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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A46941 The absolute impossibility of transubstantiation demonstrated Johnson, Samuel, 1649-1703.; Johnson, Samuel, 1649-1703. Second five year's struggle against popery and tyranny. 1688 (1688) Wing J820; ESTC R28745 40,536 74

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Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus The Absolute Impossibility of Transubstantiation Demonstrated Maij 3. 1688. Guil. Needham RR. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep Cant. a Sacr. Dom. THE Absolute Impossibility OF Transubstantiation DEMONSTRATED The Second Edition LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet M DC LXXXVIII THE PREFACE UPON a careful Review of this ensuing Discourse I find no cause to make any abatement from the Title of it which promises to the Reader no less than strict Demonstration If any of the following Arguments should happen to fall short of these pretensions to the highest and clearest sort of Proof that can be it is wholly My fault and I will mend it upon the first Notice of it For I am sure that the Subject-matter is capable of the most rigorous Demonstration that ever was and it has always been held That the Essential Properties and Affections of a Body such as Quantity Figure and its relation to Place c. are the Proper Subject of Demonstration And let me here add That such a Doctrine as Transubstantiation neither is nor can be a Matter of Revelation For Scripture was given us Either I st to Reveal things which were unknown to us by Natural Light Such as the manner of the Creation of the World and the greater and more amazing Secret of the Redemption of it wherein all Heaven was engaged the Father sent the Son and the Son afterwards sent the Holy Ghost upon which occasion we have a clear and manifest declaration of that Doctrine which is commonly called the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead which was not so express before under the Old Testament To these may be added the assurance which is given us of a Resurrection and of a future Iudgment and of the different portion of good and bad men of the one in Happiness with all the blessed Company of Heaven and of the other in Eternal Torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels Now these are things which are Vndiscoverable by Natural Light but being Revealed are very agreeable to it and in nowise contradict it Or 2dly To furnish us with an History of Providence and of God's government of the World Wherein most of the Divine Attributes are visibly displayed His Holiness and Justice are to be seen in his Judgments his Mercy in Deliverances his Power in Miracles his Knowledg Faithfulness and Truth in Prophesies and the like Now this part of Scripture does only clear up and exemplify our Natural Knowledge of God and our Reason is so far from being distressed that it is very much strengthened and confirmed by it As to compare great things with small the Grammar Rule is proved and confirmed by the Example Or 3dly It was given us to improve our Natural Notices and inforce our Natural Obligations to those Duties which we owe to God our Neighbour and our selves And here our Reason triumphs and is made perfect Or 4thly To establish certain Religious Ordinances and Institutions such as are the Sacraments Religious Assemblies Preaching and the like which our very Reason does subscribe and approve as wise and holy Appointments and as highly Instrumental to a good Life Now these are matters worthy of God and such as all the Wisdom in the World would expect should be the Contents of a Divine Revelation If God should vouchsafe to make new Discoveries to the World a man would look for somewhat of this nature which should improve us and supply the defects of Human Vnderstanding and tend to the perfecting of our Nature But no man would expect that God should send after us from Heaven to unteach us all that ever he had taught us in the day of our Creation and to bless us with such Discoveries as these That the same Body is in the same Place and is not in the same Place at the same time That the Duration of 24 Hours is the Duration of 1688 Tears That a Miles Distance and the Distance of 10000 Miles is Equal That the same thing may Exist and not Exist at once That the self-same single thing may have two contrary Natures at the same time and not be what it is together with the rest of the Mysteries of Transubstantiation We are sure that a Divine Revelation cannot contradict the Common Sense and Reason of Mankind for that would be to pronouce them False Witnesses of God when by these alone we know that there is a God and are led to the discovery of his Eternal Power and Godhead which must be known before we can think of Revelation For it is in vain to talk of the Word of God till we know that there is a God whose Word this Revelation is In short If any supposed Revelation should contradict the plain Principles of Reason it would be the same thing or rather worse than if that Revelation should contradict it self For if a Revelation should contradict it self we could not indeed receive it upon those terms because we should be bound to believe it and disbelieve it at once and therefore we could not believe it at all But if this Revelation should contradict the plain Principles of Reason then it would overthrow that Vnderstanding which we are sure we received from the hands of God And therefore if we should renounce our Reason to believe such a Revelation we must in that case part with a Certainty for an Uncertainty For we cannot know unless we will receive it blindfold and then we know nothing That ever any Revelation came from God till our Reason has made it out to us that it did And therefore to abandon our Reason for the sake of any Revelation is to make our selves surer of the thing proved than of the Proof it self which is very absurd for that which makes us certain of another thing must needs be first and best known to us I should not have put such a Case as this for it is an impossible Case but that the Papists themselves have put it and have decided it the wrong way and have made Axiomes and self-evident Principles out of the false determination of it So Cartes concludes his First Book of Principles That we must fix this in our minds as the chief and principal Rule That those things which are revealed to us by God are to be believed as the most certain of all others And although perchance the most clear and evident Light of Reason that can be should seem to suggest to us the contrary yet we must believe Divine Authority alone rather than our own Judgment Now this I say is an impossible Case for we have not a more clear and evident proof than the most clear and most evident Light of Reason that can be Either that God has revealed any one Doctrine in particular Or made any Revelation at all Or that there is a God. And therefore if any revealed Doctrine in particular can be supposed to contradict the