"It has been the common opinion not only of the people but also of those who teach in the churches that distinctions among foods and similar human traditions are works which are profitable to merit grace and make satisfactions for sins. That the world thought so is evident from the fact that new ceremonies, new orders, new holy days, and new fasts were daily instituted, and the learned men in the churches exacted these works as a service necessary to merit grace and greatly terrified the consciences of those who omitted any of them. From this opinion concerning traditions much harm has resulted in the church.

 

"In the first place, it has obscured the doctrine concerning grace and the righteousness of faith, which is the chief part of the gospel and ought above all else to be in the church, and to be prominent in it, so that the merit of Christ may be well known and that faith which believes that sins are forgiven for Christ's sake may be exalted far above works and above all other acts of worship. Paul, therefore, lays the greatest weight on this article and puts aside the law and human traditions in order to show that the righteousness of a Christian is something other than works of this sort. It is faith which believes that for Christ's sake we are received into grace. This teaching of Paul has been almost wholly smothered by traditions which have produced the opinion that it is necessary to merit grace and righteousness by distinctions among foods and similar acts of worship. In treating of repentance no mention was made of faith; only works of satisfaction were proposed, and the whole of repentance was thought to consist of these."