Quote from Bunyan's Pastor

I have already blogged about my exciting new addition to the specialized collection on John Bunyan in my research library. The text is very difficult to decipher, and I may need to find a seminar to learn how to read 17th century handwritten text.

From what I can read, I came across this interesting quote from John Gifford, the pastor of the Bedford church (as far as I can tell), and Bunyan's pastor (Bunyan would later become pastor of the same church).

"Concerning separation from the Church about baptism, laying on of
hands, anointing with oil, psalms, or any other externals, I charge
every one of you respectively, as you will give an account of it to
our Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge both quick and dead at his
coming, that none of you be found guilty of this great evil, which
some have committed, and that through a zeal for God, yet not
according to knowledge. They have erred from the law of the love of
Christ, and have made a rent in the true Church, which is but one."
(Gifford, pg 3 of Church Book of Bunyan Meeting).

Bunyan's later refusal to exclude over baptism would become a controversial subject among several of Bunyan's fellow clergymen. On his part, Bunyan was simply teaching what he himself had been taught.

The influence of a pastor.......