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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

Prophets 1 Cor. 12. 28. The Holy Ghost hath here an hand Acts 13. 2. The holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Acts 20. 28. Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the flock over which the holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood And this sending or authorizing is as their gifting or fitting either extraordinary and immediate nothing of man intervening or else mediate by mans Ministery and his approbation Paul had both an immediate way both his authority and ability for the work he professes that he is an Apostle not of man nor by man he owes it not to man as the Authour so may any Minister of Christ say he owes it not to man as an instrument so only Prophets and Apostles can say As his Calling was thus immediate so in like sort was his instructions for it Gal. 1. 12. For I neither received if of man neither was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ They that divide these are exceedingly to blame assuming authority without man but confessing that for abilities as they must look up to God so they must make use of man must apply themselves to reading and make use of the helps of others The immediate Call is by Vision Revelation or whatsoever otherway God pleases to manifest himself Thus in a vision Paul was called where that is not the mediate Call only remains which is the way of all that attaine to gifts by education study and the blessing of heaven on their endeavours This is called as in Scripture so in Church-writers by the name of Ordination and the whole work containing as well that which is essential to it as the adjuncts of it may be thus described An act of men in a Ministerial function associated in a Presbytery setting some apart upon proof and examination as Presbyters and Elders in the Church by fasting and praying with imposition of hands We find no other but men in Ministerial function in all the holy Scriptures acting in it Paul and Barnabas ordaine Elders in every Church which in their journal they visite Acts 14. 23. Timothy is directed in the way of it 1 Tim. 5. 22. Lay hands suddenly on no man Titus is enjoyned to ordaine Elders in every City in Creet Tit. 1. 5. He is named alone but the naming of one excludes not others and therefore it appears that in Timothies Ordination a Presbytery or a combination of Presbyters did joyne 1 Tim. 4. 14. which way in our Church hath ever been held The Bishop supposed by some to be vested in the whole power of Ordination never had authority to ordaine alone but grave Presbyters according to the Canon were to joyn with him though by reason of greatnesse his vote ordinarily did overmuch sway in it Some would have the people here to have their hand in that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place of the Acts chap. 14. 23. implies a lifting up of the hand But whatsoever the word in its Etymology may imply the use is not such as is plaine by comparing Acts 10. 41. where the immediate Ordination of God by the same word is held forth unto us They know the weight of the Ministerial function and they are best able to judge of requisite abilities One that is willing to give as much to the people as may be yet confesses that in Grammatical construction the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can agree with no other but Paul and Barnabas and that it was only their act and therefore he would finde it in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which saith he doth not signifie in every Church as it is translated but according to the Church instancing in the Orators phrase Faciam secundumte I will do it according to thy minde So they viz. Paul and Barnabas ordained them Elders according to the Church that is according to the minde and will of the Church If this were granted it would only conclude an acquiescency in the people and that they had satisfaction in that Ordination carryed on by Paul and Barnabas Yet this phrase here can no where prove that the Church or people made choise of them then we man prove from that injunction of the Apostle Titus 1. 5. to ordaine Elders in every City that the whole City had there their vote in Elections As much stresse may be laid upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every City or according to the minde of the City in this of Paul to Titus as upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every Church or according to the minde of the Church in that of Luke in the History of the Acts. What power the people or the faithful may have in Election and how farre it may be convenient that they may be overborne for their good I will not here dispute I only conclude that we finde not the people any where ordaining we read of Ordination in Churches for the Churches use not Ordination by Churches taking it in that sense for the whole community of Beleevers These in a Ministerial function in this act of Ordination set select men apart for Presbyters or Elders so Acts 14. 23. Titus 1. 5. Titus is enjoyned to ordaine Elders in every City in Creet who are the same with Bishops as appeares in Titus 1. verse 5. 7. compared The qualification of Elders is there prescribed and the reason is given for a Bishop must be blamelesse which will hold no congruity if an Elder be not the same with a Bishop Which also may be seen Acts 20. comparing ver 17. and the 28. together The Apostle there speaks to the Elders of Ephesus and he gives them a charge to take heed to all the fl●ck over which the Holy Ghost had made them Overseers that is had given them an Episcopal charge as the word signifies Elders must set apart men for Elders and Presbyters are to be set apart by a Presbytery This Ordination of Elders is to be in the Church or for the Church which may be taken either for the universal Church visible or for some particular Church and that either congregational or classical Ministerial functions are appointed of God for the Church universal visible God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secundarily Prophets thirdly Teachers c. 1 Cor. 12 28. No one particular Church congregational or classical enjoys all the particular kindes there enumerated yet so as the exercise of this function is to be with limit to one particular only They are Ministers of the Church universal yet so as orderly to exercise their function only there where God by his providence shall designe them There are some functions as I may say Catholick what such a one doth any where in his function is good every where as a publick Notary or Master of the Chancery that which they

