CHAP. I.
That the Communicants sitting in the act of receaving eating and drinking is lawfull and warrantable.

WE have the exemple of Christ and his Apostles at the first supper to warrant the communicants Sitting war­rantable. to sit in the act of receaving. No man ever doubted of it, till of late two or three wranglers hath called that in question, which hath been holden as an undoubted truth in all ages. After the ordinarie wash­ing of their hands they sate downe to the first course of the paschall supper to eat the paschall lambe with the unleavened bread, then they rose againe to the washing of their feet. Thereafter they sate downe againe to the second course of the paschall supper, and did eat of a sal­let made of sowre hearbs, which they dipped in a com­posed liquour as thick as mustard. This second course was a part of the paschall supper, Scaliger de emendat temporum lib. 6. as Scaliger and others of the learned prove out of the Jewish writers, and not their common and vulgar supper. M. P. yeeldeth to this, because the paschall supper was a sufficient meal of it selfe, and therefore they needed no other supper. It is clear that they sate howbeit not upright, yet leaning on their elbowes at the paschall supper. Scaliger citeth out of a booke set forth before Christs time, entituled Kid­d [...]sh pesach, a canon for twice washing, and that kinde of [Page 7] sitting at the eating of the paschall supper. The Evange­lists likewise make mention, that after they rose, and Christ had washed their feet, they sate downe againe. Now while they were eating after this sitting downe to the second course of the paschall supper, and conse­quently while they were yet sitting, Christ took bread, and gave thankes, &c. that is, he instituted, and mini­stred the evangelicall supper, Matth. 26. 26. Mark. 14. 22. Yea the very close or conclusion of the second course, or whole paschall supper was changed by Christ into the evangelicall supper. Luke and Paul relate that Christ tooke the cup after supper. The consecrating, breaking, and eating of the bread had interveened be­tweene the second course and the taking up of the cup. Therefore they might well say, After supper he tooke the cup. Yea they might have said also after supper hee tooke the bread, to wit after both the first and second course of the paschall supper, but then it must be meant immediatly, and without any other action interveening, because Matthew and Marke say, While they were eat­ing. Hear Ba [...]radius a Jesuit, Barradas in concor. evan­gelist. Tom. 4. lib. 3. cap. 2 Howbeit the whole Sacrament was instituted after supper, yet it was instituted in the end of the supper, while as they were sitting and eating, for they did eat other meat, till the time of the institution of the hea­venly food, and therefore Matthew and Marke say, That the Sacrament was inst [...]tute while as they were eating, for they were yet eating when the Lord tooke bread, blessed, and brake. Quamvis autem totum sacramentum post coenam in­stitutum fuerit, in ipsius tamen coenae fine institutum est, cum adhuc discumberent & m [...]nducarent, Nam manducarunt ci­bos alios quousque ad institutionem caelestis cibi ventum est. Ideoque Mattheus & Marcus aiunt, manducantibus ipsis ef­fectum [Page 8] sse hoc sacramentum. Adhuc enim manducabant cum Dominus accepit panem benedixit & fregit. Barona [...]al. [...]om. 2. an. 34. num. 14. Baronius the Cardinall collecteth that they were sitting, beca [...]se Matthew and Marke say, they were supping or eating, Vnde quod dicit Matthaeus coenantibus autem iis accepit Iesus p [...]nom & benedixit, & quod Marcus ait, & manduoantibus illis accepit Jesus panem & benedicens fregit, idem est acsi dixisset, Chrys. hom. de prodit. Iud. And Pope Leo serm. 7. de passione Domini. recumbentibus illis. Chrys [...]stome likewise, that wh [...]le they were eating and drinking, Christ [...]ooke bread. The collection is so cleare, that none either of the ancient or moderne Writers, Popish or Protestant did call it in question. In steed of many testimonies therefore I co [...] ­tent me with the old hymnes. M John Mair on Matth. 26. bringeth in an old hymne to this purpose, as follow­eth, Rex sedet in coena turba cinctus duodena. Se tenet in ma­nibus, Se cibat ipse cibus. And the like we have in the Ro­mane Rituall, In supremae nocte coenae Recumbens cum fratri­bus, Observata lege plenè Cibis in legalibus, Cibum turbae duc­denae, Se dat suis manibus.

But it is likely, That Christ and his Apo­stles kneeled not. Athenaens lib. 4. say some, when Christ gave thank [...]s, that he and the Apostles kneeled. I answer, There is no likelihood at all. What the Naucratits did at their idol feasts on the birth day of Vesta, or Apollo Cumaeus, is [...]o matter. It is noted as singular in them, and not accordi [...]g to the custome of other Ethnicks. It was the custome of the Jewes to sit in time of blessing the bread and cup at the paschall supper. The words, which they used, were sooner uttered, then they could conveniently change sit­ting in kneeling and rise againe. Luk. 24. 30. Mat. 14. 13. Mark. 6. [...] 7. Luk. 9. Ioh. 1. & 27. We never read that the Jewes kneeled when they blessed their meat. Christ sate when he brake bread and gave thankes at Emaus. When hee sate with the multitude, which hee fed with five [Page 9] loaves, and two fishes he blessed the bread.

P. granteth that Christ and his Apostles used the same gesture in blessing and giving thanks that hee did in receiving. Suppose they had kneeled in time of the blessing before the breaking of the bread, it would not follow, Pag. 39. that they continued kneeling, or received the elements with that gesture. All agree, ancient and modern that they were sitting, when Christ spake to them, Haec verba (nempe bibite ex eo omnes) dicuntur solis Apostolis, De eucharist lib. 4. ca [...]. [...]5 qui tum ad mensam cum Christo sedebant, saith Bellar­mine, Becanus, and others, as ye may see in the testimonies cited in this and the chapter following. The Naucratits after they had supplicated upon their knees, sate downe againe upon their feasting beds, as Atheneus reporteth.

We prove also by collection from some circumstances, That Christ and his disci­ples sat. and the forme of the celebration, that they sat. They nei­ther stood nor kneeled. Therefore they sate. They stood not, for the beds upon which they sate leaning on their elbowes, were so neer to the tables, that they might reach to it, so that they could not easily stand betwixt. It were ridiculous to alledge that they stood upon the beds. Iohn 14. 31 And Christ when he had ended, sayeth to them, Arise, let us go hence. If they had beene standing, hee could not say to them, Arise. It may bee gathered likewise that they kneeled not. 1. If there had beene a change from sitting, which was the ordinarie gesture at the Paschall supper, in­to kneeling a gesture of adoration at the Evangelicall sup­per, some of the Evangelists would have made mention of it, for they make mention of other changes. 2. If there had beene such a change, then kneeling should have beene institute, and all have sinned that have not kneeled since the first supper, which our opposits dare not affirm. [Page 10] To what end should the change have been made, if not that that gesture might be observed afterward. 3. The form of celebration could not comply with the gesture of kneeling: for Christ spake in an enunciative form, and not prayerwise, and the elements were carried from hand to hand, and divided by the Apostles among themselves. The distributing of the elements by the Communicants among themselves is not compatible with kneeling, a ge­sture of adoration which should bee directed to God. Wee conclude then with Mouline, that the Apostles con­tinued sitting at the table to the ve [...]y end of the action. On the Lords supper. 1 part pag. 136.

But say they, the site or posture of Christ and his Apo­stles at the first supper was lying and not sitting. There­fore their example is no warrant for sitting. That their gesture was a kinde of sit­ting gesture. I answere, it was not lying altogether, but partly sitting, partly lean­ing, and therefore saith Casaubone the Hebrew doctors call that posture sitting on beds. Hic situs neque plane jacen­tis est, Exercit. pag. 490. neque plane sedentis: idcirco Hebraei hoc dixerunt se­dere in lectis. And to this purpose he alledgeth also Eze­chiel 23. 41. where the Prophet expresseth that posture by sitting in a bed. And where the scriptures speak of up­right sitting as in Genes. 43. 33. Onkelos expresseth it by a word which signifieth sitting with leaning: and Iosephus in his historie by a Greek word [...], signifying the same, as if it were indifferent which of the expressi­ons to use for any of the formes. Christ himself while he was at table expresseth it by another word, which expres­seth upright sitting, Luke 22, 27, and alludeth unto it in the same word, verse 30. As a man may stand upright, or stand leaning, so hee may sit upright, or sit leaning. There sitting, our sitting, and the Turkes answere analo­gically to other. L. at Perth assemblie confessed the two [Page 11] gestures were analoga. D. Mortoun confesseth it was a kind of sitting gesture. The English translators expresse it by sitting, and not by lying. Neither are the words used by the Evangelists the proper words which expresse that gesture, but [...], as Beza observeth on Matth. chap. 8. 11.

M. P. pag. 69, protesteth and witnesseth to the world, that the holdeth the gesture of sitting at the Lords table in it self lawfull and commendable. P. acknow­ledgeth sit­ting lawfull. What a madnesse is it then to drive poor souls from a sure way to a dange­rous and doubtsome way: In dubiis animae insistendum est in via tutiori, In all doubts of the soul we should insist in the surest way. But we shall clear the doubts, and prove it pernicious.

CHAP. II.
That wee are bound to sitting in the act of receaving eating, and drinking.

THat the sitting of Christ and his Apostles at the first supper serveth not only for a warrant, but al­so for a direction to us to follow, appeareth by these reasons.

First, Christs ex­ample our di­rection. Examples in setting down a patern, serve ordi­narly for directions in times to come, if there bee not some singular occasion to hinder him that setteth downe the patern to do otherwise. D. Mortoun in his late work of the institution of the Sacrament, pag. 47. while as hee is main­taining Communion under both kindes, layeth downe the same rule in these words, Were it not that wee had no [Page 12] precept of Christ to do this, but only the example of his doing it in the first institution, this should bee a rule for us to ob­serve it punctuallie, except in some circumstances, which on­lie occasionallie & accidentallie happened therein, and there­fore dar not give a non-obstant against the example of Christ as your councel of Constance hath done, and which your Ie­suite also teacheth, as if the example of Christ were no argu­ment of proof at all. Ye see he acknowledgeth the force of Christs example, even where there is not a comman­dement in expresse words, unlesse there bee circumstan­ces occasionallie or accidentallie hapning therein.

Moulius in his heavenlie alarum, pag. 56. saith, Christ and his Apostles sate at the table, without any kinde of adoration, and that the first institution was given for a patern, whereunto we ought to conforme. When our opposits object, that if we must imitate the patern, then we ought to celebrate in an upper chalmer, exclude wo­men, put off and on our upper garment, wash our feet, sit leaning on beds, eat unleavened bread, with twelve in number, in the even-tide after supper. But these particu­lars were accidentall and occasionall, and therefore exce­pted in the rule, or were not in the time of the evangeli­call supper. The washing of the disciples feet, the put­ting off and on of Christs upper garment, were ended be­fore they sate down to the second course of the paschall supper, and consequently the second course interveened between and the evangelicall supper. The evangelicall supper being instituted after the paschall supper, to which it was to succeed, and Christs suffering so neere at hand, they might not lawfully eat leavened bread, nor at any other time eat the paschall supper, to which the evan­gelicall supper was to succeed, but in the evening.

[Page 13] The Jews were commanded to eat the lamb not in the temple, but in houses; and upper chalmers served for strangers that come to Jerusalem, as other private hou­ses did to the inhabitants. There might not bee fewer then ten for one lamb, but their number might amount to twentie, as [...]eza upon Matth. 26. 20. observeth.

They might not eat the passeover but in one societie, and if two societies were in one house, they might not mixe together, as some have observed out of the Iewish Doctors. Those who eat of one lamb together, were called the sons of societie, as if wee would say Commu­nicants at one table. There ye see, wherefore they were so few. And yet seeing there might be twentie in one so­cietie, what warrant have we to affirme there were on­ly twelve, to wit, the twelve apostles. The Canon of the masse sayeth, he gave to his Apostles and disciples. And by the same reason, what warrant have they to affirme that no women were present, seing the Iews among their precepts ordain that male and female celebrate the passe­over rightly, Iudeorum praecept. ut mas & faeminae pascha rite faciant. It can not bee proved, saith Fulk, that no women were pre­sent. Yee may see his reason upon 1 Cor. 11. 23. Cassa [...]dri o­pera pag. 737 Cassan­der in his tractar. de baptismo infantium, saith, that it is sufficient that they are fit for the communion, seing they appertain to the societie of the members of Christ. Sa­tis est quod eas aplas off [...] communion [...] constet, cum & ipsae ad societatem membr [...]. Christi pert n [...]ant.

But let it be gr [...]ed, that none were present, but the Apostles, Answere to the Rhe­mists. Matth. 20. 20. the reason may bee partly the number was suf­ficient to make up one societie for the lamb, partly as M. Cariwright observeth, that as other things so the holy Sa­crament should not come to the church but by the hands [Page 14] of the Apostles. Their manner and kinde of sitting with leaning on the left elbow was the forme observed among the Jewes at their common feasts, and at the paschall sup­per, by reason of the paschall canons, because it was the most solemne time the Jewes had. So all the particular instances above mentioned were only occasionall and ac­cidentarie, falling out by reason of the paschall supper, which might not lawfully or conveniently bee changed, yea at whatsoever time it had beene celebrate, some cir­cumstances might occurre, which belong not to the acti­on, as at every action there occurre individuall circum­stances, as time and place, nothing belonging to that acti­on except it be so appointed. The Rhem [...]sts (sayeth M. Cartwright) assigne things done in the Lords supper some impossible to bee done by us, On. 1. Cor. 11. 23 some inconvenient to bee done in our sacrament, which were necessarlie done in that action of our Saviour Christ. Their sitting might easily have beene changed in kneeling, and verie commodiously, se­ing they sate upon beds leaning on their elbowes, yet Christ would retaine the same gesture at the evangelicall supper which they used at the paschall.

But at the institution of the first passeover the Jews stood, Standing at the passeover changed. and yet afterward they sate, as ye see here, Christ and his Apostles sate. As they changed their standing at the first supper, which was their paterne, why may not we likewise change sitting into kneeling? I answer, when standing is changed in sitting, it is not changed in­to a gesture of adoration, as when sitting is changed into kneeling, which is no gesture for a feast. Next, it cannot be proved, that the people of God stood at the first passe­over in the judgement of sundrie of the learned; let be at the rest following as P. acknowledgeth, pag. 57. How­beit [Page 15] L. pag. 68. affirmeth that they stood. There is neither expresse mention made of their standing, howbeit every ceremonie be set downe punctuallie, nor can it be colle­cted by necessarie consequence, Tom. 4. l. 1. c. 17. saith Barradius. But let it passe as undoubted, yet it was extraordinarie, and for that night only to signifie their hastie departure out of Egypt. Iunius & Tremel. in Mat. 26. 20. in Exod. 12. 11. Scaliger. All the Hebrew Doctours both ancient and moderne with full consent deliver, that the commandement of sprink­ling the doore posts with bloud, putting on shoes, gird [...]ng up the loins, tak [...]ng staves in their hands, and eating the lambe with h [...]ste, was not to be extended to the following ages, but belonged only to that night that they were to depart out of Egypt. If standing had beene commanded, and that for times to come as well as for that night, the Jewes had transgressed in sitting, and Christ would not have applied himself unto their custome.

Next, Sitting sute­able with the supper. it appeareth that sitting was the ordinarie ge­sture used at all religious feasts. The Gentiles no doubt borrowing their custome from the people of God, sate at their feasts made of the remainder of the sacrifices of­fered to their idols, Amos 2. 1 Corin. 8. 10. to professe their communion and society, with their idol, or fellow­ship with devils, as the Apostle calleth it, 1 Corin. 10. 20. The Ethnikes sate not at the altars of their Gods, but at tables in the idol chappel. Ethnicos insuis altaribus bibisse ne quidem fando auditum est, Alstedius in supplemento tom. 4. Paustrat [...]e cap. 10. The Lord instituting his supper to be the only religious feast to be used in the Christian Church, observed the same gesture, which was used at the paschall supper, and other religious feasts. So that the using of this gesture at the first supper, was as it were a ratification, that the common and ordinarie gesture of [Page 16] religious feasts should not be altered at this feast. Fur­ther, seeing this supper was in forme of a banquet, and represented another spirituall banquet, as sitting is the usuall gesture at banquets or feasts, even when men are invited by kings, in token of that familiar societie where­with they are honoured, so it represents that which is answerable the familiarity of the soule with Christ at the spirituall banquet. Christ intended not only to represent unto us our spirituall nouritour, for then it had sufficed he had given the signes any way without a table, without dividing and distributing among themselfes, without sit­ting, but in celebrating after this manner, Piscator in Matth. 26. 26. in speciem con­vivii, as Piscator termeth it, he intended further then to represent spirituall nourishment, to wit societie and fel­lowship with him, and that he was to sup and feast with us, as it is said, Revel. 3. 20. Coenam Domini esse convivium v [...]lepulum liquet exeo quod d [...]scipuli de pane illo ederunt, & de po [...]ulo illo biberunt acc [...]mbentes simul ad mensam, Piscator in Matth. 26. in observat in vers. 26. & seqq. Kneeling obscureth that familiarity and rejoycing, which the Lordwould have signified and sealed at that time. The Polonian Baron Johannes Alasco, maintaineth further, That our sitting eating and drinking at the communion table is a figure and representation of our sitting at the heavenly. In Matth. 26 Musculus saith, That this supper is a type of the supper to come. Aquin. par. quest. 60. Aqu [...]nas saith, it is not only a signe commemorative of Christs passion, which is past, and demonstrative of a present benefite, but also [...] futurae gloriae; A foreshewing signe of our glorie to come. Christ himselfe expresseth our peaceable fruition of the joyes of heaven by sitting with Abraham, Is [...]ac, and Ja­cob, in the kingdome of heaven, Matth. 8. 11. Alluding to [Page 17] feasts, where the feasters feasted at one table, sitting lea­ning on beds, as here at Christs supper. In another place he bringeth in Lazarus resting in Abrahams bosome; Luke 16. that is sitting at the heavenly table, and leaning upon Abrahams bosome after the same manner that Iohn lay on Christs bosome, when he sate at this table, Iohn 16 And Christ himself while hee was at table promised to his Apostles that they should eat and drink at his table in his kingdome, and sit upon twelve throns, Luke 22. 30. Hee hath slender affection to the glory of Christ, [...] forme & maniere du ministre ec­clsiastique. fol. 84. or persuasion of his eternall felicitie, that would abolish out of the kirk that image of our eternall felicitie in the celestiall glory to co [...]e, which is so much recommended unto us by Christ himself our Lord, by the symbole of sitting at a banquet to the unspeakable comfort of all the faithfull, saith Alasco.

It followeth, that Christ precept Hoc facite, do this, comprehendeth sitting, Christs pre­cept, Do this. as if Christ should have said, Ce­lebrate this holy ordinance after the same manner as yee have now seen the patern set before your eyes, that is as a feast or banquet with the formes yee have now seene, sit­ting, eating, drinking, distributing▪ &c. Time and place were not comprehended, because they were more cir­cumstances or occasionall. But gestures are meere then meere circumstances, as M. P. pag. 34. confesseth: and a a sutable gesture for a feast was chosen by Christ, where­unto he was not forced through necessitie. Iohn Alas­co presseth this precept for sitting in speciall, both in the former work, and in book de [...]acramentis. Hoc faci [...]e. Ad totam illam actionem hoc referendum est, De sacramēt fol. 95. ut qued tum Christus cum discipulis fecit, itidem nos in sacris coetibus factitemas, & quemadmodum discipul [...] in illa ipsa vespera dispositi ab ipso Christo hoc acceperunt sacramentum, ita & [Page 18] nunc d [...]sponam is, saith Marlorat. in. 1. Cor. 11.

It appeareth thirdly by the practise of the Apostoli­call kirks, The Apo­stles continu­ed sitting. observing still this gesture, howbeit other cir­cumstances of time and place and other things, which fell out occasionally at the first supper are not regarded. Their practise may be a commentarie to the precept Do this, that wee may take up what is comprehended under it. Howbeit Christ had not said Hoc facite, Do this, his example in setting down the patern, and put in practise by the Apostles afterwards, is equivalent to a precept: Chri­sti & Apostolorum exempla sunt n [...]strum exempla [...] [...]exemplar Amesius in Bellarm. enervato. tom. 3. p. 177. autem rei faciendae probat rem esse praeceptam & necessariam. Christ himself after hee was sitting at table in Em [...]us with the two disciples, Luke 24. 30. hee took bread, blessed it, brake it, and gave to them. This place is interpreted by sundrie ancients and moderne of the breaking of the sacramentall bread, which may be granted without any vantage to the Papists for communicating in one kinde, because the example is extraordinarie: and by the He­brew phrase of breaking of bread synecdochically may bee meant the whole supper.

M. P. thinketh likewise, pag. 86. that it is like, this breaking of bread was sacramentall: but, saith hee, the sitting was onlie occasionall. But there was no occasion to hinder him to use another gesture, when hee come to that acti­on. Yee see then in the judgemeut of all the interpre­ters, who expound this place of the sacrament of the supper, that Christ celebrate this sacrament, while he and his disciples were sitting, and used no other gesture, but that which they had used at their ordinary eating before.

It is obiected, The Corin­thians sa [...]. that the Apostle in the rehearsall of the words of the institution, 1 Cor. 11. maketh no mention [Page 19] of sitting. I answer, that the Apostle rehearseth not all that was requisite for the celebration of the supper. His chief purpose was to correct the abuse of the Corinthi­ans, that is, their not staying upon other; For the Lord that night he was betrayed said to all his disciples con­veened together, 1 Cor. 11. 19. Take ye, eat ye, drinke ye all of this. Illa coena (Christi) omnes commun ver accumbentes habuit. That supper had all sitting in common together, saith Chrysostome, rebuking such as neglected to communicat with the poore. In illud oportct hae­reses esse. O [...]umenius hath the like. This is not to eat the Lords supper, he meaneth that supper, wh [...]ch Christ delivered, when all his disciples were present. For in that supper the Lord and all his servants sate together. Hierom in 1 Cor. 11. The Lords supper ought to be common to all, because he deliver [...]d the sa­craments equally to all his disciples that were present. It was not the Corinthians fault that they sate [...]t table, but that nei­ther at their common meats, nor at the Lords table would they sit together, but sorted themselfes in factions and companies, saith D. [...]ilson in his book of obedience. Page 654. edit. in 40. And again, Saint Paul, as Chrysistome thinketh, brought the table and supper, where the Lord himself was, and [...]t which his d [...]sc [...]ples sate, for an example to shew them, that that is rightly judged to be the Lords supper, [quae omn [...]bus simul convocatis concordi [...]er & commun [...]ter sumitur] which is received in common, Ibid. and with one consent of all assembled together. The Apostle saith not, I deliver to you here all that I receaved of the Lord, but I have received of the Lord, that which I have delivered unto you.

The Apostle presupposeth a lawfull minister, a table, and sitting at the table, and rehearseth only Christs actions, and his words uttered to communicants sit­ting at that table together, bidding them all eat, drink, &c. conveened together. Not yet all his actions and words, as giving of the bread, blessing of the cup, either [Page 20] severally or conjunctly with the bread, and the precept, to drink all of it. Decretal. l. 3. [...]t. 41. cap. 6. Ipsi et am Evangel stae mutuo inter se sup­plev [...]sse leguntur, quae ab e [...]rum aliquo vel aliquibus sunt om [...] ssa. The Evangel [...]sts themselses supply mutually, what is omitted by any of the rest, saith Innocentius 3 in the Decretals.

There was but one action, saith Casaubon, which con­sisted of the holy and common banquet, Exercit. 16. pag. 511. and from the no­bler pa [...]t was called the supper of the Lord. Totam illam Corinth. orum actionem, quae sacro & communi convivio con­stabat, a potiori parte vocat coenam dominicam. The love-feast then and the Lords supper went together, the love-feasts in these times preceeding, Estius in 1. Cor. 11. 20. and the Lords supper immediately following. For as Estius a professour in Do­way reasoneth. It is likely that in imitation of Christs example at the first supper, they celebrat after the love-feast. Next, they stayed not upon other at the com­moun supper, which could not have beene, if they had communicated together before, as the Greek fathers conceave, who are of the other opinion. Thirdly, the A­postle putteth them in minde of triall before, and good behaviour. If these abuses had fallen forth after, the A­postles exhortation had not beene so pertinent. Fourth­ly, this opinion is confirmed by the custome, which was observed after in many Churches, even till Augustinus dayes. Will [...]ts in his synopsis. pag. 677. In the end of those feasts they used to r [...]ceave the sacrament. [...]or. 11. Cornelius a Lapide a Professour in Lovane affirmeth likewise, that the love-feast preceeded the holy supper. Agape haec tempore Pau­le fiebat ante non post sacram synaxin. Druthmarus who wrote about the yeare 800. saith, that the Apostles cele­brated after meat, as Christ did: Fe [...]runt autem Apostoli multo tempore similiter post alium elbum dominicum fumen­tos. [Page 21] D. Bilson saith likewise, by Saint Pauls words, it should appear, the communion was distributed to them after meals, Obek. pag. 653. but (saith he) to us it is all one, whether before or after at their banquets and feasts it was ministred and even served at the [...]r t [...]bles, Pag [...]s Augustine noteth, epist. 118. And againe, Because these brotherly repasts did either end or begin with the Lords supper, they could not devide themselfes each from other, and disdaine the poore at the [...]r common meat, but they must off [...]r the same abuse at the Lords supper, which was m [...]nistred to them as they sate at the [...]r tabl [...]s immediatly be­fore or af [...]er their usuall and corporall refreshings. M. P. pag. 86. and 94. M. P. a la [...]e champion for kneeling, thinking it likely that Christ ministred the sacrament at Emaus hath this observation. Hereupon I thinke together with the institution it selfe, after supper were grounded the love-feasts, by continued occasion whereof, the disciples might possiblie for a time use sitting in the very act of receiving. Second serm. pag. 61. D. Downame Bishop of Derrie confesseth sitting to receave the sacrament to have beene used in the Churches in the Apostles times.

