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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60699	An Exalted Diotrephes reprehended, or, The spirit of error and envy in William Rogers against the truth and many of the antient and faithful Friends thereof manifested in his late monstrous birth or, work of darkness, (viz.), his false and scandalous book, intituled, The Christian Quaker-distinguished, &c. ...	Snead, Richard, d. 1711.	1681 (1681)	Wing S4390; ESTC R4219	32,521	50

AN Exalted Diotrephes REPREHENDED Or the Spirit of Error and Envy IN William Rogers against the TRUTH And many of the Antient and Faithful Friends thereof Manifested in his late Monstrous Birth or Work of Darkness viz. his False and Scandalous Book Intituled The Christian Quaker-Distinguished c. Wherein he hath discovered himself to be an Apostate and not the True Christian Quaker but as one driven out from the Presence of the Lord and Unity with His Chosen People Also a Comparison between his said Book and many Exhortations and Reproofs Contained in an Epistle given forth under his Hand against that Spirit and work of Division he is now fallen under whereby his Apostacy Self Contradiction and Confusion may appear To be dispersed only among Friends unless his Book is made more Publick Out of thy own Mouth will I Judge thee thou Wicked Servant Luk. 19.22 But Evil Men and Seducers shall Wax worse and worse Deceiving and being Deceived 2 Tim. 3.13 14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast Learned and been Assured of knowing of whom thou hast Learned them vers 14. In vers 9 10. But Diotrephes who Loveth to have the Preheminence prating against Vs with malicious Words c. London Printed for John Bringhurst Printer and Stationer at the Sign of the Book in Grace-Church-Street 1681. LEt it not seem strange to any As though some new thing had happened unto Vs that We have Occasion thus publickly to Appear against One that hath made Profession of the Truth with Us but is gone out from Us according to that of 1 John 4.2 1.9 They went out from Vs but they were not of Vs for if they had been of Vs they would no doubt have Continued with Vs But they went out that they might be made Manifest that they were not all of Vs THE PREFACE AMongst the many Exercises and Perils the Lords People in this Age as in all Ages have met with they have not been unacquainted with Perils by False Brethren according to what the Apostle Paul Testified Acts 20.30 Also of your own selves shall Men Arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them whose Qualifications are at Large spoken of by the said Apostle in his Second Epistle to Timothy and Third viz. Without natural Affection Truce-Breakers false Accusers Incontinent fierce Despisers of those that are Good Traitors Heady High-Minded c. as the certain Fruits by which they should be known To the Great Exercise Grief and Sorrow of the Faithful there hath not been wanting divers of the like Instances of such Men who since we have been a People have Arisen from amongst our selves as this Man William Rogers now doth under the Profession of the Truth to oppose and gain-say the Blessed Order and Government thereof whereby the loose Conversations of the Wicked are Restrained or Judged and the Truth cleared from the Reproach thereof And these have not been without the like specious pretences with William Rogers as standing up for the Ancient Testimony and Principle of the Light and against Apostacy setting up Mans Prescriptions Impositions Innovations Persecutions c. but their Fruits withering And their End hath made them Manifest as this Man 's also doth and will do to be the Men Apostatized themselves Led and Acted by a Spirit that would open a Gap and break down the Hedge that every Man may do as he List whilst under the Profession of the same Truth without being called to Account and dealt with in a Gospel-Church-Order for it This small Treatise is not Intended for a full Answer to William Rogers's Voluminous Book which requires a considerable time for Inspection into divers Matters and Papers for such a Reply to trace him in all his False Insinuations grievous Perversions and notorious false Charges of many Innocent Men and Faithful and Eminent Labourers in the Work of the Gospel amongst Us already Manifest to Us by their Answers and Certificates in Writing wherein they have Largely Vindicated their Innocency in most if not all those things relating to matter of Fact alledged against them especially G. F. and have caused Copies thereof to be Delivered to William Rogers many Months since and long before his Book was in the Press Such more full Answer more publickly to be made we Refer to some other Hand or Hands who are Eminently concerned to do it In the mean time we thought it not Amiss to give the Reader some short discovery of the Subject and Occasion of the Differences William Rogers Writeth about and of His Work in General and that by Comparing his former Exhortations and Reproofs with his late Printed Book and Behaviour amongst Us the Reader may have some Taste of his Spirit of Errour and Envy and be cautioned in himself thereby how he gives Credit to his many and false Accusations against the Innocent An Exalted Diotrephes Reprehended WHen the Unclean Spirit is gone out of a Man he walketh through dry Places seeking Rest and finding none Then he saith I will Return into mine House from whence