and drink. Col. 2, 16: Let no man, therefore, judge you in
meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy-day, or of the
Sabbath-day; also: 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! And Peter says, Acts 15, 10: Why tempt ye God to put a
yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers
nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as
they. Here Peter forbids to burden the consciences with many
rites, either of Moses or of others. And in 1 Tim. 4,1.3 Paul
calls the prohibition of meats a doctrine of devils; for it is
against the Gospel to institute or to do such works that by
them we may merit grace, or as though Christianity could not
exist without such service of God.

Here our adversaries object that our teachers are opposed to
discipline and mortification of the flesh, as Jovinian. But
the contrary may be learned from the writings of our teachers.
For they have always taught concerning the cross that it
behooves Christians to bear afflictions. This is the true,
earnest, and unfeigned mortification, to wit, to be exercised
with divers afflictions, and to be crucified with Christ.

Moreover, they teach that every Christian ought to train and
subdue himself with bodily restraints, or bodily exercises and
labors that neither satiety nor slothfulness tempt him to sin,
but not that we may merit grace or make satisfaction for sins
by such exercises. And such external discipline ought to be
urged at all times, not only on a few and set days. So Christ