out fome Thing that is Round or White? There fore if I See or Feel any Thing, it is the Substance I See or Feel, that is, fome Thing which is Round or White. What Colour, Taft or Smell, has Inflicking or Inherence? For that is Accident. Is it more like Bread than a Tulip? Thus eafily may we Difpute our felves not only out of our Senfes, but out of our Thoughts too: And the Miracle of Accidents without Subftance,must not only work upon our Senfes, but give us New Thoughts, new Conceptions, which never before came into the Head of Mortal Man! This is that Philofophy and Vain Deceit or Fallacy which the Apoftle fays (a) will Spoil or Hurt our Faith. Doting about Queftions and Strifes of WordsPerverse Difputings--and Oppofitions of Science falfly fo called: which fome Profeffing, have Erred concerning the Faith.

But if you are in Earneft about this Logick of Subftance and Accident, will you lay a good Wager upon it?

L. Hudibras fays, Fools for Arguments lay Wagers.

G. Yet you have laid all your Honour and Eftate upon it-But are you fo fure of it that you would take your Oath upon it?

L. Thefe are Foolish Questions, and were never Afked in any School Difpute.

G. Nor ought to be, if you had let them ftay there. But when you will bring them out of your Schools into your Creed, and make them Árticles of Faith, you do as good as take

(4) Cor. ii, 8. 1 Tim. vi. 4. 5, 20, 21.

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your

your Oath upon the Truth and Certainty of them; and you Guard them with Anathema's. And it is Impoffible you can believe Tranf fubftantiation, or know any thing of it, unless you be perfectly Skilled in the Nature and Difference of Subftance and Accident, and how far their Powers do Reach. You must Distinguish between Sub-ftantiation, Con-substantiation, and Trans-fubftantiation, and Determine whether the Nature of Accidents will beft Agree with Sub, Con, or Trans.

L. I trouble not my Head with any of these things, but I believe as the Church believes, and there is an End of it.

G. Can you believe as the Church believes, without knowing what She believes? This is believing Nothing, It is Implicit indeed! At this Rate you need but one Article of your Creed, to believe the Holy Catholick Church. And all the Reft may go off Implicitly, though you fhould know nothing of any other of the Articles. And what a Man knows nothing of, he can give no Reafon for But St. Peter bids us (a) be Ready always to give an Answer to every Man that asketb us a Reafon of the Hope (or Faith) that is in us. Which Supposes our Understanding if our felves, and not an Implicit Faith in others, of we know not what.

So that if you make Trans-fubftantiation an

Article

(4) Pet. iii. Sà

Article of your Faith, you are obliged to Underftand it aright.

But there is fomething yet more Terrible behind, for if there be no Tranf-fubftantiation, then you Worship Bread and Wine with Latria, by which you mean the Supreme Worship due to God alone.

Nay tho' Tranf-fubftantiation were Granted, and fully Understood, yet it is Impoffible for any Man to know whether he Worships plain Bread and Wine, or the Body and Blood of Christ? Because in the Rubrick of the Mass, de Defectibus circa Miffam, there are feveral Cafes put wherein the Confecration is void, and ther is no Sacrament made, and then ther is Nothing there but plain Bread and Wine. One of these Cafes is, if ther be a greater Mixture of any other Grain than of Wheat in the Wafer, Another is, if the Wine be made of Sour Grapes, or Grapes not Ripe, Si Vinum fit ex Uvis acerbis, vel non Maturis, which is pretty hard to know for the People, who never Taft it, or the Worshippers who See or Taft neither but only a Pixis or a Cup they look not into: And in both these Cafés (befides others) it is faid, Non conficitur Sacramentum, ther is no Sacrament made. And fo it is faid if the Intention of the Priest be wanting, which is Impoffible to know: Upon which Head they put a pleafant Cafe, as Suppose a Prieft Intends to Confecrate Ten Wafers (for Example) and after Confecration ther be found Eleven or more, then None of them are Confecrated, because the Intention going only to Ten

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Tea, it cannot be known which thefe Ten are. But if there be Nine or fewer, they are all confecrated, because the Intention going to Ten, it Includes all within that Number. Befides you must take it wholly upon Truft, whether there be any Confecration at all; because your Priefts do not Confecrat before the People when they Adminifter the Sacrament, but at Set times they Confecrat Numbers of Wafers together, which they Referve for Occafions, and for daily Worfbip. Again it is faid in fome Cafes, Dubium eft an conficiatur Sacramentum, that it is Doubtful whether the Sacrament is made or not. And what fhall we do in this Cafe? Is it a Doubt whether we Worship God or a Creature? Or is it Indifferent to which we give Latria?

L. If there fhould be a Miftake in any of these Matters, and we Worship meer Creatures, not knowing it, for which we have been Charged with Idolatry, we have an Answer ready, That this could amount to no more than Material Idolatry, but it could not be Formally fo, while our Intention was Right, and we Meant our Worship to God.

G. Thefe School-Diftinctions are Cobwebs, and will bear no Weight, for Material Idolatry is Idolatry, elfe it were not Material Idolatry. And if our Intention will folve it, it will folve it alfo as to the Heathen, who Directed their Worship and Referred it Últimately to the true God, as has been fhewn. But I hope you will not make Solomon fo ftupid as you have made the

Heathen

Heathen, and to think that he believed (4) Afbteroth the Goddess of the Zidonians, and Milcom the Abomination of the Ammonites and the other Gods of the Nations whom he Worfhipped, to be every one of them the one only Supreme God! Yet he is Charged with Idolarry, whether Material or Formal is not the Question, nor is there a Word of it in the Scriptures, for Idolatry is Idolatry, let it be of what fort it will. And thefe Diftinctions are only to Excuse it, and let it loofe among us. God has forbidden it Generally, of every Kind and Sort. The Arians were Charged with Idolatry for worshipping Chrift, fuppofing Him but a Creature: And they were fo far from Difowning the True God, that it was His Honour they pretended in denying Divinity to Christ. So of the Socinians, and our Unitarians among us, who give themselves that Name for their Supporting the Unity of the Godhead. Yet they are Charged with Idolatry for Worshipping Chrift as an Inferior Gad. And they have the fame Diftinction as you of Latria and Dulia, a higher and lower Degree of Worship. But all Religious Worship is forbiddon to any but to God alone. Thefe Degrees of it are of Humane Invention, to Excufe our Breach of the Commands of God. But we are to keep far from the Forbidden thing, not Try how Near we can come to it, by Distinctions of our own Coyning. We ought to make a Hedge about the Law, as the Phrafe

(8) 1. Kin. xi. 5.

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