The trouble is that [Anglicanism] found a ceremonial system already in operation in Romish worship, and desired to retain it in part, independently of the written word. This desire led them to argue that the New Testament furnishes very little light upon the subject, and that the mode of worship under the apostolic regime was only provisional, leaving the whole matter to the discretion and progressive experience of the church. This view is obviously fraught with the utmost danger and confusion (J. A. Waddell, Letters to a Young Presbyterian, 95).