than the church of England could pretend to do, he too hastily went over to the church of Rome, because he had not at that time so thoroughly examined the subject, as to see that neither the one nor the other, had any right to that authority which they respectively claimed; but he afterwards saw his error, and well atoned by his incomparable writings for that precipitant step. "But he was too great a master of reason (you say) to take authority for the same thing with "infallibility, under a different expression; and "that, therefore, our church, in claiming the "former, did, in effect, claim the latter." Whatever Chillingworth's views might have been at this time, of the nice distinction which you wish to make, nothing is more plain than that the claims are undoubtedly the same. For, that, to whomsoever God gives authority in controversies of faith, he gives also infallibility, incontestibly appears hence, viz. that otherwise a man might really have authority from the God of truth to lead men into error; he might have a power, a right from heaven, to seduce and to deceive. The absurdity of which is so apparent, that it needs not farther to be exposed.

To talk, therefore, of the church's limited authority "to decide controversies according to the "rule of scripture and universal tradition; and "that these decisions (so long as they evidently "contradict not that rule) oblige her members to "obedience," is quite trifling, and beneath the character of a rational divine: for who, I ask, is to judge whether the church's decisions are, or are not, according to the rule of scripture and universal tradition:---the church herself, or her members? If the church herself, and not her members, then the authority is absolute, a popish tyranny is erected, and a blind unlimited obedi

* II Defence, page 136.

ence takes place. But, if the members are themselves to judge, and are no farther to yield obedience than they themselves see the decisions to be according to the rule of scripture, then all authority is overthrown; the determinations of the gravest synods are to be weighed in the balance of every man's private judgment, and, according as they appear to him to agree with scripture or not, are absolutely to stand or fall. Between authority and no authority, in matters of faith, there is no possible medium: as for limited and unlimited, they are only cant expressions, to which you affix no determinate ideas; nor can you pretend to tell the world, what limits the authority has,---where it is circumscribed,---in whom it is lodged,---and how far its bounds go!

Accordingly, you find that noble champion of the Protestant cause, when escaped from the pernicious snares in which his notions of churchauthority had at first unhappily entangled him, expressing himself thus: "For my part, after "long and impartial search, I profess plainly "that I cannot find any rest for the sole of my "foot, but upon this rock only, namely, that the "bible, the bible I say ONLY, is the religion of "Protestants. I see plainly, and with my own 66 eyes, that there are popes against popes, coun"cils against councils, some fathers against "others, the same fathers against themselves, a "consent of fathers of one age, against a consent "of fathers of another age; the church of one "age, against the church of another age;---in a "word, there is no sufficient certainty, but of "scripture only, for any considering man to build "upon. This, therefore, and this only, I have "reason to believe. I will take no man's liberty "of judgment from him, neither shall any man' "take mine from me, I am sure that God does "not, and therefore, that men ought not to re"quire any more of any man than this, to believe

"the scripture to be God's word, to endeavour to "find the true sense of it, and to live according to

it." These are the true principles of Protestantism and of christianity, to which your church must necessarily come back, if ever she would maintain her ground against the dangerous assaults which popery is making on her; for, as long as she stands hampered with that perplexing and unhappy article, (the XXth.) she must remain the dupe and the jest of insulting Jesuits and unbelievers, and be content to see her members led in triumph away from her by hundreds in their

snares.

¥$ * ;

SECT. XIV.

Of the POSTURE in which our LORD and his APOSTLES ate the SACRAMENTAL SUPPER.

THIS is the only point I shall at present far

ther consider. Concerning which I observe,

1. That it is most certain that they ate it in their table-posture, whatever that was; it was the posture in which they were wont to take their food at meals. This is all we need to know to justify our practice. Our Lord and his apostles took the sacrament in an eating, not in an adoring posture. Let no man, then, think himself wiser, nor pretend that he can take it in a more humble, devout, and fit posture than they. And,

2. Though it was, perhaps, somewhat different from the posture we at present use, (as there are several different ways of sitting in different countries and times,) yet there was no word, in the English language, so proper by which to render

*Chillingworth's Rel. Prot. Chap. VI, Sect. 56, page 379.

val, and avausios, as sitting, which our translators, and I after them, presumed to use; for which I have fallen under your rebuke.

66

166

You tell me, page 148, "that the posture was " lying down, or along;" and yet, just after, "that "it was with the upper part of the body erect; and "advise me to try how conveniently a man may eat and drink in that posture." But, to lay my body down, or along, and keep its upper parts erect, is a position so extraordinary, that, without the help of some posture-master, or your farther good instructions, I despair of ever compassing so arduous a point.

That it was the custom of the antients, both Romans and Greeks, to sit at their meals, cannot be denied; la Sampino. Homer, Odyss.---And Virgil, who wrote near the time of our Saviour, says, Solitipatres considere mensis.* Eneid. VII. The custom of lying, or leaning, at table, was not introduced among the Romans till the primitive severity of their manners was corrupted by the effeminacy and luxury of the east; and, even then, the posture of sitting was retained in their sacred feasts in the Capitol.

And, as for the usage of the Jews, Dr. Lightfoot, Sir, is an authority, which, if you presume to attack without being strongly armed, the blow will surely rebound, and hurt yourself. But the learned Doctor assures us, "That, at other meals "they either sat as we do, with their bodies erect; "or, when they would enlarge themselves to more "freedom of feasting, or refreshment, they sat upon the beds, and leaned upon the table on "their left elbow. But, on the Passover-night,

* Porro confidere, non in lecto recumbere ad menfas heroicis temporibus morem fuiffe diximus. Not Delp. in Loc. & in Eneid, I. L. 702. + Valer. Max. L. 2. 3.

U

they used this leaning posture, being the pos"ture of free men, in memorial of their freedom. "And thus are we to understand those texts "which mention John's lying on Jesus's breast, "and leaning on his bosom, (John xiii: 25. xxi. "20;) not, as some have pictured him, reposing "himself, or lolling, on the breast of Jesus, con"trary to all order and decency: whereas, the "manner of sitting together was only thus ; Jesus "leaning on the table with his left elbow, and so "turning his face and breast away from the table "on one side, John sat in the same posture next "before him, with his back towards Jesus; his "breast not so near as that John's back and Jesus's breast did touch one another, but at such a distance as that there was space for Jesus to ❝ use his right hand upon the table to reach his "meat at pleasure; and so for all the rest, as they

ચંદ

sat in like manner: for, it is a strange fancy "that they lay upon the bed before the table, one "tumbling (or folling) upon the breast of an"other."

"

I have now followed you Sir, much farther than I intended to have done. I hope it will not be expected that I remark upon all the weak and indefensible things your defences contain: there are, I believe, five times as many as those I have here noted, upon which it would tire the readers patience, as well as greatly try my own, particularly to touch. As for the discipline of the church of England, its best friends, I am persuaded, wish, and common prudence would have advised, that you had been quite silent on that head. "Whoever thinks seriously, (says one of the "greatest of your present bishops) of the manner, "causes, or objects of our excommunications,

* Lightfoot's Temp. Serv. Chap. xiii. Vide alfo Rainold. Cenfura de Libris. Apoc. Prælect. 79. Altare Damafcen. Cap. x. page 552.