virtute cujus prudentiam scrutari nemo potest qui supra omnes hominum filios admirabilis es in Consillis Ipse Domine hunc qui Presbyterii gradum subire adipisci voluisti reple dono Sancti tui Spiritus ut dignus sit sine crimine querela assistere Altari tuo praedicare Evangelium salutis tuae sancté administrare verbum veritatis tue offerre tibi dona sacrificia spiritualia renovare populum tuum per lavacrum regenerationis ut ipse occurrens in secundo adventu Magni Dei salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi unigeniti filii tui administrationis propriis gradus officii bene gesti secundum multitudinem bonitatis tuae mercedem recipiat Elata voce quia benedictum est glorificatum magnum maxime honorabile nomen tuum c. Amen dicto orarii sive Stolae partem quae posterius est in partem anteriorem deducit ipsumque phelonio inducit osculo ei dato cum caeteris Presbyteris sistit Tunc ait Diaconus persiciamus preces nostras Domino Postquam autem levatum est velum à Sanctis donis populus dixerit dignum justum est tunc tradit Archiepiscopus Presby tero ordinato in manus panem unum è disco tenentemque manibus panem sibi traditum imponentem caput supra ipsum inclinat supra sacram mensam sicque manet donec dicatur Sancta Sanctis Tunc ordinatus restituit Archiepiscopo panem omniumque Presbyterorum primus communicat ab Ordinatore Sancti sanguinis fit particeps After the Sacred Mysteries are brought and exposed upon the Holy Table and the Holy Mystical Cherubical Hymne is compleated the accustomed Paper is delivered to the Archbishop wherein it is thus written The Divine Grace that always cures that which is infirm and supplies defects promotes this Deacon N. beloved of God to Priesthood which being Read so as all may hear it he that is to be Ordained is brought forth and while he is kneeling the Bishop makes three signs of the Cross upon his head and having his hand upon him Prayes thus O God who art without beginning or end who in Antiquity far exceedest all Creatures and who hast honored those with the Title of Priesthood who are deemed worthy in that quality to be holy Administrators of the Word of thy Truth Thou Lord of all things vouchsafe to confer the powerful Grace of thy Holy Spirit upon him whose promotion by me thou hast approved of by reason of his irreprehensible policy his unblameable actions and his constant Faith Render thy servant perfect that he may please thee in all things And according to the guifts issuing from thy provident vertue let him by his Conversation demeane himself worthily of that great honor of Priesthood because thine is the Power thine is the Kingdom and Virtue c. Then one of the Priests makes the Deacons Prayer in this manner Let us pray the Lord in peace for supreme peace and safety for the peace of the whole World for our Archbishop N. for his Priesthood his help his perseverance peace and safety and for the works of his hands let us pray the Lord. For him that is now promoted to Priesthood and for his safety let us pray the Lord that God who is clement and a lover of Mankind will confer unto him an immaculate and irreprehensible Priesthood For our most Pious Emperor protected by God c. And when the Priest hath accomplished this Prayer The Archbishop likewise holding his hand upon the head of him that is to be Ordained Prays thus O God who art powerful in vertue whose prudence no Man can penetrate who above all the sons of Men art admirable in thy counsels Thou O Lord replenish with the gift of thy Holy Spirit this Person whom thou wouldest have obtain and perform the Functions of Priesthood that without crime and complaint he may assist at thy Altar Preach the Gospel of thy Salvation holily Administer the Word of thy Truth Offer to thee Spiritual Guifts and Sacrifices renew thy People by the fountain of Regeneration that he occurring in the second coming of the Grace of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ thy only begotten Son according to the multitude of thy goodness may receive the reward of his proper Administration degree and office well performed And then with a cleer voice Because thy Grace and most honorable Name is Blessed and Glorified Then having said Amen he takes that part of the Stole that was behind and placeth it before and put him on a Casula that is a Priestly Vestment and giving him a Kiss placeth him among the other Priests Then the Deacon says Let us compleat our Prayers to the Lord. And after the Holy Mysteries are unvayled and the People have said It is worthy and just Then the Archbishop gives into the hands of the Ordained Priest one piece of Bread from the Patene and holding the Bread delivered to him in his hands and holding his head over it inclines upon the Holy Table and so he remains untill the Holy to Holies be said Then the Ordained restores to the Archbishop the Bread and receives