t executio officii._

To these words the Doctor giveth this sense: That many withdrew themselves
when they came to the celebration of the supper, because the body of our
Lord, that is, the sacramental bread, being taken of the minister's hand,
the station, _i.e._, standing, must be dissolved and left; and because
standing on those days might not be left (as they thought), therefore they
rather left the sacrament on those days than they would break the rule of
standing on those days; therefore they forbore:

Which can have no reason but this, that taking the holy things at the
table standing, yet they used not to partake them, _i.e._, eat the bread
or drink the wine, in any other gesture than what was on the station days
then forbidden, kneeling; and that Tertullian wishes them to come, though
they might not then kneel, and to take the bread in public, standing at
the table, and reserve it, and carry it away with them, and receive it at
their own houses as they desired, kneeling.

_Ans._ The Doctor by this puts a weapon in our hands against himself; for
if, when they had taken the bread of the minister's hand, their standing
was to be left and dissolved, and Tertullian, by commending to them
another gesture in the eating of the bread, not standing, then whether
urgeth he that other gesture to be used in the public eating of the bread
or the private? Not in the private; for his advice of reserving and eating
it in private, cometh after, and is only put for a remedy or next best, in
case they would not condescend to this course in public, _quod statio
solvenda sit accepto corpore domini_. Needs, then, it must be understood
of the public. Now, if in the public eating of the bread standing was to
be left, which gesture was to come in place of it? Not kneeling.

For, 1. Tertullian saith(767) elsewhere: _Diebus dominicis jejunare nefas
ducimus, vel de geniculis adorare; cadem immunitate a die Paschae ad
Pentcostem usque gaudemus._

2. The doctor himself saith, that upon these station days kneeling was
restrained, not only in prayer, but in all divine service.

Wherefore, if, according to the Doctor's gloss, the gesture of standing
was left or dissolved, that gesture which had come in place of it to be
used in the partaking of the sacrament, can hardly be imagined to have
been any other nor sitting.

Well, the doctor hath unhappily raised this spirit to disquiet himself:
let him bethink how to lay him again. If he cannot,