all the world and suspend and make void the obligation of all Gods Laws the Quakers conscience says one thing the Papists conscience says another thing the Pagans conscience the Turks conscience Jews conscience the Tyrants conscience the Traitors conscience the Hereticks conscience the Worldlings conscience the Hypocrites conscience the proud mans conscience the Adulterers conscience How many contrary Conscience are these how many Gods shall we have and how many contradictory Laws if Conscience and Conviction be the only thing which obligeth to duty and no Law or Command of Scripture oblige Conscience repugning and being unconvinced I would know of Penn or any man else what conviction there is upon a Drunkards conscience when he is dead drunk in his drunkenness and yet Penn's Position is that no Command in Scripture is obliging upon the Drunkard to repent and be sober supposing him in his drunkenness unconvinced The most godly Ministers find by sad experience it is one of the hardest matters in the world to convince an impenitent man of his impenitency to convince a worldling of his worldliness to convince a sinner of heart-sins such as heart-pride heart-malignity against God and godliness heart unbelief and Atheism and irreligion and hardness and earthliness and other lusts and vices And if Penn and his fellows shall lay the blame upon the Preacher and say the fault is in Preachers and not in People let him take heed lest he charge God and Christ and the Holy Ghost and Scripture and Prophets and Apostles who have preached to sinners as well as we and yet thousands have remained unconvinced Will Penn undertake to answer for all the crimes of an ignorant blind and erroneous conscience against the commands in Scipture Will he be an Advocate at the day of Judgment to plead the cause of unconvinced consciences and maintain his Position then to the face of God as now he doth publish it to the world and pretend to write from the warrant of God and from the sense of his eternal spirit Reason against Railing p. 164. and crying down the observation of the Lords Supper and Baptism as sottish and that a spirit of whoredom from God gross Apostacy into Superstition and Idolatry yea a spirit of Hypocrisie Persecution and Murder and all manner of wickedness hath got them and covered it self with them p. 108 109. And he testifies from the same spirit that Paul renounced Circumcision that the Appellation Ordinances of Christ and particularly Baptism and the Lords Supper are to be rejected Had this Position been that every command in Scripture is not obliging upon every man it had been sound Doctrine for we acknowledge that every command of God is not obliging to every man but only such commands as it is Geds will and intent that they should be obliging to all Some commands of God are but temporary personal and local Many commands in Scripture are long since abrogated and null The command to Abrabam to slay his Son was extraordinary and not to be obeyed by any without the like warrant The command to sacrifice slain Beast to Circumcise the command of the Passover these are ceased We may sufficiently collect Gods mind from his word which commands are temporary and extraordinary and concern but some particular men and do only oblige in certain cases and which be perpetual and oblige all men at all times in all places and the love of God and Man innocency holiness godliness faith fidelity truth temperance self-denyal zeal for Gods glory the commands that Parents bring up Children in Gods fear that Children honour their Parents that we do to all men as we would be done unto and a multitude more such like Now Penn's Position is That no command at all in Scripture is obliging without conviction upon the conscience and he makes conviction to be the only thing obliging and authorizing to duty and to be of such force that without conviction no command at all bindeth For if that be the reason why Gods command written obligeth not because the conscience in not convinced then ubi eadem ratio ibi eadem lex an unwritten command of God obligeth not where there is no conviction And since all Gods Laws are comprized within these two of written and unwritten Precepts written in Scripture and Precepts unwritten and contained in Nature it will follow that no Law of God is further obliging any man than he is convinced of it that it is Gods Law and that he stands bound to obey it It will then follow That if the Conscience be blind erroneous seared and corrupt there must needs be a multitude of things in Gods Laws most weighty and important duties which the conscience will be utterly ignorant of and will call good evil and evil good and justifie that which God doth condemn and condemn what God doth justifie and will walk contrary to God against which is the woe in Isa 5.30 For it is certain that a carnal man discerneth not spiritual things and all Gods commands are spritual every command of God is holy and pure and spiritual whether it be written in Scripture or written in Nature and without a spiritual Principle in the conscience the conscience being carnal and blind discerneth not spiritual things and so it will follow that all spiritual obedience to Gods Laws is made void Can Penn answer this or confute it let him Let him demonstrate how a carnal conscience can obey a spirtual command every man by nature is earthly Gods commands are heavenly we are by nature unholy Gods Laws are holy If Gods Laws bind none but such as be convinced of them and no further then they are convinced then it will unanswerably follow that no man in the World is under any Law of God to perform spiritual obedience For instance Gods command is Thou shalt not murder Now this command is a spiritual command requiring the subjection of the heart and condemning all Murder both of Soul and Body and whatsoever is a degree of it and tendeth to it Now