Negatives Touch not Tast not Handle not are called the Commandements of men Col. 2. 22. Which place I note the rather because the appellation here used and cited out of Esai 29. according to the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not found any where else in the whole Testament besides in the relation of this storie save in that one place onely By the analogy of which places in as much as there is mention made in them all as well of Doctrines as of Commandements and that in some of them with the Conjunction Copulative between them we are warranted to bring within the extent of this word according to the general intention and scope of our Saviour in this place Doctrinals as well as Morals that is to say as well those that prescribe unto our Judgments what we are bound to believe or not to believe in matter of Opinion as those that prescribe unto our Consciences what we are bound to do or not to do in matter of Practice Although the special occasion whereupon our Saviour fell into this discourse against the Pharisees and the special instance whereby he convinceth them do withall shew that the Morals do more principally properly and directly fall under his particular intention and scope therein In the full extent of the word then all those prescriptions are to be taken for the Commandements of men wherein any thing is by humane Authority either injoyned or forbidden to be believed or done especially to be done which God in his Holy Word hath not so enjoyned or forbidden Jonadab's command to the Rechabites that they should not drink Wine they nor their sons for ever and the Pharisees tradition here that none should eat with unwashen hands were both the commandements of men This is clear enough yea and good enough hitherto if there were no more in it but so For you must observe or else you quite mistake the Text and the whole drift of it that it is no part of our Saviours meaning absolutely and wholly to condemne all the Commandements of men For that were to cut the sinews of all Government and Order and to overturn Churches Kingdoms Corporations Families and all other both greater and lesser Societies of men none of all which can be upheld without some posttive Laws and Sanctions of mans devising We do not therefore find that either Jonadab was blamed for commanding the Rechabites not to drink wine or that they were blamed for observing his commandement therein But rather on the contrary that God well approved both of him and them yea and rewarded them for their obedience unto that command though it were a command but of mans devising and had no more than a bare humane Authority to warrant it And therefore those men are very wide that vouch this Text against the Ecclesiastical Constitutions or Ceremonies with such confidence as if they were able with this one Engine to take them all off at a blow not considering that it is not barely the Commandments of men either materially or formally taken that is to say neither the things commanded by men nor yet mens commanding of them but it is the teaching of such Commandments for Doctoines that our Saviour here condemneth the Pharisees for What that is therefore we are next to enquire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teaching for doctrines the commandments of men In the 29. of Esaie the substantives have a Conjunction copulative between them in the Septuagint and they are read in the very same manner and order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by St. Paul alluding thereunto in Col. 2. But in the Greek Text in all Copies extant both here and in Mark 7. where the same Historie is related they are put without the Conjunction by Apposition as the Grammarians call it The meaning is the same in both readings onely this latter way it appeareth better and it is in effect this Whosoever shall endeavour to impose upon the judgments of men in credendis or in point of faith any thing to be believed as a part of Gods holy truth or shall endeavour to impose upon the Consciences of men in agendis or in point of manners any thing to be observed as a part of Gods holy will which cannot be sufficiently evidenced so or so to be either by express testimonie of the written Word of God rightly understood and applied or by clear natural and necessary deduction therefrom according to the Laws of true Logical discourse is guilty more or lesse of that Superstition our Saviour here condemneth in the Pharisees of teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men And a fault it is of a large comprehension It taketh in all additions whatsoever that are made to that absolute and all sufficient Rule of Faith and Manners which God hath left unto his Church in his written Word In what kind soever they are whether in Opinion Worship Ordinance Injunction Prohibition Promise or otherwise From what cause soever they proceed whether from credulity ignorance education partiality hypocrisie misgoverned zeal time-serving or any other For what end soever they may be done whether those ends be in truth intended or but in shew pretended say it be the glory of God the reformation of abuses the preventing of mischiefs or inconveniences the avoiding of scandals the maintenance of Christian liberty the furtherance of piety or whatever else can be imagined If they have not a sufficient foundation in the sacred Text and yet shall be offered