the command of God of none effect by their tradition ver 3. and ver 6. The Prophet Isaiah speaks of Ordinances expresly contrary to God's commands staggering drunkenness ver 9. that is probably Idolatry and it may be there was consequent to that the making of certain humane inventions in themselves a necessary and acceptable worship of God and putting them in the room of that worship that God had commanded And our Saviour applyes it to the Jews who placed the worship of God in their own traditions that is they reputed the inventions of men such things as of and for themselves were pleasing to God and obliging to their conscience and such as if left undone brought them no less under the guilt of sin than the transgressing of Gods command They placed I say a worship of God in their traditions and made God's commands void and of none effect by them give way unto them They thought that the very creatures of God would defile them if eaten with unwashen hands yea say some of their Rabbins as much as lying with an harlot That this was our Saviour's purpose is plainly set down in the Gospel of St. Mark chap. 7.6 7 8 9. St. Mark 7.6 7 8 9. Well hath Isaias prophesied of you hypocrites as it is written This people honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me howbeit in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the traditions or injunctions of men for laying aside the commandement of God ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things ye do And he said unto them Full well ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition As if he had said Is not this fair worship and serving of God to reject his prime commands of inward purity and moral righteousness the most considerable parts of religion and act directly contrary to them and satisfie and content your selves with some external performances not at all commanded by God but by your selves or your Rabbins Dr. Ham. pract Cat. p. 203. Teaching for Doctrines the injunctions or traditions of men is The affirming that such and such things are the pleasure command or will of God which to affirm is the same crime as for any subject to put the King 's Broad Seal to his own Deed. In a word to pretend a tradition of the Jews to be a law of God's enacting or to set it up against or in lieu of any known Law of God's is the crime noted by that phrase and nothing else but what bears some analogie with that But then How can we be challenged as worshipping God in vâ—in in those usages whereby of themselves we pretend not at all to worship him or to teach for doctrines the injunctions of men who affirm them not to be of Divine authority nor yet use them to the supplanting any thing of God's appointment but only in subordination to and for the decent and orderly observance of his institutions By this therefore it appears also how vainly we are challenged with Will-worship But let us see the place Coloss 2.20 21 22 23. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances Touch not taste not handle not which are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men Which things indeed have a shew of wisdom in will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh It cannot scape our notice here that the Apostle placeth the shew of wisdom in will-worship as in humility and austerity and therefore designed to reflect no more disgrace upon that word than upon the other And indeed the case is clear that there were free-will-offerings among the Jews which were not the less but the more acceptable for being voluntary And it hath before been proved by an induction of many particulars that there were sundry usages appertaining to Religion among them which yet were not upon that account rejected by or displeasing unto God The genuine account of these words of St. Paul with some emendation of the translation is well comprized by the Reverend and Learned Dr. Hammond in this ensuing Paraphrase Dr. Ham. Paraphr If therefore ye have received the Christian Faith and as ye ought to do made that use of the death of Christ as to forsake all other doctrines and practises to receive his and so to look upon the rites of the Jews and the Philosophy of the Gentiles as abolished and out-dated by reason of the doctrine of Christianity why do you servilely subject your selves to such abstinencies as either out of the Heathen or Jewish practises are brought in among you such are those of abstaining from marriages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some sorts of meat as utterly unlawful which though they might be lawfully enough abstained from as indifferent things yet when they are taught and believed to be detestable things and utterly unlawful by that abuse tend to the bringing of all unnatural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and horrible villanies among you why I say do you subject your selves to such abstinencies as precepts and doctrines of men contrary to that liberty which Christ hath purchased for us and those doctrines of inward purity which he hath taught us which observances are indeed set off with some specious fair shews as that they are voluntary services or free-will-offerings to God that there is great humility in them as in that