I came out and when he is come he findeth it Swept and Garnisht Then Goeth he and taketh with himself Seven other Spirits more Wicked than himself and they Enter in and Dwell there and the last State of that Man is worse than the first even so shall it be to this Wicked Generation Mat. 12. vers 43 44 45. THat this is the Case of this miserable Man William Rogers manifested by his late Fruits is past doubt with us whom through Unwatchfulness Disobedience and Rebellion against God which is as the Sin of Witchcraft the unclean Spirit and Adversary of Mans Soul the old Accuser of the Brethren hath thus Entred and Exalted upon the Pinnacle of his own conceited Abilities and having now the Rule in him and over him makes War through him against the Lamb and His followers and having fitted him for his Service now sets him about that which hath been all along his Work viz. To Reproach the faithful People of God the whole Profession and the good Order and Government of the Truth which the Lord hath brought forth amongst them as that which striketh at the downfal of his Kingdom with many false and opprobrious Accusations as of being Apostatized and Guilty of Imposition Persecution Innovation Gentilian-Lordship Blind Obedience c. whereby William Rogers hath not only Rankt himself among a Number of those Apostates who from the beginning in a Spirit of Enmity and Prejudice have risen up like Core saying You take too much upon you against the Heavenly Care and Order of such as truely Fear and Love God and in whom as he himself hath confessed God hath opened Councel for that End viz. To be as Helps and Governments in the Church which are not to be Despised being in Subjection to Christ the one Head and Law-giver But as may appear in the following Epistle with this Aggravation That which he formerly Approved and Exhorted

to he is now found smiting against and what he then severely detested and reproved in others He is now found heinously Guilty of himself viz of Representing such as Aiming at other Ends and Interests in such their Religious Care and Heavenly Order and Government than Christ's Interest and Government over All whereby out of his own Mouth he is Condemned And now for as much as he hath so publickly and injuriously appeared in his late Book to the great Scandal of our Profession as an open Enemy to the Truth we are concerned for the Honour of the Lord's Name which is dear unto us publickly to make him manifest A work otherwise not pleasing to Us that he may proceed no further but that his Folly may appear to all Men and that the Ignominy and Reproach he hath as much as in him lieth brought upon the Lords People and faithful Labourers and their Holy Profession may be Rouled and Washed away But before we proceed to make William Rogers manifest by his late Fruits among us we think it requisite to give some short Account of the Subject Occasion and present state of the Divisions mentioned in his Book and how William Rogers is concerned therein Many of the antient and faithful Brethren of the Northern parts as we are credibly informed being under an Exercise in their Spirits by reason of the Unfaithfulness of some that walk amongst them with Respect to divers things amongst whom J. S. J. W. c. were Interested they had a godly care upon their Spirits to make a narrow search and inspection thereinto which the Guilty could not bear but set themselves to oppose their proceedings by which means a great difference arose so that the Friends who were zealous against such as were Backsliding from the Truth and its Heavenly way and Testimonies remained some time under a burthen and exercise because thereof At length as we are credibly inforformed the Friends of the Quarterly Meeting at Kendal made known their Exercise to divers other Brethren desiring a meeting with J. S. and J. W. before them in order to the composing the Difference which was Rejected by them However those Friends and Brethren sent to them again and also some of them went to them and appointed a Meeting near the place where they were desiring them to come but they would not as holding themselves not obliged to submit to them in that case and leaving things under this state of Dis-reconciliation came into the South making their complaints and spreading their differences particularly amongst us at Bristol where they met with some that adhered to them strengthened them and set them up too forwardly Espousing the Cause upon the alone hearing of their Complaints against the Friends of the other Party who were far distant from us amongst the rest William Rogers was an early Proselite and so great a Devotee to these mens Interest that he industriously laboured to Proselite others there-unto upon the Credit of his pretended knowledge of the ground of those Differences what an evil Instrument this man was from the beginning thereof in this City and elsewhere is not easily to be Related how he forstering up J. S. and J. W. laboured to stave off the early endeavours and expedients for reconciliation as being not altogether suited to his mind who was now become as a Master of this Faction with which some of this City were like to be led aside whose Souls the Lord in his Mercy hath Rescued out of the Snare The Intelligence of those Differences spreading through divers Parts of the Nation especially where J. S. and J. W. Travelled and Resorted a Concern under the Apprehension of the evil