1694. nefs to us-ward, and receive from Him ftill daily Strength and Ability to ftand, and with'ftand the Affaults and Temptations of the EneC my, and efcape his Snares, wherewith he is, at this Time, as bufy and induftrious to betray, and draw afide from the Simplicity of the Truth, as ever he was.

4

દ

For Friends, ye know we have a restless Adversary to watch against, and to war with one that fometimes walks about as a roaring Lion, feeking whom he may devour ; and fometimes creeps about as a fubtil Serpent, seeking whom he may betray; whom, in each Appearance, it is our Duty and Intereft to refift, ftedfaft in the Faith which overcomes. I need not recount unto you, my Friends, the many Winds and Floods, Storms and Tempefts, of open and cruel Perfecutions, which this roaring Adverfary hath often raifed, and caufed to beat upon us, to have driven us, if poffible, from "off our Foundation; ye cannot have forgotten it, nor that noble Arm of the Lord, which was * made bare for our Prefervation, and by preferving us against the most furious Shocks, gave Evidence even to the World, that we are that People whofe Houfe is founded and built upon the immoveable Rock Chrift Jefus. At this Sort of fighting the Enemy hath been foiled; which hath made him thift his Hand, and like a cunning Hunter fpread kis Nets, fet his Snares, lay his Baits, to catch the fimple and unwary Ones. Thus wrought this fubtil Enemy in the early Times of Chriflianity,

fometimes

9. 10.

⚫ fometimes ftirring up the Rulers, both Jews 1694. and Gentiles, to fall with violent and bloody w Hands upon the little Flock of Chrift; and 'fometimes in the Intermiffions of thofe Storms, covering his Hooks with the taking Baits of • Pleasure, Profit and Preferment, catch fome (perhaps of thofe that had withstood the strongest Storm of outward Perfecution) and 'made them Inftruments for himself to work by, to betray others. Such was Diotrephes of 3 John old, whose aspiring Mind, loving and seeking • Pre-eminence, laboured to make a Schifm in the Church, prating against even the Elders 'thereof with malicious Words, &c. What Mif< chief the wicked One hath wrought in our Day by fuch ambitious Spirits, I need not recount, nor is it pleafing to me to remember; ye know it, to your Grief, as well as I. But this in all fuch Cafes is obfervable, that such as have made Disturbances in the Church, and have run into Divifions and Separations from Friends, have framed to themselves some specious Pretence or other, as the Inducement to 'their Undertaking, which they have induftriously spread abroad, and varnished over with the fairest Colours they could, to allure and draw others to join with them, &c.'

This, with much more to the fame purpose, which might be cited, I thought meet to mention of the Mercies of the Lord to His People, and Prefervation of them from the Beginning, well worth the reading. Then recounting the Wiles and Workings of the Enemy, in drawing Cc4

fomé

1694. fome afide from the Simplicity of the Truth,

and stirring them up to make Divifions (on one Pretence or other) to disturb the Peace of the Church, and hinder the Work of the Lord in the Earth; as lately in the Separates. So now being difappointed in that, he hath formed a new Defign in G. Keith; yet to fhew the Difference between the former and this, and coníequently the Confufion of their Pretences, Theirs relating to Difcipline, This to Doctrine; They alledged That Friends were gone too much from the inward to the outward; This, That Friends acere gone too much from the outward to the inward, &c. for our Adverfaries feldom agree in their Charges. And fo he goes on to examine and compare his Books, published beyond Sea, with thofe he writ here, as to the Ground of the Dif ference and Separation; which he lays at his Door, manifefting his deceitful Pretences, Falacies and Self- contradictions. Answering his Cavils, and confulting his Calumnies, that none might be deceived by him. Concluding by way of Application and Warning to Friends, to beware of the Enemy's Wiles; which I doubt not had a good Effect as to many, in preferving them out of the Enemy's Snare, who were in Danger of being ftagger'd by him.

When our Friend T. Ellwood had written this Epifile, he went up to London with it, and prefented it to the Second-day's Morning-meeting, where fuch Books and Writings of Friends, as are intended for the Prefs, ufe to be read and confider'd, and read it through in that Meeting,

and

and not one Friend (though the Meeting was 1694. pretty full) fhewed any Dif-unity therewith, but approved it, and left it to him to publish it. And yet G. Keith pretended that it was printed in great Dif- unity, and against the Mind of many Friends, as though it was only approved and promoted by a Party, &c. Which I mention, to fhew he ftuck at nothing to make good . his Part.

Against this Book of T. Ellwood's, G. Keith made a heavy Complaint to Friends to have it called in, as very injurious to him (to his Caufe to be fure) poor Man! who had writ fo many Books against Friends, after he had writ so many for them, and would not take Friends Advice himself; and how then could he expect they fhould answer him? So that his Complaint and Clamour not prevailing to ftifle it, he takes another Way, firft putting out a Sheet against it, called a Loving Epistle, but envious enough: In which he charged T. Ellwood with fifty Perverfions, &c. which he faid he had noted in his Book, but left his Proofs behind to come after (The first by Poft, as the Proverb is, the fecond by Tom Long the Carrier) in another Book which he threatned to publish, if T. Ellwood's was not called in and difowned: Which not prevailing neither, fome Weeks after he fent forth his threatned Book, mifcalled A feafonable Information, &c. but very unfeafonable for himfelf, as to his Reconciliation with Friends which he pretended he had rather lay down his natural Life, or have his right and cut off,

;

than

1694. than be dif-united or dif-jointed from them. This Book he pretended to be an Answer to T. Ellwood's Epiftle, and to contain his Proofs (fuch as they were) of the Charge he had published before. To both these our Friend T. Ellwood replied this Year (1694) in a Book intituled, A further Discovery of that Spirit of Contention and Divifion, which hath appeared of late in George Keith, &c. wherein bis Cavils are answered, his Falfhood is laid open, and the Guilt and Blame of the Breach and Separation in America, &c. are fixed fafter on him; written by way of Epifle (as the former was) and recommended as a farther Warning to Friends. Which begins thus:

'Dear Friends, who have received the Truth in the Love of it, and have kept your Habi'tation therein, unto whom the Truth is exceeding precious, and who defire the Profperity thereof above all Things; unto you is the Salutation of my endeared Love, in this bleffed Truth, in which the Fellowship of the Faithful ftands. In this it is I defire to know you, to be known by you, and to have Fellowhip with you; earnestly breathing to the God of Truth, the Father of Spirits, that He 'would be pleased to pour forth more abundantly of His good Spirit into all our Hearts, and fill us with the bleffed Fruits thereof, that there may be no room for the Enemy to enter, to break this holy Fellowship; but that all, who profefs to believe in the Light, may fa 'walk therein, that a clear Sight they may

.

have