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others: but that Charity this Man not having 1695. but being vainly puffed up in his Flefhly. Mind, from a proud Conceit of his own A'bilities; and being gotten into America (among a plain People, who better understood the plain and fimple Truth, than the nice Distinctions and Subtilties of the Schools) and there advanced to the Office of a SchoolMafter, with a standing Sallary (as I have been informed) of an Hundred and Twenty Pounds by the Year, he foon began, like Diotrephes of old (3 John 9. 10.) to affect Praeminence in the Church; and nothing lefs would 'ferve his turn, than to rule and over-rule all. And that he might not want Matter to work 6 upon, and fome Pretence to begin on, he not only found fault with Friends Ministry and Difcipline there; but having, in private Difcourfes, put fome captious and enfnaring Queftions to fome particular Perfons there, whofe Simplicity he thought he might moit easily betray, he (by wrefting their Anfwers to a wrong Senfe) took Advantage to complain against them, for holding, as he faid, groß and vile Errors; and with impetuous Heat profecuted his Charge: and not being fo fully nor fpeedily answered, as he expected, by thofe Friends to whom he complained, who feeing the Innocency of the Accufed, and his evil Design in Accufing, could not Countenance him therein, he involved them alfo in the like Charge of Cloaking, or Covering grofs and vile 6 Errors, Damnable Herefies and Doctrines of De

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1695. vils, &c. Nor gave he over, till by continual Clamours and frequent Disturbances, he had filled Friends Meetings with Strife and Con❝tention; and at length having leavened a Party to himself, made an open Divifion and Separation from Friends, fetting up separate • Meetings for himself and his Party, in Oppofition to the Meetings of Friends before fettled there. And having got the Printer to his Party (and thereby the only Press there at his • Command) he maliciously put the Difference into Print, and thereby fpread it not only in thofe Parts of America, but in these of Europe alfo. These things drew Friends there, after • much Patience and long Forbearance, to deal 'with him in a Church-way, and to give forth at length a Teftimony against him; which proving uneafie to him, he came over from thence to England, about the beginning of the the Year 1694, of which fome Friends of • Pennsylvania having Notice, came over alfo; and at the Yearly Meeting of the People called Quakers, holden at London in the 4th Mon. that Year, the Matters relating to that Difference being fully heard and confidered, the Sence of that Meeting was, That the Separation lay at G. K's door; and that he had done ill, in Printing and Publishing thofe Differences as he had done. And the Advice of the Meeting to ⚫ him thereupon was, To call in thofe Books of his, or publish fomething innocently and effectually to clear the Body of the People called Quakers, and their Minifters, from thofe groß Errors charged on

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fome few in America; and retract the bitter 1695. Language in them, fo far as he was concerned: and fincerely to use his utmost Endeavours with his Friends concerned to remove the Separation, &c. Which Sence and Advice, being drawn up at large in Writing, was then in that Meeting delivered to him, and foon after Printed by one of his Party, with very envious Reflections upon it, as may be feen in a small Pamphlet, called A True Account, &c. to which I refer. But fo far was G. K. from regarding the Sence, or following the Advice of that Yearly Meeting, that in feveral printed Books by him foon after published, he rejected it, denying it to be the Sence or Advice of the Yearly Meeting, or that to be the Yearly Meeting that gave it. Which Abuse this laft Yearly Meeting (in the 3d Month past) taking notice of, and upon further dealing with him, finding him, inftead of being humbled and forry for the Evil he had done, more hardned therein, juftifying himself both by Word and Writing, and rejecting the Meetings Ad'vice. That Meeting (after it had heard him patiently, till he of his own accord withdrew) gave forth a Teftimony against him: which he hath fince Printed, with his Answer thereunto. As he hath alfo (in another Pamphlet) 6 a Copy of his Paper which he read in the Meeting; together with a Narrative (of his 6 own making) of the Proceedings of the Meeting with him, and a Lift of Errors charged by him on fome particular Perfons. To each

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⚫ of

1695. of thefe I intend to fpeak, now that I have premised this fhort Introduction; which I thought needful for the Information of any fuch Reader as had not before heard the Rife ' of the Difference, nor the Courfe of Proceedings thereupon.

1696.

This I thought fit to infert, being fo material as to the Ground of the Controverfie with G. Keith: after which T. E. proceeds to Answer all his Cavils in his faid two Books or Papers. And fhews that by his diforderly Practices he had excluded himfelf from our Society, before Friends difowned him. So leaving him without Excufe, and the weight of his Iniquity upon his own Head; which he could never get from under, but waxed worfe and worse, as evil Men and Seducers ufe to do: fo that Truth was fet over his Head, and Friends were clear of him.

But now another Occafion offer'd, and that was, one Gerard Croefe a Dutchman, publishing A general History (fo called) of the Quakers; containing the Lives, Tenets, Sufferings, Tryals, Speeches and Letters (as pretended) of the most eminent of them; Firft in Latin: which was Tranflated, and Printed in English in the Year 1696. Wherein, though he had represented fome things pretty fairly; yet in others, through Inadvertancy or Ignorance (I hope not wilfully) he had mifreprefented us, and our Principles and Practices: whereupon our Friend T. Ellwood, according to an Advertisement at the End of the faid Hiftory in English, that fome Remarks on it would be published, he writ fome Remarks

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on it in Latin (perhaps before the English came 1696. out, which would no doubt have been turn'd into English) intending, doubtless, to publish 'em ; but in the mean time before they were finished, a Book of the fame Nature, and to the fame purpose, in Latin, was published in Holland (by way of Remarks or Obfervations on the faid Hiftory) which feemed again to circumvent him in his intended Remarks on it, fo that he laid 'em by, and never finished them; and fo the World was deprived of this Piece alfo.

But now G. Keith being gone out from the Fellowship of the Faithful, and hardened in his Enmity against Friends, he arrived to the Top or Height of Oppofition, he had been playing fmall Stakes hitherto; but now came to throw all at once. In order to which he Erected a Stage of Contention at Turners-Hall in PhilpotLane, London (where he had held Separate Meetings for fome time before) to oppofe Friends in general, under pretence of difcovering divers Errors out of the Quakers Books (that were never in them) and published an Advertisement of a Meeting he intended to hold there, in the 4th Month, 1696, to difcover the Quakers Errors (though he had been one fo long himself, and vindicated them, as to all that any could Object against, and yet now came to accuse them himfelf;) but Friends flighted him, not thinking it worth their while to follow him, or Dance after his Pipe to Turners-Hall. Of which contentious Meeting he afterwards published a Narrative; which our Friend T. E. anfwered, this Year, in

a Book

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