[Coleridge’s Literary Remains, Volume 4. by Samuel Taylor Coleridge]@TWC D-Link bookColeridge’s Literary Remains, Volume 4. BOOK I 16/39
273. 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. 3.
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