REFLECTIONS upon George Keith's late ADVERTISEMENT of a Meeting to be held by him and his Friends, at Turner's-Hall on the Eleventh of the Fourth Month, 1696. to which he saith, William Penn, Thomas Ellwood, George Whitehead, John Penington, and the Second Days Weekly Meeting at London, called Quakers, are justly desired to be present, to hear themselves Charged, etc.  
ALthough I might here justly except against the Constitution of the Meeting, the Authority and Warrantableness of his peremptory Summons, the Reasonableness as well as Seasonableness of the Demand, etc. yet being willing to pursue Method, though I have no good Example before me, I shall first take Cognizance of what G. K. Assigns, under several Heads, as the Basis of his Proposed, as well as Imposed Debate. If they are not of Weight, or Agreeable to the Structure raised, a Summary at the close may suffice, that I dilate not the Controversy unnecessarily.  
His First Article is, That W Penn hath accused him in a public Meeting at Ratcliff, of being an Apostate, and Impostor, and endeavouring to pluck up the Testimony of Truth by the Roots. To which I say, Had not his Apostasy been sufficiently proved, even by himself, in the Scene of his Transactions, both Private and Public, since his last coming into England; yet inasmuch as those several Apologetical Tract: (written by Tho. Ellwood, Caleb Pusey and myself, Entitled, A farther Discovery, Truth Defended, A Modest Account, An Apostate Exposed, to two of which (viz. those of T. Is) he tells us, in his Postscript to a late Pamphlet, Styled, Gross Error, It is probable a due Answer may be given in due time) remain as yet unanswered by him, the Charge lies upon him, and the Proof at his Door, not to be supplied by a Verbal Conference in a Corner, as the most public Disputes are, in comparison of the Press. The Name Impostor, I remember not to have heard made part of the Charge till now, yet if he will consult his Dictionary, as he once did upon the calling of a Friend Impudent Rascal, he may find it denotes a Deceiver. But the Name I fear more offends him than the Nature; yet that, and his endeavouring to pluck up the Testimony of Truth by the Roots, as they suit with his Actions, so have they been in Print proved upon him in the above recited and other Treatises.  
Nor will his pretence in the succeeding lines, That W. P. promised to answer him (before many Witnesses) when G. K. told him, he thought to put him to prove his Charge in the Face of the Nation, stand him in any stead; for that he may yet do, when G. K. makes the onset. Is he so idle to think a Provocation to meet him at Turners-Hall, is a putting him to prove his Charge in the Face of the Nation?  
What he adds as a Charge against W. P. out of his Books, I refer till I come to his Third Head, wherein the objects the same against G. W.  
He goes on to a Secondly, Whereas Thomas Ellwood hath printed sundry Defamatory Books against me, I charge him to be guilty of false Accusations, etc. Then to a Thirdly against G. W. of which more at on; so to a Fourthly against me, for printing (as he alleges) Defamatory Books against him, and accusing (he should have added proving too, for that was also done) him to be an Apostate, etc. and Fifthly, against the Second Days Weekly-Meeting at London, for approving or countenancing those Books, and another signed by Caleb Pusey (of which above) and then Declares, if it happen that few or NONE of us be present at the said Meeting, being conscious (as he saith) of the badness of our Cause, his full intention to be present with his Friends, at the said time and place, to make good the Charge against us, to which he allows any moderate and friendly people of other Professions to be present, so far as there is room without Crowding. And is all this bustle, I pray, to answer or evade our Charge? In what time doth he propose to enervate so many Quotations, Arguments, Deductions, Instances, etc. out of his and others Books, to show the fallacy of the one, the inconsistency of the other; the Perversions, Forgeries, false Acusations, etc. when those very Books of T. Is (not to mention the rest) which he hath given some faint Expectation he would Answer, are above Eighteen Sheets of large Paper, close Printed? Is this Man in Earnest, or doth he think any Judicious Man can take him to be so? Or doth not he rather seek to make some Bravado, some idle Flourish to slip from his Purgation? Indeed the very Title Page be speaks some such thing, where he proposeth, not a clearing himself, but a recriminating others. He tells us, We are justly desired to be present, to hear ourselves Charged, and proved Guilty of the following things, and we shall be freely heard, to answer to our several Charges. But stay a little, all in good time; we are upon the Defensive, he upon the Offensive part, Defending our Friends and Society from his Repeated, Impetuous Slanders and Defamations, wherewith he had unjustly loaded them, and labouring to throw off the Dirt he had endeavoured to fling on, even while he would have laid claim to Membership, yea Eldership. And in the Prosecution hereof, when he Calumniates, we detect him; when he deviates from his former Pretences and Principles, we justly expose him, and declare him to be a Detractor, Apostate, etc. having first proved it upon him. Now if he (who is the Aggressor) find himself aggrieved, how can he expect Relief; by falling upon us, for so charging him, or by evidencing his own Innocency? But his Work is a mere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he begins at the wrong end; instead of discharging himself (which he knows he can never do) he re-charges us, making it a crime in us to tell him he did amiss, though we show wherein; for which we must (if we will answer his Challenge) be convened before him and his, to answer (in a Meeting of his own picking) to several general Heads, the discussing whereof, even before Competent Judges, as they would branch forth into many particulars, so perhaps (were the Auditory a more composed, settled Company, than this is like to be) would take up instead of a Day, Weeks to debate. And when all is done, the Controversy hitherto hath been Public in the Face of the Nation and Nations, there it will be in Private, in respect of what comes abroad in Print: Nor is such an Assembly like to determine the matter without the Press, but to renew a fresh occasion to Print, yet perhaps with this hoped advantage to the Proposer, that running off from that Cause he is already hampered with, and uneasy under, he may wrangle a fresh upon some Out-skirts of the Controversy, and drop the Main one. And this I take to be the design.  
