It showed indecent haste to date the time for decision so early as the 24th of August; or it showed indecent delay, not to issue the Book until within three weeks before. It has been asserted that few parishes received it till a fortnight after the period prescribed, and Burnet says that he was informed by some of the Bishops, that many clergymen subscribed before they had seen the volume.[353] One, in the diocese of Lincoln, pleaded as a proof of the injustice of his being silenced, that he had never had an opportunity of reading what he was required to adopt; and he adds, that this was the case with many more. A clergyman, named Steel, in his farewell sermon, at Hanmer, in Flintshire, declared "he was silenced and turned out, for not declaring his unfeigned assent and consent to a Book which he never saw or could see."[354] Certainly the Book ought to have been in every rectory and vicarage a month or two previously to the day of ejection; yet, it must be acknowledged, too much was made of the difficulty at the time, and too much has been made of it since; for the fifth clause of the Act distinctly provides for lawful impediments "to be allowed and approved of by the Ordinary of the place."[355] Upon this clause we have a practical commentary in a paper issued by the Bishop of Peterborough, expressly providing for such cases.[356] [Sidenote: 1662.] The Bishop very properly treated as a lawful impediment, inability to examine the Book: and in the following year, as we shall see, an Act passed for the relief of such persons as were disabled from declaring conformity. Wherever and whenever a prelate felt so disposed, he could make allowance for such inability; nevertheless, the fact remains, that it rested entirely with him to determine what was a _lawful impediment_, and to allow or not, the force of scruples, according to his own personal pleasure; if the Diocesan chose to decide against the Incumbent, the patron might at once present another person to the living. Richard Baxter made up his mind to leave the Establishment within a week of the time when the Act of Uniformity received the Royal assent. He preached on the 25th of May, and then gave as reasons for his early silence, that he considered the Act at once put an end to the liberty of his lecturing in parish churches, and that he wished his brethren to understand he had fully made up his mind not to conform. He thought if he "stayed to the last day," some might be led to suppose he meant to submit, and so might be drawn into an imitation of his supposed example. [Sidenote: EFFECTS OF THE ACT.]