Declaration went a long way towards meeting the views of moderate Presbyterians, and seemed at first to supply a basis on which a scheme of comprehension might have been reared. It is expressed in a tone utterly different from that adopted by the Bishops. It might well lead some Presbyterians to believe that the hour of union had come. Baxter found that suggestions made by himself and his friends, at the Worcester House Conference, had been adopted in the Declaration; and, on the whole, he felt pleased with the document. On the day that it appeared, he received from the Lord Chancellor an offer of a Bishopric. He replied, that if this offer had come before his seeing the Declaration, he should have declined it at once; now, however, he said, "I take myself, for the Churches' sake, exceedingly beholden to his Lordship for those moderations; and my desire to promote the happiness of the Church, which that moderation tendeth to, doth make me resolve to take that course which tendeth most thereto; but whether to take a Bishopric be the way I was in doubt, and desired some farther time of consideration; but if His Lordship would procure us the settlement of the matter of that Declaration, by passing it into a law, I promised him to take that way in which I might most serve the public peace." Soon afterwards Baxter made up his mind to decline the proffered honour, partly on personal, partly on ecclesiastical grounds.[141] He tells us, indeed, that he disapproved of the "Old Diocesan frame," and feared that, as a Bishop, he might have work to do contrary to his conscience; but he also particularly expresses the feeling that the Episcopal office would draw him aside from those works of theological authorship, for which he believed he had a special fitness, and a divine mission. [Sidenote: WORCESTER HOUSE DECLARATION.] Reynolds, at the same time, was offered the Bishopric of Norwich, and accepted it. For this he was then reproached, and has often since been severely blamed. Yet Baxter persuaded him to take this step, advising him to declare, that he did so upon the terms of the Royal Declaration, and that he would resign if these terms were withdrawn. Reynolds read to his friend a paper which he had prepared for His Majesty's hands, stating that he believed a Bishop was only a chief Presbyter, and ought not to ordain or govern but with the assistance of his co-Presbyters,--such being the doctrine according to which he was prepared to take his seat on the Bench. Whether he actually did present such a paper, Baxter could not tell.[142] [Sidenote: 1660.]