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

But what need I use any other Instances then that which was the matter of our dispute? Suppose it never so lawful of it self to kneel in the Reception of the Sacrament, if it be imposed by a penalty that is incomparably beyond the proportion of the offence, that penalty is an Accident of the command, and maketh it by accident sinful in the Commander: If a Prince should have Subjects so weak as that all of them thought it a sin against the example of Christ, and the Canons ⟨image 4⟩of the general Councils, and many hundred years practice of the Church to kneel in the act of Receiving on the Lords day, if he should make a Law that all should be put to death that would not kneel, when he foreknew that their consciences would command them all, or most of them, to die rather than obey, would any man deny this command to be unlawful by this accident? Whether the penalty of ejecting Ministers that dare not put away all that kneel, and of casting out all the people that scruple it, from the Church, be too great for such a circumstance, (and so in the rest,) and whether this, with the lamentable state of many Congregations, and the divisions that will follow, being all foreseen, do prove the Impositions unlawful which were then in question, is a case that I had then a clearer call to speak to, then I have now. Only I may say that the ejection of the servants of Christ from the Communion of the Church, and of his faithful Ministers from their sacred work, when too many Congregations have none but insufficient or scandalous teachers, or no preaching Ministers at all, will appear a matter of very great moment, in the day of our Accounts, and such as should not be done upon any but a Necessary cause, where the benefit is greater then this hurt (and all the rest) amounts to.

Having given you (to whom I owe it) this account of the cause for which I am forbidden the exercise of my Ministry in that Country, I now direct these Sermons to your hands, that seeing I cannot teach you as I would, I may teach you as I can. And if I much longer enjoy such liberty as this, it will be much above my expectation.

Having given you (to whom I owe it) this account of the cause for which I am forbidden the exercise of my Ministry in that Countrey, I now direct these Sermons to your hands, that seeing I cannot teach you as I would, I may teach you as I can. And if I much longer enjoy such liberty as this, it will be much above my expectation.