His Thirdly (which I promised even now to take notice of) is leveled against Geo. Whitehead for joining with a Prevailing Party in that called the Yearly Meeting, to pass (what he calls) a most Unchristian Censure of Excommunication against him, without Proof, etc. But why is G. W. here singled out, and not the whole Prevailing Party, as he terms them, included, except that he have a more particular Pique at him?  
In the same Paragraph he goes on and tells us, I offer to prove the said George Whitehead, out of some of his printed Books (which it doth not appear that he hath retracted or corrected) guilty of most Erroneous and Hurtful Principles, contrary to the Fundamental Doctrine of the Christian Faith and Religion. The like he had said before of W. Penn, only with this addition, That W. P. is guilty of gross Contradiction to himself; for he is forward at Charging; when it comes to Proof, he falls short. Yet may I remind him, that two Books lie upon his Hands unanswered, which treat of this very Subject; the one written by T. E. called, Truth Defended; the other by myself, Entitled, An Apostate Exposed, in Answer to three of his, called, Nameless Bull, True Copy, and Gross Error. In the one they are cleared from several False Deductions, Inferences, etc. brought by G. K. to which he pretended he would give Answer, but never did yet; in the other his Quotations out of those very Books of theirs, out of which he hath since picked Quarrels, are oposed to his later Sense, not only of the Authors, but of the very Books themselves, to which also no Answer hath been yet given. So that it is not so much his different Sense (or Opinion) of G. W. and W. P. (as he would insinuate, p. 4. Of this Advertisement but even of their Books, calling that Orthodox one year, which he represents as Hetrodox another; that I was drawn to Detect and Expose. However two things occur to me from the Premises, First, That printed Books (not Retracted or Corrected) are good Evidence against G. W. and W. P. and are they not so against G. K. especially seeing he hath confessed, True Copy, p. 17. That some of his need some further Explanation, Emendation and Correction, and promised to do it, tho' in that he keeps his word with us, as he hath hitherto done with T. E. Secondly, That it is not reasonable for him to expect his renewed Charge against G. W. and W. P. of the same Nature as the former, should be Herd and Debated in a Select Assembly of his own, when he is Debtor to two Tracts, published some Months since, where the matter hath been so handled, that he hath not thought fit to Reply. Let him fairly clear his Hands of what is already depending, and which he hath chose to concert in Print, and then offer new if he hath any. Till than he must excuse us, that we cannot comply with his empty and shifting Subterfuges, whereby to turn the course of the Controversy out of its due and proper Channel; whither he brought it, into an indirect one, where he would now lead us, to drown it.  
What follows being mostly a catching at a passage or two out of those Books of T. Is, which he hath not attempted to Answer, I touch the lighter on, as esteeming it an unmanly way of Treating an Opponent, in which I design not to gratify him. And he is the more inexcusable, in as much as the odds, in his Eyes, is so great between them, G. K. being a Man, who (as he tells us in his Serious Appeal, p. 29. Hath the Gifts both of Sound Knowledge and Expression, with manifold other Mercies bestowed upon him: T. E. on the other Hand, is represented by G. K. p. 3. of this Advertisement, grossly Ignorant of Human Learning, guilty of Pedantic Trifling and Quibbling. But G. K. is not the only Adversary, who hath made up in Vaunt, what he wanted in Argument, or been forced to sink under the weight of a bad Cause. For Great is the Truth, and it doth and will prevail.  
