The presence of Christ with the ministers of the Gospel, opened & applied in…The presence of Christ with the ministers of the Gospel, opened & applyed in…

And if any particular Persons have been led by God into the understanding of those mistakes, and have made their differing Sentiments Public, it has proved an occasion of much Sorrow; and many People have fallen into Parties, whereby a Spirit of ⟨p. 2⟩Lore has been quenched, and great heats have risen, from whence have proceeded, Censures and Reproaches, and sometimes Separation & Persecution. There have been two eminent instances of this in latter times. When the People of England cast off the Doctrines of Popery, they retained many of the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome; as the Surplice, Cross, in Baptism, and Kneeling at the Lords Supper, &c. and this has been a wounding thing to their Posterity. The Generations since have been greatly distressed by their Contentions about those things. Many Books have been written for and against the Ceremonies; and sometimes one party has got the upper hand, and have persecuted the other with a great deal of harshness and severity, to the undoing of many Families: Sometimes the other party has prevailed, and knew not how to use their advantage with moderation, and there is no prospect of the end of these troubles; the discords run sometimes higher and sometimes lower, but nothing appears in Providence, but that they may be perpetual.

And if any particular Persons have been led by God into the understanding of those mistakes, and have made their differing Sentiments Publick, it has proved an occasion of much Sorrow; and many People have fallen into Parties, whereby a Spirit of ⟨p. 2⟩Lore has been quenched, and great heats have risen, from whence have proceeded, Censures and Reproaches, and sometimes Separation & Persecution. There have been two eminent instances of this in latter times. When the People of England cast off the Doctriues of Popery, they retained many of the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome; as the Surplice, Cros, in Baptism, and Kneeling at the Lords Supper, &c. and this has been a wounding thing to their Posterity. The Generations since have been greatly distressed by their Contentions about those things. Many Books have been written for and against the Ceremonies; and sometimes one party has got the upper hand, and have persecuted the other with a great deal of harshness and severity, to the undoing of many Families: Sometimes the other party has prevailed, and knew not how to use their advantage with moderation, and there is no prospect of the end of these troubles; the discords run sometimes higher and sometimes lower, but nothing appears in Providence, but that they may be perpetual.