I passe by the names of Table, Other cir­cumstances not conti­nued. and Supper, and breaking of bread, and the opposition made by the Apostle be­twixt communicating at the Lords table, and sitting at the tables of Idols, which may import this gesture, be­cause I will have occasion to treat of them in the second part. Only let it be observed that the occasionall circum­stances of the first supper were not followed as the ge­sture was, but upon speciall occasion. By the practise of the Apostles, wee see the time was indifferent, Act. 2. and 20. Paraeus de symbolis & ritib. euchar. pag. 152. Neque Apostoli ad tempus vespertixum sese adstrinxe­runt, sedipro o [...] asione coenam administraru [...]t, aliàs d [...]urno tempore, [...] lege [...]e est, Act. 2. 46. aliàs intempesta nocte ut, Act. 20. quo pacto satis ostenderunt tempus c [...]enae esse indi [...]e­ [...]ens. [Page 22] As for the denomination of supper, it doth not im­port, that we should celebrat ever at night. It is true, in our language this word Supper signifieth only the even­ing meal, but the originall word [...], signifieth indefi­nitly the repast that a man take [...]h any time of the day. The proper Greek word for a supper is [...] or [...]. I referre the Reader for further clearing of this point to C [...]saubon his exercitations. Exercit. pag. 511. The like may be said of the number, the sex, the parlour, the manner of sitting, &c. They were not continued by the Apostolical Churches, as sitting was, which was also continued at some times, and in some places in the ages following.

CHAP. III.
That sitting in the act of receaving hath con­tinued to our times.

HOwbeit the supper of the Lord soone after the Apostles dayes began to bee stained with some rust, Sitting con­tinued in ages follow­ing. as M. Calvine observeth, yet was this ge­sture of sitting continued at some times, Calvin. instit. l. 4. c. 17. s. 13. namely upon the Thursday, which is now called Maundie thursday, the day of the Lords supper, because upon that day the Lords supper was f [...]rst celebrate, Mornaeus de missa lib. 1. c. 1. & 5. and institute. Mornae­us reporteth that in the monasteries of S. Bennet, they have no other forme of Masse for three dayes before Easter, but this following.

The Abbot sanctifieth the bread and the wine, and the Monks do communicate sitting, receaving the elements out of the Abbots hand, and this forme is by them called [Page 23] Mandatum, the commandement. But Bullinger more plain­lie, that not only in the monasteries of the Benedictines, but also in the cathedrall kirks upon this day the tables are set in order, they sit downe, break bread, and reach the cup every one to other, every man following the foot­steps of the ancient supper. Vnde nimirum ritus ille ad nos d [...]manavit, De origine error. pag 46 quo vel hodie incathedralibus ecclestis, & in Monasteriis Benedict [...]orum [...]n die coenae Domini ante para­sceuen, Coe [...]a Do [...]i [...] palam & splendidius celebratur. Nam Evangelium Iohannis à diacono publice praelegitun, & dulcis­sima c [...]llo [...]uia Christ [...] abiturus cum discipulis habuit, re­cita [...]ur, i [...]terim or [...] disposi is mensis convivae assident, pa­nem azymum frangen es, & calioem invicem propinantes, & in to [...]um veteris coenae vestigium praeferentes. Now it was the custome of old, not onlie for the Monks, but al­so other Christians to communicate upon this day, except offenders, as appeareth evidently in Gratians decree. And therefore the glosse both old and new upon that place, hath these words, Decreti part. 3. de conse­crat. distat. [...] cap. 17. Sic olim, modo non sic est, sed Monachi faciunt, that is, It was so of old, that the faithfull did com­municate, but it is not so now, only the Monks doe it. Augu­stine epist. 18. ad Ianuarium reporteth, that in his time the custome was in many kirks to communicate after supper upon Thursday. And whereas there is sundrie Canons for communicating fasting, yet that anniversarie Thursday was excepted, as yee may see in Conc [...]l. Car­thag. 3. can. 31. Ne Sacramenta altaris, n [...]si a jejunis homi­nibus celebrentur, excepto uno die ann [...]versario, quo coena Do­mini celebratur.

What the Monks of S. Bennets order retained, wee may verie well judge it to have beene the auncient forme of celebration upon that day. For no doubt in that other [Page 24] Christians celebrated after meat which they needed not, they neglected not sitting and distributing. The two thousand souldiers, who were reconciled to the Empe­rour Mauritius, about the year 590. by the travell of Gre­gorius Bishop of Antioch, receaved the Sacrament sitting upon the ground, Euagrius l. 6. cap. 13. as Euagrius reporteth. Doctor Lind­say alledgeth the like done to the Scottish armie at Ban­nockburn, in the dayes of King Robert Bruce. L. his de­fence, pag. 53. 54.

But beside this day, which was called Coena Domini, that all the faithfull did communicate, wee finde that at other times also the people communicated in sundrie pla­ces immediatly after meat, as Socrates reporteth of the Aegypt [...]ans, Hist. l. 5. c. 23 who dwelt neere to Al [...]xandr [...]a, and the in­habitants of Thebais, Nam ubiepulati sunt, & var [...]is cibariis se satur [...]runt sub vesperam oblatione fact a mysteriis commu­nicant, Ni [...]ephorus reporteth the same. Nicephor. l. 12. c. 34. Balsamo upon the 90 [...] of Concilium Trullanum saith, the devoter sort upon Saturday at midnight fate in the kirk and communicate. Alexander de Holes in the second part of his tractat. con­cerning the Masse, sayeth, The Pope communicateth sit­ting in remembrance, that the Apostles at the last supper communicated sitting. Si quaeratur quare Dominus Papa sed endo communicat, Potest dici quod hoc fit in recordatio­n [...]m, quod [...]eatus Petrus, & alii Apostoli, sedendo corpus Domini in coena ultima acceperunt.

The Waldens [...]s, who are justly called the pure seed of the auncient kirk, and have continued since the dayes of Pope Silvester, some think from the dayes of the Apo­stles, saith Rainerius the Inquisitor, and their enemie, ce­lebrated the Communion sitting. Concern [...]ng the supper of the Lord their faith was, that it was orda [...]n [...]d to be eaten, and not to bee shewed or worshipped, for a memoriall, not [Page 25] for a sacrifice: First volum pag. 209. edit. 1610. to serve for the present ministration, and not for reservation, to be received at table, and not to be carried out of doores, according to the use of the primitive Church, when they used to communicat sitting, and this they prove by an old Chronicle called Chronica gestorum, saith Master Fox in his acts and monuments. His warrant I finde in their apologie against one Doctour Augustine, which is extant in Lydii Waldensia, Existo manifestum est, quod primitiva ecclesia hane fidem habuit, & illam, con­fessa est, & non fecit reverentiam hu [...]c sacramento, quia illo tempore exemplo Christi sedentes statim acceperunt & nihil retinuerunt, nec extra domum extulerunt, & haec institutio di [...]stetit, sicut Chronica gestorum estendunt. The like they have in the confession of their faith sent to Vladiflaus king of Hungarie. Namque discipulis Christus discumbentibus de­die utendum.

Luther expounding the epistle upon Saint Stephens day, saith, Christ so instituted the sacrament, that in it wee should sit at the sacrament. But all things are changed, and the idle ordinances of men, are come in place of divine ordi­nances. Zwinglius setting downe the forme of c [...]lebration used at Berne, Zwingl. ex­positio fidei Christianae edita Bu [...] ­ling. anno 1536. Zurick, Basile, and other neighbour townes, saith, Sedentes & tacite auscultantes verbo Domi­ni edimus & bibimus coenae sacramentum: Sitting and harkning with silence to the word of the Lord, wee eat and drink the sacrament of the supper. Alas [...]o I have cited al­ready. Not only the strangers Churches at London in his time communicated sitting, but even to this day other Churches in the Low countries, &c. Other Churches as in Pole such as adheered to the confession of Hel [...]etia sate, as we may see in Confensus Poloniae. Standing not so conveni­ent as sitting.

Standing about the table may consist with the distri­bution [Page 26] of the elements by the communicants, but in re­gard by it is pretended more reverence, the gesture of sitting is indirectly taxed, and that pretended reverence taketh away that representation of familiar f [...]llowship, whereof sitting is a more lively representation, seeing standing is not the usuall and ordinarie gesture at civil feasts. Communicating in passing by doth not only in­directly take sitting, but taketh away the [...]oresaid distri­bution, Of which more afterward.

CHAP. I.
Kneeling in the act, &c. not warranted by the example of Christ and his Apostles.

WE should (as we said before) take us in all doubts to the surest way. Kneeling not warranted by the ex­ample of Christ. Our warrant for sitting can not be doubted of. We have the example of Christ and his Apostles, and the practice of the apostoli­call Church for warrant to sit, but not to kneel. When Christ himselfe ministred and was present, the Apostles kneeled not. Though the Apostles did not alwayes wor­ship Christ while he was present, especially being occu­pied in cruell and common acts, yet upon extraordinary [Page 27] occasions they and others worshipped him, Matth. 8. 2. and 9. 18. and 14. 33. and 20. 20. Luke 5. 8. Ioh. 9. 38. Nor yet directed any outward adoration to God the Fa­ther. Though they were sitting at supper, yet they m [...]gh [...]s [...]on have changed their gesture, especially seeing the leg [...]ll sup­per was finished, and Christs Supper began, saith W [...]ll [...]ts, pag. 648. Instit. lib. 4. c. 37. sect. 33. They who receave, as is commanded, w [...]thou [...] a­doration, are secure that they depart not from Gods comman­dement, then the which securit [...]e there can bee nothing be [...]ter, when wee intrepris [...] any thing. Th [...]y have the example of the Apostles, whom wee read not to have adored prostrate, but as they were sitting they receav [...]d, a [...]d did eat. They have the pract [...]se of the Apostol [...]ck Churches, where it is declared, that the Faithfull did communicate, not in adoration, but in breaking of bread, saith Calvine.

Beza in his disput against Iodocus Harchius saith, So l [...]ke, as when the Lord truely to bee adored as God and man, Beza centra Harch. vol. 3. pag. 182. at table did inst [...]tute this holy supper, that the Disciples arose to the end, that falling upon their knees, they might receav [...] that bread and wine out of his hand. And so lik [...] as the Ap [...] ­s [...]les were ignorant how to deliver to the Churches the mann [...]r how to celebrate these holy mysteries. It is known well enough, that the Love feasts could hardly, or sca [...]ce a [...]ll [...]dmit g [...] ­niculation. Agapa [...] quidem certe constat [...] quidem geniculationem admississe. Hist. sacra­ment. lib. 4. pag. 182. Hospi [...]nsa [...] The Waldenses in the apologie above [...] hujus testimonio est, quod Dominus noster Iesu [...] C [...]ristus se­dentibus ded [...]t, & successores longo tempore per domos fregerunt panem, & acceperunt cibum cum benedicti­one, & non fecerunt reverentiam.

CHAP. II.
Kneeling in the act of receaving is not sutable with the forme of a banquet, or use of a supper-table.

THis holy action is denominate the Lords table, Kneeling not sutable to the Suppertable. and the Lords supper, from the use of the one, and formes of the other. Wonderfull is the subtilitie of our Doctor, L. pag. 51. who answereth, that the sustaining of meat set on the table is the only use of a table, but of beds and furmes to sit upon. Wee say, this also is the use of a ta­ble, that the guests, or persons invited may sit at and a­bout it, and partake of the meat set upon the table. O­therwise, if there bee no use of a table but to set meat upon it, a dressour or a cupboord may bee called a table. Whereas they say, the altar is called the table of the Lord Malach. 1. and yet none did sit at it. True and so do the Papists also call the lid of their altar a table. But it is plain wee speak of a supper or feasting table.

The Altar is called the Lords table, because the Lords meat, ( Levit. 22. 25.) that which was burnt with fire in oblation to GOD, was consumed on it. But the Lords supper is called the Lords table, because our Lord and Saviour appointed it for his guests, whom he inviteth to it. So the table of the shew bread might bee called the Lords table, but not in our sense, not a supper or feast ta­ble, and therefore impertinentlie alleadged by L. pag. 54. [Page 29] Kneeling is a gesture more agreeable to the Popish altar, where the Priests beside communicated kneeling, then with a feast table wherewith it agreeth not at all. Wee have put down altars, saith Alasco, and use a table, because it agreeth better with a supper, and the Apostle hath given the title of a table to denom [...]nate the Lords supper. And again, The termes Supper, and Table of the Lord, ver [...]e familiar with the Apostle Paul, seeme to require sitting rather then stand­ing, kneeling, or passing by.

Where the Apostle saith, L. pag. 43. 44. Yee cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and the table of devils: Our Doctor saith, there is no materiall and artificiall table to be understood, but things offered to Idols in the one speach, and Christs bo­die and blood in the other. But both are to bee under­stood: for meat offered to Idols can not bee called the ta­ble of devils, unlesse there had beene a materiall table, up­on which the meat was set. The Apostle telleth us, that they sate at these tables in the Idols chappels, 1 Cor. 8. 10. The Idolaters had a table, whereon they eated the remainder of the sacrifice, which was offered upon the Al­tar, as the Iewes had, Habebant Iudiei primum altaria ubi sacrificabant, deinde mensa [...], quas instr [...]ebant reliquiis ob­ [...]i jam sacrificis, atque in illis mensis epulabantur, saith Zanchius, Tilen. synt. de sacrif. mis­sae sect. 32. Wille [...]s sy­nops pag. 478 edit. 1614. tom. 4. col. 466. See Tilenus, Willets, and Cor­nelius à [...]ap [...]de, a Popish writer upon 1 Cor. 10. 21. and 1 Cor. 8. 10. So the by table of the Lord must likewise bee understood, not the bare elements, or as the Doctor speaketh, the bodie and blood of Christ in the sacrament, but with all a materiall table. And Beza out of the same verse, 1 Cor. 10. 21. inferreth, that in the primitive Church they had materiall tables, and not altars. Willets infer­reth the like in his Synopsis. pag. 681. The Lords supper then is [Page 30] called the Lords table, by a trope called Metonymia sub­jecti, because the elements were set on the table, when Christ said, This cup (meaning the wine which was in the cup) Is the new testament in my blood, the metonymi­call speach importeth necessarlie, that hee had a materiall cup in his hand, when hee uttered these words. But saith the Doctour it was possible for a man to sit at both the materiall tables. It is true, if ye look to abilitie and not to right or warrant, Ad possibilitatem facti non ju­ris. Apostolis demonstrat. Corinthios bona conscientia non posse esse participes conviviorum idolatricorum, quippe qui participes esse soleant coenae Domini, A [...]stedius in suppli­mente. pag. 45.

Wee require not of necessitie an artificiall table of timber consecrated, and set apart for that use only. A bull hide or a plot of ground may serve in time of neces­sity, and answereth analogically to a standing table, as the plot of ground did, whereabout the multitude sate in rowes by fifties and fifties, Mark 6. Neither do wee stand upon the fashion, whither it be long or round. We looke to the use more then to the matter o [...] fashion, and require, that the Communicants alwayes sit tablewise, that they may observe the forme of a feast.

The Ethnicks of old thought the Gods were present, when they feasted at their ta [...]les.

The Poets bring in sometime their Gods feasting [...] their tables. The Jewes say, That when some alter [...]a [...]n arose in the house of Ishbosheth the sonne of Saul, the ser­vant incontinent spread the table, and the alteration ceased. There is a noble saying of Bensyra, Mensa para­ta [Page 31] sive posita contentio tollitur. Men [...]am & salem non transgredi, was an old proverbiall speach importing, that the table, was, and should be a band of fellowship.

The other denomination importeth, The Com­munion cele­brate in form of a feast. that this holy action was celebrat, as a supper or in forme of a feast or [...]. Piscator saith, That the holy supper was so institu­ed, and at the first time so celebrated by our Lord and his disciples, Piscator in Matth. 26. in observationi [...]bus in versu 26. & seqq. while they sate together at table, that it had the [...]ew or resemblance of a banquet, Ita ut haec actio habuerit [...] convivit, imò fuerit convivium, sed sacrum, & [...] divin [...] ca [...]se, & ad piorum c [...]nsolationem institu­ [...]m. Plessie saith likewise, Mornaeus de eucharist. lib. 4. cap. 7. That of old, and not at the [...] only, this sacred supper was celebrated in the for [...]e of a banquet. [...] sacrum coenam o [...]im c [...]nvivii instar, in quo discumbeba [...]ur, celebratam, cujus etiamnum [...] norum mandato vestigium. The Waldenses [...] the supper in forme of a banquet, saith their ene­ [...] Hayneri [...]s. Now the forme of a feast or banket [...] not kneeling. None entertaineth men after that [...] Alasco, Forma min [...]ster. ecclesia [...]ster. tbat they who are invited to a banquet [...] standing, walking, or kneeling, but they will the [...] at table, that all may eat together with repose of [...] [...]nd minde. They use to cause servants stand, or walke [...]hout the table, not these who are invited. Kneeling is not a gesture which hath beene used at feasts or banquets, but ra [...]her a gesture of supplicants. Plessie, ye see, saith, Con­viv [...]i instar in quo discumbebatur.

They say, It may be called a supper in respect of the thing signified, whereof the soules of the faithfull are par­takers. This is just the Jesuits answer, for the bread with­out the cup; But is not the spirituall supper represented by the externall resemblance of a supper. Sacramentu [...] [Page 32] hoc nego dici convivium ratione rei ipsius significatae, sed ratione significationis sumptae a rebus visbiilibus, saith Cha­m [...]er de [...]ucharist. lib. 8. cap. 6. num. 26. It may be called a supper rightly, howbeit it resemble not a supper in all things. Neither do we require all the formes used at com­mon feasts, but these which Christ the Institutour and master of the feast thought sufficient. And this is like­wise an answer to that which they alledge for other reli­gious feasts, that they kneeled not at the eating of the passeover, because it was coena recta a full meale, and in­dured a good space, but the action of the communicant is soone dispatched. For it is not the length or shortnesse of time, that we consider so much as the forme of a feast, whereunto the gesture of kneeling is not suteable. The same formes, which were used at the close of the paschall supper, were used at this, with a little change. Further, they kneeled not at any part of the paschall supper, no not when the cuppe of praise was reached from hand to hand, which was done in a very short time, or when the bread was eaten in the quantity of an olive, and lesse then an egge.

We desire this to be observed throughout all this di­spute, that if wee will speake not in the termes invented by men, Observation upō the form of speach. as to receave or give the sacrament or eucharist, but in scripture language, as to celebrate the Lords sup­per, to partake of the Lords table, to come together to breake bread, Act. 2. 46. Act. 20. 7. the weaknesse of all arguments for kneeling will appear more clearly, and on the other side, the pith of our arguments for a table ge­sture, namely sitting.

The ancient Doctours, On the Lords supper, part. 1. pag. 8. saith Moulins, had done better, if they had held themselves to the termes expressed in God [...] [Page 33] word: for they had not by this meanes (though besides their meaning) opened the doore to this a buse, giving example to others which came after them, to invent other new names lesse proper, and to pluck away from this sacrament the in­scrtption, which served to shew the nature thereof, for the small [...]st faults can Satan manage with dexterity, and by the least sparkes in a small time kindle a great fire. But, saith he, the manner of speach usuall among the Apostles, to wit, to come together to break bread, is become foolish and vaine in this age.

It were harsh language to use these phrases; They brake bread together kneeling, they compassed the table of the Lord kneeling, they celebrate the supper of the Lard kneeling. To shu [...]t this harshnesse, the common phrases are, to receave the sa­crament, or eucharist, or sacramentall elements kneeling.

CHAP. III.
The distribution of the elements by the Communicants among themselfes excludeth kneeling in the act of receaving.

TO kneel for adoration, The distri­bution by the Commu­nicants ex­cludeth kneeling. and to breake and di­stribute the bread, and reach the cup from hand to hand, are not compatible. Nor was it ever heard that the like was practised in any part of the world, but where Doctour Lindsey hath beene, that is, at Dundy, as appeareth, pag. 63. But what is absurd or grosse in that mans eyes? Can the Communicant be both adoring God upon his knees, and at that very in­stant be reaching the elements to his brother likewise [Page 34] kneeling and adoring. Ye have heard out of Culvine be­fore, that the faithfull in the Apostolical Churches did not communicate with adoration, but breaking of bread, as if adoration and breaking of bread could not consist together. We shall have occasion againe to treat more of confusion of actions, or different acts and parts of Gods worship.

Christ reaching the cup to his disciples, Christ com­manded them to de­vide the cup. commanded them to divide it among them, Luk. 22. 17. This cup is the evangelicall cup, or which is all one, the last paschall cup changed into the evangelicall. Luke applieth Christs protestation, that he would drinke no more of the fruite of the vine, &c. to the cup, which he commanded them to divide among themselfes. But that protestation is ap­plied to the communion cuppe by Matthew and Mark, who make mention only of the cup of the Lords supper, in the verses immediatly preceeding. If it had not beene the communion cup, how could Christ protest, that he would drinke no more of the fruite of the vine in this life, if he was to drinke incontinent after of the commu­nion cup, as they oppose the paschall cup to the evange­licall. Cyprian by this protestation proveth that vine was in the cuppe, Hierom. epist. ad Hedibiam. Epist. 63. ad Coecilium. Hierom saith, Christ was both Conv [...]va & convivium, the fellow-feaster, and the feast it selfe; commedens, & qui comedi ur, one who did eat, and was eaten. The old hymne beareth the same, Se nascens dedit socium, Clemens Alexan. in p [...]edagog. [...]. c. 2. convescens in edulium. See another hymne to the same purpose cited before. Clemens Alex­andrinus disputing against the Euc [...]atits, who abhorred wine, proveth, that Christ himself drank wine, by this, that he dranke of this cuppe. When the Schoolmen would prove, that wine was one of the elements at the evange­licall [Page 35] supper, they cannot finde a [...] all the Evan­gelists, but in this protestation. I thinke there is no man will deny that wine was in the cup, Muscul. de coena Domi­tū. saith Museulus, seeing the Lord said, Matth. 26. Luk. 22. That he would drinke no more of the fruit of the w [...]ne. Fulk [...], The demonstrative pronoune This, Mat [...]h. 26. 29. declareth that he spake of the wine in his hand, tha [...] is, of the communion cuppe. Dominus etiam in [...]nducavit, utest communis sententia, saith Bellar­mine de euchar. [...]t. lib. 4. cap. 16. Further Christ in his pro­testation alludeth to the Canon or custome of the Jews. forbidding to taste of any thing after the last cup, which was called the cup of praise. Annot. in Marc. 14. 25. Alludit ad morem quo ne­fas crat post poculum illud apolyticon quicquam cibi in po­sterum diem [...], saith Beza. Meuschii de­fens. harm. generalis cap. 4. Theobaldus Meuschius pro­veth likewise by this custome of the Jewes, that this protestation concerned the communion cup. To imagine that Christ protested twice, and that he bad devide the one, and not the other, is a fiction without any ground in the text. For none of the Evangelists make mention of two protestations, or to what end two, seeing the last paschall cuppe and the evangelicall was all one, the one being changed in the other. Or to what end should he have bidden them devide the paschall cup more then the evangelicall. And if there were two protestations for two severall cuppes, the later should have crossed the former. Vasquez proveth by this protestation, that Luke meant only of one cup, howbeit he maketh mention of it twice, that it was in the communion cup, that the prote­station containeth the cause, wherefore he willed them to drinke of it, and devide it among them, because now at his last farewell, In 3. part. tom. 3. quast. 78. num. 41. he would testifie his love to them, and joyne them in mutuall love to other. Ipsos inter [...]e mut [...]a [Page 36] charitate conjungeret, dum ex eodem calica eis propinaret. Another reason, that the cup, which Christ commanded them to divide, was the communion cup, is, that he gave thanks; when he tooke it in his hand. Matthew and Mark refer the thanksgiving to the communion cup. Luke there­fore, maketh no mention of this thanksgiving, when he maketh mention of the cup the second time, because he had made mention of it before; But useth an article referring to that cup, of which he had made mention be­fore [...], as Euthymius hath observed. Luke then by way of anticipation, before he come to the order of the institution, bringeth in Christ protesting in the 17. verse, that the protestation of not drinking more, may be joyned with the protestation of not eating more, precee­ding in the former verse. Therefore when he commeth to the order of the institution, vers. 20. he omitteth the protestation and thanksgiving, which are recorded by other Evangelists, because he made mention of them be­fore, vers. 17. and 18. This anticipation or inversion of order in the Evangelist Luke, was observed by Augustine and Euthymius, Barradius the Jesuit, Jansenius, and Swarez. Swarez. in 3. part. tom. 3. p. 909. Meuschius observeth other inversions in the same chapter. For Judas went out immediatly after he got the sop, and consequently before the evangelicall supper. And yet Luke maketh mention of his going out after he hath set downe the evangelicall supper. Beza con­jectureth, that through the negligence, and caresesnesse of writers of manuscripts, the verses have beene transpo­sed, and not by the Evangelist himselfe, and that the 19. and 20. verses should be subjoyned to the 16, and that the 17. and 18. verses should be subjoyned to the 19. and 20. Me [...]schius saith, It is likely, yea, almost necessary to [Page 37] thinke, that the 17. and 18. verses were taken out of the institution of the supper which followeth, and placed here by the negligence of Scribes. Verisimile igiturest & prope necessarium hos versiculos ex sacrae coenae inst. tutione huc esse à scribis trajectos. I might, if it were needfull, cite moe testimonies, that the protestation concerned the communion cup, and consequently that Christ bad them devide it, but the reasons I have brought are of them­selfes snfficient to evince it. L. 62. And L. doth not gansay it.

But yet, saith he, Christs meaning was not, that they should reach the cup to other, but that one should not drinke all out. This silly shift he hath borrowed from Bellarmine de eu [...]haristia lib. 4. cap. 25. B [...]canus de [...] sub utraque specie. c. 10. hath the same. Will he have the first set downe the cup that the next may take it. But this is ridiculous or superstitious, not accipere, but sume­re. Nor yet gave hee to every one the cuppe out of his hand, which had beene sufficient for parting of it, if no further had beene intended, but only to the first, the first reached it to the second, Hospin. hist. sacra. l. 1. c. 1. & lib. 2. c. 1. p. 31. and so sorth, saith Hospinian. So saith Piscator on Matthew 26. So saith Swarez the Jesuit, speaking of the cup, Fuit per [...] as Ap [...]stolorum manus ab uno ad al [...]um delatus. Swarez in 3. part. Thomae tom. 3. p. 861. Bellarm. de euchar. l. 4. cap. 25. Piscator in Matth. 26. v. 26. in scho­ilis. And so saith Bellarmine, Calicem autem n [...]n fregit, nec d [...]v [...]sit ipse discumbentibus, sed dedit integrum [...] unus alteri porrigeret. The last paschall cup it selfe; which was changed into the evangelicall, was reached from hand to hand. Christ then devided it not, but bad them devide it among themselfes, as the manner was at the paschall, and is usuall at common feasts. To drinke of one cup, representeth fellowship in one com­mon benefite, but not that communieation of mutu [...]ll love and amity, which is represented by reaching the [Page 38] same cup to other. The guests at civil banquets of old, en­tertaining others courteously, Antiquita­ [...]um convi­vialium lib. 3. cap. 10. reached a cuppe of wi [...]e to others, which cappe they called philotefia, metonymica [...]y, because it was a symbole of love or fr [...]endship, which name any man may justly impose upon the cup of the hol. supper of the Lord, saith Stu [...]kius. In iis eaim, amicitiae ergo huma­nite [...]se mut [...] accipi [...]n [...]es, vini calicem sibi invicem porri­geb [...], quem philo [...]esiam appella [...]an, metonym ce nimirum, quia symbolum erat amoris & amicitiae, quo nom ne ver [...]ssi [...] me quis illud sacrosancti Dom [...]ni coenae poculum insigni [...]rit. One of our Doctours saith, That they had in the primi­tive Church other tokens of love and friendship, as love-feasts, and the kisse of peace, but one token should not justle out another. Beside that, both are worne out of use, and the kisse is turned into the kisse of the pax. So much the rather should that signe and token which was recommended by Christ himself, be preserved.