He tells up in p. 3. He hath neither time, nor ability of outward Estate, to print Answers to him or others, that heap Book upon Book against him. What time he hath, or how he employs it. I undertake not to determine; but he should, like a Wise Builder, have counted the Cost before he began with us, and not blame us for answering his Books, after he hath given the Provocation. Yet time was, when he took time to Scribble Books very fast, and that at a time when the Press was in his Parties Hands; but I must confess, from the first time that he hath met with Opponents, and that he hath been put upon to prove, as well as assert Time or Ability hath mightily failed him. All evidence whereof he gave in his first onset, who instead of an answer to T. E. emitted an Epistle, wherein he laboured to persuade Friends to anticipate his Work, by Calling in T. Is Sheets and disowning them, upon a presumption what a Bugbear he was, and that he had no less than Fifty Perversions, Forgeries and Fictions, to lay to his Charge. But when that had not its proposed effect, to Condemn T. E. unheard, for his Proof was yet to produce, but he was obliged to print his Answer, such as it was, more Noise than Matter, or forfeit his Credit; a Reply at length came out under the Title of A Seasonable Information, etc. and T. E. rejoined in his, called, A further Discovery, which hath lain upon G. K's Hands ever since, though once he told us, it was probable, that and another of T. Is called, Truth Defended, might be answered in due time, as hath been hinted already. But now to extricate himself, he would excuse himself from printing, for want of time and ability of Outward Estate as well as that he insinuates, p. 4. that W. P's calling him Apostate hath that tendency; for he saith, His Wife and Children are affected with it, and that it tends to the exposing of them to Ruin and want, as if he name among us for Outward Ends. If so, the disappointment is just. But if he be not a Man alone, one of no People 〈◊〉, which he is offended with T. E. for supposing, a Man would think, So considerable a number of 〈…〉, wherein (he would have us believe) his Testimony is so well received, who have publicly 〈◊〉 him and his Christian Testimony, and that in a printed Treatise too, (as he allegeth in the same page) might set to their Shoulders, and help ease him of his Change, if his printed Testimonies ●● not less grateful to them, than they are to himself.  
Yet one thing more I cannot but observe in p. 3. where finding fault with T. Is Perversion (as he terms it) upon his plain words, he saith, Let the Reader but read my words in my own Book, and at the first sight he will see the Cheat and Forgery. That is more than my Eyes can do at second sight; but to return, here he refers to his own Book, why did he not say, Let him meet me at Turners-Hall, and I will prove it? By this the ridiculousness of this Meeting shows itself: for a Man will readily say, Controversy in Print is decided by Print, an Abuse or Forgery there by comparing Book with Book; and if he thought his Defensible, I doubt not but he would have done it.  
These short Touches I hope will satisfy the Candid and Judicious, that we are not concerned to follow him in his several Doubles and Twist, but to hold him to his Task he hath taken upon himself, and that his Demand is alike Idle as Unreasonable, if we consider either the Person Challenging, one that is gone off from us; the Place, a Meeting set up in Opp●sion to us and our Meetings, which he terms in the Title Page, Their USUAL Meeting place, as if it had been of some considerable Duration, when perhaps two Months ago they had none there; the Company he calls his Friends, a Separation out of a Separation, that hath defamed and perversely exposed Friends, even when he himself was against them; the mixed Auditory, such as never were of our Communion, and that they will be either Moderate or Friendly, we have but his bare word for, who needs a Voucher for his own Deportment, or that he either can or would keep out the very Rabble, whom his public Advertisement is most likely to draw in, is a great Question; the Peremptoriness of the 〈◊〉 as if we were at his beck to come and go, when and whether he pleased to appoint us; the Reproach, if any Disorder happen, for he is none of the most Orderly himself; besides that the Controversy 〈◊〉 is already in a more open, free and public Course in Print, into which he drew us, and till of late hath persisted in, though some what faintly, as well as promised to pursue; and that a Hearing the never so public, bears no Proportion to the Press, where he began. The which Considerations, whether of weight with him or ●●, we dare leave with the unbiased, as sufficient whereon to 〈◊〉 and refuse our Compliance with his Peremptory Demands.  
John Penington.   

London, Printed by T. Soul in White-Hart-Court in Grace-Church-street, 1696.