondly here is some comfort though there be cause of much sorrow that though your Faithfull Pastor he dead yet the chief Pastor of your souls is not He that setteth Pastors and Teachers in the Church he that sendeth forth labourers into his harvest he liveth for ever as one in the Ecclesiasticall History when newes was brought him that his father was dead Desine blasphemias loqui saith he pater enim meus immortalis est cease to speak blasphemy for my Father is immortall Thus let this honey fall into your gall this Wine into your water The great and Chief Shepheard of your souls is not dead Lastly now the will of God is done concerning our deceased Brother your duty is to be much in Prayer to God that there may be a Joshua after Moses That God would joyne your hearts together as one man to seek out a Pastor for you which shall feed you according to his holy will The Lord hath made a great breach upon you be sensible of it and seriously consider how all your soul-comforts and advantages are bound up in this matter Ministers are compared to the Sun and Salt nihil sole sale ut●lius can you be without the Sun in the heavens without bread for your body so neither without this bread of life for your souls or without this light to guide you in the wildernesse of this World to eternall happinesse FINIS A Funerall Oration at the Death of the most desired Mr. Blake By Mr. Samuel Shaw then School-master of the Free-School at Tamworth WIth a face sadder then usuall with an heart sadder then my face but upon an occasion sadder then them both I who was deputed to this work by him to whom I now perform it am here rather to receive the expressions of your sorrow then tell you the resentments of mine own Being sensible of my stupefaction caused not through the want of my affections but the want of their object I desire out of a pious pollicy to supply my drynesse by taking your Tears and putting them into my pump so hoping to revive mine own which yet I judge are rather drowned then dryed up And yet when I have done this I know that all my expressions will fall short of the greatness of my grief as much as my grief does of the greatness of its cause This numerous Company of Pious groaners these so many blacks not made but occasioned to be Mourners badges of profession becomming badges of that grief which for its greatness can be equal'd by nothing but their former happiness which they once enjoyed the universall gloommess of this day represents to me rather the funerall of a Town then a man and the fall of a Church rather then a single pillar and rather induces me to think that ye are come to quench the unmercifull heat of a feaver then only to bedew that which was the subject of one But if it may be hold a little and suffer your eyes a while to a new employment even to see where you are what you are doing whose Obsequies you are solemnizing with so great devotion and take the dimensions of your losse if it be capable of any which indeed is so great that they only can know it who knew not him and they onely can feel who never enjoy●d him I speak not to aggravate your loss but the sense of it as for the cause of it it admits of no addition Whilst he lived it was as impossible for him not to love you as it was for you ad●quately to return his love His care answered his love and if his successe had answered his care we might happily have this day wanted an object of so great sorrow in enjoying him His writing were not read without satisfaction His Sermons were never heard without an approving silence seldom without a following advantage His kindness towards you could ●ot be considered without love his awfull gravity and secretly-commanding presence without reverence Nor his conversation without imitation To see him live was a provocation to a godly life to see him dying might have made any one aweary of living When God restrains him from this place which was alwayes happy in his company but now he made his chamber a Church and his bed a Pulpit in which in my hearing he offered many a hearty prayer for you And his death made him mindfull of you whose life made you unmindfull of him And I did not see that any thing made him so backward to resign up his ●ure soul to God as his unparalell'd care for you and your proficiency in godliness which seemed as little to him in comparison of what he desired as it does great to others in comparison of what they finde so that I sate by him and I only when with as great affluency of Tears as words he prayed Lord with some ingeminations charge not on me the ignorance of this people And indeed your ignorance had not been so remarkable had not his Knowledge and desire still to communicate it been so With what a grace and majesty have you heard him Preaching who is now alas confin'd to a worser wood Could you ever resist the power by which he spake or find in your hearts to contradict any thing that ever he said but when on his sick-bed he said I am a dying man Ah! who would not there have contradicted him if they should not have contradicted Gods Decree His Wisedome Justice and Tenderness were such predomin●nt Graces in him that it is as much my inability to describe them as my unhappinesse not to im●tate them And truly to think to expresse them were infinitely to injure their greatness It is a sad thing that so many resplendent graces should never be so truly nor so fully discovered as by the loss of him that had them and that we should not so justly consider that he had them till we have not them But yet your losse might be the better borne if ye were sure it had nothing of a Judgement in it But I fear that within a short time it will appear as truly that God hath taken him away in anger as now it appears sadly that he hath taken

