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
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.
him hath made him as a Head Captain in this late work of Strife and Division from the Antient Unity and Fellowship in the Truth which the Lord through his Goodness and Mercy hath put a great stop unto and Hedged up their Way and is now causing the Rebellious Instruments thereof to Wither and Blast and become as Unsavory Salt fit for nothing but to be trodden under the Feet of Men. And for such who have any Tenderness and Sincerity remaining in them towards the Lord and his People such the Lord hath Gathered and is Gathering out from amongst them especially in some of the Northern Parts where this Division first Sprang and Arose We say whatever William Rogers may be accounted of by such as take part with him We whose Names are Subscribed to this small Treatise being his Neighbours have by frequent Experience known many times to our Grief and Sorrow and therefore in Truth and Righteousness and in Sincerity of Heart we declare that he is a Man of a Heady Willful high-Minded Unruly Passionate and Furious Spirit and therefore cannot be Justified For the Sway of his Fury shall be his Destruction if he Repent not We have known him upon frequent Occasions to be so very Extravagant with his Tongue as well as his Pen which we doubt not but in time will be undeniably Manifested in his Book insomuch that his many slanderous Assertions have long since been but of little Credit with us and therefore we conclude with the Apostle His Religion is vain and whatever his talk of Religion and Christianity is it is Manifest to us it consists more in his Head than in his Heart and so indeed is a Stranger to the Life of it he being alive in the contrary Nature And truely he hath long been a Burthen not only to us but as we have too much Cause to believe to some Hundreds in this City by his very rude and clamorous Behaviour at our Mens Meetings as well as publick Meetings wherein we account he hath been the chief Instrument of the great Disturbance and Disorder that hath been at sometimes therein Manifested though with no small Impudence he now makes mention of it in his Book without taking Shame to himself but Assigning to others what himself was Guilty of as one chief cause of the present Publishing the Things contained in his Book and having thus diligently both sought caused and took occasion he now vents the Bitterness that is in his Heart which we believe is Naucious and Offensive to them that truely Fear God amongst us We think it not necessary particularly here to Recite the many Abuses of his lavish Tongue together with his Frequent Rude Insolent and Imperious Behaviour at our Mens Meetings as the Natural Effects of those his Qualifications before Mentioned wherein and whereby he hath from time to time Industriously Laboured to cause a Separation amongst us Neither do we think it necessary at present to particularize his Profane Speaking concerning the Power of God no more than we have already done concerning his Horrible unsincere Dealing with the Brethren at Drawell both proved out of his own Mouth unless required thereto and the Reason why we so think it not necessary at Present is not only for that it would Render us much the Larger and the Credit of our Testimony not strictly Requiring it but because some of us have already both by Word and Writing Charged him home with divers of these things so that he is not Ignorant of them for which we could never have any Satisfaction either publick or private to this day in such Cases of Charge against him his way and manner hath been and we Judge it is according to his Principles To Refuse the Submitting such matters to the Hearing Judgement and Determination of Friends of the Meeting indefinitely Assembled in a Church-Way and Method as is Establish't amongst us for the strengthning the Good Reproof Discouragement of the Evil and loose Walkers But his Manner is in such Cases to urge The Choosing so many Men on each Part like as if the Case were about an Horse or Cow a subtle Method of his to shelter the Head of the Transgressor from the stroke of Righteous Judgement A practice he hath been of late too Eminently Guilty of in our Meetings to the Grief of the Upright For the Transgressor will be sure to Chuse such as are like himself and of party with him to stand by him to the Uttermost and this effects but Confusion Thus it appears it was not without Cause that William Rogers hath stood up so Zealously for Liberty and some of his Adherents against Monthly and Quarterly Meetings which called them in Question for their back-sliding seeing they if they should submit to such Meetings are likely to have their Fleshly Liberty Restrained or to be publickly Judged and Disowned for it and this is the Reason in the Ground and Bottom whatever contrary Pretences they make that W. R. c. are so disquieted of his Exclaiming in his book against the Godly Care and Zeal of the faithful under the black Characters of persecution imposition and the like These things considered we cannot but admire at the confidence of W. Rogers in the 27th page of his Preface wherein he saith He blesseth God that hath so preserved him by the Arm of his power as that none of his Opposers have so far as he knew laid any thing to his charge but for things wherein he hath acted though misrepresented by them to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God We whose names are hereunto subseribed having heard the foregoing relation of W. Rogers his being of a heady self-will'd unruly and passionate spirit of his Lavish and abusive tongue rude Carriage and behaviour in meetings of late years amongst us do hereby certifie that to our knowledge the Character given of him therein is true and that we also have many times to our great grief and exercise been eye and ear witnesses of his being notoriously guilty therein to the great shame of his profession witness our hands Dated in Bristol the 16th of the 6th Month 1681. Lawrence Steel John Moone John Bainton Henry Diddicott Paul Moone Charles Jones Samps Coysgarne John Cowlinge John Higgins John Barnes William Minor Peter Young James Sturridg Jun. William Rouch Thomas Bayley Richard Philips Here follows the Epistle before mentioned under W. Rogers Arther Eastmeads hands together with divers brethren who still keep their habitations in the Unity of the Spirit and power of God given forth from the yearly Meeting since the beginning of the Divisions in the North as W. Rogers confesseth by the date thereof in the second page of his preface and is a manifest Reproof to that Spirit of Strif and Division then at work as also a discovery against whom and what the instruments thereof did then and do still oppose themselves into the mischief of which spirit and work W. R.
