Authority for changing the Sabbath.
“ Ques. WHAT are the days which the Church commands to be kept holy? A. 1st, The Sunday or the Lord’s day, which we observe by apostolic tradition, instead of the Sabbath. 2dly, The feasts of our Lord’s Nativity, or Christmas-day; his Circumcision, or New-Year’s day; the Epiphany, or Twelfth-day, Easter-day, or the day of our Lord’s Resurrection, with the Monday following, the day of our Lord’s Ascension; Whit-Sunday, or the day of the coming of the Holy Ghost, with the Monday following; Trinity Sunday; Corpus Christi, or the feasts of the blessed Sacrament. 3dly, We keep the days of the Annunciation, and Assumption of the blessed Virgin Mary. 4thly, We observe the feast of All-saints; of St. John Baptist; of the holy Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul. 5thly, In this kingdom we keep the feast of St. Patrick, our principal patron.. Q. What warrant have you for keeping the Sunday, preferable to the ancient Sabbath which was the Saturday? A. We have for it the authority of the Catholic Church, and apostolic tradition. Q. Does the Scripture any where command the Sunday to be kept for the Sabbath? A. The Scripture commands us to hear the Church, [Matt. xviii, 17; Luke x, 16.] and to hold fast the traditions of the apostles. 2 Thess. ii, 15. But the Scripture does not in particular mention this change of the Sabbath. John speaks of the Lord’s day; [Rev. i, 10;] but he does not tell us what day of the week this was, much less does he tell us that this day was to take the place of the Sabbath ordained in the commandments. Luke also speaks of the disciples’ meeting together to break bread on the first day of the week. Acts xx, 7. And Paul [1 Cor. xvi, 2.] orders that on the first day of the week the Corinthians should lay by in store what they designed to bestow in charity on the faithful in Judea; but neither the one nor the other tells us that this first day of the week was to be henceforward the day of worship, and the Christian Sabbath; so that truly, the best authority we have for this, is the testimony and ordinance of the church. And therefore those who pretend to be so religious of the Sunday whilst they take no notice of other festivals ordained by the same Church authority, show that they act by humor, and not by reason and religion; since Sundays and holy days all stand upon the same foundation, viz., the ordinance of the Church.—Cath. Christian Instructed, pp. 209, 210, 211.