to be pressed upon our judgments or consciences in the name of God and as his Word they are to be held as chaffe fitter to be scattered before the wind or cast out to the dunghil than to be hoarded up in the Garners among the wheat alas what is the chaff to the wheat or as wood hay or stubble meeter to become fewel for the Oven or Hearth than to be coffered up in the treasurie among gold and silver and precious stones And he that bringeth any such doctrine with him let his piety or parts be otherwise what they can be should he in either of both or even in both match not onely the holy Apostles of Christ but the very blessed Angels in heaven yet should we rather defie him as a Traitor for setting Gods stamp upon his own Bullion than receive him as his faithful Embassadour and salute him with an Anathema sooner than bid him God speed Especially if the doctrine be apparently either false or ungrounded and yet positively and peremptorily delivered as if it were the undoubted word and will of God I may not now descend to particulars But thus much it will concern us all to know in the general That whosoever teacheth any thing either to be absolutely unlawful which God hath not forbidden in his word or to be absolutely necessary which God hath not required in his word he teacheth for doctrines the commandments of men and so far forth plaieth the
that rightly understandeth the Tenets of the Romish Church but will easily grant if he shall duly consider what a masse of humane Traditions both in point of belief and worship are imposed upon the judgments and consciences of all that may be suffered to live in the visible Communion of that Church and that with opinion of necessity and under paine of damnation The Popes Supremacy Worshipping of Images Invocation of Saints and Angels the propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass Purgatory the seven Sacraments Transubstantiation Adoration of the host Communion under one kind Private Masses forbidaing Priests Mariage Monastical Vowes Prayer in an unknown tongue Auricular Confession All these and I know not how many more are such as even by the confession of their own learned Writers depend upon unwritten Traditions more than upon the Scriptures True it is that for most of these they pretend to Scripture also but with so little colour at the best and with so little confidence at the last that when they are hard put to it they are forced to fly from that hold and to shelter themselves under their great Diana Tradition Take away that it is confessed that many of the chiefe Arcicles of their Faith nutare vacillare videbuntur will seem even to totter and reel and have much adoe to keep up For what else could we imagine should make them strive so much to debase the Scripture all they can denying it to be a Rule of Faith and charging it with imperfection obscurity uncertainty and many other defects and on the otherside to magnifie Traditions as every way more absolute but meerly their consciousness that sundry of their doctrines if they should be examined to the bottome would apeare to have no sound foundation in the Written Word And then must needs wee conclude from what hath been allready delivered that they ought to be received or rather not to be received but rejected as the Doctrines and Commandments of men Nor will their flying to Tradition help them in this case or free them from Pharisaisme but rather make the more against them For to omit that it hath been the usual course of false teachers when their Doctrines were found not to be Scripture-proofe to fly to Tradition do but enquire a little into the Original and growth of Pharisaical Traditions and you shall find that one egge is not more like another than the Papists and the Pharisees are alike in this matter When Saduc or whosoever els was the first Author of the Sect of the Sadduces and his followers began to vent their pestilent and Atheistical Doctrines against the immortality of the Soule the resurrection of the Body and other like the best Learned among the Jewes the Pharisees especially opposed against them by arguments and collections drawn from the Scriptures The Saduces finding themselves unable to hold argument with them as having two shrewd disadvantages but a little Learning and a bad cause had no other means to avoid the force of all their arguments than to hold them precisely to the letter of the Text without admitting any exposition thereof or collection therefrom Unlesse they could bring clear Text that should affirme totidem verbis what they denied they would not yeild The Pharisees on the contrary refused as they had good cause to be tyed to such unreasonable conditions but stood upon the meaning of the Scriptures as the Sadduces did upon the letter confirming the truth of their interpretations partly from Reason and partly from Tradition Not meaning by Tradition as yet any doctrine other than what was allready sufficiently conteined in the Scriptures but meerly the Doctrine which had been in all ages constantly taught and received with an Vniversal consent among the People of God as consonant to the holy Scriptures and grounded thereon By this means though they could not satisfie the Sadduces as Heretikes and Sectaries commonly are obstinate yet so farre they satisfied the generality of the people that they grew into very great esteem with them and within a