of God, are the Sons of God. By all which Means of Grace and Favour beftowed upon us by God, whether we mean according to his Effence or Perfonality, we are intitled to call him by the Appellation of Father; and had it been otherwife, Chrift Jefus our Saviour would no doubt have concluded the Form of Prayer that he taught us, with a Direction to have added his own Interceffion to it; or commanded us to conclude it in his Name, which he told his Difciples they should ufe, whenever they made their Addreffes (perfonally) to the Father; affuring them, That (t) whatever they should ask the Father in his Name, or for his Sake, he would give it them; and bid them ask, that they might receive. The next Thing I fhall confider, is, the Adoration of the Hoft, or confecrated Wafer, by the Members of the Church of Rome; by which I believe I shall still further prove them to be Idolaters, for the following Reafons. The Hoft, or confecrated Wafer, is made of Flour, &c. which, before its Confecration by the Prieft, is by Papifts, as well as Proteftants, allowed to be only a Creature; if then, after it is confecrated, it should still remain a Creature, the adoring of it must be downright Idolatry. But that after Confecration is does ftill remain a Wafer, or Bread, which is a Creature, the Sight, the Smell, and Tafte, do abundantly testify; therefore those who adore it, are guilty of Idolatry; because the giving to a Creature the (t) John xvi. 23, 24. Adoration Adoration due to the Creator, is Idolatry. Again, whether it remains a Creature or a God; fo long as it appears to most or all my Senses to be a Creature, I cannot pofitively know it to be a God; and fo long as I do not pofitively know it to be a God, if I worship it, I am guilty of Idolatry; becaufe God has forbidden me to worship any Thing but himself; faying, (u) Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. For, as in a like Cafe, a Man who pronounceth a Propofition, and afferts fuch or fuch a Thing to be fo or so, when at that Inftant of Time he is not certain, whether it is as he afferts, or not, though what he afferts may be a real Truth, yet, fince he is uncertain of it, he is a Liar, and ought to be justly esteemed fuch; because he affirms or denies a Thing, the Truth of which he is uncertain of. So in the Cafe of the Hoft, which the Romanifts, after Confecration, affert to be God; if they are uncertain, or in the leaft Doubt of its being God, though it fhould happen to be God, yet are they guilty of a Lie, because they are not certain of it, or are in doubt about it: And in like Manner a Communicant in that Church, who adores the Hoft, believing it to be God, whilft he is not certain that it is tranfubftantiated into the Godhead, must be guilty of Idolatry, because he pays divine Worship to that which he is not certain is God. Nor will the extravagant Evafion which is made ufe of in that Cafe, folve the Difficulty; which is, That the Perfon adoring does not, after the Confecration is per formed, worship the Bread, &c. as God or Chrift; or believe the Bread, &c. to be God or Christ; but believes Chrift the fecond Perfon in the blessed Trinity only, and not the Bread and Wine, to be there; and that that which was the Wafer or Bread, &c. before its Confecration, to be by that Action fo intirely changed, altered, or tranfubftantiated, as not to be, after that Action, there at all; but that from that Inftant, what they fee, feel, tafte, and fmell, is no longer Bread and Wine, but Christ's natural Body and Blood; and that therefore, as their Adoration is addreffed to what they think to be Chrift, they think they are not guilty of Idolatry. But this Evafion would formerly have excufed those Heathens or Jews, whom the Prophet Ifaiah reproves, for falling down to the Stock of a Tree, from being Idolaters, as well as it will now the Papifts, whom we tax as Idolaters for worshipping the Hoft, from being fo: For the Prophet does not excufe, but reproach and condemn them, when he fays, (x) He (i. e. the idolatrous Worshipper) hath formed a God, or molten a graven Image; he maketh it after the Figure of a Man, that it may remain in the Houfe (or be his Houfhold God); he maketh Part of a Tree into a graven Image; be falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it; and prayeth unto it, and faith, Deliver me, for thou art my God. That is, He esteemeth that Stock of a Tree, so set apart, or confecrated for facred Use, to be his God: So that their Adoration and WorThip is faid by the Prophet to be addressed to (x) Isaiah xliv. 10, 13, 17. what what they called their God; to what they efteemed, when fet apart and confecrated to fo facred a Purpose, to be no longer a Stock of a Tree, but really their God: And yet we find the Prophet taxes them with Idolatry! without doing them the Juftice to allow of this nice Diftinction, as an Extenuation or Excufe for that heinous Sin! But on the contrary, further upbraids them, juft as we do the Papifts, for not making ufe of their Reason, and the Evidence of their Senfes; by telling them, That (y) they had no Knowledge or Understanding, not to reflect on the many Ways wherein the Wood of that Tree had been used in the most common Offices of Life; and fo little Confideration, as to make the Refidue of it a God, an Abomination! As if he had faid,-Are you fo fottifh in this Matter, as to go counter to your very Senfes? Do you not fee and feel that it is Wood? Are you ignorant that it was carved out of the Stock of a Tree? Can you be fo fenfeless then, as to think any Part of it can be a God? But he gives the true Reason for this their Stupidity and Wickedness in the next Verfe, viz. That (z) a deceived Heart had turned the Idolater afide, that be cannot deliver his Soul (or difcern the Error of his Way) nor fay, Is there not a Lie in my Right Hand? That is, That whilft their Hearts were thus led away and deceived (whether through Ignorance, Perverfenefs, or otherwife) they were ftupid enough to neglect the Ufe of their Reason, and to believe contrary to the Evidence of their Senfes ! (y) Ifai. xliv. 19. (z) Ifai. xliv. 20. But But to confider more fully the Notion of Tranfubftantiation; I think there are but two Ways, whereby to know whether a Creature can be tranfubftantiated into a God, or not. The firft is, by the natural Notions we must have of a God, and of a Creature; and the other is, by Divine Revelation. By the natural Notions we must have of a God, we muft conceive fuch a Being to be infinite, as to all his Attributes; to be omnifcient, omniprefent, and omnipotent, though not able to make a Contradiction; as that Good and Bad, or that Truth and Falfehood, fhould be the fame; or that a Part of any one Thing should be equal to, or more than, the Whole of that felf-fame individual Thing, of which it is at that Time only a Part: By the natural Notions we have of a Creature, we must conceive it always to follow the Laws of its Creation; unlefs where thofe Laws are set aside by the Creator's Interpofition; which being contrary to the Rules of Creation, is therfore termed miraculous. From whence it will follow, that we cannot imagine or suppose a folid Body can at once be, and not be; or can be in more Places than one at the fame Inftant of Time; it being the Laws of its Creation, that a folid Body should fubfift or exift in one Place only at one and the fame Time. That the Hoft therefore, or the Bread and Wine, fhould be tranfubftantiated into the Godhead; or into e natural Body and Blood of Chrift, and should be present in fo many different Places at once, as the Eucharift is celebrated in, is contrary to all the beforementioned natural Notions; because it is con trary |