If there were no more, They distri­buted not only the cup, but the bread. but reaching of the cup from one to another, and deviding of it, it were sufficient to exclude kneeling, howbeit the communicants did not breake and distribute the bread to other. For what rea­son were there to kneel at the receaving of the bread, and not at the receaving of the cup. Were it not also ab­surd to see the Communicants reaching the cuppe to other, and the minister walking along to give to every one the bread. Is the bread holier then the wine? Ana­logy requireth, that the bread should be distributed by the Communicants, as well as the wine. When the E­vangelists say, Christ gave the bread, they meant not to every one severally, more then when he gave the cup, or the disciples the bread to five thousand, Matth. 14. 19. for Mark 6. 4. they set the bread before five thousand. [Page 39] Pilat gave the body of Christ, that is commanded it to be given, Mark. 15. 45. Matth. 27. 17. Christ said in the plurall number, Take ye, ca [...]ye, this is my body, as well as he said, Piscat. in Matth. 26. [...] devide ye. It is probable (saith Piscator) that [...] brake the bread in two parts, and gave one of them, [...]o him that sate [...] arest on the right hand, the other, to him that sate on the left, and that they reached in order to the near [...]st. Tossanus upon Matth. 26. saith the like, and Hospinian, and Estius a popish writer. Sit autem & Chr [...]sti discipulos in ul [...]ima coena fe [...]sse nonest improbabile, ut qui­bus Chr [...]stus d [...]erit, accipite & dividite inter v [...]s, Luc. 22. qu [...]d et side caliced [...]ctum sit, nihil tamen vetat d [...]pine simi­liter intell gi [...] Beza saith, Hosp. hist. fa­cr [...]m. lib. 2. p. 31. That the manner of their sitting could not permit Christ to give every one severally the Bread, Estius in 1 Cor. 10. 16 Beza epist. 2. but as he gave the cup to the nearest, and the nixt reached to the nearest, so it is probable that those, who sate most remote, receaved the bread from the nearest. Moulins maintaineth, On the Lords sup­per, 2. part pag. 97. That Christ might with as good reason have said, Eat ye all of this, as dr [...]nke ye all of this; his reason is, Consider [...]ng that being set at table among [...] persons, he could not deliver the bread into every one of the disciples hands: especially considering that the parties, ly­ing halfe a long upon beds at the table, tooke up more roome then they do now adayes. The Canon of the Masse hath, Drinke ye all of this, Bellarm. de euchar. lib. 4. cap. 25. Mand [...]cate ex eo omnis, which Bellar­mine alle [...]geth, they have receaved by tradition from the Apostles. But to us there is the like force in the words, Eat ye, and Eat ye all of this; for speaking in the plurall number, he spake to all.

The Apostolicall Churches, The Apo­stles conti­nued this distribution. and such as in the ages following celebrated, as near as they could, to the [...] ­terne, continued this distribution. P. acknowledgeth [Page 40] page 92. 101. 104. that the Communicants at the first supper did communicate the bread and cup one with another, as also in the Apossles times, pag. 95. Of the Monks of Saint Bennets orders yee may see before, and that was a footstep of the order observed universally before upon the anniversarie day, called the day of the Lords supper. Raynerius in summa. Frier Raynerius saith, The Leonists, for so he calleth the W [...]ald [...]rses, celebrate the sacrament of the [...]uchar [...]st in their conventicles ( so it pleased the Frier to call the assembly of the persecuted) r [...]hearsing the words of the Gospel at their table, and participating mutually as was done at Christs supper; In conventiculis suis celebrant, verba illa evangelii rec [...] an [...]es in mensasua, sibique mutuo parti­cipantes, sicut in Christi coena. Bull [...]nger saith, That the supper of the Lord is then rightly celebrated, when the communicants distribut the bread and the cup among themselfes. Bulling de­c [...]d. 6. serm. 9. fol. 364. Idcirco legittime coenam Domini celebrantes, mu [...]ò inter se panem Demin de manibus ministrorum Christi acceptum fran unt, distribu [...] & manducant, pocu­lum insuper Domini de manibus m [...]nistrorium Christi accep­tum, inter sedistributam omnes pota [...]. fol. 364. And again, Primoge­n [...] simplie tati & institutioni magis conven [...]t, & sedere & sa­cram [...]nt aln manus propr [...] as accipere de man bus praesidenti­um, deinde verò frangere, percipere & alliis impertir. Vt en [...]m Dominus ad mensam cum discipulis accubui [...], ita dixit por­rectis symbolis, fol. 360. [...]pite, dividite inter vos And againe, Acconstat veteres non exhibuisse ca nantibus buccellas, sed mu­tuum fr gisse panem. It is well known ( saith he) that the an [...]i­en's gave no to the Communicants at the suppermorsels, but they brake bread one with another. Hom. 118. Gualter in his homilies upon Mark setting downe the best forme of celebration, requireth that they breake the bread to other, and distri­bute [Page 41] the cup, deinde cum solenni gratiarum actione pa­nem inter se mutuò frangant, & poculum Demian distri­bu [...] [...] que in coetum illum convenorunt. And when hee [...], hee saith, Est hic ritus simplicissimu [...], & Chri­sti [...] nititur, quae sola nebis in omnibus sufficere debe [...], This is the most simple for me, and is grounded upon Christs [...] which alone should bee sufficient to us in all things. Tindall in his tractat upon the Lords supper pag. 477. requireth, that every man breake, and reach foorth to his neighbour. In the later consession of Hol­vetia, which was approved by many reformed Chur­ches, and by our own, anno 1566. The bread is offered by the Minister, and the words of the Lord are heard, Receave it, this is my bodie, divide it amongst you, Drink yee all of this, This is my blood.

The Lords supper was denominate breaking of bread from that rite, or ceremonie of breaking of the bread by the faithfull: It is said, Act. 2. 42. that the Christians con­tinued in breaking of bread. This place is interpreted of the sacrament breaking, not only by ancient, but also modern writers, both popish and Protestant, as also Act. 20. And the Syrian interpreter translateth it eucharist in both the places. But the breaking of the bread in both the places is attributed not to the Ministers or Pastors only, but to the people also, and is made common to the whole meeting. In the one place [...]is said, they continu­ed in breaking of bread: and in the other place yet more clearly, the Disciples conveened to break bread, which is clearer then if Luke had said, Bellar. de eu. charist. lib. 4. cap. 24. they conveened to the breaking of bread. Bellarmine saith, that Luke descriveth what the people did, not what the Apostles did. Hee might have said, both the Apostles, and the people.

[Page 42] Estius a popish professor in [...]way acknowledgeth the same, Estius in 1 Cor. 10. 16. and sayeth, Fiebat autem [...]ujus panis fractio Tempore primitive Ecclesiae, primum quidem [...] sbyter is & diaco­nis, deinde verò magisque particulatim à singulis fidelibus, quibus eucharstia, dabatur in manus ut ea n [...], si porro [...]nter se vel domi inter fuos distribuerent. In the primitive church (saith hee) they had the breaking of bread which was first done by the presbyters and deacons, and after them in smal­ler pieces by the faithfull to whom it was given, that they might distribute the same among themselfes, or at home a­mong theirowne. For Luke meaneth so much, when hee attributeth this breaking to the faithfull in generall, Act. 2. For their distributing in the convention he alleadgeth Act. 20. For distributing at home, hee alleadgeth Act. 2. 46. whereas the meaning is, that the faithfull convee­ned sometime in one house, sometime in another, for fear of persecution, or not having yet appointed, and certain places for meeting. The Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 16. sayeth, The bread which wee break, is it not the communion of the bo­dy of Christ? that is, the bread which we break, distribute, and eat. For the breaking alone by the Minister is not the communion of the bodie of Christ, P [...]nis quē frangi­mus (1 Cor. 10.) idem est, atque inter nos dividimus: The bread which wee break, that is, the bread which wee di­vide amongst us, R. Stephan. glossa in Mat. 26. saith Robertus Stephanus. Whereas the Apostle saith, the cuppe which wee blesse, the words may bee spoken generally in the persons of all the faithfull, who are present. Qui quidem omnes [...]alici benedicunt, eo modo & sensu, quo omnes ibidem praesentes dicuntur unà cum sacerdote offerre, Estius in 1 Cor. 10. 16. videlicet animi consensu & devotio­one, saith Estius. The Minister blesseth in name of the rest as their mouth: so the blessing may bee attributed to [Page 43] the people likewise. The Apostle rehearsing the words of the institution, said [...] but in the plurall number, Durand. Ra­tiona [...]. c. 1. Tak [...] ye [...], eat ye. [...] saith, that the Apostles celebrated as Christ did, e [...]ndem [...] teriam in rebus, & formam in verbis. It appeareth not then, that the Apostles gave to everie one severally, say­ing to each one, Take thou, eat thou: but that speaking in the plurall number to all at once, the Communicants brack and distributed among themselfes. Now that rite from which the Apostolicall Church denominate the whole action is sacramentall and necessarie, saith Paraeus in 1 Cor. 11.

When the holy supper is called breaking of bread, it is not to be imagined, that there was only communicating in bread, but the whole is denominated from a part ac­cording to a custome of speech usuall among the Jewes, who used the phrase of breaking of bread to expresse their full meals, or common civill feasts, as Ierem. 1 [...]. 7. As the Grecians on the contrarie, tooke the denomina­tion sometime from the drinking, and called their feast symposium a drinking together. Yea, one of the names, which of old was given to this holy feast, was synaxis. Now [...], Casaub. oxer­cit. pag. 537. saith H [...]sychius, is [...], to drinke with other.

The breaking of the bread served for two uses: Breaking of bread for re­presentation. First, for representation of Christs sufferings. If their powring of the wine out of the cuppe into the mouth be a mysti­call representation of the effusion of his bloud, their breaking may have the like use. Wee can well allow of a mysticall shedding of Christs bloud in the supper, Against the Rhen [...]ists, or Mat. 26. 28. faith Ma­ster Cartwright, for when the wine is powred out of the cuppe into the mouth, thereby mystically and sacramentally, is shed [Page 44] the bloud of Christ out of his blessed body into the earth, that is the shedding of it is [...]. So saith Prosper in his book of sentences, Dum sangu [...] [...] sidelium sunditur, sanguinu de latere effusio defignatur Lanfranous, Lanfranc. de euchar. Alger. de sa­crament. lib. 2. cap. 8. Chamierde cucharl. 7. c. 13. num. 14. Bullinger Decad. 5. serm. 7. and A [...] ­gerus say the like. Solenne [...] est cum frangitur panis, [...] calix in [...] fidelium funditu, tunc significari sacrificium illud quod in cruce immolatun est, saith Chamierus. The Communicants taking, eating, drinking, are mysticall, why may not also his breaking of the bread. Bullinger saith, Ac nos ipsi quidem panem Domini proprits frangi [...]us manibus. Nos enim ipsi in culpa sumus quod ille ait [...]itus. That is, Wee breake the bread of the Lord with our own hands: for we ou [...]selfes are to be blamed, that he was brui­fed. Our sinnes wounded him, we crucified him. We reach not only the bread and cuppe to other, but partake our selfes. For we beleeve not only that he suffered for others, but in spe­ciall for our selfes. Gualt. Ho­mil. 295. in Matth. Gualter in his Homilies upon Matth. Vt vero Christus panem accepit, & fregit, postquam gra­tias egisset, ita eundem discipulos quoque accipere & fran­gere voluit, ut ita singuli admonerentur hunc ad se privatim pertinere, se item necis illius authores esse, ad hac debi­tores omnibus ut eos in Christi, atque salutis que in eo habetur, so­cietatem adducant. That is, As Christ had taken the bread, and after thanksgiving brack, so he would have his disci­ples to doe the like, that thereby every one might be admoni­shed, that he belongeth to every one of them particularly, that they were the authours of his death, that they are deb­tours to all, to bring them to the fellowship of Christ and the salvation which is to be found in him. And in his 118. ho­mil. upon Mark, he saith, Fractio panis Christi passionem & mortem representat, & dum singuli panem ipsi frangunt, se ex corum numero esse fatentur, qui Christo mortis authores [Page 45] fuerunt, id quod peccatorum [...] servit, & animum ad punitentiam extimulat.

The other use is for distribution, Breaking of bread for distribution. and reaching to other, to testifie mutuall love and amitie, which dutie is expres­sed in a more lively manner, then if they should drinke only of one cuppe together. Therefore L. his reason page 60. that it appertaineth only to the minister, be, cause it is mysticall, is naught, for it serveth both for re­praesentation and distribution. Fractio non solum ad distri­buendum, sedetiam ad significandum ordinatur, Bellarmine de missa, lib. 2. cap. 10. For the representation ye have heard already sundrie Divines. If two should drinke out of one cup, and yet not reach it to other, it might well be thought, there were no great kindnesse betwixt them, Communion in one common benefite is one thing, and the communication of mutuall duties and tokens of love and friendship another. It is one thing to the guests to participate of the same dainties, which are to be united to their bodies, another to interchange and communi­cate with other tokens of love. Justly may the commu­nion cup for this cause be called Philotesia, saith Stuckius. To divide the bread also, Se [...]rariu [...] in Iosuam 6. 9. quest 6. and to eat together in token of love and bene volence, was a custome observed in all the orientall countries, and is yet observed in ma [...]y countries of the west, say Lyra and Arias Montanas, as Serrarius the Jesuit relateth. Bulling [...] decad. 5. serm. 7. Facit ad amicitiam conciliandam, re­parandam, & conservandam, quòd de uno pane participa­mus, quòd panem offerimus fratribus, quodque de manu fra­trum poculum accipientes bibimus. Non enim aliam ob cau­sam videntur veteres coenam appellasse synaxin, saith Bullin­ger. That is, It serveth for the procu [...]ng, reparing, and keeping of friendship, that we participate of one bread, that [Page 46] we offer bread to our brethren, and that we drinke taking the cup out of the hands of our brethren. It seemeth for no other cause the ancients called the Lords supper Synaxis. And in the 9. sermon of the same decade, Quondam arctissima faed ra fractione panis consecrabantur. Of old, Leagues or covenants were confirmed by breaking of bread. Hom. 118. in Marc. Gualter saith, Panem & peculum pii inter se distribuunt, quod illis charitatis officium commendat, & de conjunctione mutua eos admonet, ut se unum iu Christo corpus esse intelligant, & sibi invicem officiis mutuis inserviant, quemadmodum in corporibus nostris membra facere videmus. The godly di­stribut the bread and wine among themselfes, which recom­mendeth to them the duty of chariti, and putteth them in minde of mutuall conjunction, that they may understand that they are one body in Christ, and serve one another with mu­tuall duties, as we see the members to do in our owne bodies. Zwinglius in his exposition of the Christian faith, Expos. fidei Christian. ad Reg. Chri­stian in 80. fol. 40. setteth downe a notable proofe of this. How that some sitting together casually, and participating after this manner, were reconciled, who before had beene at variance, and that this fell forth often. Deprehensum est saepenumerò, quòd quidam, qui tem [...]re consederant, quì tamen simultates & odiapriùs inter se exercuissent, ex hac participatione sive panis, sive potus, animi impotentiam deposuerunt. The ancients had the kisse, which was a familiar kinde of sa­lutation among the Orientals, as the striking of hands with us, they joyned hands also, and embraced another at the communion. Seeing so many signes, and protesta­tions of love were thought requisit at this banket of love, ought we not to be the more carefull to retaine that signe, which was practised in the patterne.

I end this section with a passage out of Lauaterus, [Page 47] descriving the forme of celebration used in the Church of Zurich, to wit, with sitting, and the communicants di­stributing: posthac per totam ecclesiam ministri, De ri [...]ibus ecclesiae Ti­gurinae c. 13. that is, those that serve, az mumpanem in [...]tinis circumserunt, at accipit quisque particulam de exhibito pane, & posteà reli­quam partem dat proxime assidenti: Deinde sequuntur alii ministri cum poculis & cantharis, ac praebet alius alii pocu­lum Dominicum, atque sit omnes de uxo pane participant.

If none must give the sacramentall bread, Not necessa­ry that the minister di­spense the elements. but the mi­nister, because he acts the person of Christ, who gave his owne body, by the same reason, they may not reach the cup to other, as the Apostles did at the first supper, where they represented the faithfull, and communicate not as pastours, but as disciples, as guests, as faithfull, as all our divines do hold, and among the rest Musculus himselfe cited by L. pag. 59. All that was done in pri­son, Joseph was the doer of it, because he was direct our, and commander of every thing that was to be done, Gen. 39. 22. [...]. confesseth the cup may be reached from one communicant to another. Proceedings at Perth as­scmbly, pag. 60. 61. For (saith he) he in whose name the commandement is uttered, is properly the giver and propiner, because by his authoritie it is given, and by the warrant of his word it is ceaved. When the King drinketh to any of his servants, and sends it by the hands of his ser­vant, the servant is not properly the giver and propiner, but the deliverer of the gift and propine. He granteth like­wise, that the Communicants may deliver the cuppe to other, the minister still acting Christs person in his owne place. pag. 61. 62. So may we say, that Christ at the first supper, or the minister representing Christs person, is properly the giver of the bread, because by his com­mandement or direction it is given. When I brake the [Page 48] five loaves among five thousand, that is, brake and gave to the disciples to set before them to be further broken. The disciples in setting the bread before five thousand, Mark 6. 41. gave the bread to five thousand, Matth. 14. 19. Christ gave the cup to his Apostles, say the Evange­lists, because at his direction they reached one to an­other. Swarez saith, Swarez in [...]. part. tom. 3. p. 861. It is one thing to distribute as a dispen­ser, or as of power, another to touch, carrie, or applie this sa­crament to the mouth of the receaver. Aliud est dispensa­tive, seu ex potestate distribuere hoc sacramentum, aliud verò illud tangore, deferre, aut ad os sumentis applicare. Let them make of the word dispense what they will, we say the Communicant may carrie the bread, and apply it to the hand of another Communicant. Againe, if none but the minister might doe it, because hee represents Christs person, then might not the deacon in the ancient Church do it, because he represented not Christs person, yet his giving was called dispensing. Vazquez in part. 3. tom. 3. disp. 219. num. 12. & 13. Vazquez confesseth, That it is not forbidden by divine law, that the sacra­ment be ministred, or carried by a layman, but by hu­mane lawes. Non quia jure divino vetitum sit hoc sacra­mentum per laicum ministrari aut deferri. But humane lawes forbad laymen to touch it with their hands. I would aske, when the minister commeth from his owne place, and goeth along to deliver the elements, how doth he act the person of Christ the master of the feast. There can be no other reason of this guise, but to nou­rish a superstitious conceat, that it is holier to receave out of the h [...]nd of the minister, who perhaps is a Judas, then out of the hand of a faithfull brother, as if his hands profaned or polluted it. Are not the peoples hands as holy as the ministers? saith P. pag. 313. Nay superstition [Page 49] encreasing, at last they might not take the sacrament in their owne hand to put it in their mouth, but it behoved the priest to put it in their mouth. Such superstitious conceats condemne Christ and his Apostles, and the faithfull in their time who distributed to other, and de­prive us of the profitable uses of fraction, or breaking of bread, whereof we have already treated. The repre­sentation and forme of a feast or banquet is not obser­ved. It is rather Sportula, which is opposite to coena, then coena, that is, rather like a dole of meat, then a sup­per. For Sportula was a dole of meat distributed by the princes to the people, which was called Sportula, from the panier, or basket, in which it was brought.

This giving of the elements to every one severally, The incon­veniences following upon the mi­nisters di­spensing. whither the communicants sit, stand, or kneel, bringeth in also confusion of actions, and private communions in the publike assembly. For while the ministers are giving the elements to every one, the people is in the meane time exercised in hearing the word read, or psalmes sung, and heare not what they say to the communi­cants, nor do the communicants understand, what is read or sung in publike. Yea, sometimes two ministers will be speaking at once to sundrie communicants. So the communicants communicate a part, and might as well go aside, or to an Ile of the Church, to communi­cate, yea, and farre better. For the minister can scarce know his owne voice, when he speaketh to the commu­cant, being troubled with the exercise of the whole con­gregation, as one of the ministers of Edinburgh confes­sed publikely in pulpit. The exercise is dead, and cold, when the minister giveth to every one severally. There­fore they are forced to reading and singing in the mean [Page 50] time, to drive away tediousnesse, and so bring in confu­sion of actions. But if they would speake in the plur [...]ll number to the communicants, as Christ did, saying, Take ye, eat ye, and not to every one, Take thou, eat thou, the action should bee more comfortable. For the phrase of speach in the plurall number, [...]fittest (saith Fenner in the doctrine of the sacraments) to note [...]ut the fellowship and communion of the Church in this worke, the person of Christ by the minister bidding all his guests with one love, as from him, to be merrie, and eat with faith one spirituall meat to­geither. It setteth an edge upon us, when with one heare, as it were, and together we apply every one of us to our selfes, that which is uttered by the minister. But when the action is prolonged with speaking to every one, the mindes of men languish and wander.

Our Doctour saith, L. pag. 56. Christ spake in the plurall number at the deliverie. they utter the words in the plu­rall number at the consecrating of the elements, he mea­neth at the rehearsall of the words of the institution, at, or before the thanksgiving, but Christ uttered them at the deliverie of the elements, which they do not. Next (saith he) they apply the generall command to every one in particular, as if the Apostles, or other communi­cants, to whom the words were uttered in the plurall number, did not apply to themselfes particularly, when every one did take, eat, and drinke. And the Doctour himselfe confesseth, that every worthy receaver ought to apply the words to himselfe in particular. If Christ spake in the plurall number, when the communicants were so few, what would he have done, if there had been a great multitude present. Another profound Doctour imagineth, that Christ spake first to all generally in the [...] Number, and after in the singular delivering to [Page 51] every one particularly. But this imagination is without any ground of appearance in the text. And Swar [...]z re­jecteth this fancie, because it changeth the order of the text set downe with so full consent of the Apostle Paul and the Evangelists, no reason forcing them so to doe. [...] rullairatio cogit, Suarez in [...] part. tom. 3. pag. 702. non oprte ordinem textus mutare, praefertim cum ab Evangelistis & Paulo tanta consensione obiervatus sit.

This rate of fraction or breaking of bread after thanksgiving, Paraeus de symbolis pag. 166 either for representation or distributation, is not injoyned by the English service book. Paraeus repor­teth, That the Lutheran Churches have it not, but have the bread cut in small pieces, before it be brought to the hand of the minister, which is not the sacramentall breaking.

The Doctour saith, Distribution continued in ages, follow­ing; That in the ancient Church the sacrament was delivered by the pastour, or the deacon who helped him, and supplied his place, but not by any of the people. If so were, wee ought to take h [...]ed, saith Cyprian, not what any before us hath done, but what Christ before all hath done, we must not follow the cu­stome of men, Calvin. insti­tint l. 4. c. 13. &c. s. 11. but the truth of God. Calvin saith, That the ancients went nerer to a judaicall manner of sacrifi­cing, then the ordinance of Christ and course of the Gospel could suffer. They carried the [...]read of the sa­crament home to their houses in Tertullians time, that is, about 200 yeares [...] Christ. The custome of giving the communion to infants continued for 600 yeares. Yet wee have already produced some instances in the contrary, as of the Waldenses, and some footsteps of the ancient Church, howbeit declining, yet remaining among the Monks of Saint Bennets order, when they ce­lebrated [Page 52] lebrated according to the paterne. The deacon, as I have said, represented not Christs person, and therefore should not have ministred or delivered the elements, if that were true, that none should deliver them immedi­atlie but the pastour, because he representeth Christs person. It is like at the first, that deacons ministring at tables in time of love-feasts, served likewise at the com­munion, which was conjoyned with them, and carried only the platters and cuppes, out of which the commu­nicants them selfes tooke the elements, and distributed. Olim ex patin [...] suis quisque ma [...]ibus suam sumpsit particu­lam, See Salme­ [...]on in Mor­ [...]on of the in­ [...]tution [...]31. ut morisfait ad sextam usque synodum, nempè Caesar angustanam, saith Salmeron. Thereafter they gave the elements themselfes, both the bread and the wine, and did not help the minister going along. In processe of time indeed the minister went along with the bread, and the deacon delivered the cuppe. And words were put in their mouth to be uttered at the deliverie, as Sauguis Christi; calix vitae. At last they were made halfe priests, Clemens Alexandrinus saith, That the communicants tooke the eucharist themselfes; Str [...]at. l. 1. Cum eucharistiam qui­dam, ut mos est, diviserint, permittitur unicui que è populo partem sumere. In Tertullians time it seemeth, that in A­frick they tooke the elements out of the hands of their rulers or presidents, that is, the bishop, elder, or deacon, when he saith, De corona militis c. 3. Eucharisti [...]m non aliorum qu [...]m de pr [...]es [...]. dentium in m [...]nu sumin [...]us. For so not only Ju [...]us, but also [...]mel. us in his annotations expone that place. All these formes were aberrations from the right forme, and ope­ned a doreto let in many corruptions. For if the distri­bution of the communicants had beene at all times con­tinued, as it was at some times in the yeare, kneeling [Page 53] had not entred, the words uttered by Christ at the de­liverie of the elements had not beene changed, confu­sion of actions, and a privat forme of communicating had not taken place, the forme of a feast, which is now changed into the manner of distributing a dole, had beene preserved. Therefore suppose the distributing of the communicants were not recommended to us, nor had no other profitable use, make it only lawfull, this is a most profitable use, that it is a barre to hold out so many corruptions. The first assault therefore was made upon it, at a meeting in Saint Andrewis, in the year preceeding Perth assembly. But that meeting, neither was nor is acknowledged to be a free generall assem­bly. For as long as wee retaine the distribution by the communicants, they perceave there was no place for kneeling. Therefore as wee would stand for the pre­servation of that holy action, from being prophaned with confusion of actions, and polluted with privat communion, superstitious receaving out of the mini­ster [...] hand, and the idolatrous gesture of kneeling, let us stand for this distribution. Homil. 118. in Marcum. What shall we say then of those, who this day [...]ke away the chiefe parts of the Lords insti­tution, to wit, the b [...]e k [...]ng of the br [...]ad, and distribution, and involve this most wholesome m [...]ster ew [...]th superstitious, and contentious [...]. They may perhaps have the popes supper, or som [...] other mens, whom they prop [...]ne to themselfes to be imitated, but they cannot have Christs supper, till lea­v [...]ng the i [...]v [...]ntions of me [...], they foll w [...]le first institution, [...]aith Gu [...]lt [...]r. Quid ergo de illis hodièd cem [...]ts, qui praeci­puas institution is dom n [...]ae partes, fractionem [...] mi­rum, & distributionem tollunt, simulque mysterium [...] sa­luberrimum superstitiosis, & contentiosis opini [...]nibus invol­vunt. [Page 54] Habent illi fortassis caenam Pape aut alterius cujus­dam, quem sibi imitandum proponunt. At Christi Jesu cae­nam non habebunt, nisi relictis hominum ad inventionibus primam ejus institutionem sequantur.