while carryed all before them the detestation of the Sadduces and of their loose errors also conducing not a little thereunto And who now but the Pharisees and what now but Tradition in every mans eye and mouth Things being at this passe any wise man may judge how easy a matter it was for men so reverenced as the Pharisees were to abuse the credulity of the people and the interess they had in their good opinion to their own advantage to make themselves Lords of the peoples faith and by little and little to bring into the VVorship whatsoever doctrines and observances they pleased and all under the acceptable name of the Traditions of the Elders And so they did winning continually upon the people by their cunning and shewes of Religion and proceeding still more and more till the Jewish Worship by their means was grown to that height of superstition and formality as we see it was in our Saviours dayes Such was the beginning and such the rise of these Pharisaical Traditions Popish Traditions also both came in and grew up just after the same manner The Orthodox Bishops and Doctors in the antient Church being to maintain the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead the Consubstantiality of the Sonne with the Father the Hypostatical Union of the two Natures in the person of Christ the Divinity of the Holy Ghost and other like Articles of the Catholike Religion against the Arians Eunomians Macedonians and other Heretikes for that the words Trinity Homoüsion Hypostasis Procession c. which for the better expressing of the Catholike sense they were forced to use were not expressely to be found in the holy Scriptures had recourse therefore very often in their writings against the Heretikes of their times to the Tradition of the Church Whereby they meant not as the Papists would now wrest their words any unwritten doctrine not conteined in the Scriptures but the very doctrine of the Scriptures themselves as they had been constantly understood and believed by all faithfull Christians in the Catholike Church down from the Apostles times till the several present ages wherein they lived This course of theirs of so serviceable and necessary use in those times gave the first occasion and after-rise to that heap of Errors and Superstitions which in processe of time by the power and policy of the Bishop of Rome especially were introduced into the Christian Church under the specious name and colour of Catholike Traditions Thus have they troden in the steps of their forefathers the Pharisees and stand guilty even as they of the Superstition here condemned by our Saviour in teaching for doctrines mens Precepts But if the Church of Rome be cast how shall the Church of England be quit That symbolizeth so much with her in many of hir Ceremonies and otherwise What are all our crossings and kneelings and duckings What Surplice and Ring and all
Pharisees part in burthening the consciences of Gods people with the superstitious fansies of his own brain But otherwise the enjoyning of something for a time which God hath not forbidden or the forbidding of something for a time which God hath not required by those that are endued with lawful Authority in any Ecclesiastical Political or Domestical Society so as the same be not done for conscience sake towards God or with any opinion of worship merit or operative holiness but meerly out of prudential considerations and for the reasons of order decency expedience or other like respects of conveniency and accommodation is a thing no waies justly chargeable with Pharisaisme superstition or to be cryed down and condemned under the name of will-worship nor doth it come within the compass of our Saviours reproof in this place If Jonadab had laid an obligation upon the consciences of the Rechabites not to drink wine by telling them that for conscience sake towards God they ought to abstain therefrom or if the Jewish Elders and Governors leaving the consciences of the people free had onely made a Law under some penalty for decency and cleanlinesse sake that no man should sit down to meat in publick with unwashen hands to my seeming had he then been guilty of this Pharisaical superstition and they free In brief then to conclude this Enquiry To lay an obligation either upon the judgments or consciences of men in point of opinion or practice which God hath not laid that and nothing but that is to teach for doctrines the commandments of men We have yet a third thing to be enquired of for the Explication of the words namely how and in what respect they that teach such doctrines may be said to worship God in vain The ambiguity of our English word Worship hath occasioned many Errors among Divines and mis-understandings of one anothers words and writings whereby the disputes and controversies about Worship are become of all other the most intricate and perplexed The Hebrews and the Greeks too have sundry words and those of distinct notions and significations which we in English for want of fitter expressions are faine to translate promiscuously by this one word Worship The Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the word here used are all indifferently rendred worshipping Here according to the notion of the Greek word it properly signifieth the performance of some religious or devout act with an intention to honour God thereby Whereby it appeareth that these Pharisees placed a great part of their Religion in the observation of these Traditions of mens devising and flattered themselves with this conceit that they did God a great deale of honour in so doing and that therefore he could not choose but be marveilous well pleased with them for so doing By long accustoming themselves to which-like outward observances they had almost lost the vigor and soul of true Religion ' which consisteth in the inward reverence and devotion of the heart and had litle other left than the bare carcase or empty outside thereof and that also patcht and pieced up for the most part with the devises and inventions of men And this our Saviour now telleth them is VVorship in vain He saith so indeed but hath he any Text for it The place he citeth is in Esaie 29. 