the Communion before all the other Priests and by the Ordainer is made partaker of the Holy Blood Another Greek Ritual of about 700 years standing This in all things agrees with the former only in the end it is added Deinde alios communicat orationemque post ambonem recitat septem diebus Missam celebrat That is then he Communicates others and recites the Prayer standing behind the Bishops Seate and seven days together celebrates Mass Another Greek Ritual or Liturgy of about 300 years standing belonging to the French Kings Library differs nothing from the former Another Greek Ritual of a later date which only differs from the former in this that when they pray for the Bishop for him that is to be Ordained for the Emperor in this Ritual it is added Pro hac urbe pro liberatione nostra ab omni tribulatione Auxiliare serva miserere custodi nos intercedente sanctissima immaculata super omnia benedicsa Domina Nostra Dei genetrice semper Virgine For this City for our deliverance from all Tribulation preserve have Mercy and keep us by the Intercession of the Most Holy Immaculate and above all things blessed our Lady Mother of God and ever Virgin In this Liturgy it is also commanded that he who is to be Ordained Priest be 30 years of age Another Greek Ritual kept in the Vatican In this there is only this difference That Post reposita dona c. to these words is annexed Ordinandus à Primo Pre sbytero ducitur ad sanctam mensam traditque chartophylax Episcopo chartam scriptam Postea proclamat Archiadiaconus Attendamus Tum Episcopus exandientibus omnibus circumstantibus legit quae in charta scripta sunt sic dicens Divina gratia c. Et respondetur Kyrie Eleison Ordinandus
the regulating of their Consciences yet these Men though never so Heterogeneal in Dialect and National differences make but one complex or collection of the Popes Negotiators whose main scope and design is to maintain and improve the Prerogatives of their great Master by all the subtle arts and sedulous industry they are capable of What plausible Arguments do they use to persuade people that their Church cannot Err and the illiterate Vulgar greedily swallow this Bait which confirms them in their servitude and slavery and makes them prompt to submit to all the Prescripts of the See of Rome not regarding the arduity thereof And among other marks of the Popes greatness this of Infallibility is chief for upon this Link hangs immediately his Supremacy his Temporal pretended Power over Kings and Princes c. because these Titles are deduced from his being universal Pastor which the non-erring Councils have declared him to be so that the Councils Infallibility is the Root of those Prerogatives it is the main Pillar which supports the Magnificence and Greatness of the Church and Court of Rome and if this should fail that Superstructure would fall to utter Ruine and Desolation This therefore is the great Bulwark which dreads no opposition this is the main Fort that still remains immoveable against all attempts this is the Ship of St. Peter which though tossed and agitated upon the swelling Billows by Raging and Tempestuous Storms yet never sinks Well may there be some attempts upon the out-works by light Skirmishes and Velitations in Controversies of less moment which if by immediate Arguments they cannot repel recourse may still be had to the main Fort and if that begins to open upon the Enemy by Thundring Infallibility in his Ears Lord who can withstand it This will soon defeat him and dissipate all his attempts But upon what grounds doth the Church of Rome arrogate to it self this high Character First Proof in exclusion of all others Why this is drawn from an irrefragable Testimony it being grounded on the Promises of Christ himself for this is the Church to whom Christ hath promised That the Gates of Hell should never prevail against it This is the Church to whom Christ's word is engaged to send it another Paraclite the Spirit of Truth that should lead it into all Truth This is the Church to whom Christ said I will be with you till the end of the World And finally this is the Church committed to the care of St. Peter first Pope thereof to whom Christ said Thy Faith shall never fail which is meant of all other Popes that by a lineal descent succeed him And who dare attempt to evacuate Christ's Promises Hence it comes to pass that the Bishops and Fathers assembled in a general Council though of themselves weak and subject to Error yet being the chief Members of the Church for Doctrine and Dignity and being the Representative of the whole are render'd Infallible as being backt by Divine Authority by virtue of Christ's Promise they do not now determine matters of Faith and dogmatical points as meer Men but are as it were Deifi'd in order to this Function by a supernatural quality infused into them and inherent in their