inflicts the Lord 4. His way of dealing as a Father in love and not in vengeance Now turne to Heb. 12. 5 6 7. and there we shall see the Apostle 1. Quoting this Scripture 2. Checking them for not heeding it 3. Commenting upon it Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children My sonne despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sonnes for what sonne is he whom the Father chasteneth not These words of the Apostle confirm all the Old Testament proofs before mentioned give a shrewd check to all those that would cast them off and are a full New Testament-proof of the point in hand our aversaries tell us that the children of God in New Testament-times have that great and happy priviledge to be free from all chastisements for sinne The Apostle on the other hand sayes that it is their happinesse to be chastised and would be their sorrow if they were without chastisement For this cause saith the Apostle many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep 1 Cor. 11. 30. There we see judgements inflicted the persons suffering and the cause of suffering assigned The judgements are set out 1. By the quality or kinde such as were visible on the outward man as their sinne was open so was their suffering 2. By their several degrees in which they suffered some weak languishing under infirmities some sick taken with diseases some fallen asleep surprised with death The persons suffering are set out 1. By their multitude many 2. By the application of the stroke Corinthians had sinned and Corinthians suffered The cause is implyed in the illative particle For and exprest in the foregoing words their unworthy addresses unto the Lords Table sinfully eating and drinking they eat and drink their own judgement and though it cannot be said that all were in grace that thus suffered yet there were some at least in grace among them in that the Lord chastened them in the world that they might not be condemned with the world The Lord Christ speaks fully to this in his letter from heaven to Laodicea the Church of Rev. 3. 19. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten As Scripture expresly holds out this truth so it is also clear in reason if God should not hold up his Sovereignty in this way of exercise of discipline upon his children his love could not be continued to them but would be withdrawn from them as we see in Christs words but now mentioned Rev. 3. 19. as also in those words of Solomon and the Apostle Pro. 3. 11. Heb. 12. 5 6 7. The love of God is such to his children and such a league of friendship is past between them say our adversaries that it will not suffer him to strike them We say his love is such that he cannot forbear to strike and will not suffer that they should sinne and carry it with impunity There are indeed some such parents that are so indulgent that children must neither have check nor stroke from them what course soever they take they scarce hear words much lesse do they suffer stripes These call this love but a wiser then they calls it by the name of hatred Prov. 13. 24. He that spareth the rod hateth his sonne but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes Pity will not suffer to make children smart But it is greater pity that the want of smart should bring them to the condemnation of hell Prov. 23. 13 14. With-hold not correction from the childe for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell A childe in sinne must either be beaten or spared Beating will not be his death but sparing tends to his condemnation The similitude is not ours but the Holy Ghosts One of the most terrible texts in all the Bible may be found as one sayes Hoses 4. 14. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredome nor your spouses when they commit adultery He spares not some that he may for ever spare them chastening them in the world that he may not condemn them with the world He spares some and everlastingly destroys them 2. Otherwise God would be reconciled to the sinne of his people and in league not only with their persons but with their wickednesse which is most abhorrent to his holinesse We read of Gods reconciliation to the world but never to the wickednesse of the world God may be at peace with those that have sinned not imputing their trespasses but he will never be at peace with sin 3. It will not stand with his honour to suffer his to go on in impunity in these ways Their wickednesse will be said to be by his allowance Men in sin are ready to say as the Psalmist observe that God is such a one as themselves Psalme 50. 21. and that because they sinne and he keeps silence And men of the world will say the same if his people go on in sinne and prosper This the Lord sees and takes care this way to prevent Ezek. 39. 23. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against me therefore hid I my face from them He will make it appear that he is no patron to them in that which is evil 4. God hath given in charge to Magistrates his vice-gerents for to punish They are revengers to execute wrath upon them that do evil Rom. 13. 4. they are sent of God for the punishment of evil doers 1. Pet. 2. 14. They have no commission to spare upon supposal of any interest in God or grace when they are found in any acts that are wicked What they do God does they acting by his command and by vertue of his commission For further clearing of this point and if it may be to work a right understanding I shall lay down severall Positions 1. God considered in his absolute Sovereignty may inflict sufferings without injustice on his innocent creatures there is no absolute necessity that sinne should go before all manner of trouble Punishment cannot be without a fault that alwayes implies guilt where justice is followed Yet such is Gods Sovereignty that he may lay affliction where there is no transgression We do it upon our fellow-creatures we tread upon wormes that never did offend us God may much more do it upon his creatures yea God does it How much do bruit creatures suffer in the world and unwillingly suffer as the Apostle speaks Rom. 8. 20. and that from Gods hand that hath made them subject to these suffering that which God doth unto one creature he may do unto any creature that which he doth to the meanest he may do to the most noble creature As a potter may

