The harmonie of Holie Scriptures vvith the seuerall sentences of sundry learned and vvorthy vvriters : collected for the comfort of all such as are desirous to seeke after theyr soules health / by I.B.

§. 3.

And, seeing that GOD hath created all things for the vse of man, & requireth no∣thing of vs but holinesse, what forceth hee whether vvee eate flesh of foure-footed beastes, or of fishes, or of Birds that flie? There is none of all these that eyther ma∣keth or marreth holinesse: neither putteth any thing to it, or taketh any thing from it.

The choyse of these things, and the put∣ting of difference betweene one and ano∣ther, may make a man superstitious, & to haue vaine religion in himselfe, but it can∣not make him holie. Christ taught no difference heerein: therefore it may bee counted great rashnes, if a wretched man, should goe about to burthen & charge any man with such ordinances. Let euery man eate what hee liketh, as his body requireth, so it be doone soberlie, & measurably; and for all thinges, let him giue thankes vnto God.

For, to beleeue that meates are euill, or causeth euill, or sinne to them that receiue them; it is the propertie, not of Christian men, but peculiarly of the Hierarchies, & Maniches, which were heretiques.

Notes

• Erasmus.
• Erasmus.
• Augustine.