Intellects or else by a previous disposition and concomitant operation of the Holy Ghost which determines them to Truth and protects them from Error They are but the Organ to deliver Truth but the Divine Oracle is the Dictator they are but the instruments which convey those Mysteries to the knowledge of Mankind but the Spirit of God is the principal Agent so that thâ—â— Canons and Decrees come from them full fraught with the Divinity which renders them Infallibly certain for the Holy Ghost every Session attends the motion of those great Men to regulate all their Proceedings by the never erring Rule of his infinite Veracity whence it ensues that to pick quarrels with their Definitions is a high Temerity it is to wage War with Heaven or by the weak scrutiny of humane discourse to examine the truth of such Mysteries as Heaven hath revealed which if they should contain any seeming Error or Contradiction yet our understanding must adhere to them as infallibly true because our Reason is guided only by obscure Notions and abstractive Acts which draws in foreign Species by the mediation of the Senses which give but a glimmering light to the Understanding and often suggest Falsity for Truth but the Decrees of Councils are sacred and carry the Seal of the Holy Spirit enstampt upon them by whose directions they are framed wherefore it is no less than a Sacrilegious Presumption to Question the Truth of them for this is to oppose Human Reason against Divine Authority This is the substance of their first Proof drawn from the Authority of Scripture which at first appearance seems great and glorious a specious pretence to work upon the credulity of the ignorant Vulgar The second Proof is grounded in Reason but before we propose it we must open the way by putting the Reader in mind that the Divine Word the Second Person of the Sacred Trinity considering the deplorable condition of Mankind by the Fall of Adam resolved upon an efficacious Remedy to assume Human Nature and by an Hypostatical Union to be Phisically United and become on with Flesh and Bloud and in that Nature to suffer death and thereby to offer to his Eternal Father an infinite Treasure of Merits and Satisfaction to make an attonement between God and Man and to satisfie for Mans transgressions even to the rigor of Justice because the satisfaction was made in the same specifical nature that offended and it was made to the full equality of the Crime because the Meritorious Cause thereof was a Divine Person of infinite Dignity and therefore his Actions were of infinite Worth But because it was not permitted to every individual Person to draw from that infinite Mass of Satisfaction and Merit in what measure he pleased this priviledge being reserved for the Pope alone to grant out of this stock by his Indulgences what quantity and to whom he deemed expedient therefore a Church must be ordained and a method prescribed how to apply the benefit of Christ's Passion to each one in particular To this end our great Redeemer instituted Sacraments to be the organs and vehicles to convey the Fruit of his Passion to the Receiver and this is secunda post naufragium tabula whence the Church of Rome saith in her Publick Office O felix culpa quae talem meruit Redemptorem This being supposed The second Proof is grounded on this consideration that the principal design of our Redeemer was to draw Souls to Heaven notwithstanding the loss sustained by Original Sin for to this end he offered his satisfaction to this end he merited habitual and sanctifying Grace transient and actual Graces prevenient concomitant and subsequent Graces to illuminate the Understanding to move and incline the Will to embrace Good and
shun Evil. Wherefore this being the end intended by Christ it follows that apt and fit means were also appointed that had proportion with the obtaining of this end but one necessary means to accomplish what Christ designed is the Gift of Infallibility without which the Church might fall into Error and from one Error into another and hereby deviate and swerve from its original institution and at length utterly fall away and instead of conducting Souls to Heaven it would lead them to the precipice of eternal ruine and destruction and so evacuate the Fruit of Christs Passion and put an obstacle to the obtaining of that end which he efficaciously intended And yet we must all suppose that the incarnate word was endu'd with an illimited Power his Knowledge and Wisdom was infinite so that he perfectly knew what means were necessary to accomplish his design and wanted no Power to effect it which notwithstanding could never be efficaciously attained without this Infallibility whence it necessarily follows that Christ communicated to his Church this special Preservative of always teaching truth without being subject to Error This briefly is the full