SUCH ALSO IS THE ORDINANCE CONCERNING SUNDAY, Easter,
Whitsunday, and similar festivals and customs. For _those who suppose
that the ordinance concerning Sunday_ instead of Sabbath, _is enacted
as necessary, are greatly mistaken_. For the Holy Scripture has
abolished the Sabbath, and teaches that all the ceremonies of the old
law may be omitted, since the publication of the gospel. And yet, as it
was necessary to appoint a certain day, in order that the people might
know when they should assemble, the _Christian church_, (not the
apostles,) has up appointed Sunday (the Lord's day) for this purpose;
and to this change she was the more inclined and willing, that the
people might have an example of Christian _liberty_, and might know
that _the observance of neither the Sabbath nor any other day is
necessary_. There have been numerous erroneous disputations published,
concerning the change of the law, the ceremonies of the New Testament,
and the change of the Sabbath, which have all sprung from the false and
erroneous opinion, that Christians must have such a mode of divine
worship as is conformed to the Levitical or Jewish service, and that
Christ enjoined it on the apostles and bishops, to invent new
ceremonies, which should be necessary to salvation." [Note 6]
Here we are distinctly taught, (_a_) that the Jewish Sabbath is
entirely abolished; (_b_) that no particular day was divinely appointed
in its stead; (_c_) that those who suppose the ordinance concerning
Sunday instead of Sabbath is enacted as necessary, "are greatly
mistaken.
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