If any man then will aske, Christs forme the most perfite. where is kneeling forbid­den in the act of receaving? We answer, In the institu­tion. For the whole frame of the paterne forbiddeth it, where magisterio vel exemplo; by precept or exemple, as Cyprian speaketh, wee are directed to celebrat after the forme of a feast or banket, to fit, which is the usuall ge­sture, and most suteable to a feast, and to breake and di­stribute. Christs forme was most perfite ( saith Bullinger) Bulling. Decad. 5. serm. 9. and to what purpose is it the Lord himself having devised a [...]st simple and perfite forme, and the Apostles receaving it, to devise another. Who can devise a better, then the Sonne of God himselfe, the supreme high Priest of his Church: Quor­sum attine simpli issima, optima, perfectissima que illa coe­nandi formula, ab ipso Christo tradita, & ab Apostolis ejus accepta, comminis [...]i aliam? Quis enim m [...]liorem tradet ipso Dei filio pontifice catholiae ecclesiae summo? Hospin. hi­stor. sacra­ment lib. 1. cap. [...]. &c. 5. If another more commedious and better forme could have beene devi­sed, out of all doubt ( saith Hospinian) Christ would have de­vised it, and the Apostles would have recommended it to the Churches; and therefore willeth, that if any thing be found different, either in the nature and proper sense of words, or in rite or externall ceremonie from this rule, that it be amended according to the same, as the most holy, most excellent, most uncorrupted, and most certaine rule. Grat. de co [...] ­secrat. dist. 2. cap. 3. Sed vide, frater charissime, si quis de ante­cessoribus nostris, velignoranter, vel siplmiciter, non hoc servavi [...] & tenuit, quod nos Dominus & magisterio & exemplo suo docuit, potest simplicitati ejus de indulgentiâ [Page 55] Domini venia concedi, nobis verò non poterit ignosci; qui nunc a Domino [...]dmoniti & instructi sumus. But see, most deare brother, if any of our ancestours, either through igno­rance or simplicitie, hath not keeped or holden, that which the Lord hath taught us, both by precept and example, his simplicitie may be pardoned of the Lords indulgence, but wee cannot bee forgiven, who now are admonished and in­structed, saith Cyprian. The testimonie ye may finde in Gratian.

Doctour Mortoun in his late worke of the institu­tion of the supper, pag. 49. saith, It was good divinitie in Cyprian, and pope Iulius dayes, to argue from the example of Christs instituti [...]n negatively, by rejecting such acts, and accoun­ting them as centrarie to the institution of Christ, which ac­cord not with his example, and which are not comprised within the Canon of Christ his hoc facite.

Bellarmine himselfe putteth It out of all doubt, that that is best, which Christ did, and what he did is to be done, Neque enim dubita [...]i potest, quìn illud sit mel [...]us, & faciendum quod Christus feci [...], De [...]ucharist. lib. 4. cap. 7. And yet Master Struther was not ashamed to averre, that Christs forme might be bettered.

CHAP. IV.
It maketh us conforme to the Papists in a rite devised, by man horribly abused, and not necessarie.

WE ought not to keepe conformitie in the wor­ship of God with idolaters, Conformitie with idola­ters forbid­den. papists in speciall, in any rite or ordinance devised by man, speci­ally the man of sinne, if after it hath beene abused, or be still abused to idolatry or superstition, if the same be not necessarie, though the originall were lawfull, farre more, if the first use or institution of it was unlawfull.

The Lord forbad his people to round the corners of their heads, or marte the corners of their beard, Levit. 19. 26. and 49. 32. The Egyptians and other Gentiles, saith Becanus, Becan. ana­logia vet. & novi testa­menti. thought the Gods delighted in the round figure, therefore they rounded their heads, and builded round temples to them, least the Jewes should seeme to be like the Gentiles, they were forbidden to imitate them in this. The Lord would have his people to bee dignosced by other people, by their very habi [...]s. There­fore they were frobidden to wear linsey-woolsey, be­cause the Gentiles used such in the worship of their gods, Aqui [...], 1. 2. quaest. 10 [...], [...]rt. 6. ad 6. saith Aquinas. They were forbidden to sow their field with mingled seed. The priests were forbidden [Page 57] to make their heads bald, or shave off the corner of their beard for the dead, Levit. 21. 5. 5. These fashions were observed by Egyptians, Arabians, Syrians, Canaa­nits, and others, saith Iunius upon that place, The priests shall neither shave their head, nor suffer their locks to grow long, Bellarm. de monach. cap. 40. they shall only powle their head, Ezech. 44. 20. Bellar­mine saith, This shaving was not forbidden, because it was evil in it selfe, but least they should seeme to be like to the priests of the Gentiles, beside whom they dwelt, who sacrificed to their idols with their whole head sha­ven. Iunius saith, Howbeit the matter was free, the equi­tie or reason remaineth. Ne vel sign [...], vel specie quidem communicare nos cum superstitione piet iti adversa oper­tere. That is, We must not by any signe or shew communi­ [...]te with superstition, which is contrarie to pietie. They might not plant any groves of trees near the altar of the Lord, Deut. 16. 22. the Gentiles did so, Exod. 34. 13. Say not how did these nation [...] se, ve their gods. so will I do like­wise, thou shalt not do so to the Lord thy God, Deut. 12. 30. After their doing ye shall n [...]t do, nor after their ordinances, Levit. 18. 3. the words are generall, howbeit in that chapter be brought in some instances of their wicked and impious deeds: for he opposeth to that generall, the judgements and ordinances of the Lord in generall on the other side. And some instances, we have already brought of facts in themselfes not abominal le. Al­though rounding or cutting the haire was in it selfe in­different, yet God would not have it indifferent to his people, but will have them to be altogether unlike to the aliens and uncircumcised, specially in those rites, where­in religion was shewed, Lyra on Lev. 18. [...]. Intendit ex­cludere e filiis Israelitum omnem Gentilem ritum: Calvin on [...] He in­tended [Page 58] to exclude from the children of Isra [...]l every rite of the Gentiles. The Gentiles worshipped their Gods in and by images, God would not be so worshipped, but ex­presly forbad it in the second commandment. And therefore saith Zanchius, That the summe of the second precept, Zanch. de redempt, l [...]. r. c. 14. circa initium. is, that we must not devise of our owne heads any thing in ceremonies, or the worship of God, nor bor­row from the rites of idolatrous nations, but to be con­tent with these rites and ceremonies, which God hath prescrived.

Tertullian saith, That Christians might not wash their hands (meaning for a ceremonie) or lay aside their cloaks before prayer, Tertul. de oratio. c. 12. Sic enim adeunt ad idola nationes: because the Gentiles go after that manner to their idols. And such like, that they might not sit upon beds after prayer, mea­ning for a ceremonie, Por [...]ò cum perinde faciunt nation [...]s adoratis sigillaribus suis residendo, vel prepterea in nobis re­prehendi meretur, quod apud idola c [...]e bretur: because the Gentiles do sit, after they h [...]ve [...]dored their small imag [...]s, it deserveth to be reproved in us, which is obs [...]ved beside ido [...]s. When he hath rebuked Christians for observing some of the Ethnicks dayes, De idol. cap. 14. he cryeth out, That the nations have a greater regard to their owne sect, who will claime to no solemnitie of the Christians, not the Lords day, nor pentecost, and if they know them, they will not communicate with them, in that observation, timerent enim ne Christiani viderentur, De corona militis. for, they wou [...]d be asray [...]d last they should seeme to be Christian. He standeth m [...]ch up­on this, that a Christian man ought not to goe wich a lawrell garl [...]nd upon his head, because the Heathen used so to go. August. con­fess. l. 6. c. 2. August ne saith, his mother Menica le [...]t bring­ing of wine and cakes to the church, for that shee was [Page 59] war [...]ed, it was a resemblance of the superstition of the Heathen, Quòd superstitioni Gen ilium essent simillima. In the second councell of Bracara it was decreed, Brac. 2. can. 73. that Christians deck not their houses with laurell and greene boughes upon the first day of the moneth, quia tota haec observatio paganismi est, because all this custome is heath­nish. The ancients having the like reason, carried them­selfes after the same manner toward Jewes and Here­ticks. Th [...]y would not keepe Easter on that day that the Jewes did. If they had carried themselfes so con­stantly, both toward Jewes and Gentiles, so much su­perstition had not entred into the Church, as wee heare of this day. Because the Manichees fasted on the Lords day, August epist. 86. they forbore fasting on that day, saith Augustine. The fourth councell of Tolledo decreed, Tolled. 4. can. 5. That once dipping in baptisme only be used, not three, n [...] videantur apud nos qui tertio m [...]rgunt haereticorum approbare asser­tionem, dum sequuntur & morem; least these who dippe thrice, seeme to approve the assertion of heretick, while they follow their custome. Brac. 1. can. 32. The first councell of Bracara forbad clergie men [...]bstinence from eating of flesh, to cut off all suspition of the Priscill [...]an heresie. To come to our owne times. S [...]are [...] in 3. part. tom. 3. dis [...]. sect. 2. Even Suarez the Jesuit saith, The Church shunneth all fellowship or appearant conformitie with Iewes or other infidels in ce [...]emonies and observances, as may be gathered out of Augustine epist. 119. and Epiphanius 3. booke against heresies about the end.

I said, That conformity is to be avoided not only in things impious, but even in things indifferent, when they are abused to idolatrie or superstition, except they have some necessarie uses, howbeit their first use or institution hath beene lawfull. Last ed [...]t. pag. 40 [...]. Zanchius hath this ground, writing [Page 60] upon the second precept. Rive [...]tus pag. 205. Rivetus likewise writing up­on the fourth precept of the d [...]logue, It is a rule, that things indifferent, not being necessarie, if they be polluted with idolatrie, are to be abolished. Adiaphora non necessa­ria, horrenda idolomania polluta esse adolenda. Nay the light of nature hath taught even a Pope to acknowledge this much, howbeit it hath not beene put in practise, as oft, as occasion required. Distinct. 63. cap. Quia sancta. Si non nulli ex praedecessoribus nostris fecerunt aliqua, quae illo tempere potuerunt esse sine culp [...], & postea vert [...]ntur in enrorem & superstiti [...]nem, sine tanditate aliqua, & magna cum authoritate destruan­tur, saith Pope Stephen. That is, If some of our ancestours have done some things, which in the meane time might be without blame, and after are turned to e [...]rour or supersti­tion, let them be abolished without delay, for th [...]y have a good warrant, to wit, the exemple of Ez [...]kias, who brake the bra [...]en serpent in pieces. This is registred in Gratians detree. And the glosse upon this place saith, Successo­ries debere mutare facta & instituta [...] [...]essorum etiam bona, si vid rint ea ess pern ci [...]sa exempl [...], Successours should change the deeds and ordinaries of the [...]ancestours, howbeit good, if they see, they become pernitious by ill ex­emple. I added that clause, unlesse they be of necess [...]rie use, to answer to such, as object the abuse of Gods creatures, and things profitable for the use of man. For the sunne, moone, starres, and other creatures, have been abused and adored, but they are Gods creatures, and of necessarie use. Gold, silver, temples, are profitable helps unto the necessities of mans life, as Tertullian speaketh, Certa subsidia necessi [...]atibus vite humanae procur [...]nt. The gold, brasse, and iron of Jericho taken into the Lords treasurie, were the civill goods of idolaters, and had [Page 61] no state in their idolatrous worship, as kneeling hath.

Wee should shun conformitie with Papists in special, because the Pope their head is the great Antichrist, and wee are more troubled with rites abused, and polluted by him, then by any other, wee dwell neerer to papists then to any other idolaters, and they dwell or converse amongst us. Bellarm. d [...] Monach. cap. 40. For this c [...]use perhaps, saith B [...]llarmine, priests were not shaven in Hierome and Ambrose time: for yet in their time the priests of Isis, were shaven. Is it not very frivolous which our Doctor answereth, pag. 116. that by this reason, wee should not pray kneeling, nor rest upon the Lords day, because the papists pray kneeling to Saints, and rest on the Lords day, seeing the one is allow­ed by God to himself, and the other commanded. Such­like the burning of incense, howbeit abused to the wor­ship of the brasen serpent, our question is of humane in­ventions. If ye would know, what rite or ceremonie, to call popish, Cap. de tra­dition. Musculus will tell you, I call these rites pe­pish (saith hee) which either of the [...]r owne nat [...]re, or by abuse do s [...]rv [...] unto popish impuritie, superstition and blind­nesse, allwhich, I am persw [...]ded, are to bee detested, as much as is possible. [...] saith, Censura. c. 4. That S [...]tan wrought powerful­ly and cunningly these many ages by his Roman Antichrist, to obtrude the bread upon us to be ador [...]d for Christ, there­fore wee should put to flight whats [...]ever may seeme to nou­rish this bread worship in the mindes of the simple. Censura. c. 9. And in the ninth chapter, That; if wee love God and our Saviour Christ, none of these things, words, or gestures, will finde or keepe place among us, which have appearance of affinitie with the impieties, and abomin [...]tio [...]s brought in by Anti­chist upon the holy mysteries, or which may be taken hold of, to make up any commendation of them, howbeit unjustly and [Page 62] without cause offered. Nihilque loci vel invonient vel re­tinebunt apud nos, e [...]e [...]res omnes, verba, & g [...]stus, in quibus appareat esse aliquid tantis impietatibus affine, aut ad ul­lam rapiatur, quanquam improbe & absque data causa ha­rum su [...]rum impi tatum commendationem.

The equitie of this rule or direction, The equitie of none con­formity with idolaters. that wee should not conforme with idolaters in such rites and ordi­nances, as are above described, appeareth evidently, first, in that we show not, as we ought, our hatred and dete­station of idolatrie, when we retaine any monument or memoriall of it. God will not have us to utter with our lips the very name of the idol, with respect or any honour. The brazen serpent, after the miraculous use of it, for which it was set up, ceased, was keeped 700 years for a memoriall of that miracle, and as a monument of Gods mercie, and benefite receaved at that time. Yet, when it began to be abused, and polluted with idola­trie, Ezekias brake it in pieces. Farre more ought the monuments and memorials of idols, or idolatrie. We honour the idol and idolatrous worship, when we re­taine any monument or memoriall of idolatrie. Next, in so doing, wee keep a stumbling block in the Church, and both harden the idolater in his idolatrie, and lay a stumbling block and snare before our selfe and our bre­thren, by retaining of such allurements and provocati­ons, to commit the same kinde of spirituall fornication and adulterie, and so to fall in an hainous and most de­restable sinne. Woe be to him that giveth offence, it were better, that a milstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the deep of the sea.

That kneeling in the act of receaving the sacrament, hath beene abused to idolatire, Kneeling a monument of idolatrie. can not be denyed. Nay, [Page 63] it is confessed, that kneeling in that act hath been abu­sed to the vilest idolatrie, that ever was, to the worship­ping of a piece bread, which the worshipper esteemed to be his god. To retaine it therefore, is to retaine a me­moriall or monument of that vile idolatrie, because we use that same gesture, in that same very act, and without necessity. For our opposits affirme, That all the maine gestures are indifferent. pag. 370. Master P. hath a poore shift, when he saith, No ordinance of God can bee a monu­ment of idolatry, gesturs are Gods ordinances, and his outward worship consists in them. Such like, that no creature of God can be a monument of idolatrie, but all gesturs are Gods creatures or abilities, whereunto man is disposed by creation. pag. 118. And our Doctour saith, That kneeling is not an humane invention, but a religious ce­remonie appointed by God. But they should first have made good, that kneeling in the act of receaving the sa­cramentall elemen [...]s w [...]s Gods ordinance, and then in­deed the ret [...]ining of it had not beene a retaining of a monument of idolatrie. It is grosse, that he calleth ge­sturs abilities. The power or ability is naturall to man, but the gesture it selfe is volnntarie, free, and acciden­tall. A man hath abilitie to stand upon one of his legs, or with his back to the elements, is such a posture of the parts of a mans body, therefore lawfull in the act of re­ceaving. Seeing neither by Gods ordinance, nor any naturall necessity wee are bound to kneel in that act, the retaining of kneeling so horribly abused in that act, is the retaining of a vile monument of idolatrie.

How dangerous it is, Kneeling scandalous to papists. consider it first in the papist. The papist is confirmed in his vile idolatry by our con­formitie with him in that gesture. Do they not vaunt, [Page 64] that we are comming home to them, and hope for the full restoring of poperie againe, because we kneel at the receaving of the eucharist as they do. It is confessed al­so by conformitants. The ministers of Edinburgh, after they had vexed the people ten yeares with their knee­ling, and seeming to bee wearied by contending with them, sent up a supplication to the king for dispensation with kneeling. In the instructions given to the bearer M. William Lev Lev [...]ngstoun, subserived also by them, they have these words, The Papists se [...]g us in that gesture, ha­ving some externall symbolizing with them, are thereby confirmed in their errours, as though that our practise were an approaching to them, and an increase to their idolatrie and bread worship. These instructions were subscrived by all the ministers of Edinburgh in April anno 1628. M. Struther, Sydserf, Maxwell, and the rest.

It is a scandall given to the godly, Scandalous to the godly. because it is not a necessar duetie, and is a provocation and Intisement to idolatrie. Wee are forbidden all provocations and en­tisements to idolatrie, as in all other precepts, wee are forbidden, as well the provocations and entisements to evill, as the evill it self. In 2. praecept. pag. 387. If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, that is, whatsoever is an impediment unto us to hin­der us to do good, and to worship God, though it were never so deare to us, is to bee removed out of the way, much more if it bee a cause or occasion to do evill, saith Zanchias. Last edit. de redempt. pag. 541. Whatsoever bee the intention of the doer, intent [...] [...]ntis, ye [...], if the qualitie of the work it selfe conditio operis bee induct [...]ve to scandall, it ought to bee eshewed. They ask, what apinesse there is in the ge­sture to intice us to idolatrie, We answere, it is the same in forme and fashion that idolaters use in that same very [Page 65] act, and it is done for reverence as they also do. We are more proue by nature to idolatrie, then any other sinne. Therefor [...] greater diligence is to bee used in avoiding the o [...]casions of this sin, then of any other, saith Zanchi­us. What needeth further proofe, if it bee true, which they seeme to grant themselfes, that adoration in the act of receaving the bread hath opened an occasion to breed worship or artolatrie. Beza in his 8. epist. faith, The event and lamentable face of the Church, doth more then sufficiently teach us, how hurtfull tis, and commendeth those Churches which abolished it with no lesse care then other manifest made idolatrie, apert as idolomanias. Peter Martyr being a stranger, when he was a profes­sour in Oxford, was loath to contradict the order, which was retained for the appeasing the papists, who were a strong party at that time, excuseth the matter the best he could, but with all, privie to the insuffiencie of his ex­cusus, he wisheth it were removed. And writing against Gardin [...]r, Col. 160. he wisheth, that it were not, howbeit the knee­lers direct their worship not to the symbols themselfes, but to Christ reigning in the heavens. But after the re­volt of England in Qu [...]ene Maries dayes, when he was in Zurich, writing to the Polonian ministers, he saith, Let the evil seed, and rotten rootes be plucked up at the first beginning, for if they be neglected at the first (I know what I speak) it is more difficill to take them away afterward: And this is wisely to be looked to, as in the sacraments, so specially in the e [...]charist, that it be most sincerely done. For there are there, beleeve me, pestilent seeds of idolatrie, which unlesse they be taken away, the Church of Christ will never be beau­tified with pure and sincere worship. Let not the sacra­ments be contemned, as empty and vo [...]d signes; And on the [Page 66] other side, let them not give greater honour to them, then their institution will suffer. Averruncentur sub ipsis ini­tiis mala semina, & putres radices. Nam si principio ne­gligantur, (scio to quod loquor) pestea difficiliùs tolluntur. Idque providendum est, ut in sacramentis, & prae [...]ipue in encharistiae quam sincerissimè fiat, ibi sunt, mibi crede, idololatriae pestifera semina, que porr [...], [...]isis [...]i [...] lara suerint, ecclesia Christi puro sinceroque cul [...] nunquam erit o [...]nata. Non centemnantur sacramenta, ut in [...]nla & [...] signa. Rursmque non illis plus tribuant homines, quam [...] institutio ferat. This was his advice, after experience he had in England, and in the same epistle he [...], That [...]ite in the ministration of the sacraments [...] be [...] which is most of all, and furthest rem [...]ue [...] from papisticall toyes and ceremonies, and commeth [...] to that puritie, which Christ and his Apostles used. [...] in his S. sennon upon Ienah saith, The outward gesthred and behaviour of the receaver should want all kinde [...] shew orineli­nation to idolatrie. Wherefore seeing kneeling is a shew and externall kinde of honouring and worshipping, and here­tofore grieveus and damnable idolatrie heth beene commit­ted by [...] the sacram [...]nt, I could wish it were com­manded by the magistrat, that the communicants might re­ceave it sitting or standing. Reply 2 part pag. 164. Master Cartamight reporteth, that in divers places the people have knocked on their breasts, and holden up their hands, whilst the minister was in giving the bread, and not only those who recea­ved it, but also those who looked on, and were in the Church. In a national synod of the Belgick and French Churches in the Low-countries holden in Junie 1578. they concluded against geniculation. Genuflexionem non admittimus ob periculum adorations [...] ad­mit [Page 67] not kneeling for perill of the adoration of bread wor­ship. And in a nationall synod holden at Midleburgh, it was likewise concluded, Genuflexio omnino omittetur propter periculum superstitiosae adoratienis; Kneeling shall altogether be omitted, because of the danger of superstitious adoration. Homij speci­men controy Belg. in fine. Festus Homi [...]s out of these consti [...]utions, [...]th set downe their minde in the harmonie of their synods, to the same effect, That the communionibe not celebrated kneeling for the danger of bread worship. pag. 123. Our Doctour answereth, That they knew best, what served to the edification of their owne Church, as if the Hollanders were more prone to bread worship, then Scots on En­glish. P. acknowledgeth, pag. 70. that they which kneel may receave too reverently. Cyprian answering to some maids, who walked with young men, talked with them, went to bed with them, and said, they abstained not­withstanding from the act, Cyprian. lib. 1 epist. 11. saith, Non est locus d [...]ndus Diabolo [...] mo diu tutus periculo proxim [...]s; We should not give place to the devill: No man that is near danger can be long in suretie.

They alledge a Polonian synod allowing kneeling or standing, The Poloni­an synods mi­staking. but not sitting. But they must know first, that they were farre mistaken. For they thought in sy­nodo Graconiensi anno 1573. and Vledislanitensi anno 1523. that none but the Arrians or Arrianabap­tists among themselfes did sit. It is strange, that they should thereupon exhort to the forbearance of sitting, seeing the Arrians did not sit upon conceat of par [...]ie, or equality with Christ. It is grosse mistaking, saith P. that fellowship and societie necessarily imports equalitie, pag. 200. who knowes not, that a king and a meane man may be fellow-like and sociable, and yet remainefarre un­equals. [Page 68] Next, it is as strange, that they should be igno­rant, that the gesture of sitting was in use even then, to wit 1573. 1578. 1583. in sundry Churches in Europe, as in the Low-countries, Helvetia, Scotland. Yea, as a worthy Polonian, as that Church hath bred in his time, that Polonian Baron Iohannes Alasco, wrote before the holding of that synod more amply, and more earnestly for sitting; then any man else; and put it in practise in the Churches where he had credite and authoritie. We are not therefore conforme to Arrians in the gesture of sitting, for it is not their invention, nor is it approved only by them; It was in use before ever the name of Arrius was heard. Yet, howbeit their synods were mixed, and consisted partly of Lutherans, partly of such as adheared to the Boh [...]mian, partly of such as adheared to the Helvetian confession, they would urge no man, fearing that urging would draw on censures, which they thought neither commendable nor expedient. For they confesse, That it is neither the will of God, nor the cu­stome of the pur [...]r Church, to smite m [...]n with ecclesiasticall discipline for externall rites. Propter externos ritus homi­nes pios ferire, neque est Dom [...]ni v [...]tun [...]as, neque purioris ec­clesiaemos. As ye may see in Synodus Petriconi insis, which was holden anno 1578.

Their next shift is, The preten­ded remedie of preaching naught. that [...]he people may be taught and informed to direct [...]he [...]r adoration internall and exter­nall to God, and so all erroneous opinion may be re­moved. But we have told them, that it is better to fill up the pit in the way, then to set one beside to warne the passingers, that they fall not in. Watchmen are sometime negligent, sometime blinde and ignorant, or corrupt and perverse: meat doth not nourish so fast, [Page 69] as poison doth corrupt. Time should be better spent, then in leading poore souls through dangerous wayes, which may be forsaken. Their strength should not be tried by bringing them to the brinke of danger. Sup­pose information by doctrine were used at all times, and every where all are not alike capable, example and ap­pearance of evil would worke more powerfully, then the doctrine. Epist. 121. Of the insufficiencie of this remedy, see Calvin in his epistle to the protectour of England.

The third shift is, Commande­ment of the magistrate no just e [...]cuse. In 3 praecept. col. 634. that the command of the supreme magistrat in things indifferent taketh away the scandall. There are two sorts of indifferent things, saith Z [...]n­ [...]hius, some that are manifest occasions of sinning, others are not of that kinde. Res adiaphorae duplices sunt. Quae­lam su [...]t alicui aport [...]e occasiones peccatorum, ita ut exillis verè immineat p [...]ricul [...]m, pèceandi: alie vero non ita se habent. For the first sort, that we ought to abstaine from [...] evill, and all manifest occasion of evil: For who, saith he, will venture to passe along a ruinous bridge, if hee perceave manifest danger of falling into the river. Can the supreame magistrat take away that aptnesse and fitnesse, that any thing hath to intise and provoke men to sinne. The Apostle Paul saith, he had rather ne­ver eat flesh, then offend a weake brother for eating flesh offered to the idol, and sold in the market. And I think, he had greater, authority in such matters, nor any prince or generall assembly.

