1785] 2iEV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 59 



This is not only the doctrine of the Church of England, and other 

 Protestant Churches, but likewise of the Church of Rome ; which hath 

 declared, by the Council of Trent* — "That the Church always had a 

 power of making such constitutions and alterations in the dispensation 

 of the Sacraments, provided their substance be preserved entire, as, 

 with regard to the variety of circumstances and places, she should judge 

 to be most expedient for the salvation of the receivers, or the veneration 

 of the Sacraments themselves." 



The Church of England has, not only in her preface, but likewise in 

 her articles f and homilies, J; declared the necessity and expediency of 

 occasional alterations and amendments in her forms of public worship; 

 and we find accordingly, that seeking to " keep the happy mean between 

 too much stiffness in refusing and too much easiness in admitting varia- 

 tions in things once advisedly established, she hath, in the reign of 

 several § princes, since the first compiling of her liturgy in the time of 

 Edward the Vlth, upon just and weighty considerations her thereunto 

 moving, yielded to make such alterations in some particulars, as in 

 their respective times were thought convenient : yet so as the main 

 body and essential parts of the same (as well in the chiefest materials, 

 as in the frame and order thereof) have still been continued firm and 

 unshaken." 



" Her general aim in these different reviews and alterations hath been 

 (as she further declares in her said preface) to do that which, according 

 to her best understanding, might most tend to the preservation of peace 

 and unity in the Church ; the procuring of reverence, and the exciting 

 of piety and devotion in the worship of God ; and (finally) the cutting 



* Declarat (sancta synodus) hanc potestatem perpetuo in ecclesia fuisse ; ut in sacra- 

 mentorum dispensatione, salva illorum substantia, ea statueret vel mutaret qiice suscip- 

 ientium saluti, seu ipsorum sacranientorum venerationi, pro rerum, temporum et loco- 

 rum vaiietate, magis expedire judicaverit. — Sess. 21, cap. 2, Concil. Trident. And 

 agreeably to this, their Breviary and Missal have been frequently reviewed; the 

 Breviary heretofore three times in the short space of sixteen years only. 



I " It is not necessary that traditions and ceremonies be in all places one, or utterly 

 alike, for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the 

 diversity of countries, times and manners; so that nothing be ordained against God's 

 word ; [And therefore] eveiy particular or national Church hath authority to ordain, 

 change and abolish ceremonies or rites of the Church, ordained only by man's author- 

 ity ; so that all things be done to edifying." — Art. 34. 



J «' God's Church ought not, neither can it be so tied to any orders now made, or 

 hereafter to be made and devised, by the authority of man, but that it may, for just 

 causes, alter, change or mitigate — yea recede wholly from, and also break them," etc. 

 And again — " The Church is not bound to observe any order, law or decree made by 

 man to prescribe a form of religion; but hath full power and authority from God to 

 change and alter. the same, when need shall require." — Hoviily on Fasting, Part I. 



\ Tie liturgy, in sundry particulars, hath been reviewed, altered and amended about 

 eight different times, from its first publication, according to act of parliament in 1594 > 

 and its last review was in 1661, as it now stands, according to the Act of Uniformity. 