strength of their second Proof Thus you see the grounds of this Doctrin are seemingly convincing and plausible enough to induce such to an assent who either cannot or will not by a studious consideration penetrate into the depth of them but will rather acquiesce than stretch their understanding by a rigid scrutiny and inquisition to detect the fallacy thereof But certainly in a matter of such moment we are not to take up all this upon trust nor blindly to give our assent till we have industriously waighed and ponder'd the whole matter that so we may be the better able to give an account of our belief which is the drift of the subsequent Section SECT III. The Decision of the present Controversie THe Assertion is That the Church of Rome enjoys not this Infallibility which they so much pretend to The first Proof Such a previous necessity to Truth would destroy Liberty and take away the laudability and merit of human actions Note That in the progress of this Discourse I shall argue ad Hominem that is I shall take along with me their own Principles and for the most part ground my Refutation upon them They all grant Liberty and Merit in such human actions as have conformity to the dictamen of Conscience for in this consists the morality of our Actions that they are consonant or dissonant to the synderesis of the Agent but if an action be extorted by an antecedent necessity there can be no exercise of Free-will nor Merit in it nor Liberty because that Power only hath liberty which after all prae-requisites and causes are put hath a power to work and not to work whereas if there be a prae-ordination by Gods Decree that the Members of a General-Council shall be determined to Truth then their decisions are wholly destitute of Liberty and Free-will because Gods efficatious Decree that hath a previous influence upon the action draws with it an indispensable necessity which destroys Free-will neither can it be meritorious because Merit supposeth Liberty and consists in the laudability of the action and how can that action be laudable which a fatal necessity forces from the Will Can any one deserve Praise for doing that which he cannot avoid Hence I conclude that Merit and Free-will are not compatible with that Infallibility which the Church of Rome pretends to which is inconsistent with Gods Providence in order to Mankind who was Created and Born free in full possession of the liberty of his will and therefore shall be Judged according to his own Actions which could not be were there any necessity or restraint put upon them Thus we see how this doctrine inverts the order of Divine Providence and imposes a necessity either of contrariety or contradiction upon Humane actions A confirmation of this Proof may be drawn from the practical proceeding of Councils who seldom or never determine any thing till after a long and serious Debate and sometimes with great fervor and animosity of Parties in opposition to each other as it hapned in the Council of Trent upon contradictory Points one Party Affirming what another Deny'd All which supposeth a liberty in their debates and determinations for if by an Inspiration of the Holy Ghost they were all fixt in Truth What need any Debate or Consultation for this can only have place in such Resolutions as depend upon Humane Prudence alone And if each Member of a General Council hath the immediate Assistance of the Holy Ghost How comes it to pass that when two are of different Opinions the one Denies what the other Affirms and though they may both speak as they think yet in reality they cannot both speak Truth for two contradictories cannot be both true Must then the Spirit of God be made the Author of both as though he suggested Truth to the one and Falsity to the other if not then he that contends for the Erroneous part is deserted by the Holy Ghost and agitated by some other Spirit of the Prince of Darkness which allways opposeth truth but hence it would follow that Satan acts in General Councils and that some of the Members of Councils are not inspired by the Holy Ghost and consequently not Infallible The Second Proof is a Refutation of the Grounds of the Adverse Party A Negative Tenet as this is cannot be better prov'd than by shewing the falsity of the Affirmative Contradictory First then as to their Argument drawn from Christ's Promises exprest in Scripture I demand Whence they have an Assured Infallibility that Scripture contains the True Word of God They Answer That this Infallible Church of Rome hath Defined it so to be and proposed it to the People to be so believed I demand again how they make out the Infallibility of their Church They Answer By Christ's Promises in Scripture A special Argument no better than a plain vitious Circle for they prove the Infallibility of the Scripture by the Church and the Infallibility of the Church by