The Belgick synods, yee see, would not take so much upon them, but for ad kneeling for fear of idolatrie. If the Church (to whom the rule for directing the use of things indifferent in maters of religion are laide down, to wit, that all things bee done decently, in order, to edi­fication, [Page 70] without offence) may not presume so farre, far lesse may the magistrate; for his power is cumulative to assist the Church, not privative, to deprive the Church of her power. The magistrates countenance maketh the scandall the greater, and hee strengthneth it by his au­thoritie, whereas hee should remove scandals, and not lay stumbling-blocks in the way of the people. The brasen serpent was but a passive, [...] active scandall, and yet Ezekias brake it in pieces: for more should active scandals bee removed. These Cour [...]-clawbacks tell us, wee should rather offend the people, then the supreme magistrate. But better offend, that is, displease him, nor offend, that is, give occasion to the poorest soule, let bee many thousands, to fall into any sin, let bee so haynous a sin, as is the sin of idolatrie. The magistrate is not in danger of stumbling, for (yee say) he esteemeth the matter indifferent. Is not the supreme magistrate a sin­full man? May hee not make Israel to sin? May hee not abuse things indifferent, and transgresse the rules above mentioned? May hee not bee a secret friend to the pope, or an a bettor of superstition? Suppose hee have no such intention, yet hee can not by his authoritie alter conditi­onem operis, the qualitie of the work it self, and make a thing, which of it selfe is inductive to scandall not indu­ctive. Doth his commandment make all so sure, that none can bee scandalized? That is impossible, conside­ring the shew of evill in the deed it self, the ignorance of many thousands, the disposition of the ignorants to su­perstition, the pronnesse of mens nature to idolatrie, and the increase of papists.

Ioab was guiltie of Vriahs bloud, notwithstanding of the Kings commandment, so art thou of thy brothers [Page 71] falling, 1 King 20, 39. Thy life for his life, if hee bee a missing. Say not therefore with Cain, Am I my brothers keeper? Active obedience to the magistrate ought not to bee a rule of thy love to Gods glory, and the salvation of thy brother. Passive obedience is not denied; but defences by lawes aright first to bee heard. Whereas they alleadge, that sitting is dangerous for breeding contempt and propha­nation. To passe by the institution, experience is a testi­monie in the contrare. Rusticitie in the behaviour of simple ones, not acquainted with all the points of civili­ [...], is not prophanation, but may bee where the minde is in good order Horrible prophane were the words of our blind bishop to a gentle woman in the offering of the elements, because shee would not kneel.

Wee maintain, Kneeling established by the Anti­christ, and not by the ancient Church. that kneeling in the act of receaving the sacramentall elements was not devised, or at least authorized, till the great Antichrist overruled. Wee need not to poin [...] at the time when it first began: for there are many corruptions in the Romane Church, which can not bee ded [...]ed [...] a certain beginning, by the Ro­manists themselfs. It is sufficient, that wee point out a time, wherein it was not in use. There can not be an authen­tick testimonie alleadged for kneeling in the act of re­ceaving the sacramentall elements, before the opinion of reall presence yea, or of transubstantiation began to spread, or to come to a more certain date, for the space of a thousand years after Christ. I say, authentick testi­monie: for wee regard not supposititions, or counterfite works. Origens first homilie in divers loca, is brought in, saying, Thou therefore humbling thy self, [...]itat the Cen­turie [...], [...]nd say, Lord, I am not worthie, &c. but that works is acknowledged by the papists themselfs to be coun­terfite. [Page 72] See Riveti specimen critici sacri. lib. 2. cap. 13. Bellarm. de script. pag. 84. Suchlike counterfi [...]e Cyrillus of Jerusalem in his fifth catechisme saith, Then come to the cuppe of the blood, not stretching out thy hand, sed pr [...]nus & in modum adorati­onis & venerationis, dicens Anten [...] But stow [...]ing downward, or with the face bended downward in manner of adorati­on or veneration, saying, Amen. He sayeth not, Cade pronu [...], fall down on thy fa [...]e, sed accede pronus, but come inclyning or bowing thy he [...]d, or upper part of thy body, as men use to do, when they make courtesie for men can not come falling flat. But what need wee trouble our selfes with his words, seeing hee is marked for a counterfite by Mou­lias on the Lords supper, part. 2. pag. 65. the bishop of Spalato, and Ples­sie, who in his answere to the bishop of Evereux saith, Spalat. de rep. eccles. l. 5. c. 6. num. 69. These catec [...]ismes of Cyrillus are supposititious, and come not to light, but in our time. M. Down in his treatise of tran­substantiation. pag. 3 [...]. 38. saith, Ad E [...]roi­censem epist. pag. 241. That these catecbeticall booke are but of a verie late edition, that Harding acknow­ledgeth, that in his time they were known to ve [...]ie few, and in [...]rite, that they have beene published since in print, and per­haps, to winne more authoritie to them, misfathered upon Cyrillus of Ierusalem. This Cyrill directs the Communi­cant to touch his lips, which are sanctified with the touch of Christs body and bloud, that by the touch of that finger hee may sanctifie his eyes, brow, and others. No authentick testimonie can they produce bearing the word kneeling, which is an adoration not in a large, but strict sense.

The testimonies bearing the word adore, are either counterfite, or to bee understood of inward adoration, as Doctour Burges himself confesseth, sundrie of the learned do construe them, or of adoration in time of prayer before they communicate: or adoration is taken [Page 73] taken only for veneration. See Iewel in the article of adoration. Bilson in his book of obedience, and Mor­toun the late defender of the ceremonies, in his latest worke entituled, Of the institution of the sacrament. He bringeth in sundrie exemples to prove the latitude of the word Adore. When Theodor [...]t saith, dialog. 2. that the mysticall signes are adored, he should speake very grosly, if the word adore meant not only reverent usage. Mou­lines on the Lords supper, 2. part. page 24. translateth Theodoret [...], reverenced, and disputeth against adored, as not agreeable to his meaning. And so Bilson expoundeth Theodoret, and to this purpose alledgeth the glosse of the Canon law. In hoc sensu possumus q [...]am libet rem sacr [...]m adorare, id est, reveren [...]iam exhibere. Ana. stasius saith, De consecra­tio. dist. 3. cap. venera [...]ilis. De consecra­tio. dist. 1. cap. Apostolica. Tertull. ad­vers. Hermo­ginem. Dominica verba attentè audiant, & si leliter adorent 1. venerantur, saith the glosse. Adore plenitudinem scripturae. I adore the fulnesse of the scripture, saith Ter­tullian. Doctour Burges is forced to constru [...] the word adored, in this sense, when he would give a right sense to some words of Iewell. The sacraments in that sort, in re­spect of that, which they signifie, and not in respect of that which they are of themselfes, are the flesh of Christ, and are so understood and beleeved and adored, but the whole honour resteth not in them, but is passed over from them to the things, which be signified, D. B. of knee­ling. pag. 85. saith Iewel. His meaning is (saith the Doctour) that no more is or may be done respectively to the sacrament, then that which wee call veneration, that, which in strict sense, we call adoration or divine worship is reserved to God. Chrysostome meaneth spirituall reve­rence, in 1 Corin. 11. and therefore he useth emphaticall speeches of ascending up to the gates of heaven, Fulk in 1 Cor. 11. sect. 18. even the heaven of heavens, like eagles, saith Doctour Fulk. [...] [Page 74] followeth not that they kneeled in Augustines time, be­cause the Ethnicks objected, that Christians honoured Bacchus and Ceres. The reverene carriage of Christians at the participation of the sacrament all bread and wine, was sufficient to be an occasion of the mistaking. Aver­roes the Arabian Spaniard, about 400 yeares since, ob­jected, That Christians adored that which they did eat. It may be, that in his time they kneeled, and gave just oc­casion to Averroes reproach. But his time is not within our date. In a word, looke how old they can prove kneeling, we shall prove reall presence.

Doctour Purges hath found out a place which was ne­ver found out before, Tertullians testimonie vindicated. wher [...] hee confidently conclu­deth, that the communicants k [...]eeled in Tertull [...]ans time, for (faith he) the people shunned to take the sacrament, when they might not kneel in the act of receaving or partaking of it, and therefore forbore to come to the communion table on the station dayes, because it beho­ved them the stand on these dayes. Tertullian, saith he, inviteth them to come, and take the bread standing at the table publikely, and to reserve and carry it away with them and receave it at home, as they desired, knee­ling, and so both duties should be performed, the recea­ving of the eucharist, and the tradition of standing on these dayes observed. Lib. de ora­tione. c. 14. Tertullians words are, Similiter de stationum diebus, non putant plerique sacrificiorum ora­tionibus interveniendum, qu [...]d statio solvenda sit accepto corpore Domini. Which last words he translateth, be­cause station or standing is then to be performed in receaving the body of the Lord: whereas he should [...]ranst [...]te, because the fast is then to be brocken after the receaving of the bodie of the Lord. For the word statio in Tertullians language [Page 75] is taken for fasting, both in this place, and in his booke De corona militis, cap. 11. and in his booke De jejuniis, cap. 2. 10. 14. as Pamelius hath well observed upon that place, and after him Baronius in his annales. In his booke De jejuniis he bringeth in for illustration Moses per­severing in prayer, till the going downe of the sunne, when the people was fighting against the Amalekits, Nonne statio fuit sera, saith he. Did Ioshua dyne that day, saith he, that he fought against the Ammorits, that com­manded the sunne to stand in Gibeon, and the moone in Askalon? That God gave such authority to Sauls com­mandement concerning fasting till even, that I [...]nathan for tasting a little hony was scarce delivered at the in­stant request of the people, Tantam authoritatem dedit edicto stationis Saulis, ut Ionathan filius, &c. H. bringeth in such exemples for the custome their owne sect of the Mountanists had brought in, which was to keep these fasts till evening, whereas the custome of the Church was to keepe them only to the ninth, that is, our third houre afternoone. In the 2. and 14. chapter he maketh mention of weddensday and f [...]yday: appointed for these fasts, Cur quartam & sextam sabbathi st [...]tionibus dicamus? speaking of the custome of the Church at that time. The meaning of Tertullian, in the place above cited, is, They were in an errour, who thought that if they had receaved the sacrament, their fast should be broken, which should have continued to the set houre. For (saith he) d [...]th the encharist lose that service which wee have devoted unto God, or rather doth it binde us more to God. Nonne solennior erit statio tua, si & ad aram Dei steteris; Shall not thy fast bee the more solemne, if thou stand also at the altar of God; th [...] is, the communion table. Accepto corpore Domini & re­servata [Page 76] (as Iunius reade [...]) id est stationis officio, (not re­servato) that it may answer to the other member, both are safe, & participatis sacrificti & exc [...]utio off [...]cii, both the participation of the sacrifice [...]nd performance of thy ser­vice, id est, jejunii, (saith [...] his answer to the theologues of Burde [...]ux. pag. 54. [...] his answer to the bi­shop of Ever [...]ux, pag. 225. he saith, That Tertullian would remove that scruple, that after they had communicated, their fast was broken, they thought, a [...] si particip [...]tio euch a­ristiae jejunium abrumpere [...] [...] if the participation of the eucharist had broken up their fast: Ambrose giveth the rea­son, wherfore these set fasts were called Stationes, quod stantos & commarantes in eis inimicos insidiantes repelli­mus; because standing and sta [...]ing in them wee rep [...]ll our enemies lying in wait for us, meaning spirituall enemies. The metaphore is borrowed from souldiers, who beho­ved to fast so long as they were in statio [...]; Metaphora à militi [...]m sumpta quod quamdiu in statione erant, jejunare [...] oportebat. See Pamelius upon both the places. Do­ctour Burges finding, that Tertullian lib. 2. ad uxorem, maketh mention of jejunia, fasts, after hee had made mention of stationes, concludeth in his owne fancie, that stationes were not fasts, whereas he might have seene stationes distinguished, à jejuniis in the former place also, but by the one he meaneth of such as fasted at any time of their owe free accord; by the other the set dayes of fasting. Iejunium est indifferenter cujuslibet Di [...]i abstinen­tia, non perleg [...]m sed secundum propriam voluntatem, statio statutorum dierum vel temporum. And this difference Pamelius acknowledgeth, he hath out of Rabanus Ma [...] ­rus. The very phrase it selfe solvere stationem, might have guided him aright: For what more frequent a phrase for [Page 77] breaking of a fast, then solvere jejuniums. We denie not that they stood both these dayes, and other also, but that statio signifieth only standing in Tertullians phrase, when he saith, Solennior statio, or solvere stationem. I have insisted the longer upon this testimonie, because Do­ctour Burges doth so confidently gather out of it, which never man did before, that the Christians then did, and before had used to take the sacrament kneeling.

This raw, Sitting or standing pra­ctised in the ancient Church. See Euseb. histor. lib. 7. cap. 9. but too confident antiquarie, his collection may be refuted by other testimonies, witnessing, that s [...]metimes they sa [...]e, of which we have alledged some before, or at other tim [...]s stood. Pionysius Alexandrinus writing to Xystus bishop of Rome, concerning one that was in sorrow, because hee was baptised by hereticks, saith, he du [...]st not baptise him over againe, because he had a long time stood at the table, and reached forth his hand to receave the holy food, and had beene for a long time partaker of the body and bloud of Christ. Iusti­nus telleth us, That the people rose, and the deacons gave to every one to partake of the bread and the wine. Is it likely, that they kneeled, when the deacons gave the elements? Homil. in oncoeniis. In the homily which goeth under the name of Chrysostome, Stemus trementes timidi & demissis ocutis; Let us stand trembling with fear a [...]d our eyes casten downe. So yee see both before and after Tertullians time testimonies for standing.

There was an ancient custome in the Church (which, Bellarminus de cultu san­ctor. cap. 11. Bellarmine saith, was left off but about 500. yeare before his time) to stand upon the Lords day even in time of prayer. Zovaras in synod 6. can. 90. s [...]ith, That no wayes might they kneel betwixt the evening service on satter­day and the Lords day at evening. Tertull. de Corona mi­litis. Die dominico de geni­culis [Page 78] ad orarenesa [...], saith Tertullian. And such like, betwixt easter and pentecost, not only upon the Lords day, but no day of the weeke might they kneele. Yea, by the de­cree of Alexand [...]r the third, they might not kneel upon the Lords day in publike, Decretal. l. 3. tit. de cele­brat. Missa. cap. sarct. but only at the consecration of Bishops, and giving of orders▪ he that did consecrate, and he that w [...]s consecrated might kneel, and this was decreed about the yeare 1159. at which [...] it seemeth this one exception entred in. Now will any man affirme, That they never communicated upon the Lords day, for a thousand yeare, or 1159. or imagine as Doctour Burges doth, that because they might not kneel, that all this time they tooke the sacrament standing in the Church, and went home to their houses, where they ea­ted kneeling, or to their seats in the Church, where they might not kneel. L. page 52. confesseth, That the com­munican [...]s in the primitive Church stood at the table, when they receaved the sacrament on the Lords day. Well, say they, seeing they prayed standing, they used that gesture in the receaving of the eucharist, which they thought fittest for prayer. I answer, they thought not that gesture fittest for prayer. The authour of the que­stions extant in Iustinus, Quaest. 1 [...]5. saith, Genu [...]m inclinatio in pre­catione magis peccatores Deo commendat, qu [...]m sistantes orent. He preferreth, yee see, kneeling in prayer before standing: But both are indifferent. They stood to signi­fie their joy for Christs resurrection, and not because they though it the fittest gesture for prayer. It was a conceat they tooke up, which entred not in the Apostle Pauls minde: for wee finde Acts 20. that he kneeled be­tweene Easter and Pentecost. Alwise by that custome, ye may see, they communicated standing. The testimo­nies [Page 79] above cited have not relation to any day, and the custome observed yet to this day in the orientall Churches, to communicate standing, notwithstanding, that other custome hath ceased, declareth that they in­tended never geniculation in the act of receaving.

Ephraim Placit in his Christianographie, descriving the manner of the administration of the Lords supper in the Greek Church, in the Churches of the Mengrel­lians, Circassians, Georgians, Muscovits, Melchits or Syri­ans, Armenian, Iacobits, the Christians falsly called Nestorians, the Cophti or Egyptian Christians, the Abys­sinos or Ethiopian Christians, produceth no instance for kneeling in the act of receaving, eating, drinking, which he would not have pretermined, being conforme, and dedicating his booke to the bishop of Elie. Cassander in his Liturgicks, descriving the order observed in the Churches of the Arm [...]n [...]ans, Muscovits, and in the king­dome of preste Iohn maketh no mention of kneeling, but of standing. Il [...]ssie in his 4. bo [...]ke of the Masse, trusseth up all in few words. Quarè orientales ecclesiae adoratio­nem sacramenti admiserunt nusqu [...]m, non quae patriarchae Consta tinopolitano obsequuntur, n [...]n quae Antiocheno. Et in Abyssnis etiam ipsis hodie st [...]ntes sacramenta partici­pant, nec [...]minus reverenter; The orientall Churches no where admitted edoration of the sacrament; not those which are obedient to the patri [...]rch of Constantinople, or yet the patriar [...]h of Antioch. And the Abyssins themselfes participate of the sacrament, standing, and yet not without reverence: Where by adoration he meaneth kneeling, whereunto be opposeth standing. If ever kneeling in the act of receaving had beene in use among them, it had not beene left off, considering mans pronnesse to idola­trie [Page 80] and superstition, and delight to stick in the mire when he is wallowing in it. It resteth then that kneeling is only found in the Churches subject to the Pope, of old. or at the present. Other Churches, howbeit they fol­lowed not the paterne, using another forme and gesture, not was sutable to this first, yet they degenerated not so [...] as the Roman Church did, Synops. cuest. 8. of the masse, pag. 691. The Muscovite Graeci­ans, [...] L [...]tine Priest chance to say Masse upon one of their altars, they forthwith breake them downe, as defiled and pol­luted. And they [...]old the priests of the Latine Church to be no letter then hereticks, and vouchsafe not to salute them. Willets out of Sacranus.

We have not yet heard of any authentick testimonie for kneeling, which is adoration in proper and strict sense, for the space of a thousand year after Christ, which is the date we set downe. Nor yet till after the dayes of Pope Honorius the third, who lived [...]bout the yeare 1220. And he decreed nothing, [...] [...]owing, not of the knee, but of the head or superiour bulk of the body, at the elevation in [...]he masse. The bowing of the knee at the elevation entred not till afterward, yea, prevailed not universally even in our dayes. For I finde in Bochel­lus a decree made in a popish synod at Rhems, Bochel. de­cret. lib. 3. c. 140. anno 1583. Quoriam apud omnes sere catholicos usus modo obtinuit, ut procumbentes adorent divin [...] eucharistiam; Because the use [...] prevailed almost among all catholicks, that falling [...] they a [...]ore the divine eucharist, the holy sy­nod exhorteth, that if there be any Church, useth another custome, a [...]d [...] the body of Christ in this sacrifice standing, that they f [...]ll downe her [...]after, while the holy myste­ries are set forth to be adored. Sancta synodus hortatur, ut si quae ecclesia altero more adhuc utatur, & stando Christi [Page 81] corpus i [...] hoc sacrificio adore [...], proeumbat [...] san­cta mysteria proponantur adorari. Where, by the way observe, that when ye finde the word adore in the anci­ents, it followeth not, that ye must interpret i [...] knee­ling. For yee see, they that stood are said to adore, which is not to adore in strict and proper sense. Whi­ther kneeling at the receaving come in with that decree of Honorius, or after, which is more likely, and that no other gesture was used at the one, which was not used at the other, I cannot determine. Howsoever it entred under Antichrist raigning, and is the receaved gesture of all such as are wit [...] the bounds of his jurisdiction, where he is Pat [...]ch. The Churches under the Patri­arches of Constantinople or Antioch, hath not recea­ved it, as ye have heird. If the priests, and others of the elergic, be directed to the Romane ri [...]all to kneel in re­ceaving the eucharist, can wee thinke any of the people had liberty not to kneel.

Howbeit this idolatrous gesture prevailed under the raigne of Antichrist, Opposite to kneeling. yet there wanted nor faithfull wit­nesses to stand out against it. Of the Walden [...] yee heard before. Iohannes Slechta a Bohemian, writing to Eras [...] in the veare 1519, Erasm. epist. lib. 14. telleth him, that there was among them a sect, of such as were called Pyghardi, be­cause their first ring-leader, who came to these parts in the dayes of Zisca, about four score and seventeene years before, that came out of Picardie, that they main­tained, these committed idolatrie, who kneeled before the bread in the sacrament of the eucharist, or bowed before it, or adored it. In sacramento eucharistie nihil esse divinitatis credunt, sed solum panem & [...] consecra­tum signis quibusdam occultis mortem Christi [...] [Page 82] affirmantes, & propterea in idolola [...]riam cadere om­nes quot quot coram illo genua flectunt, & incu [...]vant, vel il­lud adorant. All the Sacramentaries call it idolatrie to kneel before the eucharist, [...] saith Bellarmine. And yet so impudent is our Doctour, that he is not ashamed to af­firme, that never any divine ancient or moderne to this day, except Arrians and Anabaptists, hath doubted, but Christ may and should be adored externally in the act of receaving.

Seeing therefore this gesture entred in under Anti­christ, and is maintained by him with fire and faggot, ought we not to reject it, and retaine the exemplarie sit­ting of Christ and his Apostles. If at any time, wee should not seeme to have communion with Anti­christ, we should most of all at this holy supper, which setteth forth our communion with Christ and his Church.

But put the case this gesture in the act of receaving had beene devised by others, Kneeling to be rejected, be­cause abused. then the great Antichrist, or might have beene used without blame, which is not possible, yet seeing it was not commanded by Christ, or his Apostles, but is the invention of man, hath beene so horribly abused, and rem [...]ineth still in the owne nature indifferent, as they alledge, and not necessarie by their owne confession, it ought to be abandoned for the dan­ger of many thousand weake souls, which may bee brought on to bread worship. Wee may scandalize sometimes, even when the fact is neither evill in it selfe, nor hath appearance of evil. Etiamsi factum non fit se cundum se malum, neque secundum se habeas speci [...]m mali, tamen toterit esse aliquando scandalum infi [...]niorum, quia secund [...]m illorum opinione [...] habet speciem mals. Domine. [Page 83] [...]s Bannes in 2. 2. [...] 43. in art. [...]. We might [...] a score here, and proceed no further. For what we have said, is sufficient to restraine every man from kneeling. To offend one of Christs little ones, is a hainous sinne.

CHAP. V.
Kneeling in the act of receaving the sacramentall elements of the supper is idolatrie.

WE prove it to be idolatrie, first considering it, as it is enjoyned by the act of that pretended as­sembly holden at Perth, next as the action is considered simply in it selfe.

We are directed by the act of Perth to kneel in reve­rence of the sacrament, The act of Perth inten­deth idola­try. which is idolatri [...], as L. confes­seth, if we do so. But we are directed to kneel in due re­gard of so divine a mysterie, pag. 70. to wit [...] as is the sacrament, or as is the receaving of the body and bloud of Christ, to wit, in the sacramentall manner. Wee will examine the act by parts, according to L. his analysis, howbeit wee acknowledge him not for the authentike interpreter of it.

The first reason for kneeling in the narrative, The first rea­son of the act exa­mined. is set downe in these words, Since wee are commanded, by God himselfe, that when wee come to worship him, we fall downe and kneel before the Lord our maker. Relative to this rea­son, we have in the conclusion this inference. Therefore in reveren [...]e of God, the assembly thinketh good, that the sacrament be celebrated to the people meekly, and reverently [Page 84] [...]ling upon their knee [...]. For the confirmation of this reason is alledged, Psal. 35. vers. 7. out of which verse the words are taken. By this reason, Christ and his Apo­stles, and all that have communicated sitting, or stan­ding, or passing, since the dayes of Christ, have sinned. For if wee be commended by God to kneel, wee sinne if we kneel not. Next, the word translated worship, Psal. 95. 7. is taken, not generally for any action, or service divine, or religious expressed by the word Cul [...]us in La­tine, as it is taken here in the act, for then wee should sinne, if we kneel not, when we bear the word read or preached, but it is taken more strictly for a speciall kinde of worshipping of God, to wit, adoring God by the gesture of prostration. And so wee shall bee com­manded to prostrat our body with our hands and feet spread upon the ground, and not to kneel only. For the people of God under the law used foure kindes of gestures in signe of honour: First, a bending, or bow­ing downe of the head or face only, which was the least degree, and is expressed by the word Cadad: next, a bending or bowing of the superiour [...]uk of the bo­die expressed by the word Carang: the third, kneeling, expressed by the word Barach: the fourth, prostrating the bodie with hands and feet spread, as I have said, ex­pressed by the word Histachaveh. The last three are all mentioned in the verse alledged. Thirdly, we have not here a commandement from God, but David his exhor­tation, or invitation to the godly, not to kneel or fall downe before the Lord, when they come to worship him, or as the word beareth to prostrate themselfes, for that were as much as to desire them to fall downe and kneel, when they come to fall downe and kneel; but [Page 85] he exhorteth and inviteth them to come and prostrate themselfes, bow and kneel before the Lord their maker in token of thanksgiving, that is, in the temples where the arke was, and where the Lord was present in a won­derfull manner sitting betweene the cherubims. It is grosse ignorance to inferre hereupon, that wee should, or are commanded to kneel at the receaving of the sa­crament, more then at the hearing of the word, or at any of them, unlesse they think the sacrament the Lord their maker.

The second reason in the narrative, The second reason of the act exa­mined. saith the Do­ctour, is this, And considering withall, that there is no part of divine worship more heavenly and spirituall, then is the holy receaving of the blessed bodie and bloud of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Relative to this reason we have in the conclusion these words, And in regard of so divine a mysterie, the assembly thinketh good, that that blessed sa­crament be celebrated to the people humbly, (or as the act ratified in parliament hath, meekly) and reverently up­on their knees. We have here no other description of re­ceaving the sacrament in the narrative, but the receaving of the body and bloud of Christ, which smelleth strongly of the reall presence. For the like, and some other phrases hath Master Prinne discovered Doctour Cou [...]ins to be popish in the survey of his privat devoti­ons. Then all that communicate, receave the body and bloud of Christ in at their mouth good and bad. This shall please the Lutheran and Papist full well.

