Blake, Thomas

, an English puritan divine, was born in Staffordshire in 1597, and in 1616 was entered of Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degrees, and went into the church. In 1648 he sided with the ruling party, subscribed the covenant, and became pastor of St. Alcmond’s in Shrewsbury, and afterwards of Tamworth in Staffordshire, where he was also one of the committee for the ejection of those who were accounted “ignorant and scandalous ministers and schoolmasters.” He died in June, 1657, and was buried in Tamworth church, after a funeral sermon preached by the famous Mr. Anthony Burgess, of Sutton Colfield.

He wrote, besides some controversial tracts on Infant Baptism, 1. “Vindiciae Foederis, a treatise of the covenant of God with mankind, &c.” Lond. 1653, 4to. 2. “The Covenant sealed,” ibid. 4to, 1655 and several single sermons, and meditations entitled “Living Truths in dying times,” 1665, 12mo. Burgess’s Funeral Sermon for him. was printed. Lond. 1658, 4to, but became so scarce, that Wood informs us he -could never see a copy, otherwise he would have enlarged his account from it. There is but little in it, however, of personal character. The funeral oration printed along with it, and spoken by one Shaw, a schoolmaster, is a curious specimen of pedantic imagery. ²