The author tells us that he compared what he did with the Assembly's Directory, the Book of Common Prayer, and Hammond L'Estrange; but he seems to have borrowed little or nothing from these sources, beyond introducing or allowing the use of the creeds--sometimes the use of the Athanasian Creed--the Te Deum, and the psalms in order for the day. The modes of expression employed by Baxter are not founded upon the study of former liturgies, and are remarkably unlike those of the Anglican and the ancient Communions. They are carefully drawn from the Bible, and the margin of the new service book is studded with innumerable references to Scripture texts. No one who reads the work, especially considering the short time in which it was executed, but must acknowledge it to be a very extraordinary performance; and even Dr. Johnson said of the office for the communion, "that it was one of the first compositions of the ritual kind he had ever seen."[232] The comprehension and fervour of all the prayers must excite admiration; but many of them labour under the Puritan disadvantage of being too long, and they are frequently at variance with that kind of religious taste which appreciates the character and tone of the litanies and the collects of the Church of England. Baxter candidly admits, that he made "an entire Liturgy, but might not call it so," because the Commissioners required only "additions to, or alterations of, the Book of Common Prayer."[233] How a completely new Liturgy could come under the latter denomination I cannot understand. As he omitted all reference to the Book of Common Prayer, his new Directory bore on the face of it the intention of superseding, or of rivalling that venerable manual of devotion; and wherever the former might have been adopted, it would virtually have put the latter aside. Still, as his petition shows, he was willing that it should be left for ministers to decide which Liturgy they would adopt; and, it may be concluded, that he would not have objected to a blending of the two, however incongruous such a thing may appear to many. [Sidenote: 1661.]