Scripture and prove neither Independent of each other By this way of Arguing Mahomet and his Alchoran may be prov'd Infallible For the Alchoran saith That Mahomet was inspired by God who spoke in his eare in the forme of a Dove and Mahomet saith That the Alchoran is the Word of God manifested by Divine Inspiration therefore both Mahomet and the Alchoran are Infallible This is the same Argument apply'd to another subject The Protestant Church of England hath as great a Veneration for Scripture and as strong and firm adherence to it as any can have yet are not so highly presumptuous as to arrogate to themselves a degree of Evidence or Infallibility exceeding that which the Motives Inductive to their Beliefe bring with them But I shall not need to insist upon the Invalidity of this Argument because it hath lately been so Learnedly handled by that
Priests puts his Hands upon the Head of him that is to be Ordained he pronounceth this Forme Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God now committed unto thee by the Imposition of our Hands Whose sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven and whose sins thou dost retain they are retained Aud be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God and of his Holy Sacraments in the Name of the Father c. Here are both the Essentials duely applyed and punctually observed Whereas the Church of Rome applyes neither as an Essential part and therefore their Ordination of Priests according to their own Doctrine can in no way be Valid SECT IX Consectaries drawn from the Proofes of the precedent Assertion HOw many false Aspertions and querulous Cavillations have been raised by the Jesuits and other Romanists against the Bishops of the Church of England under that frivolous pretence of their being Consecrated at the Naggs head Tavern in Cheapside by one single Bishop or at most by two and they not Canonically Elected and Consecrated in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign All which were false and Malitious Calumnies invented for no other end then to depress the Autority of the Bishops of England thereby to facilitate their access to draw Proselites from the Church of England and seduce them to their Communion Which scandalous and ungrounded Comments have been fully Answered and the Canonical Ordination and Consecration of the Bishops of England cleerly vindicated from the false Imputation of all such Detracters by that Worthy and Learned Prelate John Bramhall D. D. and late Lord Primate of Ireland But What judgment shall we frame of the Ordination of Bishops and Priests in the Church of Rome there being at present neither Pope nor Cardinal nor Bishop nor Priest but such as have been Ordained according to their new Model of Ordination we shall not need here to have recourse to frivolous and feigned Stories where such grounded Truths strike at the very Essentials of their Ordination and evince the invalidity thereof Neither can they raise a Battery of Arguments against us without destroying themselves for the Proofes of the nullity of their Ordination are grounded on their own Doctrine They all Teach That Ordination is a Sacrament Instituted by Christ. The Council of Trent hath defined it so to be as we see above Sect. 7. They all assert the Matter and Forme of all Sacraments to be determined by Divine Autority which Suarez saith is de fide See their words Sect. 6. They hold moreover that any substantial change either in Matter or Forme renders the Sacrament invalid 3 Part. Tom. 3. D. 2. S. 4. Si mutatio materiae aut formae Essentialis seu substantialis sit nullum essicitur Sacramentum saith Suarez which is the current opinion of their other Divines It is likewise certain that the matter which they use in the Collation of Priesthood is essentially and more then Specifically different from the matter which Christ Instituted and which was constantly used in Ordinations many Centuries after Christ before Ordination was new molded It is also certain that the Forme of Ordination determined by Christ and a long time in use in the Church is now utterly rejected and cast out All this being duely ponder'd we must of necessity conclude that their Ordination is invalid except some other grounded expedient can be found out and proved to uphold the validity of their Ordination which hitherto I cannot discover but wish I could But no quibbles nor quirkes nor nice distinctions can any way avail them for the matter of Fact is uncontroleable and the Doctrinal part is evidenced by their own Words and Writings which it is now too late to retract It is time therefore for them seriously to consider what expedient may be found out to reinvalidate their Ordination and to qualifie themselves so as they may be in a capacity to prevent this grand inconvenience for the future for this shakes the very foundation and