But by mysterie, L. p. 72, 73. saith the Doctour, is no meant the elements, nor is it said mysteries, but mysterie. It may well be the elements are not meant, because it may be, they thinke the elements vanish away, and nothing re­maine [Page 86] but the accidents, or that Christs body and bloud are substantially present with the elements, or some other unknowne way, as the Doctour hath beene mute­ring in privat. And that is a mysterie indeed. But by mysterie must be meant the sacrament: for in the narra­tive we have no other phrase to expresse the sacrament, but the receaving of the body and bloud of Christ, which is relative to this word mysterie. And in the conclusion, the word sacrament both preceedeth and followeth: So the words in the same sense may be framed thus, Consi­dering, there is no part of divine worship more heavenly and spirituall then is the holy receaving of the blessed sacrament, therefore the assembly thinketh good in regard of so divine a mysterie, or in regard of so heavenly a pa [...]t of Gods worship, that that blessed sacrament be celebrated, &c. Whereas he saith, the word is mysterie, not mysteries in the plurall number, howbeit we finde it so in the first copies, let it be mysterie; The Doctour himselfe in his solutions for kneeling, useth sometime the word mysteries, sometime mysteries. Casaub. exer­cit. pag. 550. Casaubone speaking of this sacrament, saith, It is called sometime m [...]sterie, sometime mysteries. Dicitur autono masticè [...], aut numero multitudinis [...]. Dionysius Areop [...]git a entituleth the chapter of the Lords supper, The mysterie of the syna [...]is or holy commu­nion, Ambrose saith, Ambrose in 1 Cor. 11. Hieron. in Psal. 147. Oecumen [...]us in 1 Cor. 11. Indignus est Domino, qui aliter mysterium celebrat, quàm ab eo institutum est. Hierome saith, Licet in mysterio possit intelligi, tamen veriùs corpus Christi & sanguis ejussermo scripturarum est, Oecumenius saith, That the Apostle calleth the mysterie of our Ma­ster, the Lords supper. A number of testimonies might be cited to this purpose. The reason of such speach is, because both the sacramentall signes are referred to one [Page 87] Christ. It is but one action the celebration of the sup­per. Further, we receave the bodie and bloud of Christ, when we heare and beleeve the promises of the Gospel, read, Origen in num. Homil. 23. & 16. exponed, or rehearsed. Origen saith, Hoc quod modo loqu mur, sunt earnes Christi, that which we are presently speaking to you is the flesh of Christ. And in another place, We are said to drinke the bloud of Christ, not only by the rites of the sacraments, but also when we hear the word. Hierome, as ye heard before, That more truly the speach of the scri­pture is the body and bloud of Christ. If then in the narra­tive, be no me [...]o me [...]nt then the spirituall receaving of Christs body and bloud, it is no more a reason for knee­ling at the receaving of the sacrament, then at hearing of the promises of the Gospel read and exponed. The words therefore must bee meant of the sacramentall manner of receaving, and the words relative in the con­clusion, In regard of so divine a mysterie; must meane, In regard of the mysticall o [...] sacramentall receaving; and so the Communicant is directed to kneel, in regard of the sa­crament.

The third reason in the narrative, The third reason exa­mined. L. p. 74. is the correspon­dence betweene the outward gesture of our body, and then meditation, and lifting up our hearts, whe [...] wee re­member, and consider the mysticall union betwixt Christ and us, and among our selfes, whereof we are made par­takers by the receaving of Christs body and bloud. He shunneth to set downe the words of the narrative, and of the conclusion answerable to them, as he did in the former two reasons, because he perceaved they could not be framed to his purpose. For there is no mention made in the narrative of mysticall union, nor is it said in the narrative, that the most humble and reverent gesture [Page 88] of the bodie, well becommeth the meditation, and lift­ing up of our hearts, when wee remember and consider the mysticall union betwixt Christ and us, but that the most humble and reverent gesture of our body in our meditation and lifting up of our hearts, becommeth well so divine and sacred an action, to wit, as is the receaving of the body and bloud of Christ. Wee are not directed by the act to meditate and lift up hearts, but to use that kinde of gesture, which becommeth meditation and the lifting up of the heart; nor is kneeling a gesture well becomming meditation. Wee meditate sitting, lying, walking. Kneeling is a gesture well becomming prayer, but not meditation. By lifting up the heart, no necessity to meane prayer: for the minde and heart may be lifted up by faith and contemplation, without prayer. And to this lifting up the Communicants were exhorted of old with sursum corda, least their hearts and mindes should be groveling and onely bent upon the elements. And so the lifting up of the eyes may be a signe of lift­ing up of the heart and minde, in token that wee looke confidently to have our desires granted by God, who dwelleth in heaven, as the casting downe of the eye as a token of humiliation for sinne. Suppose by lifting up of the heart prayer should be meant, yet kneeling is not the humblest gesture for prayer, but prostration. Then we should prostrat our selfes when wee receave the sacra­ment. Next, if the Communicant shall pray mentally, when hee receaveth the sacrament, and in that regard kneel, he shall be exercised other wayes then the act of receaving requires. Further, a secret mentall prayer shall be commended to him in publike without a vocall, and the signe of it the humble gesture of kneeling, whereas [Page 89] the signes of secret and mentall prayer in publike should be concealed, so farre as may be. The minister, when he delivereth the elements, is not directed to use a vocall prayer to be followed by the Communicant. And wee see, the Conformitants are not uniforme among them­selfes in the words uttered at deliverie of the elements. If we may sit, or stand, or kneel in time of prayer, then kneeling is not enjoyned in regard of prayer, but some other thing intended. But, as I have said, we are not di­rect, by the act to lift up our hearts or pray; and there­fore I need not, as yet, to insist upon this pretext. Gi­ving, that in the conclusion these words, In remem­brance of so mysticall an union, [...]e answerable in the nar­rative, the meditation and lifting up of our heart; then by meditation and lifting up of the heart, is meant not prayer, but remembrance. And what is that, to say, to kneel in remembrance, that were to kneel for a memo­riall. But suppone it were thus, when we remember, and as he addeth consider, to remember and consider is not to pray. Shall we kneel, whensoever we are put in minde of that mysticall union? And what is meant by this my­sticall union? It may meane as well a materiall con­junction, as they call it, or corporall union of the body of Christ, with the bodies of the Communicants, by touch in the mouth, swallowing downe to the stomack, and mixture with the bodies of the communicants, as spirituall with the soule. O Lord, let thy bodie which I have taken, and bloud which I have drunken, c [...]eave uut [...] my guts and en [...]rals, saith a Romane missall. But the spi­rituall eating of Christs flesh, and drinking of his bloud, and the mysticall union between Christ and us wrought by it, is as well done out of the sacrament, as in it, saith [Page 90] Master Downe, pag. 46. Wee are not united with Christ by recea­ving his flesh into our mouthes, but by faith, which may be done without ever participat [...]ing the sacr [...]ment.

That the Reader may perceave the better, how the act is contrived, let him read it without the two lies clo­sed within the parenthesis, seeing the act is whole, and entire without them, and he shall see, that it may passe among Papists and Lutherans, not one word or syllable sounding against a reall presence in the signes, and that we are directed to kneel not in regard of any prayer, but in due regard of so divine an action or mysterie, as is the sacrament, or sacramentall receaving of Christs bodie and bloud. The intent of the church of England in kneeling.

Wee may also consider the intent of the Church of England, or rather of their prelats and adherents, that wee may take up the better the intent of our act. For conformitie with them is intended. At the first, Knee­ling was left free in the dayes of King Edward the sixt. The Papists making a stirre for want of reverence to the sacrament: at the second reviewing of the booke of common prayer. Kneeling was enjoyned upon this rea­son, That the sacrament might not be prophaned, but holden in a holy and reverent estimation; this was done by the directours and contrivers of the booke, partly to pacifie the Papists, partly, because their judgement was not cleare in this point. They could not see every thing throughly at the dawning of the day. Yet it was not al­tered, but by a sta [...]ute 1. Elizabeth, that second booke of King Edwards was confirmed. D. B. of kneeling, p. 30. Doctour Burges brin­geth in a passage to explaine the matter, which, saith he, is left out by negligence of the printer. But it is more likely, that it hath beene done of purpose by such as were [Page 91] directours. Doctour Mortoun saith, That their Church thought it fit by outward reverence in the manner of re­ceaving the eucharist, to testifie their due estimation of such holy rites, to stop the mouths of blasphemous Pa­pists, vilifying the sacrament with the ignominious names of bakers bread, vintners wine, profane elements, ale-cakes. But Doctour Ames, in his reply to Doctour Mortoun, Reply 2. part pag. 50. answereth, That it was not so much for the stopping of the mouths of Papists, but that some close dissembling adversaries did hinder the worke of refor­mation so much as they could, and that they have done so ever since, and do so still to this day. It may be such pretended the scoffing of Papists; bu [...] what matter of any glosse, if kneeling be directed, that the sacrament be not prophaned, but hold in reverent estimation. Then the sacrament is prophaned belike, if wee either sit, or stand, and kneel not. Master Hu [...]ton saith, They kneel to put a difference betweene the ordinarie bread and wine, and these sacramentall, to which they give the more re­verence, because it is more then ordinarie bread and wine. What more plaine? They say not, they kneel to God that the sacrament may not be prophaned, but hol­den in reverence, &c. But simply, they are enjoyned to kneel, that the sacrament be not prophaned, &c. And suppose they were, it were no better shift then the Pa­pists use, when they say they dedicate temples to God in honour of this or that Saint. And yet wee kneel not to God, but in prayer and thanksgiving, which are not compatible with the act of receaving, eating and drink­ing, of which more afterward. A bare kneeling can not be presented without some signe of extraordinarie pre­sence, or apparition.

[Page 92] Some of their formalists pretend, The pretence of prayer ex­amined. they kneel, because of the prayer u [...]tered at the deliverie of the elements, The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, pre­serve thy body and soule unto everlasting life. I answer, That it is already proved, that kneeling is enjoyned for the sacraments fak [...]. Next, Christ prayed not at the deliverie of the elements, but in an enunciative forme uttered the word of the promise, This is my body, This cuppe is the new testament. 2. The word of promise is the speciall clause of the charter. The sacramentall signes, are like seales hanging at the charter. If at any time therefore the word of promise should be uttered, then specially when the seales are delivered. The Evan­gelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and the Apostle Paul, repeat precisely and constantly that word, so that any man may perceave, the sacramentall forme of words ought precisely to be observed and uttered in the name of Christ, without change into a prayer in name of the Church. The sacramentall forme of words is observed in baptisme, why not here. Our formalists forbeare to to utter the word of promise to the Communicant. They say, They have uttered it before. It is not enough, that they were uttered before narr [...]iv [...]ly, or [...] in rehearsall of the words of institution; For this sacra­ment is an imitation of Christ, not a recitall of his words and actions. It is to doe as he did, and not to report what he did, Of the eucha­rist. p. 95. saith Mouline. The rehearsall of the words of the institution le [...]terh us see, what warrant wee have to cele­brate such an action, and in generall of use I read and wine. But it can not bee said demonstratively of this bread and wine in particular set on the table, that it is the body and bloud of Christ, till it be first sanctified by [Page 93] prayer and thanksgiving to that use, and after delivered to the communicant, with command, to take, eat, and assurance if he so doe, the bread shall be a pledge of his body, and the wine of his bloud. Christ said not, This is my body, take, eat, but Take, eat, this is my body, or actu continuo, bad them both take and eat. The promise is annexed to the commandment as conditionall, and hath no effect otherwise, but if the condition be performed. It is a receaved action among the Divines. Elementa ex­trausum non sunt sacramenta: The elements out of the use are no sacraments. And sacramenta perficiuntur usu. If the elements after the blessing be not delivered, shal they be sacramentally Christs body and bloud? or if delive­red, and not eaten?

It fareth with the sacramentall elements, as with pawnes and pledges in contracts and bargans: A ring may bee set a part to bee a pledge in matrimonie, yet it is not actuallie a pledge, without consent of the other par­tie, but only a meere sing. A stone chosen out from a­mong many, to bee a signe of a march, is not actuallie a march stone, but in the use, when it is set with consent of parties in the march to that end. There was never a sign without the use wherefore it was appointed to be a sign. Never a march but that which divided land, nor a ban­quet but in eating and drinking, De euchari­stia l. 8. c. 3. num. 22, 23. saith Chamier. So the elements are sanctified, and set a part by prayer and rhanksgiving to this use, but are not Christs bodie and bloud actuallie till they be receaved and used. Panis nun­quam est signum corporis Christi, nisi in edendo; nun quam vinum sanguinis, nisi in potando. And therefore this ho­lie ordinance is properly defined a sacred act [...]on, consi­sting of so many rites. By a figurative kinde of speach it [Page 94] is true, the bread may bee called the sacrament of Christs bodie, because it is appointed to that end, as when Isaac said to Abraham, Where is the sacrifice? that is, the lamb or the ramme appointed for the sacrifice, but not properly. Doctour Lindseves proceedings at [...]e th. page 5 [...]. Now the Formalist presupponeth, that the sa­crament is made alreadie, before hee come to deliver the elements, and therefore, hee sayth, hee uttereth other words at the deliverie. So yee see, they place such ver­tue in uttering these words, This is my bodie, in the rehear­sall of the institution, as the papist doth, that they thinke the read alreadie Christs bodie, and therefore absurd to utter these words againe at the deliverie to the Commu­nicants: for then they should seeme to consecrate again. So grosse poperie is the ground of omitting the comfor­table word of promise at the delivering, and snbstituting a pray [...]r, page 336. or ministeriall blessing, as P. calleth it, in the rowme of it, and such a prayer as presupposeth the bread already to bee Christs bodie: and therefore they say, The bodie of the Lord pr [...]serve thy bodie and soule. Heere also is a wil-worship: for howbeit prayer bee of it selfe a pure of Gods worship instituted and allowed by God, yet to pray unseasonablie, and out of time, at the will and de­vice of man, when you should bee serving God in ano­ther forme, it is wil-worship: neither is there necessitie of this, a prayer alreadie preceeding. And surely this their prayer is a senselesse one, like that old prayer, Anima Christi sanctificaine, which is directed to Christs soule, whereas wee should direct our prayers to his person, not to his humanitie by it self.

Let it bee observed by the way, that the words of the institution are rehearshed in the English service book, and among the rest these ords, This is my bodie, to God [Page 95] in a continuall tenor with the prayer begun before, just according to the order observed in the Canon of the masse, when the priest offereth his sacrifice, which is an horrible abuse of the words of the institution, which Christ uttered to the Communicants, and not unto God. I dare bee bold to affirme, the sacrifice of the masse had never en [...]red in the Church, if the word of promise had beene uttered at the deliverie of the elements to the Communicants in an enunciative forme, or demonstra­tively, as Christ did. Thirdly, if in regard of prayer, then, if Christs sacramentall speach be uttered without addi­tion of a prayer, the Communicants must not kneel. Christs forme of speach then must be thrust out, that prayer and with it kneeling may enter in. Fourthly, suppose the prayer might be substituted in the roome of the word of promise, kneeling should not be enjoyned nor urged more precisely at that bit of prayer, then at other prayers. Yea, it is superstition to urge kneeling at one prayer more strictly, then at another, and absurd, in my judgement, to enjoyne it at all in any. They may as well enjoyne any man to lift up his eyes, to knock on his breast, to bow the head, or crouch, as to kneel: as they doe in the popish service, which hath made it the more ridiculous. for kneeling, lifting up of the hands or eyes, knocking on the breast, are naturall expressions and adumbrations of the inward motions of the soule, and proceed ex abundantia interni affectu, De sacram. lib. 1. c. 10. s. 7. as saith Cha­mier, and therefore ought not to be extorted by injun­ctions, for that were to command men to play the hypo­crits, and like comedians, to counterfite outward signes of such inward motions, as perhaps are not in them, so ve­hement as to stir them up voluntarily to such expressions. [Page 96] Yea, some of them may serve for ejaculations, as the lift­ing up of the eyes, to knock on the breast, and to bow the head, which bowing is finished in one instant, saith L. pag. 68. All undecent and unseemly gesture in prayer, ought to bee forbidden, but no gesture ought to bee comman­ded in speciall, but left free. Fiftly, that prayer above mentioned, is but a short ejaculation, and sooner ended then the Communicant can addresse himself to his knees. Sixtly, that prayer or short wish is ended be­fore the Minister offer the bread to the Communicant, and bid him take it, and yet the Communicant is enjoined to continue still upon his knees. Nor is kneeling enjoi­ned to them by statute or their service book, in regard of mentall prayer, for none such is enjoined. what suppose kneeling were enjoined in respect of prayer also, for if also, or principallie for reverence of the Sacrament, it is sufficient for our purpose. for to adore any other thing but God, or with God, are both idolatrous. Master Paybodie saith, P. pag. 334. Concerning prayer, I do freely confesse, that in as much as it is but an occasion, and not the principall ex­ercise of the soule, whither it be: mentall or vocall, in the sa­crament all busi [...]esse, I do neither deeme it the principall re­spect of lawfull kneeling, neither have I reason to deeme it the principall respect upon which the Church enjoyneth it. And againe, pag. 299. Suppose there bee no prayer used in the time of receaving, I think never the worse of the gesture of kneeling. No wonder hee say so, for hee layeth down a ground, that any of the gestures may be used in any part of Gods worship, which is a begging of the question, and yet hee can not prove kneeling at the hearing of the word, let bee in the act of receaving the sacramentall ele­ments, but out of a misprinted place in Perth assembly, [Page 97] pag. 45. where in is put for after.

Farre lesse can our Formalists pretend the respect of prayer. No pretence of prayer in our act. For we have no act enjoyning either any vocall prayer to be uttered by the minister or mentall by the Communicant, when he is to receave the elements. Nor doe our Formalists observe one forme of words at the deliverie, either for prayer, or otherwise.

Wheresoever the publike intent of a Church is to kneel for reverence of the sacrament, The intent of the knee­ler must be interpreted by the act. every Communi­cant following her direction, is an idolater. Howbeit his privat intent were divers from the intent of the act, which is urged as the publike intent of the Church, yet he is interpretativè an idolater, and to be so construed both before God and man. If any man receave the sa­crament upon his knees at Rome, or in any other Popish Church, whersoever were his privat intent, yet he must be interpreted to kneel according to the intent of the Church of Rome. The heart may be carried one way, and the outward action another way for feare, or other respects, but that outward action must be interpreted not according to the intention of the minde, but the intent of the injoyner. If ye fall downe before an idol in Spaine, suppose for feare of the inquisition, ye commit idolatrie, and honoureth that idol in the sight of men.

If it be asked, after what manner the Communicant must be interpreted to adore, Of the man­ner of their adoration. I answer, That upon better consideration of the act then before, I thinke the Com­municant may according to the act kneel with a Popish intent, carring both the inward motion of his spirit, and outward submission of his body to the sacrament upon opinion of transubstantiation, or with the Lutherans in­tent upon opinion of consubstantiation, and that for [Page 98] two cases, first, because the words of the act make men­tion only of the body and bloud of Christ, and of the blessed sacrament, but not one word of the elements of bread and wine. Next, because some of our ministers the chief urgers of kneeling are popish, and have taught in publike in the pulpits of Edinburgh, that wee ought not to contend, or descant curiously upon the manner of Christs presence in the sacrament, and that he is pre­sent after an unknowne manner. To this purpose they cite a saying of Durandus. It is current among the En­glish prelats. D. Ames 1. reply pag. 54. part. 2. The bishop of Rochester in his defence of kneeling, commendeth the simplicitie of the ancients, who disputed not whither Christ were present C [...]n, sub, in, or trans, Hooker. l. 5. s. 67. in the supper. See Hooker likewise in his fift booke of ecclesiasticall policie. And Sutton on the Lords supper, in his appendix. They will talke more plainly, when they shall see their time. pag. 142, 145. Our Doctour commen­deth them for this. They would have us beleeve, that the manner of the presence of Christs body at the sa­crament is unknowne, whereas we know very well, that Christs body is present after a spirituall manner to the soules of the godly receaving by faith, [...]ut to the sacra­ment, or elemen [...]s only after a sacramentall manner, that is, relatively, as things signified are to signes, how­beit farre distant. That incomprehensible or unsearch­able manner, whereof they talke, is a lurking hole for adversaries to the truth, Epist. 76. as Beza can tell him.

Our Doctour from Christs personall omnipresence, inferreth, page 142. the flesh and bloud of Christ may be worshipped in the sacrament, because, wheresoever his person is, his humanity is corjoyned with his divinitie. By this Popish reason, Christs flesh and bloud may be [Page 99] worshipped in a stone, in the moone, the sunne, or any other thing else. His argument is borrowed from the Rhemists note upon Heb. 1. 8. Our doctour rejecteth the Vbiquitaries conceat of Christs humanitie, extended and diffused through every place: yet notwithstanding of this personall omnipresence, he hideth himself in the lurking hole of the imperceptible manner of the sacramentall presence. He acknowledgeth a spiritual presence of Christs body in the sacrament. B [...]llarmine acknowledgeth as much, De Eucharis. lib. 1. cap. 2. for saith hee, Non habet Christus in Eucharistia mo­dum existendi corporum, sed spirituum. If ye will bear the word Bodily, so will Bellarmine he content, because (saith he) Christ is not present after that manner, that bodies have existence of their own nature, unlesse the right explica­tion bee added: He commendeth the expression of the councell of Tre [...], Verè, realiter, substantialiter, Truely re­allie substantiallie, as the best and surest For the popish sence. When our doctours will not have us to contend about the manner of presence, whither by consubstanti­on, or transubstantiation, yet this taketh not away Sub­stantially in generall, but leaveth place to substantially in an unknown manner. But wee proceed: If any will extend the words of the act to the elements of bread and wine, and interpret the receaving of Christs bodie and bloud, of the souls inward receaving, then howbeit hee kneeleth not upon opinion of the reall presence of Christ in the sacrament, yet his adoration is terminated, and re­steth someway upon the sacrament, or sacramentall ele­ments, otherwise hee cannot bee said to kneel for recei­ving of the sacrament.

Now, as the papists agree not among themselves about the manner of worshipping their images, so the Com­municants [Page 100] may differ in the manner and way of termi­nating that adoration or worship. Therefore suppose he believe not the reall presence or existence of the body of Christ in the bread, yet hee may in his apprehension and imagination unite them, as the papist doth his image with the prototype, and so adore the thing with the thing sig­nified; as the purple robbe with the King is coadored or adored per accid [...]ns: or hee may consider the signe, as substitute in the roome of the thing signified, howbeit absent, and performeth before it, or about it, that adora­tion which hee would bestow upon the thing signified, and by it, or in it honoureth the thing, signified proper­ly, but the signe improperly: As when a Kings Ambas­sadour or Vice-gerent is honoured at some solemnitie with the honour of his Master, but improperly; for the King is properly honoured. Or as Vas [...]uez will have ima­ges to bee adored, to wit, with the inward motion of the minde to the thing signified the bodie of Christ, and the exterior or outward signe of submission to the signe, to bee transmitted to the thing signified, or considering the signes as things sacred, and in relation to God, whom we are serving in the use of them. So howbeit the way and manner of terminating the reverence in the Sacrament bee different, according to the conceat of the Communi­cant, all come to one end, to wit, to kneel for reverence of the Sacrament. Now to kneel for reverence, is a gesture of adoration, pag. 70. and soveraigne worship, as L. ackow­ledgeth. It is nothing to the devil, whether a man erre this or that way. Howbeit the Communicants were not directed to kneel for reverence of the Sacrament, dare any man say, but they may easily fall upon it one of these wayes.

[Page 101] I might draw another score heere, for it is enough that the Communicants are directed by the act of Perth to kneel, for reverence of the Sacrament: for seeing hee kneeleth in obedience to that act, hee must bee inter­preted to kneel for that end: otherwise hee may goe to Rome, and take Corpus Christi out of the popes hand, re­serving a secret intent to himself. Therefore howbeit kneeling in the act of receiving might hee lawfull, no professour in our Church can bee excused, if he kneel.

But wee proceed, Kneeling in the act of re­ceiving can not be free of idolatrie. and setting aside the act of P [...]rth, wee consider the act or action it self, kneeling in the act of receaving, eating, drinking the [...] simplie. We will prove it can not bee done but for reve­rence of the Sacrament, or sacramentall elements, and that by two arguments.

The first argument shall bee this, The first ar­gument. To be tied to kneel, whither by direction of others, or resolution of our own mindes, to kneel with reverence, in any religious exer­cise [...] or senselesse creature, can not bee done but for [...] of that creature. The communi­cant is [...] by the direction of others, or his own [...] to kneel with reverence before dead and senselesse creatures, when hee is in the act of re­ceaving the sacramentall elements. Therefore he knee­leth for reverence of the sacramentall elements. I say, by direction of others, or resolution of our own minde. for we can not kneele to God in prayer, but there are many things before us, a house, a wall, a tree, &c. but they are set before us only by casuall position or situation [...]ther can wee choose to do otherwise, but wee do not lie our selfes. I adde with reverence: for if a person finding him­selfe diseased at the hearing of the word, finde himselfe [Page 102] eased with kneeling, that can not bee called kneeling with reverence. If yee bee tied to kneel with reverence, when you are to do any religious exercise, suppone prayer, be­fore such a creature, suppone but a'tree, and is not like­wise tied when you pray before any other creature, your gesture of adoration can not bee without respect to the tree. God himself never appointed any creature to bee an object to the eyes of man, when hee was to adore him upon his knees, but only directed his people to kneel to­ward a certain place, where he was present himself in an extraordinarie manner, or bound himself by promise to hear them from thence. Hee was present in the Ark af­ter an extraordinarie manner, sitting betweene the Che­rubins, answered by a lively voice out of it to Moses, and vouchsafed to hear such as turned toward the Temple, when they called upon him. But there is no such place appointed under the Gospel, far lesse any creature before which hee hath directed us to kneel. Our adoration is directed to that place, where wee know the manhood of Christ, whereof the Ark and the Temple were types, doth exist naturally or substantially, that is, to the heavens The sacramentall bread is not a place of Gods extraor­dinarie presence, nor of the existing of Christs manhood substantially, or of promise to hear us from thence. It is idolatrie (saith Perkinse) to turne, Treatise of idolatie [...]. dispose or direct the wor­ship of God, or any part thereof to any particular place or creature without the appointment of God, and more specially to direct our adoration to the bread, or the place where the bread is. The Theologues, and ministers in the Palati­nat in their admonition, touching the booke of Con­cord, teach us, that it is idolatrie to worship God other­wise then he hath commanded: that they are guilty of [Page 103] this idolatrie, that direct the adoration of God to any other place or creature, then God hath commanded: that for this cause only these worshipped God aright, who in their gesture turned their faces toward the arke, where he was, prefer [...] after a singular manner, because God had commanded this ceremoniall adoration, pro­mising to heare such as worshipped him after that man­ner. But that under the new testament all ceremoniall adoration by turning us to any certaine place or thing, is damned.

