... Liturgy, the dislike of superstitious usages, of the use of the surplice, the signCHAPTER I 15 of the cross in baptism, the gift of the ring in marriage, the posture of kneeling at the Lord's ... preliminary training of the men of the Puritan armies and of the Commonwealth, andfor their great contest, all the years of Bible study, of controversial writing, of individual suffering, wereneeded. ... Emmons died there, in 1840, at the age of ninety-five. Apart from his influence upon the development of doctrine, he did more than any other man to bring back the early independence of the churches...