Matthew Poole and continuators on Mark 7:13

13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered, And many such like things do ye.

See the Notes upon the nine first Verses of the fifteenth of Matthew. By the Notions of Traditions. Our Saviour understandeth not such things, as were delivered to them by God in his Law▪ but such things as were delivered to them by the Elders, that is, their Rulers in the Church in the former times, for v. 9. he opposeth Traditions, to Gods Commandements, and saith the latter were neglected by their Zeal for the former, to give Countenance to which Traditions, as the Papists would impose upon us to believe, that Christ Communicated some things to his Apostles, and [illegible: 1 letter]hey to the Primitive Churches, by Word of Mouth, which ha[illegible: 2 letters] been so Transmitted from Age to Age, so the Jew[illegible: 1 letter] pretended that God Communicated his Will in some things to Moses, which Moses did not publish to the People. And as the former pretend [illegible: 1 letter] Power by Christ left to the Church to determine Rituals: So the Pharisees (their true Predecessors) pretended a such like power amongst others, besides the Divers washings mentioned by the Apostle, Heb. 9.10. amongst the Carnal Ordinances imposed only until the time of Reformation, they had invented many other Washings, as sepimenta Legis, Hedges to the Divine Law. They Washed their Hands often, when they came from Market, or before they did eat, not for Decency, and Neatne[illegible: 1 letter], but out of Religion, lest they should have been defiled by touching any Heathens, or any Polluted things, and not their Hands only, but their Pots, and Cups, their Beds and Tables, and Brasen Vessels (as indeed there is no stop, when once Men have passed the Hedge of the Divine Institution,) of which Popery is a plentiful Instance, where it is hard to discern an Ordinance of God in the Rubbish of their Superstitious Traditions. And 'tis very observable, that Superstitious Men are always more fond of, and zealous for, the Traditions of Men in their Worship, then keeping the Commandements of God, it is with the Papists more hainous to Violate Lent, then to Violate the Sabbath. For a Priest to Marry then to commit Whoredom. This Zeal in them ordinarily produceth a neglect, or slight esteem of the plain Commandments of God. So it did in the Pharisees, v. 9. upon which our Saviour calleth them Hypocrites, v. 6. and telleth them this Worshipping of God was Vain, Sinful, and Idle, and impertinent, there was in it a Derogating from the Authority of God, and arrogating of an undue Authority to themselves by their Commands making those things necessary, which are not so, and as commonly it happeneth, when humane inventions are over urged, and Multiplyed, some are urged Destructive of the Divine Law, so it was with those Pharisees, so they had done as to the fifth Commandment (of which we have spoken plentifully in our Notes on Matth. 15, 8.) Our Saviour goeth on, shewing their Ignorance and Blindness, in imagining that any Person could be defiled by Eating with Vnwashen Hands.