In the admonition above mentioned, therefore they condemne them as guiltie of as grosse idolatrie, who adore Christ in, or beside, or before the sacramentall bread; [...]s if he were corporally there, as those who fal­ling down before any common bread, a stocke, or stone, would say, they adore Christ in it. Qui igitur Christum adorant in isto vel apud istum, vel coram isto pane, tanquam ibi corporaliter praesentem, aeque crassam ac Deo displicen­tem idololatriam admittunt, atque is qui coram quovis pa­ne communi aut quovis trunco, aut quovis lapid: procidens, in eo Christum se aederarit dicat. They adde, as corporal­ly present, because these against whom they were wri­ting maintained a corporall presence. Our doctour sayeth, It is no errour to worship Christs flesh there, pag. 142. which must bee understood as present there, whither in respect of his personall omnipresence, or by imaginarie u [...]ion of the bread and his bodie, or that unknown manner of sacramentall presence, with which they cloak perhaps a meaning, which as yet they think not expedient to pro­fesse. Kuchlinus disp. theolog. pag. 597. inferreth out of Ierem. 3. 11. and Iohn 4. 23. likewise, that our ado­ration should not bee directed, either in bodie or minde, [Page 104] to the altar, or the ministers hand. Ter Simecdochen enim tollit circumstantiam omnem verti loci; ad quem in terris di­rigitur adoratio Dei, quod ostendit Antithesis manifestè, sed in spiritu & veritate. Yee see then, howbeit wee are not tied to direct our adoration at all time to the place where the bread is, as the Jewes were toward the arke, because it is not alwayes fixed in a certaine place, these divines condemne the like manner, at whatsoever time we adore before the bread.

We uncover our heads, The unco­vering of the head not like kneeling. say they, when wee receave the elements, why may wee not also kneel? I answer, first, the uncovering of the head is a gesture of reverence only, and that only among some nations, but not of adoration. The Jewes, Turkes, and Mahometans pray with their heads covered. The Grecians and Romanes of old, howbeit they walked in publike with uncovered heads, except in raine, great heat, or mourning, yet in the service of their Gods, they had their heads covered. The Europeans this day uncover their heads when they are praying. Kneeling is a gesture of adoration among all nations, either in civill or religious use. Augustine saith, Honorat emnis qui adorat, no autem adorat omnes quid onorat; Every one that doth adore, doth honour, but not every one that honoureth, adoreth. Contraserm. Arian. c. 23. I will not kneel to every one, to whom I uncover my head civilly. Every one that standeth with his head uncovered in presence of the king, is not adoring, as he is who is presenting his petition to the king upon his knee in their sight. A provinciall synod holden at Lon­don, anno 1603: ordained the head to be uncovered, when their service is read in the Church, yet I thinke they would not have enjoyned kneeling. We heare the [Page 105] canonicall scripture read with uncovered heads, but yet we kneel not. The words of Christ, which he uttered at the institution, are still and often uttered; that same voice soundeth through all the tables of the world, his actions, which were divine and holy, are reiterat. In Gratians decree, De consecrat. dist. 1. cap. 68. we have a superstitious direction of Pope Anastasius, that when the Gospell is reade in the Church, those that are present, shall not sit, but stand venerabiliter curvi, bowing reve­rently, hearken and adore. Wherefore more at the hea­ring of the Gospell, then the Epistle, which is also Evan­gelicall? Yet you see, howbeit that standing with bow­ing be more then to have the head uncovered, it was but veneration. And, whereas he saith, Et fideliter adorent, the glosse hath, id est venerentur, because the word ado­ring, is taken there in a large sense, as yee may see sundrie places above cited, not for that which is in a strict sense called adoration. Adoration in strict sense is kneeling or pr [...]stration. Whereas Matthew saith, chap 8. [...]. of the leprouse man, That he worshipped Christ, or adored Christ, as the Latine translation hath according to the origi­nall, Mark 1. 40. He kneeled dew [...]e to him, and Luke 5. 12. that he fell in his face. Suchlike, where it is said of the Cananitish woman, Matth. 15. 25. That she worship­ped, or adored him: & adoravit eum. Mark 7. 25. it is said, That she fell at his feet. The Greek word [...], signifieth to fall downe like a dog o [...] [...]whelp at the feet of another, as our Lord. Further, our heads are not other way uncovered in the act of receaving, then in the rest of the time of the celebration; when wee are not neare the elements. And thirdly, the uncovering of our head is compatible with the varietie of actions in time of ce­lebration, [Page 106] praying, singing, the words of the in­stitution, and chapters reade, but adoration directed, as they pretend to God, can not be without presenting [...] our petitions, and thanks to God, which requireth a se­verall part of the action by it selfe.

It is objected, Occasionall. [...]neeling not warrant [...]r ordinarie. [...] pag. 88. that 1 King. 18. 39. when the people saw the fire fall upon the sacrifice, to consume it, the wood, the stones, the dust and lick up the water that was in the trench, they fell on their faces, and cried, The Lord is God. I answer, The people fell on their faces af­ter the fire had consumed the burnt sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and licked up the water, and not in the meane time; for it is not likely that they fell downe, till they had seene what the fire had wrought. Next, what sup­pose they had fallen down [...] in the meane time, that the fire was working the worke, wherefore it was sent. Is it any wonder, that men amazed with the presence of Gods majestie in a miracle, fall downe as astonished, to worship God. Levit. 9. 23, 24. The origi­nall of unbe­ [...]eef. pag. 332. Such a visible signe of Gods presence is called the glorie of the Lord. Doctour Jackson the Ar­minian hath this rule to be observed, Such actions as have been managed by Gods Spirit suggested by secret instinct, or extracted by extraordinarie and speciall occasions, are then onely lawfull in others, when they are begotten by like occasions, or brought forth by like impulsions. In mat­ters of secular civilitie or moralitie, many things (saith he) will beseeme one man, which are uncomely in an­other, and in one, and thes [...]me mans deportment many things are decent and lawfull, whiles they are drawne from him by speciall or rare occasions, whose usuall practise upon dislike or no occasions, becommeth accor­ding to the nature of the subject, r [...]diculous, or dishonest. [Page 107] That in the service of God, and matters spirituall, the least digression or declination from proposed paternes, is farre more dangerous. To attempt the like enterprise unto Jonathans, upon warrant of his exemple, and upon like speeches of enemies inviting him to come up, would bee a superstitious tempting of God. Every man may not use the like prognostication, that Abrahams servant made use of, when he was sent to bespeak for his young master Isaac a wife. Jacob expressed his tender affection to his sonne Joseph, whom he never looked to see again, by kissing his coat, but to have hanged it about his bed or table, that it might receave such salutations evening and morning, or at every meales time, might have coun­tenanced many breaches of superstition. Charles the fift after his fyrewell to the warres, and safe arrivall to Spaine, saluted the spanish shore in such an affectionat and prostrat manner, as his meanest vassall could nor or­dinarly have saluted, either him or it without just impu­tation of grosse idolatrie. These are Doctour Jacksons examples, which hee bringeth in for illustration of his rule. If there come into the Church one that beleeveth not, or one that is unlearned, and heare one after another prophesie, and finding himself convinced, and the secrets of his heart made manifest, falling downe on his knees, he will report that God is in you of a truth, 1 Corin. 14. 24, 25. Yet if hee fell downe before: them ordinarily, were it not idolatrous? Thirdly, suppose they had fal­len downe when the fire was in working, yet it is not said, that they fell downe with their eyes po [...]ing upon the fire, but upon their faces, and cried. The Lord is God, because he had manifested by his presence and power in such a miracle, that he was the true God, as 2 Chron. 7. 3. [Page 108] when the children of Israel saw, how the fire came down, and consumed the sacrifices, and that the glorie of the Lord had filled the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavem [...]n [...], and worshipped and prai­sed the Lord, saying, &c.

Salomon kneeled, Salomons kneeling at the dedica­tion of the temple. say they, before the altar of the Lord, when he prayed at the dedication of the temple. For it is said, 1 King. 8. 54. that when he had made an end of praying all his prayer and application to the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lor [...], from kneeling on his knees, and stood, and blessed the people. I an­swer, The altar is not set downe there as the object, to­ward which he directed his countenance, when he was kneeling, but only as a circumstance of the place where he was, when hee praved at that time; for he had pre­pared a brazen scaffold; and set it in the middest of the court, over against the altar of the Lord, 2 Chron. 6. 13. He kneeled where he had been standing on the scaffold, and spread his hands toward the heavens, not toward the altar. It is said; 2 Chron. 6. 13. That he fell downe upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands towards heaven. Neither is it said, That he turned his face to the altar. They turned their face ordinarily to that part of the temple, where the arke was the place of Gods extraordinarie presence. The arke was metonymically called God, 1 Sam. 4. 7. The Lord, 1 King. 9. 25. The Lord of hosts, the King of glorie, Psal. 24. The face of the Lord, Esa. 1. 12. for it the tabernacle was made, and the temple. It represented Gods seat, and God delivered his oracles from the mer­cie seat above it. What likelihood then is there, that they kneeled ordinarly in their prayers looking toward [Page 109] the altar, or that they come never before the altar but kneeled before it; for the altar was but dedicated at this time. It was not already dedicated, but in fieri, saith D. B. Augustine lib. Of kneeling. pag. 7. 2. ad Simplicianum qui. 4. saith, Da­vid pr [...]yed before the arke, Quia ibi sacratior & com­mendatior presentia Domini erat; because the presence of the Lord there was more sacred and more to bee re­spected. The like answer may bee given to that place, Micha 6. 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow my self before the high God. They bowed themselves before the high God sitting betweene the Cherubims, not toward the altar, they bowed, when they had offered their oblations, not to their oblations. As when they presented the basket with first fruits; they first set it downe, and after bowed themselves before Jehovah their God, and so went out, Deut. 26. 24. 10. What if they had bowed, when they were offering to God? When wee are in the act of receaving, eating, drinking, we are receaving, and not offering.

They say, The pre­tence of ob­jectum a quo significative. the sacramentall elements are only as obje­ctum à quo significative, that is, as an active object mo­ving them to worship the things signified, or God. Put case that were true. So said Purandus, Holcot, and Picus Mirandula; That they adored the prototype or samplar before the image, which put them in minde of the sam­plar, and spake in as abstract a manner, of their worship, as the Formalist doth, when he pretendeth the purest intent he can in he manner of his adoration. And yet were they never ranked among the Iconomachi, but by the Papists counted good Catholiks. It is true, Bellar­mine and Suarez are not content with this adoration, which they call improper adoration, when any person [Page 110] or thing is honoured in place of another, as when the ambassadour is honoured with the honour due and pro­per to the king, but for the king, or, as when all the cere­monies are celebrat about a statue in steed of the true corps. De imagini­bus. cap. 19. 20. 21. Bell irmine granteth notwithstanding that, Coram illa, vel in illa, aut per illam adoratur exemplar, that after their manner of worship the samplar is adored before the image, De cultu adorat. Disp. 108. num. 73. or in the image, or by the image. Vazquez pro­veth, That these Doctours made the image objectum quod, the very object passive of adoration, and that both the samplar and the image were adored, simul cum ima­ginibus exemplaria proximè & ut quód adorari. For they used the same respect to the images, that other Catho­liks used, they uncovered their head to them, they bow­ed toward them, kneeled before them, and kissed them. And this he defendeth to be the right manner, when the image and the samplar are adored with one adoration, the inward motion and submission of the minde, being carried to the samplar, and the outward signe of submis­sion to the image, being transmitted by the spirit, or in thought and defire, De adorat. disp. 108. num. 90. num. 132. 134. & disp. 110 num. 34. Disp. 109. num. 7. to the samplar. That all the Catho­liks agree in this, that the kisse be so fixed upon the image, and the body be bowed before it, that the affe­ction being inflammed with the remembrance of the samplar, be carried to it with inward reverence, Virtute cujus externum esculum in ipsum etiam veluti sagittam transmittat; by vertue or power whereof it transmitteth the outward kiss [...], as an arrow, to the samplar it selfe. So kneeling before the image, prostration, or any other signe of submission is to be transmitted by the image to the samplar after the same manner. For, De adorat. disp. 106. num 2. & 6. saith he, in the time of the 7. synod, there were some enemies to [Page 111] images, who were content, that images were brought into the Church, not only for decorement, sed etiam ad excitand [...]m f [...]delibus memoriam exemplaris, ut coram eis ipsum solum ven rentur, illis tamen nullum signum honoris aut submissienis, neque osculo, nec inclinatione corporis, nec alio modo exhiberent, id enim idolatriam esse dicebant, [...]ut also to stirre up the remembrance of the samplar, to the faithfull, that before them they might reverence only the samplar, but exhibite no signe of honour or submission, ei­ther by kisse or bowing of the body, or any other way, for they said that was idolatrie. Quare nec osculabantur imagines, neque ipsis corpus inclinabant, nec thurificabant, sed recti coram eis, in memoriam ex emplaris exictati, in ipsum mente sola ferebantur. And therfore (saith he) they neither kissed images, nor bowed their body to them▪ nor of­fered incense, but standing upright before them, being stirred up to the remembrance of the samplar, they were carried on­ly in their winde to it. In another place he saith, Disp. 108. num. 128. Icono­machi, qui ad solam recordationem imaginibus utuntur, ante illas genua non flectunt, nec se prosternunt, sic enim ip­sas nota extcriori adorarent, sed erecti absque ullo gestu corporis qui reverenti [...]m judicet, coram imagine, exempla­ris recordantur & ipsum spiritu solùm adorant. That is, The adversaries to images, who use images only to put them in remembrance of the samplar, they neither kneel, nor pro­strat themselves before them, for so they should adore them with the outward note or signe, but standing upright without any gesture of the body before the image, which might be a shew of reverence, they remember the samplar, and adore it in spirit only. But these Doctours above mentioned, how­beit their inward reverence was directed to the sam­plar, yet the outward signe of submission was first di­rected [Page 112] to the image. Ye see then, that taking the images only as objectum à quo significativè, as instruments and meanes to stirre up their remembrance, these mangrels who were called Semiprobi, would not kneel before them: for then, saith Vazquez, they should have adored them, which he in his Popish judgement, thinketh they should have done; but these Doctours did so. So if the elements be used only as objectum à quo significativè, to stirre up their remembrance, why kneel they before them. Nay, why are not the elements lifted up, as among the Papists, after they have said, This is my body, (for, say they, it is made then a sacrament) that the peo­ple being stirred up at the elevation with the sight of the signifying object, may kneel in whatsoever part of the Church they be. And howsoever the Doctour see­meth to disallow the elevation, pag. 119. 120. 121. Yet he saith, we may kneel before the elements, having them in our sight, or object to our senses, as ordinarie meanes, signes, and memorial, to stirre us up to worship God and our Saviour, pag. 88. 92. what fault were there then to lift them up to be seene. Seeing then they kneel before such a signifying object, and are tyed to kneel, the signi­fication of the object doth not help, but rather be wray­eth, that they give that respect unto it, as by it to trans­mit the outward signe of worship▪ mediatly to the thing signified, pag. [...]5. or to God, which L. confesseth to bee idolatrie, hypocrisie, and a mixture of worship: and yet this is at the least their worship. For if they used them onely as active objects, to stirre them up, they would not kneel before them in the meane time, more then when they are stirred up by the word, or works of God, by a toad, an asse, or a flee. And therefore it is not [Page 113] to the purpose, that he so often harpeth upon the use of stirring and moving. pag. 84. 85. 81. 92. D. B. of kneeling. pag. 33. D. B. saith plainly, That objectum à quo significativè, is medium per quod, a means by which, and that by the sacrament, they tender adoration to God. Doctour Mortoun saith, The adoration is relativ [...] from the signe to Christ. If it be from the signe, it must first be carried to the signe, as a meane of conveyance unto Christ, Reply 2. part. pag. 65. No diffe­rence be­tweene images and the elements in the case of adoration. saith Doctour Ames in his reply.

But D. L. in his solutions, saith, there is a great diffe­rence between images, which are the inventions of men, and the workes of God and the sacraments. But say we, in the case of adoration there is no difference. If the historicall use of images be lawfull, as some now main­taine, quid obstat praesentia imaginis, saith Vazquez, what doth hinder you at the sight of a crucifix to fall downe before it, and worship Crist. And if the use of images to this end be forbidden, so are also the creatures. Wee esteeme more indeed of the workes of God, then of the workmanship of man. Wee owe reverence at the hea­ring of the word, decent and comely usage in the parti­cipation of the sacrament, which we owe not to images, howbeit this reverent use be not properly a spece of ado­ration. L. pag. 77. Gods word and workes are ordained by God for our instruction, and so are not images. But God never ordained them to this end, that in them, by them, or before them, we should adore him, or any other thing wee are put in remembrance of by them. They are not commanded to be used, either in or out of the time of divine service, in modo & statu accomodato ad adoratio­nem. Wee may, and do use the word and sacraments for meanes, occasions, instruments to stirre us up to wor­ship God, but it followeth not that wee should or may [Page 114] worship God by kneeling before them. The generall Councell holden at Constantinople, anno 750. in con­demning images, speaking by the way of this sacrament, hath these words, Ecce igitur vivificantis illius corporis imaginem totam, panis scilicet substantiam, quam manda­vit apponi, ne scilicet humana effigie figura [...]a, idololatria intro duceretur; Behold therefore the whole or only image of that quickning body, the substance of bread, which he com­manded to be set before them, least if it had a humane shape, idolatrie might have beene brought in. The braz [...]n ser­pent was set up upon a pole, that these who were stinged with the firie serpents, looking upon it, might be cured. Yet, De adorat. disp. 104. num. 24. saith Vazquez, God commanded them to looke up­on it, standing upright without any adoration or signe of submission. The people of God had their sacra­ments, yet they kneeled not before them, nor yet heard they the word either read or exponed kneeling. When they heard the law of the passeover, they bowed not their head, howbeit it might bee finished in an instant, saith L. pag. 68. and farre lesse kneeled, but after they had heard. Gods workes are the booke of nature to teach us many things concerning God. But wee must not therefore fall downe before the sunne or moone, every green tree, an asse, a toad, when they worke, at the sight of them, upon our mindes, and move us to consider Gods good­nesse, wisedome, power. For then wee should fall into the horrible errour of Vazquez, De adorat. disp. 110. who doubted not to averre, that not onely an image, or any holy thing may be worshipped in the same adoration with God, but also any thing in the world, the sunne, the moone, the stirres, a stock, Solut. p. [...]62. a stone, a straw: Doctour Lindsey in his soluti­ons, to shunne this absurditie, saith, To bow downe, when we [Page 115] have seene the workes of God, when we have heard the word, and when we receave the sacraments, to ador [...] him, when by his workes, the word, and sacraments, we are taught to adore, is neither to bow downe to an idol, nor to worship God in an idol. He durst not say, When we see the workes of God, when wee heare the word of God, as he should have done, if he would have showen the difference betwixt the word of God, the workes of God, and images. Nor yet doth he say, When we have receaved the sacrament, as he said of the other two, When we have seene the workes of God, when wee have heard the word of God. But now hee affirmeth boldly, that we may bow our knees to God before his creatures, if wee use them onely as meanes and instru­ments to stirre us up to worship God, pag. 94. That this errour grounded upon the significant object, may be the better perceaved, consider, that the booke of na­ture is like the booke of grace. If I were reading and meditating upon a passage of scripture, I am then consi­dering what is read. When I have ended that worke, if I finde my selfe moved to pray, or give thankes, I pore not still with the eyes of my body, and my minde upon the booke, but turne my selfe to a wall, or a chaire, or a bed, or any other thing casually placed before me, yea perhaps before the booke it selfe, but casually, as before any other thing. I am not then gathering leassons or in­structions, for that exercise is ended. So when I am be­holding a tree, an asse, or toad, and considering in them the goodnesse, power, and wisedome of God, I am rea­ding upon the booke of nature, I am contemplating and gathering profitable instructions. I cannot still be con­templating, and in the meane time adore kneeling in prayer, or praise, for that were a confusion of holy [Page 116] exercises. Nor yet after my contemplation, and pre­paratorie worke for worship is ended, must I tie or set my selfe before that asse, to [...]d, or tree to kneel; for then I should kneel for a greater respect to that creature, then to any other beside for the time, before which I might have kneeled casually without respect. And so the mo­ving object shall participat of the externall adoration, my kneeling being convoyed by it to God, to whom it is directed by my spirit or affection, as Vazquez hath de­scrived the manner of adoration by images. The man­ner is not different. If the old opinion of some Heath­nike philosophers were their tenent, that the world was animated by God, as our bodies are by our soules, then they might with some probabilitie conclude. Jupiter [...]st quodcunque vides, All that thou seest is great Jupiter, and infer this worship before every creature. But Christian religion will not admit such gros [...]e opinions.

They say, Mediat civill wor [...]ip no good war­rant. men how before the chaire of estate, or the princes seale, which are dead and senslesse creatures. I answer, civill worship is conveyed mediatly to the per­son of the prince, by bowing before such senslesse crea­tures, because men thinke it expedient to uphold the in­firmitie of princely majestie by such meanes. But God needeth no mediat worship to uphold his majestie, nor will have none. Againe, the ceremonies of Kings and Emperours courts are no rules for religions worship. For, De civitat. Dei lib. 10. cap. 4. as Augustine saith, Multa de cultu di vino usurpata sunt, quae honoribus deseruntur humanis, sive humilitate ni­mia, sive adulatione pestifera. That great humilitie or pe­stiferous statterie, may be the originall of many honours gi­ven to princes, borrowed from the formes used in Gods wor­ship. Nazianzen saith, The Roman Euperours were ho­noured [Page 117] with publike images. Their crownes, and dia­demes, and purple robes, many lawes, tributs, and mul­titude of subjects were not sufficient to make sure their empire, but they behoved to be adored, not only in their owne persons, but also in colours, and other works made with mens hands, that they might seeme the more vene­rable. That is, Chamier de Imagin. c. 6. num. 9. as Chemier interpreteth, these images proceeded ab inexplebili fostū Imperatorum, from the in­satiable ambition of Emperours. The statues of some Kings have had divine honours conferred on them. Do­ctour Abbots in his defence of Perkinse saith, It should seeme s [...]range, that formalities observed to princes in their courts for majesti [...] and royall estate, should be made paternes of religious devotion to be practised in the Church.

Francis Whit in his reply to Fisher saith, pag. 228. Civill and reli­gious worship are of divers beginnings and formes, and eve­ry thing that is possible, lawfull and commendable in the one, is not so in the other. There is civill ordin [...]nce for the one, but there wanteth divine ordinance for the other.

But ye will say, Gods extra­ordinarie presence in the arke. The people of God worshipped God by the arke. I answer, They worshipped God not by the arke, but in the arke. For God was present in the arke after an extraordinarie manner. God was likewise in the temple after a peculiar manner hearing their prayers. De cultu Sanct. l. 3. c. 4. Immo hic est modus qno Deus est in templo pecu­liaciter, nimirium quia ibi est per exauditionem, saith Bel­larmine, which was true of Salomons temple, but not rightly applied to ours. God is not in the sacramentall elements after such an extraordinarie manner, nor yet the body of Christ. Nay the body of Christ is not spi­ritually in the sacrament, to use the Doctours phrase, pag. 95. if by sacrament be meant the sacramentall ele­ments, [Page 116] as commonly it is taken, for so the meaning shall be popish as I have declared before. But there is a spi­rituall presence of Christs body, not without, but with­in the hearts of the faithfull. This presence of God by his spirit, or spirituall presence of Christs body in the heates of the faithfull, is not extraordinarie, but ordina­rie, and common to all the godly, not exposed to the senses, but inward and invisible.

Howbeit in words they deny a relative worship of Christ by the signes, Their rela­tive adora­tio [...]. to gull the simple, yet wee must look to their carriage before the signes, and their ground taken from the moving and stirring object, Yea, some­time words escape plaine enough. The Lutherans wor­ship Christ in the sacrament as wee should do. Their errour is only in the manner of presence, saith our Doctour, pag. 141. No errour to worship Christ flesh and bloud there, in respect of the personall presen [...]e of Ch [...]ists body, pag. 142. There then either really, or by imagination, as the Papist uniteth the image and the samplar, or as there, as when an emptie coffin is carried at funerals, and all the solemnities ob­served, as if the corps were present. Let him take his choice. And pag. 144. If ye except out of the number of re­formed Churches all that thinke that Christ is present in the sacrament, and in the sacrament to be adored, I fear ye draw the number of the reformed Churches to a very small account, whom ye call the purer sort, such as Arrians, Anabaptists, and their followers. He abstaineth from cleare speeches, that he may lurke under the word Sacrament, and for­beareth the expression of our divines for the manner of Christs presence. D. Mourton, pag. 291. saith, that in the relative reverence, which is used in their Church, rela­tion being made from the signe to Christ the thing signi­fied, [Page 117] the sacrament is objectum à quo significativè. And what is that but reverence relative by the signe to Christ? And what hindereth adoration to be carried by a signi­ficant object, more then by a representative? The signes in the sacr [...]ment, notwithstanding of the want of hu­mane shape, represent Christ to us.

Yee may aske, What if yee keep not a constant course, but sometimes sit, sometime stand, and sometime kneel? I answer, Put case, yee kneel sometime for feare like a temporizer, or of your owne accord, ye take liberty in­deed to sit, stand, or kneel, but when and how oft yee kneel, yee adore, and tie your self to adore at these times before such an object, after the same manner, and for the same respects, and considerations, which are observed by those who keep a constant course. For it is not here as in prayer. Wee may pray without externall adora­tion, or with it, as in the petition of the mother of Zebe­dees children, Matth. 20. she came to Christ, adorans & pe [...]ens, worshipping him, and petitioning. And 2 Sam. 14. 4. the woman of Tekoa fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, when shee petitioned the King. For every gesture in praying to God, is no more a gesture of adoration, then in petitioning men. Now when yee adore in prayer, your adoration is directed immediatly to God, having no object before you, but such as standeth casually before you, from which you may turne your selfe in the very act of praying, to which you have no more respect then to other objects round about you. But here you [...] kneel before such an object, an object significant, and for that respect doth kneel, that that signe of outward worship may bee convoyed to Christs flesh and bloud signified by that object.

