At Colossae the Gnostic tendency revealed itself in the insistence on minute prohibitions, limiting the liberty of the Christian at every turn in his use of things in themselves lawful, and the object of these disciplinary rules was "to check the indulgence of the flesh," but this object was not attained.
"If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances, Handle not, nor taste, nor touch (all which things are to perish with the using) after the precepts and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh."[2]
In the pastoral Epistles "forbidding to marry" is expressly included among the "seducing spirits and doctrines of devils" which will mark the apostates "in later times," and when we reflect on the long train of degrading consequences which have flowed from Christian asceticism, and notably