consequences thereof came upon some Antient Brethren to endeavour a speedy stop thereto moved for a new Hearing which at length was agreed to on all hands Accordingly a meeting was appointed and held at Drawel in York-shire Anno 1676. to which resorted several of the Ancient Friends and Brethren leaving all Occasions and Relations in love to God and earnest desires for the preservation of the Church's Peace After their great Travel and tender Endeavours then for Reconciliation and Peace J. S. and J. W. being bowed into some Degree of Submission at length produce a Paper Containing a Condemnation against themselves It may not be amiss here to Relate out of W. R. his Narrative the Character he hath given of the Temper and Frame of the Spirits of those Brethren at the Meeting at Drawel when they gave forth their Sence and Account concerning the Difference relating to J. S. and J. W. which doth not a little confirm the Integrity and Soundness of it being from the Pen of so great an Opposer and Villifier as he hath Manifested himself to be The words of W. Rogers on the aforesaid account are that In all friends there appeared as far as I could perceive a spirit inclined to peace and unity in the Cruth many hearts being bowed down in the earnest desires of their souls breathing unto God and that in great Zeal and sincerity for the gathering them into nearer Vnion and fellowship with their brethren therein Again in his account of the Fourth days Travel he saith as follows The matter so gone through and ended the brethren waited and great was the exercise that was upon their spirits for a very considerable time after some silence the brethren chosen at London and many other Friends that were not of the six last chosen spoke their sense and Iudgment upon the whole matter not only relating to the fact before them but also to that spirit which according to their inward sense caused a separation to this effect That they viz. I. S. and I. W. had not kept in Vnity with their brethren as they ought to have done but had let in jealousies doubts and scruples whereby they had given way to a spirit of division and separation which spirit they did condemn and judge yet so as there appeared amongst the brethren a Travelling Love and Life beyond what I can now declare that they might not be cut off from them but brought into perfect Vnity with them so that at length the two accused brethren being as I was perfectly sensible ready to condescend to their brethren therein so far as their understandings were opened brought forth this Insuing Paper of satisfaction to their Travelling brethren and the Churches of Christ Thus far R. W. Here follows their Paper of Condemnation VVE are sensible that in the hour of Temptation that hath appeared through us which hath given an occasion of offence to the Churches of God unto whom the knowledge of the Northern differences hath come and since the inward sense of our brethren who we are sensible have a Travel on their spirits for preservation of peace and Vnity in the Church of God concerning us is such That Iealousies have entred us and that we have been at somtimes exercised in things tending to oppose Friends in the practice

in the afore-recited Epistle to which his Name was And the reason of this Observation is because his Unchristian dealing with Robert Barclay and slender ground he had for his large Objections against some passages in his Book was so clearly Evidenced in the Consciences of many weighty Friends at London with whom he had a Meeting by consent Robert Barclay being present for the hearing and resolving his Objections which was effectually done and by his own Confession he most Christianly dealt with therein the Truths asserted by Robert Barclay were vindicated and cleared from the Misconstructions of William Rogers whereof some of us were both Eye and Ear Witnesses as at large appears as well by the Testimony of that Meeting subscribed by thirty seven Brethren as from VVilliam Rogers his Letter under his own hand-writing which he drew up as satisfaction for the wrong he had done Robert Barclay wherein William Rogers doth not only acknowledge That he hath not done according to Gospel order by Robert Barclay but was justly worthy of blame in what he did But also that he is perswaded that Robert Barclay is not principled as he and some others by some passages in his Book took him to be Notwithstanding all this William Rogers hath gone about in his Book to undo or unsay what he hath said in his Letter and to publish his Objections against his own meanings and misconstructions of what Robert Barclay hath written in his said Book like a man fighting with his own shadow thereby making void as much as in him lieth the determination of that Meeting reflecting on the Friends as guilty of signing an Unrighteous Paper What shall we say or think concerning this Man whom nothing will serve but to be sole Iudge and Vmpire in his own Cause and unless this be granted him he appears to us resolved to be Contentious though it be to his own Ruin The other thing we have to take notice of with Relation to VVilliam Rogers's Charges against G. F. is not only considering VVilliam Rogers a man of such a Temper as is before implyed to hear how little reason G. F. had to take notice of his pretended Dissatisfactions against him though indeed restlesness turmoile and enmity of Spirit against him manifest by his rude and