• The Popish holy-days (like Christ-Mass, Easter, Etc. - ed.) ought not to be observed, because they are not appointed in the Word; and, by the same reason, no other holy-days may be kept, whatsoever pretence there be of devotion towards God, when there is no precept or example for such practice in the holy scripture. - Thomas Vincent (Puritan, London), An Explicatory Catechism: or, An Explanation of the (Westminster) Assembly's Catechism, available on the Puritan Hard Drive.

• Q. May the church appoint holy days, to remember Christ’s birth, death, temptation, ascension, &c.? -– A. No; as God hath abolished the Jewish holy days of his own appointment, so he hath given no warrant to the church to appoint any: but hath commanded us to labour six days, except when Providence calls us to humiliation or thanksgiving; and expressly forbids us to observe holy days of men’s appointment, Col. 2:16; Gal. 4:10,11.” - John Brown of Haddington, An Essay Towards an Easy, Plain, Practical, and Extensive Explication of the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism (1758), on the Puritan Hard Drive

10 Top Puritan Hard Drive Reviews (So Far)

• The word for Christmas in late Old English is Cristes Maesse, the Mass of Christ ... Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts; Origen, glancing perhaps at the discreditableimperial Natalitia, asserts (in Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday. - The Catholic Encyclopedia.

• God not only rejects all invented manners of worship but strongly abominates them. It must be said, in fact, that as soon as men seek to worship God by their own judgment, whatever they produce is foul profanation. - John Calvin on the Puritan Hard Drive

• The New Testament plainly discourages the attempt to fill up the calendar with holidays. Gal. 4.9-11; Col. 2.16-23. Even days of fasting or thanksgiving are not holy days; but they are a part of secular time voluntarily devoted to God’s service. And if we are to perform these things at all, we must take some time for them. Yet none but God can sanctify a day so as to make it holy. The attempt to do this was one of the sins of Jeroboam. 1 Kings 12.33. If the clause, Six days shalt thou labour, is merely permissive, it is still enough for us. For who dare take away the liberty which God has here given us? – William S. Plumer (emphases added), on the PURITAN HARD DRIVE

• It is commonly objected, that we may as well keep a day for the nativity, as for the resurrection of Christ. We have answered already, that Christ's Day, or the Lord's Day, is the day appointed for remembrance of his nativity, and all his actions and benefits, as well as for the resurrection. - David Calderwood (Covenanter), on the Puritan Hard Drive

• In 1899, the General Assembly of the PCUS was overtured to give a "pronounced and explicit deliverance" against the recognition of "Christmas and Easter as religious days." Even at this late date, the answer came back in a solid manner: "There is no warrant in Scripture for the observance of Christmas and Easter as holydays, rather the contrary (see Gal. 4:9-11; Col. 2:16-21), and such observance is contrary to the principles of the Reformed faith, conducive to will-worship, and not in harmony with the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." - From: Kevin Reed, Christmas: An Historical Survey Regarding Its Origins and Opposition To It, free online book.