[Page 120] We have in the former argument considered the sa­cramentall elements, The second argument. as an object presented before us in the hand of the minister without any further use. Wee are now to consider them in the use, when wee take, eat, and drinke, and our next argument shall bee this. To adore upon our knees, when wee are performing an out­ward action, which is not directed to God immediatly, and in that action are occupied about an externall object, is idolatrie, unlesse that whereabout the action is em­ployed be worthy of divine honour. Our taking, eating, drinking the bread and wine at the Lords supper, is not an action directed to God immediatly, as prayer and thanksgiving is, nor is it an outward signe of adoration, as kneeling is. De adoratio­ne disput. 93. num. 45. Susceptio & collatio sacramentorum, est cultus quidam sa [...]er, eum ea dignè tractantur, nullius tamen rei est adoratio: The receaving and giving of the sacra­ments is a kinde of sacred worship, but it is not the adoration of any thing, saith Vazquez. And ye [...] our Doctour, to whom what is absurd, saith, that the sacrament is an act of reall adoration, pag. 133.

They alledge commonly, that we may kneel before our meat set on the table, when wee are to blesse it. But they do not prosecute it to the point, because they see, it will not frame for their purpose: First, we are to consi­der the time of the blessing; The meat is to bee consi­dered not only as an object active, [...] putting us in minde of a benefite, but also as passive, not of adoration, but of blessing and sanctification for our use, for the meat is not set upon the table meerly to be gazed upon, but to bee blessed and sanctified for our use. Next, we are not, nor can not be tied to blesse kneeling. Yea, wee read not in scripture, that any blessed the meat upon the tabl [Page 121] kneeling. Christ himself blessed sitting. Salomon knee­led, 1 King. 8. 54. when he prayed, and spake to God: but when he was to blesse the people, it is said, he rose and stood up. It is an incongruous thing among the Pa­pists to adore a thing, which is not higher then their polles, when they adorer, because they can not be said to humble themselves to that which is lower then them­selves, say D. P. and P. D. B. pag. 68. P. pag. 387. It were incongruous likewise, and inexpedient to set the meat as high as our polles or above, Decret. pag. 366. and adore before it kneeling, and looking up to in. Bochellus citeth a canon forbidding the priest to lift up the bread to be seene before the words of consecration be uttered, least the people adore and commit idolatrie. Thirdly, when we kneel, we are not bound to gaze upon the meat, but may turne our selves to a chaire, a wall, or a forme, or any other thing set before us casually. Yea, when we sit at table, we are not bound at the blessing to gaze upon the meat, but may, and do ordinarily lift up our hands and our eyes to the heavens, as Christ lifted up his eyes. But if they would come to the purpose; and make a just comparison, they should consider next, that after the meat is blessed, it were strange to see every one who is present sit downe upon his knees, with his countenance fixed upon the bread in the hand of the ma­ster of the family or feast. And after this sort we have considered already in the former argument, the elements holden in the hands of the minister. But now we are to consider thirdly, the act of taking, eating, drinking, our meate and drinke. Wee may not take, eat, and drinke our ordinarie meat and drinke upon our knees. Nature and custome teacheth us, it were rather a mocking of God, then a reverent adoration of him. You will say, [Page 122] there is a differences The sacramen [...] all elements are ho­ly bread and wi [...]e, the other common and ordinarie. There ye betray your [...] kneel then in taking and ea­ting the sacramentall bread, because it is holy. Now to kneel in respect of the holinesse of bread and wine, is ido­latrie. And the true cause of your religious respect and bowing before it, is the holinesse of it. We are too prone to conceat too highly of things set apart to holy uses, as if they were of greater worth then our selves, for whose use they were instituted. Next, suppose there be a diffe­rence, yet our ordinarie bread is sanctified by the word of God and prayer, to our use. Therefore it is but a mocking of God, unlesse that which you eat and drinke be worthie of divine honour. Lib. 3. de na­tura D [...] ­rum. Thinkest their any man so [...] as to beleeve, that that which [...] Cicera. Yet the Papist is thus mad. Ave [...]roes said, My souls shall hold with the philosophers, since the Christ [...]a [...]s worship that which they eat. And this do our kneelers. Yet the Papist thinketh hee taketh and eateth the body of Christ, which by reason of the concomitance of the God­head, hee adoreth. The Lutheran thinketh both the bread and the body are present: yet they are consonant to their erroneous grounds of the reall presence, and un­lesse Christs body were there really and su [...]stantially, they would not take, eat, and drinke, adoring upon their knees. Neither would any reasonable man bee so ab­surd, as to take, eat, drinke, adoring, unlesse he beleeved, that he were eating, were worthie of divine honour. It is otherwise so absurd to kneel before God after that manner. It were absurd to kneel before an eart [...]ly king, [...]est eating and drinking. But it may bee our kneelers bee grosse enough in their opinion of the reall presence. [Page 123] Suarez saith, Suarez in 3. part. tom. 3. p. 780. Bellar. de e [...]char. l. 2. c. 3. l. 4. c. 29. Alger. de sa [...]cram. altar. l. 2. c. 3. That as reall presence proveth adoration a priori, so adoration proveth reall presence a postiriori. Bellarmine likewise proveth adoration by reall presence, and reall presence by adoration. Algerius writing in the eleventh centurie, that is betweene a 1000. an [...] 1100. yeare, condemneth it as a vaine and senslesse fancie to bestow so much reverence upon the sacrament, unlesse Christs body bee present there. Tarnov. de ministe [...] 10. l. 2. c. 31. Tarnovius a Lutheran, Pre ermittendo hanc venerationem Christi externam, ge­nuflexionem scilicet, communicantes presentiam Christi se­cundum corpus negare, & se Calvinians jungere. That is, By praetermitting this veneration, to wit, kneeling, the com­municants should seeme to deny Christs bodily presence, and to joyne themselves to the Calvinians. They thinke, kneelers, who beleeve not the reall presence, worship a piece of bread.

They say, The pre­tence of mentall prayer. We may pray mentally in the act of recea­ving, therefore we may kneel or adore in the act of re­ceaving. I answer first, Wee may not pray when we are bound to another exercise. In the act of receaving, ea­ting, drinking, we should attend upon the audible words, the visible signes and rites, meditat upon the analogie be­tweene the outward signes and rites, and the things signified, take, eat, drinke mentally, and spiritually by faith. And so meditation upon the analogie, is not the onely worke of the soul, pag. 102. 109. pag. 112. as L. supposeth us to imagine. Our desires are not prayers, as L. dreameth. Prayer is more then desire. It is a manifesting of our desires to God. Desiderium non dum dicitur oratio, quousque pere intellectus loquertis cum Deo exprimatur, [...] disp. 93. num. 11. saith Vazqu [...]z. This exercise of the minde, correspondent to the out­ward exercise of the members and senses of the body [Page 124] outwardly, cannot consist with oratio continua & instru­cta; set prayer. The soul may send forth to the heavens short ejaculations like darts. Prayer intermixeth it selfe with every ordinance whatsomever, pag. 199. pag. 236. s [...]ith P. He must meane ejaculatorie prayer, for otherwise he confesseth, that one ordinance is to be distinguished from another. But these ejaculations may be incident to all our actions, even ci­vill, let be religious, when wee are eating and drinking our ordinarie meat and drinke, transitoriae, or ejaculatoriae orationes, as they call them, and therefore cannot be at­tended with kneeling. In sudden ejaculations no other gesture is required, then that wherein the motion of Gods spirit shall finde us, saith Master Downe. Next, suppose yee might pray a set prayer mentally, yet yee should not kneel in publike at your set mentall prayer, when the congrega [...]ion is at another exercise, nay, nor make any show by any other signe or gesture, that ye are praying. If it be mentall, it is in secret before the Lord, and the signes of it before men should bee concealed. Thirdly, it followeth, not, suppose ye may pray, that yee must pray kneeling: [...]ee▪ use the one may sometime be without the other. The Jewes prayed standing as well as kneeling, Drusti prae­terita in Matth. 6. and therefore, saith Drusius, of old prayers were called stations or standings. And Rabbi Jud [...] had a saying, Sine stationibus non subsisteret mindus; The world cannot subsist without stations or standings, that is, pray­ers. If yee will not, or may not pray but kneeling with reverence, when yee come before such a creature, it can­not be imagined to be done without respect to that crea­ture. The like answers may be made to mentall thanks­giving. Ejaculations of thankes may agree with the pro­per exercise of the soule in the time of receaving, eating, [Page 125] drinking, as it may also with the ordinarie feeding, or any worldly businesse, but not a set thanksgiving, which should require the attention of all the powers of the soule, and cannot bee done without diverting the soule from the exercise proper for that time. Next, the signes outward should be concealed, if it be but mentall. Third­ly, what if ye must kneel, and no other gesture will serve the turne.

But say they, The pre­tence of reall prayer or thanksgiving. the very action it selfe is a reall prayer or thanksgiving, and we offer sacrifices. I answer, prayer is a craving, our taking, eating, drinking, is not a craving, but a receaving. Craving and receaving is not all one. But say they; L. pag. 107. it is a reall thanksgiving, and therefore cal­led eucharist. It is a showing forth of the death of the Lord, till his comming againe. I answer, it is not proper­ly thanksgiving. For thanksgiving is properly directed to God, as prayer is, either mentally onely, or also vo­cally and verbally, so is not our act of taking, eating, drinking. Neither was the name of eucharist given by the scripture, but by the ancients: and not for the act of taking, eating, and drinking, but for the thanksgiving preceeding, for the same reason it was called Eulogia also, because of the blessing. For, he gave thankes, and he blessed, are used indifferently by the Evangelists. Denomi­natio non est semper [...] quata subjecto. Exercit. p. 517. From one part of the action the whole action is called Eucharist, saith Ca­saubon. Eulogia & eucharistia, utraque vox a parte una totam Domini actionem designat. Whereas the Apostle saith, So oft as yee shall eat, &c yee shall show forth the Lords death till he come againe; is meant, say they, not verball, but reall preaching onely acted by taking, eating, drink­ing. So say the Rhemists upon 1 Corinth. 11. 26. But [Page 126] Doctour Fulk answereth, that even according to the judgement of the fathers, the Lords death must bee showed not only by the action, but also by words, which may stirre up to remembrance, and thankfulnesse. So al­so Willers. Willets qu. 1. of the sa­craments. Pezel. refuta­tio Catechis­mi Iefuit. pag 421. So [...]ezel [...]us, and others. This kinde of annun­ciation answereth to the Hagadah, that is the declaration which was made at the passeover according to the com­mandement, Ex [...]d 1. 8. And thou shalt show. There­fore [...]t the paschall supper one made the declaration, ex­pounding everie ceremonie in their owne place, the mea­ning of the lambe, of the bitter hearbs, and so forth of the rest. [...] cit. pag. 224. This Ha [...]a [...]ah and d [...]claration of the Jewes, saith Casaula [...]us, answereth to that annunciate show forth, 1 Corinth. 11. 26. But be it so, that the act it selfe be cal­led a declaration or setting forth of the Lo [...]ds death, yet that is not properly a declaration, or commemoration, nor yet representation of his death. Further, both repre­sentation and commemoration are to men, and not to God, resemble preaching and not prayer. The celebra­tion of the action it selfe is a profession of thankfulnesse before men, for a great benefite, but is not thanksgiving dir [...]cted to God. Bell [...]rmine himselfe exponing how the act of eating and drinking may bee called a showing forth, give [...]h this reason, that the partakers should re­member with thanksgiving the death of the Lord, De euch. l. 4. c. 27. So the proper and principall end of the sacrament is a further confirming and sealing of our communion with Christ, and his benefits purchased to us by his death. The testification of our thankfulnesse by showing forth his death, and commemoration of the benefits receaved thereby is a secondarie end. Neither is it directed to God immediatly, as thanksgiving is, [Page 127] howbeit honour redound thereby to God, because his praise is proclaimed before men. De Missa. l. 1. c. 13. & lib. 2. c. 9. Non enim concionamur Deo neque sacramenta Domino dispersamus, sed populo. Do­mino ministrare dicuntur, quia ad ejus honorem id faciunt, saith Bellarmine. To honour God is more generall then to adore, for God is honoured by preaching, praying, singing, swearing; praising, and not by adoring onely. Neither can eating and drinking of bread and wine be called properly a sacrifice. For a sacrifice properly so called, importeth destruction of the thing sacrificed, by killing, burning, effu [...]. That cannot be called proper­ly a sacrifice, which is only for commemoration, or re­presentation of a sacrifice. The acting of a tragedie upon a stage, is not a true tragedy indeed, howbeit the object represented, was a true tragedie. Giving of almes may be called a sacrifice, yet wee kneel not when wee give almes. It is a sacrifice only improperly, and in some re­spect so called. The Gentiles are said to be sacrificed by the preaching of the Gospel, Rom. 15. 16. but figurative­ly. There is as great difference between a sacrament and sacrifice, as taking and giving.

It is yet objected, The pre­tence of re­ceaving a benefite. that in the act of receaving, wee re­ceave an inestimable benefite. Ought not a subject kneel, when he receaveth a benefite from a prince to testifie his thankfulnesse? I answer, If we were to receave a gift, suppose but a morsell of bread out of Gods owne hand immediatly, wee ought no doubt to adore upon our knees, but not, if by the hand of the creature. The per­son who receaveth the gift from the king, is supposed to receave it immediatly from the king, or suppose he kneel receaving from his servant, mediat civill worship are not rules for religious adoration, which should be directed [Page 128] immediatly to God. Now wee receave the sacrament out of the hand of the minister, not out of Christs owne hand. Multum interest inter actionem Filii Dei perse, & per ministrum. Illa enim est actio immediatè producta à divino supposito, ista ab humano. Bellarm. de Missa. lil. 2. cap. 4. Yea the Apostles at the first supper adored not on their knees, when Christ himselfe ministred the sa­crament, howbeit upon occasion, and at other times they adored, not did they adore God the Father upon their knees for the benefite they were receaving. The inward benefite Christs body and bloud are receaved by the soule, not by the body, by the godly only, not by all that receave the sacrament, by faith embracing Christ present by his spirit in the soul. The godly under the law recea­ved the same gift, the same spirituall food, and drink, and yet kneeled not. The D. pag. 113. saith, that in the law they had but the shadow of the gift, a popish speach, whereas the Apostle saith, the same food. If the clearer revelation make the difference, which is without ground or reason, then adoration is not in respect of the gift. The godly take, eat, and drinke Christs body and bloud by the act of faith and beleeving, Now the act of faith or beleeving is not an act of adoration, as the schoolmen acknowledge, nor is it expressed outwardly by kneeling, In a [...] fidei non potest apprehendi aliqua submissionis nota propria religionis exhibenda ipsi excellentie Dei, In 3. tom. 1. [...] p. 93. num. 20. & 21. sicut nec ratio sacrificii aut laudis, saith Vazquez. Never man yet adored upon his knees, if his principall work was actuall beleeving desire, Christ, short ejaculations of the soule, and the acts of other graces concurre, as concomitants to remove impediments, that faith may put forth its act with greater strength, which is the principall worke of [Page 129] the soule in the act of receaving the elements: All dis­positions which are required unto right receaving, can not distinctly and solemnely bee expressed at the same time by outward gestures, except wee would use divers gestures together, saith P. 195. The principall therefore must be considered. Next, wee receave, eat, and drinke Christs body and bloud, as soone as we are effectually called, and beginne to beleeve, and as oft as we heare the promises of the Gospell read and exponed, and doe be­leeve. Christs body is as farre absent from us at the re­ceaving of the sacrament, as at the hearing of the word. The symbols, when they are added to the word, while the my­st [...]r [...]s are celebrated, Contra Gar­diner. col, 735. edit. 1581. I doubt not, sai [...]h P [...]ter Martyre, serve very much for assurance, for th [...]y s [...]ale the promise, tamen illa Christi nobis praesentiam magis constituere quam verba aut promissiones, constanter pernego. That is but that they make Christ more present to us, then the word and sacra­ments doe, I utterly denie. The Formalist speaketh, as if Christs body were present in the sacrament, or as if wee had never receaved Christs body, till wee receaved this sacrament, or never but when we receave this sacrament. Whereas Augustine saith, De conse­crat. dist. 2. cap. 56. & dist. 4. c. 131. Dist. 2 c. 47. There is no doubt, but every one of the faithfull is made partaker of the body and bloud of Christ, when in baptisme he is made a member of Christ, as ye may see in Gratians decree. Againe he saith, Credere in eum, hoc est panem vivum manducare, to beleeve in him, is to eat the living bread. The glosse saith, Christ is eaten spiritually by faith without the sacrament. We are united with Christ, and made members of his body, before we come to this sacrament, and doe not receave his body of new at every communion, as if wee had lost it since the former; and yet there is but one body receaved at all [Page 130] the times. The celebration of the Lords supper is not a new institution of the testament, but a repetition of the same. This sacram [...] [...] authentike instrument of the testament, and as of as it [...]s ministred, the same authen­tike instrument is [...] over [...]gain, Bellarm. de Euchar. l. 1. cap. 11. Becan. de Coena calie. c. 11. See this illustra­tion in Bellarmine, and [...]anus, Wee are said then, to take, eat, drinke Christs body and bloud at every cele­bration of the holy supper, because wee put forth our faith in act at that time, and renewing the act of faith, wee take, eat, and drink by beleeving, that same body and bloud, which before, our faith being strengthened by the outward signes and seales to that end, and so grow in faith, Reply to Harding. art. 1. Whittakerus de sacram. pag. 68. and by faith in union with Christ, The holy my­steries do not beginne (saith Jewel) but rather continue and confirme this incorporation. Whitaker saith, Familiar [...] lo­quendi modus est ut fieri dicatur, quod factum obsigna [...]ur; That is, It is a familiar kinde of speaking to sa [...] that thing is in doing, which being already done is sealed, and confirmed. Thirdly, the manner or forme of receaving a [...] be answerable to the manner of the offering, the n [...]ture of the gift, and the will of the giver. If a King call his nobles to a banket, it is his will that they sit at table. Da­vid and Jonathan sate at table with King Saul, as you may see, 1 Sam, 20. Such as were called the Kings friends or companions (for the originall word signifieth as well the one as the other, Sociu [...] [...]s amicus) I take to have sit­ten ordinarily with Kings: as Zabud, 1 King. 4. 5. and Husha [...] the Archite, who is called, 2 Sam. 15. 37. Davids friend, and 1 Chron. 27. 33. by the same translaters, the Kings companion. Such an one was Daniel to the Ba­byloniah Emperour, as the Apocrypha historie of Su­sanna reporteth, cap. 14. 1. To this Christ alludeth, [Page 131] Joh. 15. 15. when he saith to his disciples at table, Hence forth I call you not servants, but I have called you friends. Abraham for his faith was called Gods friend, Jam. 2. 23. By the same reason all the faithfull are preferred to this dignity. As wee are friends and fellow-heires with Christ, so hath hee instituted this holy feast, the onely feast in the Christian Church, to assure us of our pre­ferment, and fellowship with him. Howsoever then otherwise, and at other occasions wee behave our selves as supplicants, we are now according to our Lords will and pleasure, to observe that externall forme of a feast, which he hath left to his Church, and to act thereat in our outward carriage the persons of guests and friends. And therefore, howbeit the inviter be a great person, the manner of invitation is familiar, and our not acceptance the more offensive. Chrysostome declaiming against such as were present, and did not approach to communicate, saith, Hom. 3. in epist ad E­phesios. The King table is here, the King himselfe is present. Why standeth thou yawning? If thy garments be cleane, [...] sit downe and participat. In the English booke of common prayer, there is an exhortation to bee made to the people, when they are negligent to come to the table, where we have these words, Ye know how grievous and unkinde a thing it is, when a man hath prepared a rich feast, decked his table with all kinde of provision s [...] that there lacketh nothing, but the guests to sit downe and yet these who be called (without any cause) most unthankefully refuse to come. The exhortation seemeth to [...]ee dr [...]w [...]e out of that place of Chrysostome, but they omit the [...] words, Sit downe and participat. For all the [...] the first part of the comparison, they bid not the Com­municants sit downe. But they must kneel and receave, [Page 132] that which is reached to them. So that there is no more use of the table, then if it were a cupbord or altar. Fourthly, if we should kneel, because we are receaving a gift, by this reason wee should kneel, when wee receave any benefite or gift of God, as for example, when we are taking, eating, drinking, our ordinarie meat and drinke. If yee will say, the sacramentall is holy bread, the other common, then yee confesse ye kneel, because of the holi­nesse, that is, the setting a part of it to a holy use, and that is idolatrie. If ye will say, ye receave a greater gift, then when yee receave your ordinarie food, that is no more, but then there is a greater motive. Yet, if because a gift, then whensoever, or whatsoever gift ye receave, ye ought to kneel. God deserveth thankes for the least of his be­nefits, and is to bee adored for whatsoever benefite spiri­tuall or temporall receaved, in the time of divine service, or out of it. For this is the common doctrine of the school men, Vazquez de adorat. disp. 94. num. 7. Eundem honorem adorationis, atque eodem modo Deo esse deferendum, etiamsi varia sunt ipsius bene­ficia & attributa. That is, That the same honour of adora­tion is to be given to God, and after the same manner, how­beit his benefites and attributes are divers. For the reason upon Gods part that moveth us to adore him, is the ex­cellenie of his dignity. All his attributes concurre to make up this excellencie, whatsoever benefite move us, never so meane, hee deserveth honour, because bestowed by so great a Lord, who is the fountaine, & primum prin­cipium. When the Israelites were to be cured miracu­lously by looking up to the brazen serpent, If we may receave upon our knees, what we crave upon our knees. a type of Christ, they kneeled not.

It is a frivolous objection, and scarce worthie the an­swering, when they say, what wee may crave upon our [Page 133] knees, wee may receave upon our knees. They should conclude, we must receaue upon our knees. But neither the one, nor the other doth follow. For wee crave our daily food upon our knees, and rayment, therefore by their reasoning wee should kneel with reverence, when we receave our food in at our mouth, or put on our dou­blet. Yet say they, what wee crave of God upon our knees in publike worship, wee may receave upon our knees. But this is yet as frivolous. For wee may crave in time of publike worship upon our knees things neces­sarie for this temporall life, and so wee doe, when in the Lords prayer, we say, Give us this day our daily bread. Fur­ther, the diff [...]rence of place and time, is but a difference in circumstances, and altereth, not the nature of wor­ship, and so I may receave upon my knees, whatsoever I may crave of God in privat worship upon my knees; if this kinde of reasoning were good. But it is not the diversitie of the time or place where wee receave the benefite, more then the diversity of the benefite it selfe, that is the ground of adoration, but Gods excellencie, as we said before.

Next, they consider not, that these three things are to bee clearly distinguished, a blessing or sanctifying of the creature, or meane God hath appointed, either for our temporall or spirituall life (of which some are recko­ned by L. pag. 85. 86.) before the use, the use it selfe, and thanksgiving after the use. Blessing before meat, the use of the meat in enjoying it be receaving, eating, drin­king, and thanksgiving after, blessing before the reading preaching or hearing of the word, the act it selfe of reading, hearing, preaching, and thanksgiving to God after, blessing before the receaving of the sacrament [...]ll. [Page 124] [...] [Page 125] [...] [Page 126] [...] [Page 127] [...] [Page 128] [...] [Page 129] [...] [Page 130] [...] [Page 131] [...] [Page 132] [...] [Page 133] [...] [Page 134] elements, the receaving and participation it selfe, and thanksgiving after.

They aske, The pre­tence of hu­mility and reverence. if humility and reverence be not requisite in the act of receaving the sacramentall elements. I an­swer, Yes, in all religious exercises, at the hearing of the word, reading of the word, &c. But it followeth not, that there should be humiliation upon our knees be­cause humility of minde is required, nor adoration, be­cause reverence is required. Is there no reverence nor humility, but in kneeling before dead and senslesse crea­tures? There is a damnable humility, plausible to will­worshippers and idolaters, condemned, Coloss. 2. 23. Pe­ter was censured, when hee refused, that Christ should wash his feet. It is Christs honour to command, obedi­ence upon our part is true humility. Humility is an ha­bit, adoration is an act. The act of humility is imma­nent, whereby a man resteth content, and well pleased with his owne estate and ranke, and doth not conceat greater worth in himself, then there is, specially in com­parison with God. But adoration is a transient act, whereby a man goeth out of himselfe, as it were, to di­rect some homage, and worship to God. Such like re­verence is a common adjunct to all sorts of worship, preaching, praying, praising, adoring, but is not a distinct kinde of worship, Of the insti­tution of the supper. p. 63. as is adoration. The pretence of reve­rence cannot be a sufficient reason for altering the ordinance of Christ and the opinion of reverence, hath often beene the dame and nour [...]e of manifold superstitions, saith Doctour Morto [...]n [...]

To concludes that because wee must use reverent ge­sture in receaving the holy communion, therefore wee must kneel in the act of receaving, is to condemne our [Page 135] owne Church, and other reformed Churches of want of reverence. Vnlesse yee will say, sitting is reverent for some, to take in passing for others, but kneeling for Scot­land. So may the Monkes conclude, saith Doctour [...] Ames, wee must have garments, therefore wee must in one order have blacke, in another white, in a third gray, and so forth. If any judicious Reader will review all their reasons or pretences for kneeling, hee shall finde, they inferre a duty to kneel, and consequently an indi­rect taxing of Christ, and his Apostles, and all others in ancient time, or in reformed Churches, who have not kneeled. And if there were no more, this alone may let them see the weaknesse of their reasoning.

Seeing kneeling in the act of receaving the sacramen­tall element is idolatry, and cannot be used but idola­trously, it followeth, that kneeling in the act of recea­ving brought not in a [...]tolatrie or bread worship, as some divines construing charitably, some old Writers, or mis­taking counterfeit workes for genuing, have imagined. We may observe other ushers to have prepared the way for bread worship by kneeling. After that the virgine times of the first age or prime primitive, that is the apo­stolicall times were past, changes entered. They were not content to sit, but at some time, and more frequently stood. They left off distribution and breaking of bread with other, and receaved out of the minister or deacons hand. Other words were substitute in place of Christs words. In processe of time, the women might not re­ceave the bread with their naked hand, but in a clean lin­nen cloath or napkin. And in many places the cuppes had pipes, whereby they sucked the wine out of the cuppe. At length the Communicants were not suffered [Page 136] to receave with their hands, but in at their mouther. And this proceeded from a sup [...]rstitious reverencing of the signes, which ended at last in bread worship, saith Vossius, Theses theolog. pag. 476. Et san [...] consuetudo altera ing [...]r [...]ntli panem in os, circa annum sexc [...]nt simum demum [...]pisse videtur, neque id aliunde quam à superstitiosa veneration signorum, quae in [...] tandem evasit. Adde also the corrupting of the doctrine with the opinion of the reall presence, and worshipping of images, Of the Lords sup­per. 1. part. pag. 40. which entered both about one time. After the worshipping of images, which Master Moulins calleth the elder sister, followed bread­worship.