13. where the words according to the Original run but thus Their fear towards me is taught by the precept of men but that it is vain the Prophet doth not there say He doth not say it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in those very words according to the Hebrew but the scope of the place importeth all that and more For God there threatneth to punish the people for such worship which he would not have done if he had been either pleased with it or honoured by it But the very word and all is so found even as our Saviour citeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint there which being the most common and received Translation in those dayes was therefore for the most part followed by Christ and his Apostles in their quotations especially where it swerved not very much in sense from the Original Now a thing is said to be done in vaine when it hath not that wished effect which the doer intended and expected Those Pharisees then intending by those superstitious will worships to honour God and hoping to please him therewithall when their expectations should be so far frustrated that God should all on the contrary profess himself dishonoured and displeased thereby it must needs be acknowledged that this their Will-worship was all in vain Certainly God will reject what himself hath forbidden and he hath forbidden and that both frequently and with the severest interminations all manner of VVill-worship of this kind and properly so called and all additions of men unto his holy Word In the several parts of the Text thus opened we may see the full meaning of the whole God will not approve of nor accept any VVit-worship or VVill-worship forged or devised by man with an opinion as if it were a necessary part of Gods service nor allow of any doctrine that tendeth to bind the Judgments or Consciences of his people further than he hath thought fit himself to bind them by the expresses of his Word He will when time serveth root out every plant which is not of his own planting And when the day is come which shall declare by a fiery trial every mans work of what sort it is the gold and silver and pretious stones shall abide the fire and the workman that built with such good stuff shall receive a blessed reward But he that buildeth wood or hay or stubble though by the great mercy of God he himself may passe through the fire and be saved with some difficulty so long as he holdeth fast the foundation which is Christ and his merits yet he shall suffer losse in his work however That shall be sure to burn and perish whatsoever becometh of him All that fear of God is but superstitious and vain that is taught by the Precepts and Commandments of men From the Explication of the Text hitherto I came now to the Application of it Wherein I doubt not by Gods help but to make clear to the judgment of any man that is not either uncapable through ignorance or fore-possessed with prejudice these three things First that the Papists are guilty of the Pharisaical superstition and Will-worship here condemned Secondly that the Church of England and hir regular and obedient children are not guilty of the same Thirdly that those Divines and others in the Church of England that so undutifully charge her therewithall are in truth themselves inexcusably guilty of that very crime whereof they unjustly accuse her First for the Papists That they are the right children and successors of the Pharisees no man
too forward and faulty this way That they would in the fear of God review their own dictates and all partiality and self-seeking laid aside bestow a little paines to examine throughly the soundness of those principles from which they draw their conclusions whether they be the very true word of God indeed or but the fansies and devices of the wit of man I know how loathly men are induced to suspect themselves to be in an Errour and that it is with our brethren herein as with other men may sufficiently appeare in this that few of them will so much as bestow the reading of those books that might give them satisfaction But beloved better try your own work your selves and if it prove but hay or stubble burn it your selves by acknowledging your errour and retracting it that you may build better than let it lye on still till a sorer fire catch it Better for any of us all whether in respect of our errours or sins to prevent the Lords judging of us by timely judging our selves than to slack the time till his judgment overtake us The second use should be an Admonition to all my Brethren of the Ministery for the time to come and that in the Apostles words 1 Cor. 3. 