their words what was spoken from whence it is supposed William Rogers hath falsly drawn the afore-mentioned Conclusion was That they could not have any of the several Brethren excluded from being present and to be concern'd in judgment that had given forth the Account from Drawell whom William Rogers indeed hath call'd false Accusers but who were faithful Witnesses to the proof of the Accusations and not Accusers themselves as his Charge seems to insinuate All which things they have manifested more at large in a partiular Answer long since And although William Rogers is pleased to say in his Book That a Reply thereto hath manifested their notorious Weakness if Charity may excuse them from wilful Wickedness But how nor wherein neither they nor we know As for his expression of notorious Weakness we esteem it as the Fruit of an over-fond conceit of his own Abillities above others And if he hath Charity to excuse those Friends from the Imputation of wilful Wickedness we should be glad of the like were not our Eyes and Ears witnesses of such Fruits from him on divers occasions as almost leaves us void of room or any just pretence for so much Charity in many respects concerning him And as for the Bristol Certificate subscribed by twenty seven Friends on behalf of G. F. his Innocency to the best of their knowledge As a man remote in Spirit and Example from any such Practice either in Bristol or else where as Flying in times of Persecution though often charged therewith by Apostates and bad Spirits and now imply'd in William Rogers 's Charge against him To which they not only oppose their Observation of him in Bristol but their Experience and confirmed since to the contrary by his large Travells Sufferings and Imprisonments in many Iales in which They never knew that he hath flinched but endured patiently c. Which Testimony of those Friends of Bristol stands clear and unspotted over all W. R. his Cavils and injurious Reflections in the 69th and 70th pages of his fifth part wherein he compares them to Perjured Iuformers suggesting That their Evidence must needs be false as though they undertook to prove a Negative which was impossible for them to do because they conjectured the time of G. F.'s being in Bristol then about fifteen years past being a time of Persecution to which they supposed it must needs be that W. R. should Assign that fact of G. F. his departing out of the Meeting and going down a back pair of stairs to avoid the Persecutors adding thereto That they never knew or could remember any such thing by him They being generally all or the most part of them at all the Meetings G. F. was at here and yet they do not limit or restrain their Testimony to that time only but extend it to all others to the best of their knowledge having never seen any just occasion for such a Charge But William Rogers taking advantage in that he had not nominated any time for his Charge maketh use thereof endeavouring thereby to baffle their Evidence though in truth it renders his the weaker hence it is that he chargeth them with Undertaking to prove what was impossible for them to do unless they had been at all the Mettings in Bristol with G. F. that ever he was at with him which is not unlikely but that most of them might But what juggling is here and how doth this man fence and dodge not only to extenuate the Credit of those Friends Testimony but to stave off the imputation of a false Accusation from himself in saying he had affixed no time and yet doth not deny but that the time they mention was the time intended by him which should in reason render their Testimony of more Credit with the Considerate Neither doth he say any thing to the Objection made against his mentioning a back pair of Stairs that G. F. should go down c. for indeed there was none such both pair of stairs being equally publick and common for Friends constantly to go up and down at out or into the street as he and others well knew More might be said but this we judge sufficient to every impartial Reader who shall have the sight of that Certificate on behalf of G. F. and William Rogers's Objections thereto to manifest how unrighteously he hath done by comparing the Subscribers thereof to Perjured Informers who are many of them both men and women anciently and publickly known in this City approved for their Truth and Faithfulness in the Consciences of honest People of all sorts therein The Consideration as well as knowledge whereof in W. R. we cannot but apprehend was the Cause why he omitted all their Names except One viz Iohn Ware a man less publickly known in the City then most if not any one of the rest whereby his disingenuity and unfaithfulness doth not a little appear Thus it may be seen how William Rogers takes upon him to abuse the People call'd Quakers by whole-sale as we use to say having so learnt the habit of impudence as somtimes upon his bare single Credit or say so and that in his own Cause too not only to oppose the Truth of the Testimony of many Brethren but to abuse them with approbrious Reflections whom he hath therefore termed false Accusers and Persecutors and no less than above sixty Friends and Brethren at once whom he renders Upstarts Apostates and Innovators for signing the aforesaid Epistle And at another time Charles Marshall and thirty six Brethren more are by him as sole judge in his own Cause charged of being guilty of signing an unrighteous Paper because of their decisive judgment given against him therein upon a free hearing of the Difference betwixt him and Robert Barclay as may be more particularly taken notice of ere we have done And many of the Ancient and faithful Friends and Inhabitants of the City of Bristol are wickedly compared by him to Perjured Informers because of their Christian Testimony in behalf of G. F's Innocency in that matter W. R. Chargeth him with and against whom his Enmity and Rage is great But let him consider that the time hastneth that for all these things he must come to judgement And now as to the many personal Injuries Misrepresentations of Robert Barclay and George Fox the one with respect to Doctrine the other to Life and Conversation wherewith great part of William Rogers's Book is supply'd we refer to their own or some other hand for particular Replies thereto only noting first as to the business of Robert Barclay that it is an Argument to us of no small Impudence in William Rogers to continue his Cavils against His own meanings and misconstructions of Robert Barclay's Doctrin in his Book intituled The Anarchy of the Ranters c. and perfectly savors of his being led and Acted by a Spirit that will be sole judge in his own Cause a thing he hath formerly Condemn'd in others as may appear