An Account of Cawdrys Triplex Diatribe, Chapter 5 · Section 6
Sect. 6. The Diatribiſt's way to make the Doctors words witneſs againſt him. foreign &c. Placing worſhip, an equivocal phraſe.
BUt the Diatribiſt is ſo fixtly reſolved on his way, that the criminouſneſs and danger of theſe abſtinencies, ſhall conſiſt in their being deviſed or willed by men, and not in the Gnoſtick dogmatizing or teaching them to be commanded by God, that in his 6t §. the Doctor himſelf ſhall (again, according to his method taken up in his preface) be brought in to teſtifie for him; To which purpoſe theſe words are cited from him, that the danger conſiſts in impoſing on men humane ordinances or doctrines, and then ſaith he, ſtay there a while, viz. that he may from thoſe words, taken alone, conclude, that then they did not impoſe them as commands of God.
But I know not what obligation lyes either on the Reader or me, to make a pauſe, upon his command, in the very middle of a period, when the words which are behind make theſe that are cited utterly uncapable of the ſenſe which he puts upon them; For thus the words lay in the period before he had the diſmembring of them, [which words point out that wherein the danger doth conſiſt, viz. impoſing on men humane ordinances or doctrines, i. e. thoſe things, which though they are not commanded by God, are yet by men affirmed and pretended and taught (though, as we ſay, magiſterially and without proof) to be ſo commanded.
It is not poſſible any word ſhould be more expreſſely contrary to the Diatribiſts concluſion, then theſe, which he thought fit to ſollicite to bear witneſs on his ſide, and to that end cut them in the midſt, and then, after the manner of the ſerpent, that fed upon it ſelf, ſuborned and inſtructed one end to devour and eate up the other.
This he ſaw, and therefore in the end of that 6t. §. he mentions theſe latter words, as the Doctors gloſs of his own former words, and ſaith, they will now prove his own, i. e. ſingular. And truely if they ſhould prove ſingular, i. e. if no man in the world ſhould be found to have ever ſaid the like, but the Doctor, they would yet be ſufficient for the turn to which they were deſigned, to explicate the Doctors own meaning, and to ſecure the beginning of his period, from being brought in judgement againſt him, and ſo might have ſaved the Diatribiſt the pains of this §. For ſure no man was ſo fit to explain his own words, or to give his full ſenſe in them, as he whoſe words they were, foreſeeing that poſſible, which now hath happened, that otherwiſe they might be miſtaken.
But then 2. I ſhall not acknowledge my gloſs a ſingular one, but that which the Apoſtles word will own as a natural and perſpicuous paraphraſe, foreign (reading the middle as in a parentheſis, ſpecifying what foreign he means, and the ſpecious gloſſes which they put upon them) why do you permit ſuch abſtinencies preſcribed and taught you really by men, and not by God, to be impoſed on you as doctrines commanded by God, juſt as when the Phariſees taught their own traditions, as the doctrines of God. That this is the very literal importance of foreign, to be ſubjected, or to pay obedience as to a foreign or command of Gods, hath already been ſhewed, And if that be granted, there can be no farther doubt of the whole expreſſion, nor conſequently of the propriety of my gloſs or paraphraſe on it.
As for the placing worſhip in thoſe abſtinencies, that equivocal phraſe was very lately examined, and muſt not again return to exerciſe us. If they placed worſhip in them, in this ſenſe, that they did or taught them as parts of God's commanded worſhip, tis the very thing wherein I placed the danger; If they delivered them as their own doctrines, and not as the doctrines of God, they did not then place any part of God's commanded worſhip in them; If they taught them as ſuch things, which, though not commanded by God, would yet be acceptable to him, ſtill, after they were aboliſht by Chriſt, then they taught that which had no truth in it, for ſuch kinds of abſtinencies are not now valued by God, but more real acts of ſelf-denyal ſet up in their ſtead, mortifying of luſts, and the like, which thoſe falſe teachers were far from being guilty of. As for ceremonies of decencie and order, and Feſtivals, really deſigned to ends of piety and edification; they are neither of them parallel, nor bear any analogie with theſe which are here cenſured.