10. Let every man take heed what he buildeth S t Paul himself was very careful this way not to deliver any thing to the people but what he had received from the Lord. The Prophets of the Lord still delivered their Messages with this Preface Haec dicit Dominus Yea that wretch Balaam though a false Prophet and covetous enough professed yet that if Balak would give him his house full of silver and gold he neither durst nor would goe beyond the word of the Lord to do less or more There is a great proneness in us all to idolize our own inventions Besides much Ignorance Hypocrisie and Partiality any of which may byas us awry Our Educations may lay such early anticipations upon our judgments or our teachers or the bookes we read or the society we converse withall may leave such impressions therein as may fill them with prejudice not easily to be removed The golden meane is a hard thing to hit upon almost in any thing without some warping toward one of the extremes either on the right hand or on the left and without a great deal of wisdome and care seldome shall we seek to shun one extreme and not run a little too farre towards the other if not quite into it In all which and sundry other respects we may soon fall into gross mistakes and errours if we do not take the more heed whilst we suspect no such thing by our selves but verily believe that all we do is out of pure zeale for Gods Glorie and the love of his truth We had need of all the piety and learning and discretion and paines and prayers we have and all little enough without Gods blessing too ey and our own greater care too to keep us from running into Errours and from teaching for doctrines the commandments of men The Third use should be for Admonition also to all the people of God that they be not hasty to believe every spirit but to try the Spirits especially when they see the spirits to disagree and clash one with another or find otherwise just cause of suspicion and that as the Beraeans did by the Scriptures Using withall all good subsidiary helps for the better understanding thereof especially those two as the principal the Rule of Right Reason and the known constant judgment and practice of the Universal Church That so they may fanne away the chaffe from the wheat and letting goe the refuse hold falt that which is good To this end every man should especially beware that he do not suffer himself to be carried away with names nor to have any mans person either in hatred or admiration but embrace what is consonant to truth and reason though Judas himself should preach it and reject what even an Angel from heaven should teach if he have no other reason to induce him to believe it than that he teacheth it 29. The Fourth Use should be for Exhortation to the learneder sort of my Brethren to shew their faithfulness duty and true hearty affection to God and his Truth and Church by mainteining the simplicity of the Christian Faith and asserting the doctrine of Christian Liberty against all corrupt mixtures of mens inventions and against all unlawful impositions of mens commandments in any kind whatsoever If other men be zealous to set up their own errors shall we be remiss to hold up Gods Truth God having deposited it with us and committed it to our special trust how shall we be able to answer it to God and the World if we suffer it to be stolen out of the hearts of our people by our silence or neglect Like enough you shall incurre blame and censure enough for so doing as if you sought but yourselves in it by seeking to please those that are in authority in hope to get preferment thereby But let none of these things discourage you if you shall not be able by the grace of God in some measure to despice the censures of rash and uncharitable men so long as you can approve your hearts and actions in the sight of God and to break through if need be far greater tryals and discouragements than these you are not worthy to be called the servants of Christ The last use should be an humble Supplication to those that have in their hands the ordering of the great affairs of Church and State That they would in their goodnesse and wisdomes make some speedy and effectual provision to represse the exorbitant licentiousnesse of these times in printing and preaching every man what he list to the great dishonour of God scandal of the Reformed Religion fomenting of Superstition and Errour and disturbance of the peace both of Church and Commonwealth Lest if way be still given thereunto those evill spirits that this late connivence hath raised grow so fiecre within a while that it will trouble all the power and wisdom of the Kingdom to conjure them handsomly down again But certainly since we find by late experience what wildnesse in some of the Lay-people what petulancy in some of the inferior Clergy what insolency in some both of the Laity and Clergy our Land is grown into since the reines of the Ecclesiastical Government have layn a litle slack we cannot but see what need we have to desire and pray that the Ecclesiastical Government and power may be timely setled in some such moderate and effectual way as that it may not be either too much abused by them that are to exercise it nor too much despised by those that must live under it In the mean time so long as things hang thus loose and unsetled I know not better how to represent unto you the present