moreover, by no means accorded with the time. For if we are not to throw everything into confusion, we must always bear in mind the distinction between the old and the new dispensations, and the fact that ceremonies, whose observance was useful under the law, are now not only superfluous but absurd and wicked. When Christ was absent and not yet manifested, ceremonies by shadowing him forth nourished the hope of his advent in the breasts of believers; but now they only obscure his present and conspicuous