no unregenerate carnal conscience doth discern this command of God in its extent and spirituality he is no convinced of it and by Penn's Position there lies upon him no obligation to spirutal obedience Had it not behoved Penn to make good his Position by solid proof it had especially when called to it by John Faldo who chargeth the Quakers and that justly for subverting the Scriptures What sayes Penn for proof why he contradicts himself or sayes something like a contradiction which is frequent in his Writings First he sayes that no command of Scripture is obliging upon any man further then he hath a conviction upon his conscience afterwards he sayes that such commands as these be holy be just be sober and such like together with holy Examples are obliging upon all Why because they more or less meet with a conviction in the consciences of all for saith he I am perswaded none that has a reasonable soul
and if no crimes they were innocent yea laudable actions proceeding from a mind acting according to conviction 3. If this Position of Penn's be true then sins of errour are no sins but vertues and whatsoever is done through delusion and a perverted hereticated mind and judgment is laudable I verily thought saith Paul that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth Acts 26.9 and our Saviour saith The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service Joh. 16.2 It it conviction saith Penn which can only oblige to obedience doth not this patronize the grossest crimes where the conscience is misconvinced and the understanding deceived doth not this justifie all erroneous Doctrines and all erroneous Conceits and practical Misapprehensions and whatsoever Vices lye in the understandings of Men for all conviction passeth into the Soul through this gate of the understanding Now the understanding is naturally full of darkness unbelief and errour every ungodly man is practically an Atheist an Heretick a false Teacher to his own soul at least and practical Ignorance and a perverted Judgement are the mother of all the sins and abominations in the world and what doth this Position but justifie them all When wicked men kill the Saints they look upon them at wicked men and so kill them all that have been martyr'd by persecuting Popes and Pagan Kings and Governours and all the Persecutions that have been done to the Saints have been through ignorance and practical errour Penn's Position doth justifie the Irish Rebellion the French Massacre the Mariâ—â— Persection the ten Persecutions of the Primitive Churches the Gun-powder Treason Judaism Mahometism Paganism Popery all erroneous Sects and Parties in the World with all their false Principles and Practices Christ saith it is life eternal to know God and Christ Jesus Joh. 17.3 Penn's Position saith if you are ignorant and unconvinced no Law can lay hold on you if you be deluded and practise according to the convictions of your deluded mind you are warranted by the command of God which do all center in conviction 4. If this Position off Penn's be true then conscience and conviction is God and whatsoever conscience says must be done be it right or wrong and it lyes in the power of conscience to abrogate and undo and make void all the Laws of God and to make new Laws in their room and stead and do whatsoever it pleaseth If no command be of any force further then conscience shall assent to it and if conviction and conviction only oblige to obedience then whatsoever conviction says must be done let God and Man say what tehy will If conviction bid us murder we must do it if to commit Treason we must do it and that under pain of damnation 5. Then also it will follow that he is the most free from all sin who hath the most sear'd conscience and that the ready way to obedience and salvation is to debauch and sear the conscience and and stuff it with the grossest errours and quite kill it with conscience-wasting sins and make it so void of life and feeling that we may may do the most horrid crimes and yet conscience stand to stand to them and not only not smite us for them but approve us and praise us and tell us we have done God good service 6. If conviction be the ground of obedience and the authority of Scripture depend upon the rectitude and purity of conscience then all rational Law Order and Government both Divine and Humane is over turned and a stop is put to all Religion and Piety towards God to all Conscience Honesty and Charity towards Men let God command what he will conscience may come and say I deny this command and him that commands it I know no such God as Pharaoh sayes to Moses and Aaron Who is the Lord that I should let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Exod. 5.2 and as proud Nebuchadnezzar sayes to the three Witnesses who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hand Dan. 3.15 and as Sennacherib sent a railing Letter by his Captain Rabshakeh blaspheming the God of Jerusalem saying Who is your God that be should be able to deliver you out of my hand 2 Chron. 32.14 No God of any Nation or Kingdom was able to deliver out of my hand how much less shall your God deliver you out of my hand v. 15. And his servants spake yet more against the Lord God and his servant Hezekiah he wrote Letters also to rail on the Lord God of Israel and to speak against him c. v. 16 17. So also Princes and Rulers may command and make never so good Laws conscience may come and say I deny all these Laws and the maker of them Children may refuse to obey Parents and Servants their Masters and Inferiours their Superiours if conscience shall be unconvinced and if it be deluded Subjects may murder their Princes Children their Parents Servants their Masters one Man another there can be no Law but Conscience and whatsoever Conscience says must stand It is certain that since the fall of our first Parents Conscience in every man naturally is corrupted and by custom in sin it bâ—comes twice corrupted By nature Conscience is dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.1 and men live without God and Christ in the world v. 12. being without hope and aliens to the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers to the Covenants of Promise By nature there is not one righteous conscâ—ence in all the world Rom. 3.10 There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God they are all gone out of the way they altogether become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one v. 11.12 All the world is guilty before God of an evil conscience v. 19. The mind and conscience is defiled abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1.15 16. Some mens consciences are twice dead Jud. 12. seared with a hot iron 1 Tim. 4. 