of worshipping angels ver 18. That they are a great austerity to and punishing of the body that they are quite contrary to the placing any honour in the satisfying of the flesh though it be by conjugal enjoyments but all these are but specious not real services have nothing of true worship in them Now if the Reader desire a fuller satisfaction about this Paraphrase he may consult the excellent notes of that judicious author on that Chapter too long to be here inserted In short Take we the word Will-worship as it is commonly used to express superstition by he that will to any purpose fasten the charge upon us must declare and evidence that we father some humane traditions and ordinances upon God or make them necessary to be observed as Divine and in order unto Salvation which will be task enough 5. Those Scriptures which require faith of us in order to the pleasing of God and impute the guilt of sin to whatsoever is not of faith Hebr. 11.6 Without faith it is impossible to please God Rom. 14.23 For whatsoever is not of faith is sin Now how palpably these texts are mis-applyed to evince the necessity of such a faith as hath for every action and circumstance some written word of God to rest and rely upon will abundantly appear by a transient view of them For First the faith required by the
neither will they be perswaded though one arose from the dead 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. That from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise â—â—to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 1 Pet. 1.19 it should be 2 Ep. We have also a more sure word of prophesie whereto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place Psalm 19.7 8.9 The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul making wise the simple Isa 59.21 My spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever This last is Gods covenant to continue his Spirit in conjunction with his words throughout all ages in his Church And not to bestow a particular reflection upon the rest the genuine result of these Texts is no more than what all Protestants agree in That we are obliged to attend vvith reverence unto the H. Scripture in whatsoever it speaks That we are diligently to read and peruse it to that purpose and That it is our onely and perfect rule in all the matters of faith and good life necessary to our salvation which is the great end for which the Scripture was given unto us That nothing is to be received as an Article of Divine Faith or Law in it self binding the conscience which is not according to the written Word and from thence to be derived But then it cannot from hence be groundedly inferr'd That we must have express warrant out of the Scripture for every thing which we either believe or do or in those circumstantials which are not any where thereby determined farther than the prescribing of some general rules of piety and prudence whereby our Governours ought to determine them and enjoyning obedience to all that are placed under them to their good orders agreeable thereunto 2. Those Scriptures which use the negative argument of God's not commanding a thing as a reproof and condemnation of it Jerem. 7.27 it should be v. 21 22 and 23. Thus saith the Lord Put your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices and eat flesh i. e. Eat of those offerings which were to be wholly consumed no less than of other sacrifices Levit 1. for I spake not unto your fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices but this commanded I them saying Obey my voice H. Grot. in loc Annot in L. 4. Rel. Christ If that be true which some ground upon this place viz. That God issued forth no command of sacrifices till after their worshipping the Golden Calf they were warranted only by custom arising from a voluntary devotion then we have gained so many fresh instances to be added unto those before alledged against this general principle now examined but I will not lean any thing to that supposition It seems rather that Sacrifices were before that required The Israelites begg'd liberty to go out to sacrifice by Divine directions and Pharaoh gave it them and God commanded the Sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb Exod. 3.18 and 8.8 and 12 13. The meaning then of God by the Prophet here may be only this That God preferr'd obedience before sacrifice as is elsewhere declared 1 Sam. 15.22 and manifested as much See Deut. 4.22 23 14. when he gave the Law at Mount Sinai requiring moral observances audibly from them without the mention of burnt-sacrifices the prescriptions whereof Moses afterwards himself received and so the negative hath only a comparatiue force in it I spake not nor commanded concerning Burnt-offerings i. e. not so much not in comparison with Obey my voice as it is both said and explained in the Prophet Hosea Hosea 6.6 I desired mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings Thus there are the more weighty St. Matt. 23 23. and considerable things of God's Law and those of a lesser size the one such as ought chiefly and especially to be done and yet the other too not to be left undone Others gloss on the words that God did not command sacrifice from them in such a manner