make vessels some to honour and some to dishonour so God having more transcendent Sovereignty may make some creatures ever blessed and others during pleasure to remaine in misery 2. It stands not yet with Gods ordinate justice to strike his people where there is no fault The termes of the covenant being pre-supposed none can suffer that have not offended every one upon engagement from God must be happy that is innocent This is plainly implyed in those words In the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely die sinne not and suffer not and more explicitely held out in those words do this and live under death is comprized all evil from which man upon covenant is free that doth not sinne Under life is comprised all blisse which upon covenant all are to enjoy that yeeld full obedience So that the inlet of suffering is from sinne Rom. 5. 12. God having as I may say tyed himself not out of Sovereignty to afflict when man hath not offended 3. When way is made by sinne to divine justice to bring evil upon man yet the reason why this or that evil is inflicted on this or that man is not alwayes mans provocation by sinne All afflictions are not punishments nor yet corrections or chastisements There are often other ends and motives Sometimes God looks solely at himselfe alone at his own glory in his strokes of this we have many instances John 9. 1 2. John 11. 4. The same we may say of the viper upon Pauls hand Acts 28. 4 5. Sometimes he looks at his people in the sufferings that he inflicts 1. The patients themselves laying afflictions upon them not as corrections respecting by-past faults but tryals for discovery of their graces That which God laid upon Job was not for his sinne but to make it appeare that Satan had formed a false charge against him that his whole service of God was upon by-ends and base accounts and that sufferings God appearing against him in contrary providences would presently draw him into all wickednesses It was a sore affliction to Abraham to leave his countrey and his fathers house to offer up his sonne Isaac yet these were no corrections or chastisements that we know but temptations 2. He looks upon others that are no sufferers to bring about mercy to one by the sufferings of another so it was in Josephs sufferings Gen. 50. 20. 4. The corrections that God lays upon the godly are far different from those that he layes upon the wicked His hand upon his own children differs much from his hand upon his enemies God deales otherwise with a Nation that is a stranger to him then he deals with a people that are his own Jerem. 30. 11. Though I make a full end of all Nations whither I have scattered thee yet will I not make a full end of thee but I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished Though both suffer yet they do not equally and alike suffer So it is with the Elect and reprobate both suffer from the hand of God but there is great difference in their sufferings 1. They differ in the cause from whence their sufferings respectively do arise The sufferings of the wicked are out of pure wrath wicked men being under a state of wrath The sufferings of the people of God are out of present displeasure but yet out of love Prov. 13. 11. Heb. 12. 6 7. 2. They differ in the end of their sufferings A piece of silver is trode upon with the feet to scoure and brighten it but a worme or spider to crush or spoile it 3. They differ in the respective improvement that either make of them the godly are are bettered by their afflictions their sufferings are their purges and purifications Psalme 119. 67. Their eares are thereby opened for discipline Job 36. 10. the wicked are more and more hardened by them and grow more and more wicked under them Esay 1. 5. 2 Chron. 28. 22. The Sunne hardens the earth but softens the butter and the wax The sufferings of the people of God many times proceed from as high displeasure in God as can stand with love and the more high the sinne is the greater and sorer is his displeasure They work in God as great a dislike as can stand with his purpose not utterly to leave and cast them off When David had sinned in that high manner as he did the Text saith The thing that David did displeased the Lord 2 Sam. 11. ult Few men have had more of Gods heart then he yet we see his heart rises in sore displeasure against his wickednesse We may see how he takes him up for it we can scarce see in all the Scriptures a man so chidden The Prophet reckons up the courtesies and high favours that he had received from God I anointed thee King over Israel and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul and I gave thee thy Masters house and thy Masters wives into thy bosome and g●ve thee the house of Israel and of Judah and if that had been too little I would more-over have given thee such and such things And as he had before aggravated his wickednesse in a parable so in expresse termes he further layes it open Wherefore hast thou despised the Commandment of the Lord in doing evil in his sight thou hast killed Vriah the Hittite with the sword and hast taken his wife to be thy wife Then he falls to threatnings three great evils as we may there see follow upon this evil yet all this while that the Lord thus chides him that he thus threatens and beats him he doth not cease to love him as appears in Nathans words verse 13. The Lord hath put away thy sinne some will have love and anger to be inconsistent hatred and wrath inseparable God is angry as they say with none but those that he hates and when anger appears love is no more But all know that this is false among men a father is many times angry with his child that he would be loath to hate It is as false with God he was wrath with Moses but he never hated Moses he owns his with much love when he manifests much dislike and distaste of their present actions 6. These sufferings of the godly must by no means be accounted satisfactions of divine justice as coming from vindicative wrath nor any part of the curse that is due from vindicative justice for sin Having a tendency not to harme but to reforme not to destroy but amend they are only fatherly corrections and chastisements not properly at least as some rigidly understand the word punishments satisfaction was the work of Christ and the whole of the curse was divolved upon him Gal. 3. 13. Papists do distinguish between the friendship that is lost by sinne and the justice that is deserved The friendship that is lost is made up again as they confesse of free grace but the justice deserved must by the offender