The law of ritualism Examined in its relation to the word of God

Excerpt from The Law of Ritualism: Examined in Its Relation to the Word of God, to the Primitive Church, to the Church of England, and to the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States
The subject on which several of my esteemed brethren are pleased to ask my opinion, has been familiar to my own mind for many years, although it is only of late that it has begun to excite any general attention. Amongst a large proportion of my fellow Christians, the ritual or ceremonial part of divine worship is thought to be a matter of perfect indifference. For, since true religion is acknowledged to be a spiritual life in the soul, granted to the humble disciple of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, through Faith, they have concluded that its outward form has received no corresponding care from the Almighty. God looks on the heart. And if that be right, the external expression of devotion is left free to all the varieties of human taste and feeling.
This, in the judgment of many, seems to be a very satisfactory conclusion. Yet I cannot assent to it, for several reasons. First, because it stands in opposition to the wisdom of the supreme Lawgiver, when He saw fit to dictate the ritual of the Church established for His own chosen people. Secondly, because it contradicts the analogy of all His other works, where we see that while the life is one thing and the form is another, yet both are ordained by the Word of God. The life of religion is indeed a spiritual principle, but that is no reason why the Lord should be indifferent to its form.
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