No doubt Charles looked as grave and as gracious as possible whilst he talked at Worcester House with Baxter and his brethren; and, although His Majesty alarmed his auditors by a reference to laws against Papists, he took care not to betray the utter hollowness of his professed zeal for Protestantism. So far as he had any sincere desire to grant an indulgence, it was not on behalf of Protestants, but on behalf of other persons whom Protestants most disliked. Puritans were to him troublesome people, whom he had to keep quiet as long as he could; and, in the meantime, he seems to have wished to use them as tools for producing the liberty which the Papists craved. [Sidenote: WORCESTER HOUSE DECLARATION.] [Sidenote: 1660.] Baxter went home dejected; two or three days afterwards, however, as he was walking in the City, amidst the din of carts and coaches, and the confusion of London cries, he heard a boy bawling at the top of his voice, that he had on sale copies of the King's new Declaration. He bought one of the sheets, and stepped into a shop to peruse the contents. The King, he found, commended in the highest terms the Church of England; and also acknowledged the moderation of the Presbyterians; he then proceeded to enumerate a series of concessions, which he had not the least doubt that the present Bishops would think "just and reasonable," and "very cheerfully conform themselves thereunto:"--That none should be presented to Bishoprics but men of learning, virtue, and piety; that suffragans should be appointed in the larger Dioceses; that the censures of the Church should not be inflicted without the advice and assistance of Presbyters, who should aid Bishops, Chancellors, and Archdeacons, in their respective offices; and that Confirmation should be rightly and solemnly performed:--that no Bishop should exercise any arbitrary power; that the Liturgy should be revised; but, that until the revision was effected, the unexceptionable portion of it should be used; that no existing ceremonies in the Church should be at once formally abolished; but, to gratify the private consciences of those who were grieved with the use of some of them, they should be dispensed with for the present; the final decision being left to a national Synod, to be duly called after a little time, when mutual conversation between persons of different persuasions should have mollified those distempers, abated those sharpnesses, and extinguished those jealousies which made men unfit for such consultation. The sign of the cross in baptism, bowing at the name of Jesus, the use of the surplice, and the oath of canonical obedience, were things not to be enforced, but to be left to individual opinion and choice. The King concluded, by renewing his Declaration from Breda, for the liberty of tender consciences, and by expressing hopes for the unity of the Church, the prosperity of religion, and the peace and happiness of the nation.[140] This