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

for as the State depends upon the safety of the Church, so the safety of the Church depends upon Unity, and Unity it self depends upon Uniformity, and Uniformity there cannot be, as long as there is diversity or divers ways of worship in the same Church, which will be always, unless it be lawful for public Authority to oblige all particulars to one way of public worship, and that under such penalties, as the Law-givers shall think necessary to prevent the disturbing of the public Peace and safety; the preservation whereof being the main end of all Laws, and of all penalties appointed by Law, those practises that are either intentionally or consequentially destructive to this End, may be, and no doubt ought to be restrained by severe penalties. It is not therefore the not kneeling at the Sacrament, but the breaking of the Orders of the Church, and the endangering of the Peace and Safety of the whole, which our Laws punish by not admitting such unto the Sacrament, as will not, or perhaps dare not kneel at it; for as they will not endanger the Peace of their Consciences for the Churches sake; so it becomes the Law-givers not to endanger the Churches and the States Peace for their sakes. And surely when there is a necessity of the yielding of the one or of the other, it is much more reasonable that a part should yield unto the whole, then the whole unto a part, especially when the whole cannot yield without endangering it self, and with it self even those themselves also, that, will they nill they, must be involved in the ruin of it, as the Presbyterians have found by their own experience also, who by their groundless and needless separation from us, have given example and ground enough for others to separate from them, till by dividing and subdividing from one another, there was nothing of Uniformity, or unity, or order, or decency left in that Church, which was formerly (and I hope by ⟨p. 11⟩the Prudence and Piety of public Authority will be now again) the Glory and Pattern of all other Protestant and Reformed Churches in the world; of which, by the way, there is not one which doth not use as great severity for the preserving of Unity by Uniformity as we do, even in this particular;

for as the State depends upon the safety of the Church, so the safety of the Church depends upon Unity, and Unity it self depends upon Uniformity, and Uniformity there cannot be, as long as there is diversity or divers wayes of worship in the same Church, which will be alwaies, unlesse it be lawful for publick Authority to oblige all particulars to one way of publick worship, and that under such penalties, as the Law-givers shall think necessary to prevent the disturbing of the publick Peace and safety; the preservation whereof being the main end of all Laws, and of all penalties appointed by Law, those practises that are either intentionally or consequentially destructive to this End, may be, and no doubt ought to be restrain'd by severe penalties. It is not therefore the not kneeling at the Sacrement, but the breaking of the Orders of the Church, and the endangering of the Peace and Safety of the whole, which our Lawes punish by not admitting such unto the Sacrament, as will not, or perhaps dare not kneel at it; for as they will not endanger the Peace of their Consciences for the Churches sake; so it becomes the Law-givers not to endanger the Churches and the States Peace for their sakes. And surely when there is a necessity of the yielding of the one or of the other, it is much more reasonable that a part should yield unto the whole, then the whole unto a part, especially when the whole cannot yield without endangering it self, and with it self even those themselves also, that, will they nill they, must be involved in the ruine of it, as the Presbyterians have found by their own experience also, who by their groundlesse and needlesse separation from us, have given example and ground enough for others to separate from them, till by dividing and subdividing from one another, there was nothing of Uniformity, or unity, or order, or decency left in that Church, which was formerly (and I hope by