Full and Easy Satisfaction, Part 4 · Chapter 3
CHAP. III. The ſecond Argument againſt Tranſubſtantiation: The Contradictions of it.
R.
Arg. 2. GOd owneth not Contradictions (nor can do). The Papiſts doctrine of Tranſubſtantiation, or nullification of the whole ſubſtance of Bread and Wine, is contradictious: Therefore it is not owned by God.
The Major I know no man that denyeth.
The Contradictions are theſe.
I. You feign many Accidents of no ſubſtance; which is a groſs contradiction. For to be an Accident is eſſentially Relative to a ſubject or ſubſtance: And ejus eſſe eſt ineſſe. To be a Father without a Son, or a Son without a Father, a Husband without a Wife, or a Wife without a Husband, &c. are contradictions: And ſo it is to be an Accident of nothing, or without a ſubject.
Particularly, 1. The quantity of nothing is a contradiction: We can meaſure the Bread, and Wine: To be an inch in longitude, latitude or profundity, and yet to be no ſubſtance is a contradiction. To be (as the Wine is) a quart, a gallon of Nothing is a contradiction.
2. So for number; we can number the wafers or pieces of Bread, and the Cups of Wine: And to be twenty, forty, an hundred nothings, is a contradiction.
3. So for the Weight, To be an ounce, a pound, or ten pound, of nothing, is a contradiction.
4. So for the figure or ſhape: It is a contradiction to be a round nothing, a ſquare nothing, &c.
5. So is it to be a ſweet nothing, a ſharp nothing, an auſtere nothing, &c. as the Wine is fancied by you.
6. Or to be an odoriferous nothing: A rough or a ſmooth nothing, &c.
7. Or to be a white nothing, or a red nothing, or any coloured nothing. The ſame I may ſay of ſite, and of a multitude of Relations, &c.
II. It is a contradiction, for Nothing to have all thoſe Real notable effects, which it is certain that the conſecrated Bread and Wine have.
As, 1. That when a man or a beaſt, is really nouriſhed by the Bread and Wine, and fleſh and blood, and ſpirits are made of it, (as they may live by it many months,) that theſe ſhould be the effects of nothing, or made out of no ſubſtance by way of Nutrition, without a proper Creation.
2. When the Conſecrated Bread and Wine do partly turn to Excrements, Ʋrine, Dung and Spittle, that all the Excrements are nothings or made of nothing without a new Creation, is a contradiction.
3. When the Wine ſhall (as it may do) make a man or a ſwine drunk, that he is made drunk by nothing or no ſubſtance, when as that drunkenneſs is eſſentially the operation of the ſpirits of the Wine upon the ſpirits of him that drinks it, this alſo is a contradiction. And God maketh not contradictions true.
P.
It is the plea of an Infidel to ſay that God cannot do this or that. Will you limit the power of the Almighty? Will you ſay that God cannot make Quantity, quality, ſite, &c. without ſubſtance, becauſe we cannot? It is blaſphemy to ſay God cannot.
R.
God can do All things that are works of Power: God can do nothing which is a work of Impotency, defectiveneſs, naughtineſs, or folly, or which are contradictions in themſelves. And when we ſay God cannot, we do but ſay either that God is Perfect and Almighty, or that the thing is Nothing, but a falſe name, and not capable of being any ones work. God cannot lye, becauſe he is perfect and Almighty, and not becauſe he wanteth power. God cannot make you to be a man and no man, a ſubſtance and no ſubſtance, in the ſame ſence, at the ſame time: becauſe it is a contradiction.
But if this Argument did not hold, and it were no contradiction, for God to overturn his ſetled courſe of Nature, I ſhall ſhew you next that we have other reaſons enough to judge that he doth it not. If he Can make darkneſs to give Light, and a clod to be to the World inſtead of the Sun, without changing it, or a ſtone to underſtand and ſpeak without changing it, yet that God doth none of this, both reaſon and experience prove.