the argument seems of force We vindicate Gods justice in commanding works though to us now impossible seeing once we had power to reach the highest of his precepts and his command is no rule of our empaired strength but of our duty But if men never had that power and the Law never required it it is injustice according to all parties to exact it Answ Let those that fall to the Arminians in this tenent that they may make the Law an imperfect rule and an insufficient direction see how they can avoid it how they can vindicate Gods justice thus impeached But the Orthodox party have still maintained that Adam had in his integrity that faith that doth justifie though then it performed not that office of justification as he had that faculty whereby we see dead bodies though then there was no possibility of such sight there being no dead bodies to be seen And that faith in Christ is commanded in the first precept of the Law is manifest There we are commanded to have God for our God no Interpreter will deny that the affirmative is contained in that negative Thou shalt have none other gods but me Now God is the God of beleevers Heb. 11. 16. No man can have any communion with God but by faith in Christ And so consequently this faith is there required what Expositor of the Law doth not put trust and affiance in God within the affirmative part of the first commandment as well as fear love and obedience And without Christ there can be no affiance or trust If we conceive the moral Law to reach no farther then the duties expressely there named or the evils forbidden we shall make it very scant and narrow we shall see small reason of that of the Psalmist Thy Commandment is exceeding broad Psalme 119. 96. But in case we take in all that by necessary consequence may be inferred according to the approved rules of interpretation then scarce any duty is more clearly laid down then this of faith in Christ And whereas one faith A man cannot preach Faith in Christ out of the Moral Law I say a man out of the Moral Law may evince the necessity of Faith in Christ unto every one that lives in Gospel-light to whom Christ is tendred The Law requires the duty and the Gospel discovers the object no man out of the Law could have evinced Abraham that he must offer his sonne nor that he must have left his countrey but when Gods minde was made known to him the Moral Law did binde him to obedience and he had sinned against the Moral Law in case he had refused There is no command given of God to any man at any time of an nature whatsoever but the Moral Law ties him to the observation of it not immediately explicitely but upon supposition of such a command intervening Therefore ye shall observe all my Statutes and all my judgements and do them I am the Lord Levit. 19. 37. Faith in Christ being commanded of God I John 3. 23. the Moral Law obliges to obedience of it See Molin Anatom Arminianis cap. 11. Respons Wallaei ad Censuram Johannis Arnol. Corvini cap. 11. Ball on the covenant page 105. Burges Vindiciae legis page 117. A farther difficulty here offers it selfe Obj. and an obstruction laid against that which in this Treatise is after intended If the covenant or second covenant as opposite to that of works be in Christ and grounded on the work of reconciliation then it is commensurate with it and of no greater latitude and only the elect and chosen in Christ the called according to Gods purpose being reconciled only these are in covenant when the Scripture as shall be God willing made good confines not this covenant within the limits of the invisible Church known only to God But it is as large as the Church visible To this I answer Answ that the Prophetical office of Christ as Shepherd and Bishop of our souls and so much of his Kingly office as consists in a legislative power hath its foundation as well as the covenant in this work of reconciliation Had not this been undertaken by Christ for mankinde man had never enjoyed that light man had never had an Oracle or an Ordinance as the fruit of his Prophetick office yet these Ordinances are not commensurate with reconciliation nor of equal latitude with election So neither is the covenant but either of both in order towards it As Ordinances therefore are Christs gift from heaven as the fruit of his death and resurrection when yet all that partake of these Ordinances do not yet die or rise with Christ So is the covenant when yet all in covenant are not stedfast in it nor obtaine the graces of it Therefore I know not how to admit that which a Divine singularly eminent hath laid down That all the effects of Christs death are spiritual distinguishing and saving Seeing gifts of Christ from his Fathers right hand are fruits of his death yet not spiritual distinguishing and saving That they are in some sort spiritual I dare grant that is in ordine ad spiritualia if I may so speak they have a tendency to a spiritual work That they are distinguishing from the world as it is taken in opposition to the Church visible I yeeld for I do not enlarge the fruit of Christs death to all man-kinde assenting to Master Owen and Master Stalham in the grounds that they lay of Gods respite of the execution of the whole penalty on man with the continuance of outward favours not to be upon the account of Christ but for other reasons yet I know not how to affirme that Ordinances which yet are fruits of his death are all saving spiritual and distinguishing seeing they neither conferre salvation nor saving grace on all that partake of them So that Christ is a Mediatour of this covenant and yet those enter into it that have not reconciliation by Christ Jesus The Ephesians that were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ Ephes 2. 13. that is brought into a visible Church-state in the fruition of Ordinances made free of that city whose name is The Lord is here Ezek. 48. 35. CHAP. XVIII Farther differences between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace A Farther difference of importance between these covenants is in the conditions annext unto either of them and here the difference is brought to the height This alone so diversifies them that they are not barely in circumstance and way of administration but in substance two distinct covenants The least difference in conditions diversifies bargains and agreements on what part soever the difference is Conditions of the covenant between God and man are of two sorts either such in which God engages himselfe or in which man is engaged either the stipulation on Gods part or else the restipulation on the part of man The former unto which God is engaged are either rewards in case of