and with such evil dispositions as they brought it And this is certainly the meaning of that expostulation in the first of Isaiah Isa 1.12 Who hath required these things at your hands from whence too some of our Catechist's way have taught That nothing is to be done but what God requireth Whereas it is evidently the design of that place Not to disclaim the Act spoken of but the Actors in their manner of performance and the emphasis lies not upon these things which were plainly matters of Divine appointment but upon your hands Who hath required these things at your hands even your hands that are full of bloud verse 15. The scope of the place is not to disown the things themselves the Worship given but the corruption of the worshippers as it is elsewhere said The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord Prov. 15.8 Let us then see if the other places that belong to this head have more in them for our conviction Jer. 7.31 They have built the high places of Tophet to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire which I commanded them not neither came it into my heart And again Jer. 19.5 They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal which I commanded not nor spake it neither came it into my mind The meaning of these phrases here used is questionless this which I forbad them for the matter spoken of is an abomination expresly forbidden by God Levit. 18.21 And the same answer belongs to two other Texts Deut. 17.3 Where the Idolater is thus described Who hath gone and served other Gods and worshipped them either the Sun or Moon or any of the host of Heaven which I have not commanded i. e. manifestly which I have forbidden Exod. 20.4 So Levit. 10.1 'T is the accusation of Nadab and Abihu that They offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not i. e. which he had forbidden them having commanded them to use the fire upon the Altar which to that very purpose was to be kept burning and not to be put out Levit. 1.7 8. 6.12 13. 16.12 God therefore having appointed his own fire the using of any other in the room of it could be no other than a violation of his appointment In all these places then there is a figure of speech which the Rhetoricians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Scripture in their ex-tempore discourses of it Is not this plainly to alter and add to the Holy word of God The Catechist saith Vzza dyed for putting the Ark into a Cart when he should have born it upon his shoulders The Text saith Vzza vvas smitten with death because he put his hand to the Ark namely to support and hold it vvhen the oxen stumbled And the Margin referrs to Numb 4.15 Numb 4.15 The sons of Kohath shall come to bear it the Sanctuary but they shall not touch any holy thing lest they die Upon vvhich place Mr. Ainsworth noteth Mr. Ainsworth on that place This judgment here threatned was executed upon Vzza a Levite who putting his hand to the Ark of God vvas therefore smitten of God 1 Chron. 13.10 Let them take more heed for the future of quoting Scripture thus without book without first examining of it It is highly incongruous for them who pretend so much to honour and cleave in all things exactly to the written word thus to mis-represent and abuse as well as misapply it Cat. p. 57. So the Catechist else-where also doth when he invidiously compares the affections excited by the decent rites and usages of the Churches appointment to inflaming themselves with Idols Isa 57.5 In which place the Prophet speaks either of those lusts which their Idolatries led them to or those venereous fires which represented their going a whoring after Idols slaying the children in the valleys and offering them unto them But I proceed 5. Of Vzziah the King in offering incense contrary to God's institution that duty being appropriated unto the Priests of the posterity of Aaron 2 Chron. 26.16.19 A note here is needless it being said that he acted contrary to God's institution I will therefore onely specifie the words of the text wherein yet there is some farther emphasis But when he was strong 4 Chron. 26.16 17 18 19. his heart was lifted up to his destruction for he transgressed against the Lord his God and went into the Temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the Altar of incense And Azariah the priest went in after him and with him fourscore priests of the Lord that were valiant men and they withstood Uzziah the King and said unto him It pertaineth not unto thee Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord but to the Priests the sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense Go out of the Sanctuary for thou hast trespassed neither shall it be for thine honour from the Lord God Then Uzziah was wroth and had a censer in his hand to burn incense and while he was wroth with the Priests the Leprosie even rose up in his forehead before the Priests in the house of the Lord from beside the incense Altar Fair warning to all that usurp the Priests office and take that honour unto themselves not being first called and consecrated thereunto 6. As a token in the New Testament of God's displeasure in temporal visitations on such miscarriages in his Church 