the impoffibility of motion against Diogenes walking before his Eyes. For this is to undertake to prove that impoffible to have been, which most certainly was. Juft thus the Servants in the Parable might have demonstrated that the tares were wheat, because they were fure none but good feed was fown at firft, and no man could give any account of the punctual time when any tares were fown, or by whom; and if an Enemy had come to do it, he muft needs have met with great refiftance and oppofition; but no fuch refiftance was made, and therefore there could be no tares in the field, but that which they call'd tares was certainly good wheat. At the fame rate a man might demonftrate that our King, his Majefty of great Britain, is not return'd into England, nor reftor'd to his Crown; because there being fo great and powerfull an Army poffefs'd of his Lands, and therefore obliged by interest to keep him out, it was impoffible He fhould ever come in without a great deal of fighting and bloudfhed: but there was no fuch thing, therefore he is not return'd and restor❜d to his Crown. And by the like kind of Demonftration one might prove that the Turk did not invade Christendom last year, and befiege Vienna; because if he had, the most Chriftian King, who had the greatest Army in Christendom in a readiness, would certainly have employed it against him; but Monfieur Arnauld certainly knows, no fuch thing was done: And therefore according to his way of Demonstration, the matter of fact, fo commonly reported and believed, concerning the Turks Invafion of Christendom and befieging Vienna last year, was a perfect mistake. But a man may demonftrate till his head and heart ake, before he fhall ever be able to prove that which certainly is, or was, never to have been. For of all forts of impoffibles nothing is more

evidently

evidently fo, than to make that which hath been not to have been. All the reafon in the world is too weak to cope with so tough and obftinate a difficulty. And I have often wonder'd how a man of Monfieur Arnauld's great wit and fharp Judgment could prevail with himself to engage in fo bad and baffled a Caufe; or could think to defend it with fo wooden a Dagger as his Demonstration of Reafon against certain Experience and matter of Fact: A thing, if it be poffible, of equal abfurdity with what he pretends to demonftrate, Tran-fubftantiation it felf. I proceed to the

Third pretended Ground of this Doctrine of Tran fubftantiation; and that is, The infallible Authority of the prefent Church to make and declare new Articles of Faith. And this in truth is the ground into which the most of the learned men of their Church did heretofore, and many do ftill refolve their belief of this Doctrine: And, as I have already fhewn, do plainly say that they fee no fufficient reafon, either from Scripture or Tradition, for the belief of it: And that they fhould have believed the contrary had not the determination of the Church obliged them otherwise.

But if this Doctrine be obtruded upon the world. merely by virtue of the Authority of the Roman Church, and the Declaration of the Council under Pope Gregory the VIIth or of the Lateran Council under Innocent the III. then it is a plain Innovation in the Christian Doctrine, and a new Article of Faith impos'd upon the Chriftian world. And if any Church hath this power, the Chriftian Faith may be enlarged and changed as often as men please; and that which is no part of our Saviour's Doctrine, nay, any thing though never sfo abfurd and unreasonable, may become an Article of Faith obliging all Chriftians to the belief of it, whenever the Church of Rome fhall think fit to

ftamp

flamp her Authority upon it: which would make Chriftianity a moft uncertain and endless thing

The Fourth pretended ground of this Doctrine is, the neceffity of fuch a change as this in the Sacrament to the comfort and benefit of those who receive it. But there is no colour for this, if the thing be rightly confider'd: Because the comfort and benefit of the Sacrament depends upon the bleffing annexed to the Inftitution. And as Water in Baptifm, without any fubftantial change made in that Element, may by the Divine bleffing accompanying the Inftitution be effectual to the washing away of Sin, and Spiritual Regeneration; So there can no reason in the world be given why the Elements of Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper may not, by the fame Divine bleffing accompanying this Institution, make the worthy receivers partakers of all the Spiritual comfort and benefit defigned to us thereby, without any fubftantial change made in thofe Elements, fince our Lord hath told us, that verily the flesh profiteth nothing. So that if we could do fo odd and ftrange a thing as to eat the very natural flefh and drink the bloud of our Lord, I do not fee of what greater advantage it would be to us than what we may have by partaking of the Symbols of his body and bloud as he hath appointed in remembrance of him, For the Spiritual efficacy of the Sacrament doth not depend upon the nature of the thing received, fuppofing we receive what our Lord appointed, and receive it with a right preparation and difpofition of mind, but upon the fupernatural bleffing that goes along with it, and makes it effectual to thofe Spiritual ends for which it was appointed.

The Fifth and laft pretended ground of this Doctrine is, to magnify the power of the Priest in being able to work fo great a Miracle. And this with great pride and

pomp

pomp is often urg'd by them as a tranfcendent inftance of the Divine wifedom, to find out fo admirable a way to raise the power and reverence of the Pricft; that he should be able every day, and as often as he pleases, by repeating a few words to work fo miraculous a change, and (as they love moft abfurdly and blafphemoufly to speak) to make God himself.

But this is to pretend to a power above that of God himself, for he did not, nor cannot make himself, nor do any thing that implies a contradiction, as Tranfubftantiation evidently does in their pretending to make God. For to make that which already is, and to make that now which always was, is not onely vain and trifling if it could be done, but impoffible because it implies a contradiction.

And what if after all Tranfubftantiation, if it were poffible and actually wrought by the Prieft, would yet be no Miracle? For there are two things neceflary to a Miracle, that there be a fupernatural effect wrought, and that this effect be evident to fenfe. So that though a fupernatural effect be wrought, yet it be not evident to fense it is to all the ends and purposes of a Miracle as if it were not; and can be no teftimony or proof of any thing, because it felf ftands in need of another Miracle to give teftimony to it and to prove that it was wrought. And neither in Scripture, nor in profane Authours, nor in common use of speech, is any thing call'd a Miracle but what falls under the notice of our fenfes: A Miracle being nothing elfe but a fupernatural effect evident to fenfe, the great end and defign whereof is to be a fenfible proof and conviction to us of fomething that we do not fee.

And for want of this Condition, Tranfubftantiation, if it were true, would be no Miracle. It would indeed be very fupernatural, but for all that it would

E

not

not be a Sign or Miracle: For a Sign or Miracle is always a thing fenfible, otherwife it could be no Sign. Now that fuch a change as is pretended in Tranfubftantiation fhould really be wrought, and yet there fhould be no fign and appearance of it, is a thing very wonderfull, but not to fenfe; for our fenfes perceive no change, the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament to all our fenfes remaining just as they were before: And that a thing fhould remain to all appearance juft as it was, hath nothing at all of wonder in it: we wonder indeed when we see a strange thing done, but no man wonders when he sees nothing done. So that Tranfubftantiation, if they will needs have it a Miracle, is fuch a Miracle as any man may work that hath but the confidence to face men down that he works it, and the fortune to be believed: And though the Church of Rome may magnify their Priefts upon account of this Miracle, which they fay they can work every day and every hour, yet I cannot understand the reafon of it; for when this great work (as they call it) is done, there is nothing more appears to be done than if there were no Miracle: Now fuch a Miracle as to all appearance is no Miracle I fee no reason why a Proteftant Minifter, as well as a Popish Prieft, may not work as often as he pleases; or if he can but have the patience to let it alone, it will work it felf. For furely nothing in the world is cafier than to let a thing be as it is, and by fpeaking a few words over it to make it just what it was before. Every man, every day, may work ten thousand fuch Miracles.

And thus I have dispatch'd the First part of my Difcourfe, which was to confider the pretended grounds and Reafons of the Church of Rome for this Doctrine, and to thew the weakness and infufficiency of them. I come in the

SECOND