A Golden Chain

Again, we hold this practise to be wicked, because it taketh away the liberty of Christians: by which, unto the pure all things are pure. And the Apostle, Gal. 5. bids us to stand fast in this liberty, which the Church of Rome would thus abolish. For the better understanding of this, let us consider how the Lord himself hath from the beginning kept in his own hands as a master in his own house, the disposition of his creatures for the use of man, that he might depend on him and his word for temporal blessings. In the first age, he appointed unto him for mea•e every herb of the earth bearing seed, and every tree wherein there is the fruit of a tree bearing •eede, Gen. 1.29. And as for flesh, whether God gave unto him liberty to eat or not to eat, we hold it uncertain. After the flood the Lord renewed his grant of the use of the creatures, and gave his people liberty to eat the flesh of living creatures: yet so as he made some things unclean, and forbade the eating of them: among the rest, the eating of blood. But since the coming of Christ he hath enlarged his word, and given liberty to all both Jews and Gentiles, to eat of all kinds of flesh. This word of his we rest upon; holding it a doctrine of devils,¹ for men to command an abstinence from meats, for conscience sake; which the Lord himself hath created to be received with thanksgiving. Socrates a Christian historiographer saith,² that the Apostles left it free to every one to use what kind of meat they would on fasting days, and other times. Spiridion in lent dressed swines flesh, and set it before a stranger, eating himself and bidding the stranger also to eat: who refusing and professing himself to be a Christian, therefore (saith he) the rather must thou do it: for to the pure all things are pure, as the word of God teacheth us.

Againe, we holde this practise to be wicked, because it taketh away the libertie of Christians: by which, vnto the pure all things are pure. And the Apostle, Gal. 5