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause saith the Apostle many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep That cause if look'd into will appear no other than a perverting of the whole design of the sacred Eucharist with the feast of charity thereto adjoyned the turning of it into a common meal Not discerning the Lord's body with many factions and uncharitable abuses 7. The Catechist closeth these instances with an intimation of a more severe punishment now substituted against such transgressions in the room of that which God so visibly inflicted under the Old Testament Hebr. 10.25 26 27 28 29. The words are these Not forsaking the Assembling of our selves as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries He that despised Moses law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troddâ—n under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he vvas sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace In this place the Apostle speaks apparently of that heinous sin of wilful Apostacy from Christianity and the despiteful rejection of it and therefore it is certainly mis-applyed to any miscarriages of an inferiour aggravation Thus now I have by God's help reflected upon those Scripture-quotations vvhich the Catechist hath here and there dispersed to invite or frighten his Reader to an entertainment of his admired Principle That nothing may be used or allowed of in or about the worship of God which is not commanded or instituted in the written Word And this concludes the first and general part of my Discourse PART II. CHAP. I. The Catechist's confidence with the boldness usual to men of his way remarqued His sixfold enumeration of Gospel-institutions The first of them fixed upon viz. The calling gathering and setling of Churches with their officers as the seat and subject of all other solemn instituted Worship Quaery How setled Churches are the subject of all instituted worship since Preaching of the word goes before them which the Catechist names for the fourth Gospel Institution I Pass forward now to the examination of some particulars and He certainly who so confidently asserts That Christ hath published all the Laws of his own Discipline and That the perswasion of any that he hath not prescribed all things wherein his worship is concerned proceeds from their negligence in enquiring may well be expected to give the world a good punctual and clear account of these matters Only in the entrance into this task it may not be amiss to observe how boldly the men of this way are accustomed to reflect upon our B. Saviour on the supposition that he hath not ordered and appointed all particulars as they imagine Thus formerly in the book of Ecclesiastical Discipline it vvas averr'd Nisi Reip. suae statum omnem constituerit magistratus ordinarit singulorum munera potestatemque descripserit quae judiciorum forique ratio habenda quomodo elvium finienda lites non solum minus Ecclesiae Christianae providit quà m Moses olim Iudaica sed quam à Lycurgo Solonae Numa civitatibus suis prospectum sit Lib. de Eccles Discipl That unless Christ would shevv himself less faithful than Moses and less wise than Lycurgus Solon Numa those Heathen Legislators he must needs have set down in holy Scripture a certain compleat and unchangeable form of Church-politie Well But which are the principal institutions of the Gospel to be observed in the worship of God Cat. p. 23. 14. To this the Catechist Answers 1 The calling gathering and setling of Churches vvith their officers as the seat and
A SERIOUS EXAMINATION OF THE Independent's Catechism AND THEREIN Of the Chief Principles of Non-conformity to and Separation from The CHURCH of ENGLAND By BENJAMIN CAMFIELD Rector of Whitwell in Derbyshire In two parts The first General the second more Particular Transfigurat se Satanas velut Angelum lucis de Scripturis saepè divinis laqueum fidelibus parat Ergo non te capiat haereticus quia potest de Scripturis aliqua exempla proferre Utitur Diabolus testimoniis Scripturarum non ut doceat sed ut fallat á S. Ambros De secunda tentatione Christi LONDON Printed by J. Redmayne for the Author And are to be sold by Henry Eversden at his Shop under the Crown Tavern in West-Smith-field 1668. IMPRIMATUR Tho. Tomkyrs Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac Domino Domino GILBERTO Divina Providentia Archi. Ep. Cant. à Sac. Dom. Ex Aed Lambethanis Junii 12. 1668. TO THE READER Christian Reader THe ensuing Treatise designs not so much the gratifying of the Learned as the satisfaction of the more ignorant and mis-informed and the motive to this publick exposing of it unto view is a necessity rather of the Times than of the Thing it self The very same truths have been frequently suggested by eminent Defenders of the English Church the most Reverend Whitgift Hooker Andrews Morton Hammond Sanderson and others But so long as old mistakes and errors have the confidence to creep abroad into the World daily in some or other new Disguise it is but charity to endeavour the removal of that stumbling-stone and rock of offence which may be otherwise cast in the way of the unskilful The Book examined is the sink indeed of all Non-conforming and Separating Principles