n which we infer, is this: That it is not
indifferent to sit, stand, pass, or kneel, in the act of receiving the
sacramental elements of the Lord's supper, because we are bound to follow
the example of Christ and his apostles, who used the gesture of sitting in
this holy action, as we prove from John xiii. 12; from Matt. xxvi. 20,
with 26; Mark xiv. 18, with 22.

Our opposites here bestir themselves, and move every stone against us.
Three answers they give us, which we will now consider.

First, They tell us that it is not certain that the apostles were sitting
when they received this sacrament from Christ, and that _adhuc sub judice
lis est_. Yet let us see what they have to say against the certainty
hereof.

Bishop Lindsey objecteth, that, between their eating of the paschal supper
and the administration of the sacrament to the disciples, five acts
intervened: 1. The taking of the bread; 2. The thanksgiving; 3. The
breaking; 4. The precept, "Take ye, eat ye;" 5. The word, whereby the
element was made the sacrament. In which time, saith he, the gesture of
sitting might have been changed.

_Ans._ It is first of all to be noted, that the apostles were sitting at
the instant when Christ took the bread, for it is said that he took bread
whilst they did eat; that is (as Maldonat(1223) rightly expoundeth it),
_Antequam surgerent, antequam mensae et ciborum reliquiae removerentur_;
and so we use to say that men are dining or supping so long as they sit at
table and the meat is not removed from before them. To Christ's
ministering of the eucharistical supper together with the preceding
supper, Christians had respect when they celebrated the Lord's supper
together with the love-feasts. _Probabile est eos ad Christi exemplum
respexisse, qui eucharistiam inter coenandum instituit_, saith
Pareus.(1224) But of this we need say no more; for the Bishop himself hath
here acknowledged no less than that they were sitting at that time when
Christ took the bread. Only he saith, that there were five acts which
intervened before the administration of the sacrament to the disciples
(whereof the taking of the bread was the first), and that in this while
the gesture of sitting might have been changed; which is as much as to
say, when he took the bread they were sitting, but they might have changed
this gesture, either in the time of taking the bread, or in the time of
thanksgiving, or in the time of breaking the bread, or whilst he said,
"