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“The Understanding can never be convinc'd, nor properly submit, but by such Arguments, as are rational, perswasive, and sutable to its own Nature;”
Meaning & context
Penn argues that belief cannot genuinely be produced by external force; conviction must address the mind through reasons capable of answering its doubts and objections.
Source details
The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience (1670), represented by the CELT / University College Cork transcription. Original-period spelling is retained. Penn is making a seventeenth-century Quaker argument against coercion in religion; the record is historical political-religious thought, not current legal advice.