2. past feeling given over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Eph. 4.19 hard as the adamant stone Zach. 7.12 having a whores forehead without shame Jer. 3.3 impudent and stiff-hearted Ezek. 2.4 rebellious v. 5. doing evil with both hands earnestly Mich. 7.3 insatiable Ezek. 16.28 full of subtilty and mischief children of the Devil enemies of all righteousness not ceasing to pervert the right ways of the Lord Act. 13.10 and infinite more might be gathered out of the Scriptures reporting the wickedness of man and the corruptions of his Conscience and all his powers Experience witnesseth the same what woful consciences have many professing Christians Penn himself saith of the Protestants and them of the Church of England That they abound in evil equalizing if not outstripping Papists and Heathens in all kinds of impiety Truth exalted p. 10. how then can such a conscience be a law or rule to
education he may know that there is a God and a Life to come and many things pertaining to Religion and Morality Will it hence follow that because we are men and have reasonable faculties there lyes no obligation upon us to obey any command of God further then our reason shall acquaint and certifie us and further then the light shall inform us What if the light be negligent idle sleepy unfaithful and bribed and shall let the sinner sin and dye in sin is God unjust for taking vengeance If the Coach-man sleep and the Horses run wood or if he drive so that the Coach is over-turned doth he not deserve correction But Penn and all his partakers conceit strange things of the light within and set it above Scriptures above all written and unwritten Laws and this is their very Principle That the light within in all things is to be our Rule and that the Scripture is inferiour to it and to be ruled by it and so God and Christ and the Spirit and Scripture and all Duty and Religion are made servants to the light within Whereas it is evident That the light within gives the Drunkard leave to be drunk the Worldlng to be a worldling and the impenitent man to be impenitent there is never a soul in Hell but he may have the light within for if the light within were faithful to God and the Soul it would not suffer sin to dwell in the soul it would not suffer any man to live in sin and dye in sin God charges man to be holy in all manner of conversation and man being so charged by God doth quire the contrary The light within which should be his guide like a negligent drunken Coach-man sleeps and the Horses run wood or he drives into pits and bogs So doth the light within take part with the flesh and Satan against God and suffers the soul to be sensual worldly and ungodly and so is at least a permissive cause of the sinners sin and damnation being charged to watch over the soul and doth not Now comes Penn and a Sect of people called Quakers and cry Vp with this light within and tell us that we must hearken to this in all things and further then the light within shall teach and lead us we are to give no hearkning to any thing that Scripture saith and if Scripture go farewell God and Christ and Heaven and all Law and Rule This is that Penn whose zeal for Quakerism exceeds that hath written sundry Books for it and in the end of his Book Reason against Railing pag. 185. doth commend unto us his own with other his Brethrens Works for an account of the Quakers Principles confessing That they do contain much of what can be said in behalf of their Principles and Practices vaunting as though they could not by reason be silenced nor confuted by sober Argument pag. 186. I refer my self and what I have here writ to impartial censure warning and entreating all people as they love their souls to take heed of Quakerism I would be glad to make the best I can of your Position but I must protest my Conscience and Conviction I cannot find out what to say to solve your Position and make it but a tolerable Errour All this while I speak not against you but your Errour you make bold and free to publish such matter to the World allow us the same boldness and freedom to detect your Errours and to do our best to save the Souls which be in danger to be subverted by your Principles Keep your poyson to your self and none will perish by it but your self but if you will needs vend it and in the view of all the Nation and such at least as know the English tongues set up a Position subverting all Religion and all Law and Government and levelling all holy and profitable Rules and Commands to mens lusts leaving no man in the World under any obligation to any duty to God or Man further then he is convinced in his conscience be it known to you that Jesus Christ hath his servants abroad to bear testimony for him against such God-baspheming and Soul-damning Errours and if you repent not this that I have writ shall rise up in judgment against you and shall be an aggravation of your misery in that day Prepare to answer the righteous Judge if your Conscience be blinded and seared now it will be open and awaken then Sept. 6. 1676. FINIS