est speak I, not the Lord."
1 Cor. 7.12, and again he says elsewhere: "Stand fast and hold the
traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle,"
2 Thess. 2:15. Wherefore, the princes and cities must be admonished to
render obedience to ecclesiastical statutes and constitutions, lest when
they withdraw obedience that is due God, obedience may be withdrawn also
from them by their subjects, as their subjects attempted in the recent
civil insurrection, not to allow themselves to be seduced by false
doctrines. Most false also is their declaration that the righteousness
of faith is obscured by such ordinances; nay, he is rather mad and
insane who would observe them without faith. For they are given to
believers, and not to Turks or Ishmaelites. "For what have I to do to
judge them that are without?" 1 Cor. 5:12. Moreover, in extolling here
faith above all things they antagonize St. Paul, as we have said above,
and do violence to St. Paul, whom they pervert to evangelical works when
he speaks of legal works, as all these errors have been above refuted.
False also is it that ecclesiastical ordinances obscure God's commands,
since they prepare man for these, as fasts suppress the lust of the
flesh and help him from falling into luxury. False also is it that it is
impossible to observe ordinances, for the Church is not a cruel mother
who makes no exceptions in the celebration of festivals and in fasting
and the like. Furthermore, they falsely quote Augustine in reply to the
inquiries of Januarius, who is diametrically opposed to them. For
in this place he most clearly states that what has been universally
delivered by the Church be also universally observed. But in indifferent
things, and those whose observance and non-observance are free, the holy
father Augustine states that, according to the authority of St. Ambrose,
the custom of each church should be observed. "When I come back to
Rome," he says, "I fast on the Sabbath, but when here I do not fast."
Besides, they do violence to the Scriptures while they endeavor
to support their errors. For Christ (Matt. 15) does not absolutely
disapprove of human ordinances, but of those only that were opposed to
the law of God, as is clearly acknowledged in Mark 7:8, 9. Here also
Matt. 15:3 says: "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by
your tradition?" So Paul (Col. 2) forbids that any one be judged in meat
or in drink, or in respect to the Sabbath, after th