“To George Fox, or any other of my countrymen at Newport, who say they are the apostles and messengers of Christ Jesus. In humble confidence of the help of the Most High, I offer to maintain, in public, against all comers, these fourteen propositions following, to wit: the first seven at Newport, and the other seven at Providence. For the time when, I refer it to George Fox and his friends, at Newport.” Such public debates were not uncommon during the reformation, in Germany, and in later times, in England. They have been held, in our own days, but their effect has seldom been beneficial to the cause of truth. They are more adapted to irritate than to convince. Few men have sufficient self-command to preserve their temper, in a controversy conducted through the press. When brought into personal contact, before a large assembly, the meekest men could scarcely avoid being chafed and petulant. Such contests are like the battles of old times, when the spear or the sword was the chief weapon, and the combatants, being brought hand to hand, fought with embittered rancor and dreadful carnage. Modern battles, in which the parties are at a greater distance, are less sanguinary. The result of these disputes, moreover, is as uncertain a test of truth and justice, as the termination of the ancient appeals to personal combat. Stronger lungs and greater self-conceit have sometimes enabled the advocate of error to win the victory. The fourteen propositions of Mr. Williams we shall not quote. They affirmed, that the principles of the Quakers were unscriptural and pernicious. Mr. Williams sent these propositions to Newport, but George Fox left the town for England, without seeing them. Mr. Williams asserted, that Fox departed in order to avoid the debate, and he condescended to a pun on “George Fox’s _slily_ departing.” This insinuation was unfounded and unjustifiable. Fox unceremoniously charged him with lying, but this gross accusation cannot be admitted. Mr. Williams undoubtedly thought his assertion true,[344] though he ought not to have made it without better authority.