The church also refused to make a conversion testimony a requirement for full membership, instead requiring only the desire to live a godly life.28 By mid-1745, thirteen members of the church, including Backus, stopped attending and began holding private meetings by themselves. Lord insisted that the aggrieved members appear before him and explain themselves. Among their reasons for leaving were that the church did not make conversion a condition of membership, and that Lord was “not a friend to lowly preaching and preachers.” One of the Separates simply stated that “the gospel is not preached
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