from the Protestant Religion established in these Kingdoms under the modest Name of A brief Instruction in the VVorship of God and discipline of the Churches of the New Testament by way of Question and Answer with an Explication and Confirmation of those Answers Printed 1667. †So in the Title page and then contractedly in the head of the following pages A short Catechism with an Explication upon the same The Author I neither know nor list to enquire after but am content to leave his character to thy discretion upon the impartial perusal of that which follows wherein I have demonstrated him First False in his fundamental Principle that runs through all the rest Secondly False unto it and so in the first part undermined his general foundation and in the second cast down the chief of his superstructures If thou art a friend to the Holy Scripture it will offend thee I am confident to see it so much abused under a pretence of cleaving most exactly to it if to the Reformed Interest to find it so disgraced by opening a gap unto all confusions But not to trouble thee with a tedious preface I crave no more belief at thy hands than evidence shall extort from thy Vnderstanding only I beseech thee to read without prejudice and consider what thou readest and That God the Father of Lights would guide us all into and confirm us in the Truth is the hearty Prayer of Thy Well-wishing Friend and Servant B. C. THE Independent's Catechism EXAMINED In two Parts Part I. CHAP. I. Error in first and foundation-Principles most dangerous The Catechist's grand mistake noted The Method of this first part in order to the full conviction thereof The Protestant Doctrine of the perfection of H. Scripture as a rule and guide restrained to matters of Divine belief and practise necessary unto Salvation OF all Errors none so pernicious as those which corrupt the first and foundation-principles of our Discourse for these communicate a leaven of Falshood unto all the consequences from thence inferr'd and such is that which may be observed to run through the Catechism now examined a principle which comprizeth the whole mystery of Non-conformity and Separation in it's bowels viz. That nothing must be done oâ— admitted of by us in or about Religion God's worship and service which himself hath not commanded in the Holy Scriptures That whatsoever is not found instituted and commâ—nded in the â—ord of God cannot be of Faith and therefore the practise or allowance of it is upon that account sinful That the VVord of God condemâ—eth not only what is done against the warrant thereof but that also which is done besides or without it Now to give this matter it 's full consideration I determine by God's hâ—lp to speak distinctly unto these five particulars First The common belief of Protestant Divines in this argument Secondly The corruption and abuse of the Protestant Belief by the Doctrine of the Non-conforming Brethren Thirdly The words wherein our Catechist hath declared his opinion Fourthly The manifest falshood of the Assertion And Lastly The genuine explication of those texts of Scripture which are pretended to countenance it As to the first of these That which is owned among Protestants in common is This That the Holy Scriptures are the onely and sufficient guide and rule in all matters of necessary belief and observance in order unto salvation able to make us wise unto salvation and therefore Whosoever doth either derogate from this their perfection or add any thing unto them as necessary to be believed or done in order unto Salvation are certainly guilty of most presumptuous and unaccountable profaneness and This we justly tax the Church of Rome withall for enjoyning of unwritten traditions and Papal determinations to be received with an equal reverence unto the Holy Scriptures But then it is not their meaning by virtue of this Declaration to condemn all opinions as false and actions as unlawful which the Holy Scripture prescribeth not or to extend the perfection of Holy Scripture so far as the punctual determination of the circumstantials of Divine worship The perfection of God's Word is judged by them with relation unto that special end whereto it is designed viz. the instruction of men in all things necessary unto salvation the knowledge whereof they could not otherwise attain unto than by Divine revelation for it was not aimed to destroy or extinguish the light of nature but to help advance and perfect it It is not therefore any of God's purpose in the Holy Scriptures to comprize all things which men may know believe or practise as if natural reason and discretion were no longer to continue it's guidance or to determine all rituals and circumstances appertaining to the external ordering of Divine worship so as to have nothing for Ecclesiastical laws to be employed about That which they teach of the Scriptures sufficiency is ever restrained to matters of necessary belief and duties of necessary observance in order unto salvation and never enlarged to all things that may be believed or done by us in the general or to particular circumstances which have respect unto the good order decency and external regulation of Divine worship CHAP. II. The Puritan disguises of this