Richard Baxter his account to his dearly beloved, the inhabitants of Kidderminster, of the…

Sixthly, That an Offence; to which a disproportionable Penalty is annexed, is not to be measured by the Quality of the Act considered in it self, but by the mischievous consequences it may produce▪ wh••ther this ought to hold good in Civil Laws, becomes neither the Bishop nor me to dispute: but in Divinity nothing can be more False and Dangerous. For to impose, in the Worship of God as necessary circumstances of it, things confessedly trivial and needless; and, upon the forbearance of them, to debar any from the benefits first of Christian, and then of Civil Communion, is a thing which hath not the least pretence of Scripture or Primitive practice to justify it. For our Saviour tells us, That whoever were not against him, were for him; and the Apostle bids us to receive our weak Brother, and not to judge, much less to burden his Conscience. Unto which Sacred Canon; nothing ⟨p. 38⟩can be more directly contrary, than what the Bishop most Incompassionately tells us, That the Laws do well to punish, even with non-admission to the Sacrament, such as will not, or perhaps dare not, kneel. And the Reason he gives is equally Apocrypha, Because, saith he, it becomes not the Law-givers to endanger the Churches peace for their sake: As if first, It did not much more become all Law-givers, in the things of God, to observe the Law of Christ, which is a Law of Love and Liberty. Secondly, As if the Churches peace would not be much more endangered, by the pressing of things doubtful, than by the forbearance of them. For since by the enforcing of such things, as God hath no where commanded, our Christian liberty is infringed; from hence it follows, that, if we ought not, yet we lawfully may refuse to submit unto such Impositions; as our Saviour did in not washing his hands before Meat; and the Apostle Paul, in the case of Circumcision.

Sixthly, That an Offence; to which a disproportionable Penalty is annexed, is not to be measured by the Quality of the Act considered in it self, but by the mischievous consequences it may produce▪ wh••ther this ought to hold good in Civil Laws, becomes neither the Bishop nor me to dispute: but in Divinity nothing can be more False and Dangerous. For to impose, in the Worship of God as necessary circumstances of it, things confessedly trivial and needless; and, upon the forbearance of them, to debar any from the benefits first of Christian, and then of Civil Communion, is a thing which hath not the least pretence of Scripture or Primitive practice to justifie it. For our Saviour tells us, That whoever were not against him, were for him; and the Apostle bids us to receive our weak Brother, and not to judge, much less to burden his Conscience. Unto which Sacred Canon; nothing