renders the whole Hierarchy of their Church ruinous If there are no Priests there can be no Bishops since Episcopacy is no new Order superadded but only a farther extension of the Order and Character of Priesthood as they teach well then may the Bishops exercise their potestatem jurisdictionis but can no way exercise nor communicate to others their potestatem Ordinis for none can exercise nor confer upon another a power which he neither formally nor virtually nor radically contains in himself jure communi but their Jurisdiction they distinguish from the Order of Presbitery since divers Bishops and Cardinals in the Church of Rome are only Deacons or Subdeacons and yet their Jurisdiction is as ample and hath as great an extension as if they were Priests who commonly make use of other Suffraganean Bishops to Officiate Confirm and confer Orders in their Diocess Hence it ensues that those putative Bishops which are presumed to be Canonically indued with Presbytery and Episcopacy yet in reality are not so when they personally exercise the Functions of Episcopacy their Confirmation is void yea their very Consecration of Chrisme and other Holy Oyles is of no effect but after Consecration they retain nothing but the Natural Elements of Oyle and Balsome as they were before and so are uncapable of rendring any Spiritual Emolument to those to whom they are applyed their Imposition of Hands and Benedictions are no way available to the Confirmed no more than if they were performed by a Lay-person for where the radical power of Order is wanting none of these Spiritual and Supernatural effects can ensue And when they Officiate in Mass and attempt to Consecrate the Body and Blood of Christ and having Consecrated the Hoaste they kneel down to adore it and then elevate it and shew it to the People that they also may adore it both they themselves and many Thousands of the People do daily commit at least a Material Idolatry though it may be that Invincible Ignorance may excuse them from a Formal one for they exhibit a worship of Latria to a supposed Deity under the species of Bread when in reality no such Deity is there so as they give to the meer substance of Bread a Worship due to God alone And this is daily repeated thorough the whole extent of the Roman Jurisdiction And the same happens when any other inferior Priest Officiates for the Order of Priesthood is equally defective in them all and where there is no power of Order to qualifie them for Consecration this must of necessity be void So when they administer the Communion to the People who present themselves in hopes to receive the Body and Blood of Christ and consequently those Graces which from thence accrew to the worthy Receivers Poor Souls How are they deluded and their hopes frustrated for whereas they came full fraught withthe expectation of Spiritual and Supernatural Graces they are dismist with a bare
predicate the act being affirmative represents these two as identified and because in the Object they are identified therefore the Proposition is true But if the two extreams were not identified yet possibly might be then the act were in materia contingenti that is contingently false but if they were not identified nor by any power could be identified then the Proposition were in materia remota that is necessarily false This being supposed The Second Assertion is That Transubstantiation as grounded on the literal sense of this Proposition Hoc est corpus meum is impossible and Chymerical That I may be rightly understood in the Proofe of this Assertion I desire it may be observed that in the progress of this discourse I shall always take the Proposition in question in a literal sense according to the natural and plain signification and meaning of the words as understood by the Romanists themselves who take it literally wherein I shall first prove the true signification of the Subject and then of the Predicate whence I shall cleerly deduce the truth of this Assertion The Subject of this Proposition Hoc est corpus meum is that which is signified by the word Hoc which I thus prove to be the substance of Bread That which was actually present when the word hoc was pronounced is the Object or thing signified thereby But the substance of Bread was the only thing present when the word hoc was pronounced ergo the substance of Bread is the Object or thing signified thereby The first Proposition or Major cannot be reasonably doubted for that particle hoc being demonstrative it indicates and shews its Object as present for that which is absent or not existent cannot in any propriety of Speech be signified by the word hoc or this as if the Author of a Book should hold one of the Copies in his hand and shew it to those that were present saying This is my Composition Could any one in his right wits doubt but that by the word this he signified