fhops, affembled in Council at Conftantinople. But about thirty Years after, the fecond Council of Nice, (fo ill did Councils agree) established it. Yet even this Council held Representations of God to be unlawful. And all the Western Countries, except Italy, under the Pope's immediate Direction, continued to condemn the Worship of all Representations, for fome Ages afterwards. But by Degrees it firft became general; and then fo grossly fcandalous, that the Church of Rome, it feems, hath judged it the wisest Way to leave the fecond Commandment, which too plainly forbids thefe Things, out of their fmaller Books of Devotion, under the abfurd Pretence of its being only a Part, I fuppofe an infignificant one, of the first: though, fince they have been charged with this, they have thought fit in fome of them, but not in all, to restore it again. And here let us quit the Article of Image-Worship, with the Pfalmift's Remark upon it. They that make them are like unto them; fo is every one that trufieth in them. O Ifrael, trust thou in the Lord1.

But there still remains another Object of Popish Worship, the Sacramental Bread and Wine. For they have made it an Article of Faith, that 1 Pf. cxv. 8, 9.

the

the Subftance of these is, by the Words of Confecration, intirely changed into the Subftance of the living Body and Blood of Chrift: which Change therefore, they call Transubftantiation. Now, were this really the Body of Chrift, 'tis allowed we have no Command to worship it under this Difguife, and therefore commit no Sin in letting such Worship alone. But if it be really not fo, they own themselves to pay that Honour to a Bit of Bread, which belongs only to the eternal Son of God. And furely one thould think it a Question easily decided, whether a fmall Wafer, which is the Bread they use on thefe Occafions, be the Body of a Man, and whether Wine in a Cup be Blood. Almost every one of our Senfes will tell us it is not: And though, in some hafty or distant Appearances of Things, our Senfes may be deceived, yet, if, where there is all poffible Opportunity of examining the Matter, we cannot be fure of what our own Eyes and our own Feeling, our Smelling and Tafting, all inform us of, then we can be fure of nothing. 'Tis only by fuch Evidence that we know any Thing in this World: 'tis by no other that we know we have a Revelation from God, and that this Sacrament is appointed in

it. If therefore we are not to believe our Senfes, how are we to believe any Thing at all? But indeed what they tell us in this Cafe, is as contrary to all Reason, as it is to all Sense. That a human Body in its full Dimensions should be contained in the Space of an Inch or two, looks as like a Contradiction as any Thing well can do: that the Subftance of Bread fhould not be in the Sacrament, where they own all the Properties of Bread are, and that the Substance of Flesh should be there, and not one of the Properties of it appear, is very monstrous; and that the very fame Body of Chrift, which is now in Heaven at the right Hand of God, fhould at the fame Time be on Earth in the right Hand of the Priest; and that there should be feveral thousands of thofe Bodies upon Earth at many hundreds of Miles Distance from one another, and yet all these be that very fame one Body alfo, this is such Talk, that for sober Perfons in their fober Senfes to use it, and keep their Countenance, is very ftrange. If one and one be two, then one Body of Chrift here, and one Body of Chrift there, make two Bodies of Christ, which they own he hath not. And if one Body can be in more than one Place at one Time, we may all of us perhaps be now this

1

very

Inftant at Rome as well as here: a Man may be at ever so many thousand Miles Distance from himself, and afterwards he may come and meet himself, (as two of their pretended real Bodies of Chrift often do;) and then pass by himself and go away from himself to the fame Distance he was at before: he may in one Place be standing still, in another be carried along, and fo be in Motion and not in Motion at the fame Time. Men may say such Things as these if they will: and they may believe them if they can. But in order to it, well do they direct their poor People to profefs in their English Manual of Prayers before Mass, 1725, P. 409. Herein I utterly renounce the Judgement of my Senfes, and all human Understanding.

Here therefore we fix our Foot: If these Things be to every Man living evidently abfurd and impoffible, then let no Body ever regard the moft fpecious Pretences of proving fuch Doctrines, or the Authority of a Church that maintains them. It is no hard Matter for an artful Man, a little practised in difputing, fo to confound a plain Man upon almoft any Subject, that he hall not well know how to answer, though he fees himself to be right, and the other wrong. This is an Art which the Priests

of

of the Church of Rome are well verfed in. Indeed the chief Part of their Learning is to puzzle themselves firft, and as many others as they can afterwards. But always observe this Rule: Stick to common Senfe against the World: and whenever a Man would perfuade you of any Thing evidently contrary to that, never be moved by any Tricks and Fetches of Sophistry, let him ufe ever fo many. He will be for proving to you by round-about Arguments, of which you are unqualified to judge, that his Church is infallible, and therefore Tranfubftantiation is true. Do you answer him by a much plainer Argument, of which you are very well qualified to judge that Transubstantiation cannot poffibly be true, and therefore his Church is not infallible.

But they plead; with God all Things are poffible, and therefore this is fo. Now we own that all Things which are not impoffible in themfelves, are poffible with Him; but God himself cannot do what in its own Nature cannot be done. For Inftance, he cannot destroy his own Being, he cannot cease to be just and good, because this hath a Contradiction in it; and for the fame Reason he cannot do any Thing else that hath a Contradiction in it: for that would

VOL. VI.

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be