the unfathomable depths of the Trinity or Incarnation. But is the composition of a little water and flour beyond the reach of my understanding? and when my reason and senses unite in telling me that that composition of flour and water cannot be changed into the body and blood of Christ without implying a principle of self-destroying contradiction, let me ask, is it not more natural to obey the dictates of my reason, telling me, that God will not transgress that moral restraint which the formation of his own laws has voluntarily imposed upon him, is it not better that I should do so than that I should attribute to the Godhead some of the most unaccountable extravagancies that human reason could suggest? Let justice but decide, and truth will bow in affirmation of the remark. But Roman Catholics, in support of their doctrine of transubstantiation, say, “Cannot he who has formed the heavens and the earth—who has created all things, visible and invisible—who has changed the rod of Moses into a serpent, and the waters into rivers of blood in Egypt—who has changed Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt, and who has changed the water into wine at the marriage of Cana, cannot he (say they) empower the priest, representing the person of Christ, to change the bread into the body, and the wine into the blood of Christ?” My friends, in my answer to this, let it not be understood that I want to circumscribe infinite power within the narrow precincts of human limitation. I do not want to append to Eternal Providence the confined restrictions of mortality. I know that infinite wisdom can contrive, and infinite power can execute far more than human reason can comprehend; but while I admit the truth of these appeals to divine power in the one instance, I must reject the false supposition of change in the other. For, when God changed the rod of Moses into a serpent, and the waters into rivers of blood in Egypt, or when our Saviour changed the waters into wine at the marriage of Cana; these were changes that were palpably evident to the senses, that the senses judged of, and were not contradictory to reason. But, with regard to the supposed change, during the time of the mass, of the bread into the body, and the wine into the blood of Christ, allow me to tell you, my friends, that I have considered such a change to be contrary to my senses and most repugnant to my reason. For, as often as I had taken into my hands that bread to bless, I found it the same, after, as previous to consecration; having the same texture, presenting the same form, and producing to my mind the self same identical effects. As often as I looked on it after consecration, I observed it to be bread—when I touched it after consecration I felt it to be bread; and “if faith” (as the Roman Catholics must have it) comes from hearing and not from seeing, when I broke the bread after consecration, I both saw and heard the result of its being bread; reason then told me