the Book which he held in his hand wherefore that which Christ held in his hand and shewed to his Apostles when he said Hoc est corpus meum must necessarily be the thing signified by the word hoc The Minor or Second Proposition I prove thus That which was present when Christ pronounced the Word hoc was that which he held in his hand and shewed to his Apostles which was only Bread under its proper Species for in that moment the Body of Christ was not there under the Species of Bread as our Antagonists themselves confess who constantly affirm That the Body of Christ is not rendred present under the Species of Bread till that instant wherein the Proposition is compleatly ended and the reason is because till that instant there is nothing that signifieth the Body of Christ which is made present by the force and energia of the signification of that Proposition which they say is elevated to be iustrumental in producing its object and by that means concurs to its own verity Therefore Christ's Body not being present under the Species of Bread in that instant it remains that only the substance of Bread was then present in Christ's hand and consequently that alone was the Subject of that Proposition whose Predicate was affirmed or enunciated of it The Predicate of the forementioned Proposition which is Corpus meum my Body plainly and explicitly signifieth the Body of Christ who pronounceth the Proposition and saith of that Bread which he then held in his hand that it was his Body and therefore I shall not detain you in proving the Body of Christ to be the thing signified by the Predicate especially since our Opponents grant it to make good their Tenet Having proved the true meaning and signification of the Subject of the forenamed Proposition to be Bread and our Adversaries granting the thing rerepresented by the Predicate to be the Body of Christ let us now examine the sense and meaning of the whole act Christ holding Bread in his hand saith This is my Body that is this Bread is my Body as hath been proved and the Proposition being Affirmative intentionally affirms Christ's Body to be really identified with that Bread signified by the word this because no Affirmative Proposition can be true except the Subject and Predicate thereof be identified ex parte objecti for without this identity the act can never be conformable to its object wherein consists the truth of it whence it comes to pass that the Proposition in Question taken in a literal sense according to the true and genuine signification of the words without Tropes and Figures cannot possibly be true which I prove thus An identity between Bread and the Body of Christ is impossible and Chymerical but the Proposition in Question affirms an identity between Bread and the Body of Christ ergo the Proposition in Question affirms that which is impossible and chymerical The Minor or Second Proposition is plain and evident by what hath been already proved and granted The Major or First Proposition I shall here prove all identity between two Substances specifically and individually distinct is as impossible as a hyrco-cervus or hypocentaurus as they call them that is a down-right Chymera the reason is because it involves a contradiction whereof one Member formally destroys the other for the notion of identity between two objects consists in this That the one hath omnia sola illa quae aliud habet all the perfections and predicates of the other and nothing more but the substance of Bread hath not all the perfections and predicates of the Body of Christ for it wants Organizations Life c. and hath a specifical forme which Christ hath not therefore if these two were identified the one would have all that the other hath which idenity implyes and the one would not have all that the other hath by reason of their specifical distinction which is a plain contradiction wherein the Affirmative formally destroys the Negative and econtra the Negative destroys the Affirmative Again that Bread and the Body of Christ are individually distinct and an individuum is that which is indivisum in se divisum à quolibet alio indistinct in it self and distinct from all others but if those two individuals were identified each of them would be distinct from all other and would not be distinct from all other which is a formal contradiction and therefore all such identities between two are impossible and chymerical and so I have proved the Major of the last Syllogisme whence I conclude that this Proposition Hoc est corpus meum taken literally affirms that which is impossible and chymerical and therefore cannot ground a real change or conversion and so Transubstantiation as grounded on this Proposition is wholly impossible and a meer Chymera This Proofe I efficaciously confirm thus Either that Particle Hoc signifies the substance of Bread or it doth not if the