"
[Footnote 143: John 13. 3. &c.]
The reader will see by this time, that, on subjects which have given
rise to such controversies as baptism and the Lord's supper have now
been described to have done, people may be readily excused, if they
should entertain their own opinions about them, though these may be
different from those which are generally received by the world. The
difficulties indeed, which have occurred with respect to these
ordinances, should make us tender of casting reproach upon others, who
should differ from ourselves concerning them. For when we consider, that
there is no one point connected with these ordinances, about which there
has not been some dispute; that those who have engaged in these
disputes, have been men of equal learning and piety; that all of them
have pleaded primitive usage, in almost all cases, in behalf of their
own opinions; and that these disputes are not even now, all of them,
settled; who will take upon him to censure his brother either for the
omission or the observance of one or the other rite? And let the
Quakers, among others, find indulgence from their countrymen for their
opinions on these subjects. This indulgence they have a right to claim
from the consideration, that they themselves never censure others of
other denominations on account of their religion.
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