Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
Ver. 17. Whatsoever entereth in at the mouth] In nature, Animantis cuiusque vita est fuga. Life, were it not for the repair by daily nourishment, would be soon extinguished, Hence it is called, "The life of our hand," because maintained by the labour of our hands, Isaiah 5:7; Isaiah 5:10. But that which our Saviour here driveth at is, to set forth the ridiculous madness of the Pharisees, while they placed a kind of holiness in those things that were evacuated and thrown into the draught. And do not Papists the very same? Qui gustavit ovum trahitur in carcerem, cogiturque de haeresi causam dicere, saith Erasmus. To eat flesh, or but an egg, in Lent, is punished with death. Whereas in the year of Christ 330, Spiridion, a godly bishop in Cyprus, having not what else ready to set before a guest that came to him in Lent, set him a piece of pork to feed on. And when the stranger made scruple of eating flesh in Lent, saying, I am a Christian, and may not do it: Nay, therefore thou mayest do it, said he, because "to the pure all things are pure," and the kingdom of God consists not in meats and drinks, &c., Romans 14:20 .