We are sure that kneeling in any adoration at all, in any worship, on
any Lord's Day in the year, or any week day between Easter and
Pentecost, was not only disused, but forbidden by General Councils,
&c.--and therefore that kneeling in the act of receiving is a novelty
contrary to the decrees and practice of the Church for many hundred
years after the Apostles.
Was not this because kneeling was the agreed sign of sorrow and personal
contrition, which was not to be introduced into the public worship on
the great day and the solemn seasons of the Church's joy and
thanksgiving? If so, Baxter's appeal to this usage is a gross sophism, a
mere pun.
Ib. p. 308.
Baxter's Exceptions to the Common Prayer Book.
1. Order requireth that we begin with reverent prayer to God for his
acceptance and assistance, which is not done.
Enunciation of God's invitations, and promises in God's own words, as in
the Common Prayer Book, much better.
2. That the Creed and Decalogue containing the faith, in which we
profess to assemble for God's worship, and the law which we have
broken by our sins, should go before the confession and Absolution;
or at least before the praises of the Church; which they do not.
Might have deserved consideration, if the people or the larger number
consisted of uninstructed 'catechumeni', or mere candidates for
Church-membership. But the object being, not the first teaching of the
Creed and Decalogue, but the lively reimpressing of the same, it is much
better as it is.
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