THE IDOL DEMOLISHED BY ITS OWN PRIEST AN ANSWER TO CARDINAL WISEMAN'S LECTURES ON TRANSUBSTANTIATION. BY JAMES SHERIDAN KNOWLES AUTHOR OF VIRGINIUS' AND OTHER DRAMAS, AND OF EDINBURGH: ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK, NORTH BRIDGE. LONGMAN AND CO., LONDON. MDCCCLI. 110. d. 165. THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSUBSTANTIATION UNSCRIPTURAL 66 LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU BY ANY MEANS FOR THAT DAY SHALL NOT COME, EXCEPT THERE COME A FALLING AWAY FIRST, AND THAT MAN OF SIN BE REVEALED, THE SON OF PERDITION; WHO OPPOSETH AND EXALTETH HIMSELF ABOVE ALL THAT IS CALLED GOD, OR THAT IS WORSHIPPED; SO THAT HE, AS GOD, SITTETH IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, SHOWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD, ETC. FOR THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY DOTH ALREADY WORK ONLY HE WHO NOW LETTETH WILL LET, UNTIL HE BE TAKEN OUT OF THE WAY: AND THEN SHALL THAT WICKED BE REVEALED WHOM THE LORD SHALL CONSUME WITH THE SPIRIT OF HIS MOUTH, AND SHALL DESTROY WITH THE BRIGHTNESS OF HIS COMING EVEN HIM, WHOSE COMING IS AFTER THE WORKING OF SATAN, WITH ALL POWER, AND SIGNS, AND LYING WONDERS, AND WITH ALL DECEIVABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS IN THEM THAT PERISH; BECAUSE THEY RECEIVED NOT THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH, THAT THEY MIGHT BE SAVED. AND FOR THIS CAUSE GOD SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE A LIE."- -II. THESS. 2. SIR, ALTHOUGH there are many Antichrists, as there were even in the times of the Apostles; still is it evident that the text, above quoted, contemplates some one huge falling away in the visible church of God. B 2 THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. Nor has Paul left us in ignorance as to the marks, or features, which would characterise the grand apostacy. They were to consist with the working of Satan. They were to comprise all power and signs and lying wonders; all deceivableness of unrighteousness; rejection of the love of the truth; reception of falsehood. Your church, Sir, avails herself of the sword, as well as of the cross; abounds in appeals to the senses; claims the power of working miracles; subscribes to the dogmas of human councils; and disparages the authority of revelation. All these she does, and avows it. Does she believe a lie? With reference to the Lord's Supper, the question in dispute between you and your opponents is this:Are the elements, which the communicant receives, nothing more than the types of Christ's body and blood, or are they truly that body and that blood? Supposing, Sir, that a council of Protestant divines, having deliberated upon this question, should publish, as the result, a declaration, commencing with such a preamble as this:- "Whereas our Saviour Christ did declare that to be the type of his body," &c.; what would you say of such a council? Would you not say that it set out with a lie? Any man, who could put two ideas together, would say so; and he would say right. Again; would you not say that by so barefaced an interpolation, such a council betrayed its consciousness that the words of Christ were not sufficient, in themselves, to bear out the Protestant dogma? Such would be the inference of any man, endowed with common sense, and versed in common experience. In brief, any Protestant council, so acting, would convict itself of wishing to propagate a dogma, in the perfect soundness of which it did not believe; and of concocting, at the same time, a lie in order to ensure the reception of that dogma! This, Sir, I presume I need not tell you, is only an imaginary case; yet it is a case, the perfect parallel of which is to be found in the archives of your church; THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 3 avowedly, officially, and fully represented as she was in the self-styled "holy synoed" of Trent. The Council of Trent comprised within its members, six cardinals, three patriarchs, thirty-two archbishops, and two hundred and twenty-eight bishops. Every one of these dignitaries claimed his title in virtue of the right of apostolic succession, alleged to be vested exclusively in your church; along with his title, every one of these dignitaries boasted the endowment of the Holy Spirit; and, in virtue of that endowment, asserted the privilege of communicating the same. Could a council, so constituted, think you, deliberately concoct a lie, without fatally compromising the genuineness of its pretensions? Thus does the Council of Trent enunciate the dogma of transubstantiation : 6 6 'Whereas our Redeemer, Christ, did declare that 'to be truly His body, which He offered under the appearance of bread; therefore hath it always been held by the church of God-and this holy synod once more 'declareth it-that, by the consecration of the bread and wine, a change is wrought, in the bread's whole substance, into the substance of Christ's whole body; ' and the wine's whole substance, into the substance of 'His blood; which change has been, by the holy catho'lic church, suitably and properly called transubstan'tiation.' Have you never thought of analysing this precious document? Sir, a more scandalous document never proceeded from any deliberative body of men! The Council of Trent puts the word "truly" into the mouth of Christ. Christ uttered no such word! That the bread was truly the body of Christ might have been the belief of the council; but, in support of that belief, it had no right to attribute to Christ a sanction which he never gave. Christ's words are simply "This is my body"-not "This is truly my body." The Council of Trent lies; by the evidence of the Evangelists, Christ did not declare that the bread |