The Introduction: being an Answer to the Fourth Appendix to J. S.'s "Sure Footing;" intended against the general way of procedure in That the Church of Rome pretends to a Power of introducing into the Confessions of the Church, new Articles of Faith; and endeavours THE REAL PRESENCE, &c. &c. SECTION X. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation is against Sense. 1. THAT which is one of the firmest pillars, upon which all human notices, and upon which all Christian religion does rely, cannot be shaken; or if it be, all science and all religion must be in danger. Now, besides that all our notices of things proceed from sense, and our understanding receives his proper objects, by the mediation of material and sensible fantasms, and the soul, in all her operations during this life, is served by the ministries of the body, and the body works upon the soul only by sense; besides this, St. John hath placed the whole religion of a Christian upon the certainty and evidence of sense, as upon one unmoveable foundation": "That which was from the beginning, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have beheld, and our hands have handled of the word of life. And the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and bear witness and declare unto you eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us, which we have seen and heard, we declare unto you." Tertullian, in his book " De Anima," uses this very argument against the Marcionites: "Recita Johannis testationem; 2 Τούτου ζητεῖν λόγον, ἀφέντας τὴν αἴσθησιν ἀῤῥωστία ἐστὶ διανοίας.—Arist. lib. viii. Phys. tom. 22. Ἐπὶ τῶν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς φαινομένων κρείττων ἐφάνη τοῦ λόγου τῆς αἰτίας ἡ πεῖρα S. Basil. ep. 43. } "quod vidimus (inquit) quod audivimus, oculis nostris vidimus, et manus nostræ contrectaverunt, de sermone vitæ:' Falsa utique testatio, si oculorum, et aurium, et manuum sensus natura mentitur:" "His testimony was false, if eyes, and ears, and hands be deceived." In nature there is not a greater argument than to have heard, and seen, and handled. Sed quia profundâ non licet luctarier Ratione tecum, consulamus proxima : Interrogetur ipsa naturalium Simplex sine arte sensuum sententia c. And by what means can an assent be naturally produced, but by those instruments by which God conveys all notices to us, that is, by seeing and hearing? Faith comes by hearing, and evidence comes by seeing; and if a man, in his wits, and in his health, can be deceived in these things, how can we come to believe? Corpus enim per se communis dedicat esse For if a man or an angel declares God's will to us, if we may not trust our hearing, we cannot trust him: for we know not whether, indeed, he says what we think he says; and if God confirms the proposition by a miracle, an ocular demonstration, we are never the nearer to the believing him, because our eyes are not to be trusted. But if feeling also may be abused, when a man is, in all other capacities, perfectly healthy, then he must be governed by chance, and walk in the dark, and live upon shadows, and converse with fantasms and illusions, as it happens; and then at last it will come to be doubted, whether there be any such man as himself, and whether he be awake when he is awake, or not rather, then only awake when he himself and all the world thinks him to have been asleep : "Oculatæ sunt nostræ manus, credunt quod vident." 2. Now then, to apply this to the present question, in the words of St. Austin, "Quod ergo vidistis, panis est et calix, quod vobis etiam oculi vestri renunciant:" "That which our |