have had our conversation in the world Yea this is a mark of him who is entirely the Lords professedly and really his When the question is put Who shall dwell in Gods holy hill Who shall abide in his Tabernacle answer is returned He that walks uprightly and worketh righteousnesse Psal 15 1 2. And when a like question is put Isa 33. 14. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire Who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burning We have the like answer returned in the words that follow He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly And Jesus seeing Nathanael saith John 1. 47. Behold an Israelite indeed There are many Israelites in name but here was an Israelite indeed and this is his character in whom there is no guile His inside was the same with that without In the discharge of this the Saints of God have promised to themselves upon good grounds all happinesse Psal 119. 6. Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments The want of this renders all that is done void and vaine as to the acceptation of God when the heart glances aside and is not right with God in worshipping him doth not seek him Math. 15. 8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips but their heart is farre from me Israel is an empty Vine he bringeth forth fruit to himself Hos 10. 1. Their heart is divided therefore shall they be found faulty verse 2. Amaziah did that which was good in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. 25. 2. Judah hath not turned unto me with their whole heart but feignedly Jerem. 3. 10. Psal 78. 34 35 36 37. When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God and they remembred that God was their rock and the high God their redeemer neverthelesse they did flatter him with their mouths and they lied unto him with their tongues for their hearts were not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant By all which I suppose it is evident that God in covenant calls for obedience requires integrity of heart in it will not accept where sincerity of heart is wanting and where it is he crowns it with happinesse and glory And from what hath been spoken a full definition of the new covenant may be thus given A gracious Covenant of God with fallen man whereby God engages himself upon faith in Christ and returne to God in sincere obedience to confer on man remission of sinnes and all whatsoever that tends to everlasting happinesse They that professe to beleeve and returne to God are in Covenant They that do beleeve and sincerely returne enjoy the blessings and mercies of the covenant This Arminians make the decree of God and will have no other than such conditional Election not an Election unto faith and obedience but because it is foreseene that men will beleeve and persevere in sincere obedience in which they are opposed by the Orthodox See Moulins Anatomy of Arminianisme chap. 12. Sect. 10. This is the covenant of grace published and promised in the Gospel which Arminians would make one with Election confounding the Will of Gods Decree with the Will of his Command and Promise He that would see more into the nature of sincerity that he may answer to that which God in covenant doth require may peruse Ball on the Covenant chap. 11. and Doctor Preston on Gen. 17. 1. CHAP. XXVI The necessity of a Ministery to bring men into Covenant with God and to bring them up to the termes of the Covenant FRom hence several Corollaries may be drawn and Inferences made 1. Of the necessity of a Ministery a constant standing Ministery as to bring men into covenant with God so to bring them also up to the termes of the covenant to a lively saving faith and sincere obedience God works not man into covenant by immediate voice Neither doth he use the Ministery of Angels in his ordinary way of working of it But when he would take in the Nations of the world into covenant with himself he sends out his Ministers for that work giving them a Commission with gifts and abilities suitable to disciple all Nations Matth 28. 19. Where a Ministery comes not there that people remaine out of covenant in the state of the Ephesians before their call as it is set out by the Apostle Ephes 2. 12. without Christ aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world And where the Gospel-covenant is tendered and not received there that people continue out of covenant rejecting the councel of God against themselves Luke 7. 30. and rendering themselves unworthy of everlasting life Acts 13. 46. This was the case of the people of Athens There Paul preacht yet there he setled for ought we read no Church of beleevers though he had there some particular Converts Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris with others Acts 17 34. Where the word was delivered and there received there was a people in covenant with God as at Ephesus Corinth Philippi Thessalonica c. Those Ministers had the honour of planting of laying the first foundation of preaching where Christ before had not been named Rom. 15. 20. A people thus brought into covenant do not alwayes come up to the termes of the covenant All covenanters keep not covenant their hearts are not steady in it Therefore there is no lesse necessity of a Ministery in established Churches to keep up a people in Covenant with God through the termes of the covenant to bring them to the happinesse promised Theirs is the work of watering of building on anothers foundation of preaching Christ where Christ before at least was known by name and in some sort professed That there was such a Ministery in the Church of the Jews to teach Jacob his Laws and Israel his judgements to require what God in covenant called for is not denyed that a Ministery was necessary in the Primitive Apostolique times to work men into covenant and for the plantation of Churches is confest likewise But when the Apostles left the world then this order as some say sell with them all Ministerial power died with them We are made to beleeve saith one because the Apostles were ordained by God to be Teachers of the people and endued with gifts for that end that therefore there is a like divine though secret Ordination from God in the making of our Ministers Compassionate Samaritane page 24 25. But if the Scriptures may be heard this may soone be decided I shall therefore by arguments make it appear First that God hath established a Ministery and appointed it through all the ages of the world to be perpetuated Secondly I shall give reasons to manifest the necessity of such a Ministery to be thus established and