The Lord
warns us in His Gospel, saying, “You reject the commandment of God, that you
may establish your own tradition.” … The apostle instructs us, saying, “If any
man teaches otherwise, and does not consent to the wholesome words of our Lord
Jesus Christ and His doctrine, he is puffed up with foolishness: from such a
man withdraw yourself.” And again he says, “Let no man deceive you with empty
words; for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of
disobedience. Do not therefore be partakers with them.” There is no reason that
you should be deceived with empty words, and begin to be partakers of their
depravity. …
Avoid the
wolves who separate the sheep from the shepherd; avoid the venomous tongue of
the devil, who from the beginning of the world, always deceitful and lying,
lies that he may deceive, entices that he may injure, promises good that he may
give evil, promises life that he may put to death. Now also his words are
evident, and his poisons are plain. He promises peace, in order that peace may
not possibly be attained; he promises salvation, that he who has sinned may not
come to salvation; he promises a Church, when he so contrives that he who
believes him may utterly perish apart from the Church. …
We ought
not to give heed to what another before us may have thought was to be done, but
what Christ, who is before all, first did. Neither is it becoming to follow the
practice of man, but the truth of God; since God speaks by Isaiah the prophet,
and says, “In vain do they worship Me, teaching the commandments and doctrines
of men.” And again the Lord in the Gospel repeals this same saying, and says,
“You reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition.”
Moreover, in another place He establishes it, saying, “Whosoever shall break
one of these least commandments, and teach others to do so, he shall be called
the least in the kingdom of heaven.” … What obstinacy is that, or what
presumption, to prefer human tradition to divine ordinance.
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