Institutes 2.8.33 — EXPOSITION OF THE MORAL LAW.

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**EXPOSITION OF THE MORAL LAW.**

I am obliged to dwell a little longer on this because some restless spirits are now making an outcry about the observance of the Lord’s day. They complain that Christian people are trained in Judaism, because some observance of days is retained. My reply is, That those days are observed by us without Judaism, because in this matter we differ widely from the Jews. We do not celebrate it with most minute formality, as a ceremony by which we imagine that a spiritual mystery is typified, but we adopt it as a necessary remedy for preserving order in the Church. Paul informs us that Christians are not to be judged in respect of its observance, because it is a shadow of something to come ( Col. 2:16 ); and, accordingly, he expresses a fear lest his labour among the Galatians should prove in vain, because they still observed days ( Gal. 4:10, 11 ). And he tells the Romans that it is superstitious to make one day differ from another ( Rom. 14:5 ). But who, except those restless men, does not see what the observance is to which the Apostle refers? Those persons had no regard to that politic and ecclesiastical arrangement, N“Finem istum politicum et ecclesiasticum ordinem.”P—French, “la police et ordre en l’Eglise;” policy and order in the Church.

Source

• source-manifest/institutes — Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, tr. Beveridge 1845 (PD)
• evidence_grade: D_doctrinal_textbook