Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/262

 54 T,ANSUBOTLMTIATION. [Book l. rottenness. It makes that which wu raised in power to be again own in weakness. It gives to it the attribute oF an idol, to have "eyes and see not, ears and hear not, a nose and not to smell, feet and yet cannot walk." These are some of the consequences st  t]is most unreasona- ble doctrine. If the partskor and the thing partaken be naturally the same, then the sacrament did as much eat Christ, as Christ did eat the e, acrament. It would &]so follow from hence, that the soul of Christ entered into his body, though it were there before it entered; and hence it would be there twice at the same time, for it is but one soul. .qaid hence the soul of Christ, which went along with the body, which was then alive, was in his  in two incompatible manners. If we consider the changes that are incident to the acc/dent of bread and wine, they would furnish numbers of impossibilities. Can acci- dents be lost or be burned, as Hesychius affirms they used to do the relics of the holy sacrament ? Or can accidents make a man drunk, as Aquinas suppoess the sacramental wine did the Corinthians, of whom St. Paul says, "One is hungry, and another is drunken ?" Tlmt which is in the chalice can make a man drunk, but (hrist's blood cannot make a man drunk; therefore that which is in the chalice is not Chrt's Mood. Now if the accidents of wine would make a man drunk, it must be by a miracle he is made drunk, to suppose which blasphemy. But again; can the species, or, in other words, the colour, 8hape, &c., kill a man ! But the young emperor of the house of Luxemburg was poisoned by a consecrated wafer, and Pope �icte IIl. had like to have been, and the azchbishop of York was Poisened by the chalice, according to Matthew Paris and Maimsbury. If Christ be properly said to be touched and eaten because the accidents re o, then he may be properly made hot, or cold, or mouldy, or venomous by the change of accidents. But we are weary of pursuing them surdities and impossibilities, to the end of which we could never arrive. 6. Transubstantiation is one of the most distinguishing tenets of the Church of Rome. In consequence of denying this doctrine many have been put to a cruel death. Speaking of it Bishop Ti!!otson says: "It is scandalous also on account of the cruel and Moody consequences this doctrine; so centrary to the plain laws of Christianity, and to one eat end and design of this sacrament, which is to unite Christians in most perfect love and charity to one another: whereas this doctrine has been the occasion of the most barbarous and bloody tragedies that ever were acted in the world. For this has been in the Church of Rome the great odsg art/d; and as absurd and unreasonable as it is, more Christians have been murdered for the denial of it than perhaps for all the other articles of their religion. And I think it may genendly pass for a true observation, that all sects are commonly most hot and furious for those thi__n_gs for which there is least reason; for what men want of reason for their opinions they usually supply and make up with rage. O, blessed Saviour! thou best and greatest lover of mankind, who can imagine that thou didst ever intend that men should kill one another for not being able to believe contrary to their senses; for being unwilling to think that thou 8houldst make one of the most horrid sad barbarous things that can be imagined a main duty and principal mystery of thy religion; for not flattering the pride lSeSumn of the prie, who says he can make Cod, for 1 oigitize by Goodie

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