on visiting the sick, and a detailed section on preaching. The book reflected the compilers' belief in the regulative principle of worship, which holds that only what is mandated by explicit Scripture, whether by explicit command, precept or example or by good and necessary consequence can be deduced from Scripture was warranted in the public worship of God. The Directory lays down a structure of worship centered on the reading of Scripture. The canonical scriptures are to be read in order, a chapter of each testament at a time, after which there was a long prescribed prayer and then the minister was to preach to the effect that "his own and his hearers' hearts [are] to be rightly affected with their sins." Baptism was to be administered at this same service using a baptismal font which the people could see and where they could hear, rather than hitherto where fonts had often been placed at the entrance of the church. A long instruction preceded the administration of the rite which, among other things, made the point that baptism is not so necessary that the child would be damned or the parents guilty if it were not administered, on the grounds that the children of the faithful "are Christians and federally holy before baptism." There was to be prayer that the inward baptism of the Spirit would be joined with the outward baptism of water. Communion was to take place after the morning sermon, and was to be celebrated often, though the Directory does not specify precisely how often; to the Scots, quarterly or half-yearly was sufficient, but some English Puritan churches observed monthly, while most Anglicans only practiced communion once a year. Those wishing to receive communion were to sit "about" or "at" the communion table. The disjunctive words "about" and "at" were a compromise between the Scottish view of the necessity of sitting around a table and a common view in England that partaking in the pews was in order. The words of institution from the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, or from Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, were an essential part of the celebration. These were followed by a prayer of thanksgiving to God "to vouchsafe his gracious presence, and the effectual working of his Spirit in us; and so to sanctify these elements, both of bread and wine, and to bless his own ordinance, that