annot be understood, if men
think that they merit grace by observances of their own choice.

Thus, therefore, they have taught that by the observance of human
traditions we cannot merit grace or be justified, and hence we must
not think such observances necessary acts of worship. They add hereunto
testimonies of Scripture. Christ, Matt. 15, 3, defends the Apostles who
had not observed the usual tradition, which, however, evidently pertains
to a matter not unlawful, but indifferent, and to have a certain
affinity with the purifications of the Law, and says, 9: In vain do they
worship Me with the commandments of men. He, therefore, does not exact
an unprofitable service. Shortly after He adds: Not that which goeth
into the mouth defileth a man. So also Paul, Rom. 14, 17: The kingdom of
God is not meat 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 d