un-christian method he hath taken too large here to recite but also as a Reproof to his false Insinuations against G. F. in his Book as though he shunned the Test and as being unwilling to submit to justice to manifest the contrary how G. F. called William Rogers to account at a Meeting here in Bristol for proof of divers Charges and Insinuations contain'd in a Letter under William Rogers his own hand against him and now made publick in William Rogers his Book and what the Result of the Meeting was as it appears by the following Certificate VVE under-written being at a Meeting at Richard Sneads the 15th of the 12th month 1677. to hear a Letter read that was writ by William Rogers to G. F. containing several Accusations Charges and Insinuations against him do hereby declare that it was read and that William Rogers own'd it and when he was call'd upon by G. F. William Penn George Whitehead Lawrence Steel William Gibson and others to prove his Accusations and Charges against G. F. and others he refused so to do and notwithstanding he was intreated and urged long thereto yet said it shall not be I will not proceed unless G. F. will under his hand Charge me and give me his Charge in Writing Thus he shuffled with the Meeting And though we told him that the Letter was his and consequently the Accusations and Charges were his and therefore that it lay at his Door to prove them yet he persisted Obstinately to give us no Proof and so went his way William Penn Charles Jones John Moone Richard Snead Richard Vickris James Merrick Charles Jones Jun. Peter Walter Stephen Smith Erasmus Dole c. These things consider'd and William Rogers his apparent shifting and shuffling herein Manifested What Reason had G. F. or any other to take any more Notice of his Letters than of Waste-Paper or to Regard his impertinent Rambling Clamours and Railing up and down in divers Parts of the Nation against him about Matters whereof he had already Clear'd himself in Writing and that whilst G. F. was far remote in the North and yet when he was near the City of London and William Rogers in the City he would not as we are credibly inform'd go to him We say What Reason had G. F. or others to Regard William Rogers in these practices any more than they would any other Apostates or open Adversaries What hopes could G. F. or any other have to satisfy such a Man whose Prejudice and Enmity was so great that he was in Travel to give Vent thereto and yet thus Manifestly depriv'd of common Modesty and Equity usual amongst Men in case of Difference insomuch that he either will not Acquiesce in the Determination of a Matter when Heard and given Judgement upon but instead thereof make it his business to inlarge his Abuses against the concern'd therein or otherwise shift and shuffle and at length utterly refuse to make proof of his Charges when call'd thereunto There is one thing more we cannot omit to make mention of viz. the manner of William Rogers his abusive Insinuations and Charges not only against many Eminent and Faithful Brethren but through them against the generality of the People call'd Quakers as Apostatized c. chiefly with Respect to the blessed Order and Government they are Exercised in and is Established among them viz. That it is most frequently to be observ'd in his Book that his Method is to draw positive and scandalous Conclusions and wicked Perversions from not only uncertain but most false Premises and Conjectures salving himself as well as he can with these and such like Expressions which are his usual best Reasons for his many foul Accusations against them viz. If Reports be true we take it to be thus we have cause to Believe I cannot but be full of Jealousies c. like the wicked that said Report and we will Report And after the Example of Thomas Hicks and John Faldo when by his Suppositions Jealousies Doubts Reports Meanings and Misconstructions he hath made up his Man of Straw as we may Term it or Apostate-Innovator and call'd him a Quaker he then bestirs himself and as yet retaining some Notions of Truth in his Head he doth bring them forth as Arguments to Fence with against his own Work whilst the Enemy of his Soul keeps him in Blindness that he cannot see himself to be the Man How much this is his manifest Practice throughout his whole Book and how wretchedly bad such Courses are is left to the impartial Reader to judge We having thus for the Truth 's sake discovered William Rogers his Spirit and Behaviour amongst us and something of his many Abuses in his Book more particularly with Relation to some Friends and Passages in this City we Commend what we have Written to the Witness of God in every Conscience not doubting but the judicious Reader when he hath duely weighed the Management of William Rogers with reference to the Matters herein treated of will see Cause as well from the Matters themselves as the slenderness of the Credit wherewith the Abuses therein manifested are attended both to detest and loath such extravagant Courses as he hath taken to Reproach the People call'd Quakers and their Holy Profession and to suspend his Belief of other things deliver'd in his Book against some particulars no less Injurious until time by some other Hands so Manifest them Richard Snead Charles Harford Richard Vickris Charles Jones THE END LONDON Printed for John Bringhurst Printer and Bookseller at the Sign of the Book in Grace-Church-Street near Cornhil 1681.