Now, therefore, from that which hath been said, we may well conclude that our opposites have no reason which they do or can object against the certainty of that received tenet, that the apostles received from Christ the sacramental bread and wine whilst they were sitting. Dr Forbesse himself[1244] setteth down some testimonies of Musculus, Chamier, and the professors of Leyden, all acknowledging that the apostles, when they received the Lord's supper, were still sitting.
Sect. 7. The second answer that our opposites hath given us, followeth: They say, that though the apostles did not change their gesture of sitting which they used in the former supper, when all this is granted to us, yet there is as great difference betwixt our form of sitting and that form of the Jews which the apostles used as there is betwixt sedere and jacere.
Ans. 1. Put the case it were so, yet it hath been often answered them, that the apostles kept the table-gesture used in that nation, and so are we bound herein to follow their example, by keeping the table-gesture used in this nation. For this keeping of the usual table gesture of the nation wherein we live is not a forsaking but a following of the commendable example of the apostles, even as whereas they drank the wine which was drunk in that place, and we drink the [pg 1-409] wine which is drunk in this place, yet do we not hereby differ from that which they did.
2. The words used by the evangelists signify our form of sitting no less than the Jewish, Calepine, Scapula, and Thomasius, in their dictionaries, take ἀναπίπτω, ἀνακλίνω, ἀνακλίνομαι, ἀνάκειμαι, ποράκειμαι, κατάκειμαι, and the Latin words discumbo, recumbo, accumbo (used by Arias, Montanus, Beza, Marlorat, Tremellius, &c., in their versions), not only for lying, but also for such sitting as is opposed to lying, even for sitting upright at table after our custom.
3. There is not so great a difference betwixt our form of sitting and that which the Jews used as our opposites allege. For as Didoclavius showeth out of Casaubon;[1245] their sitting at banquets was only with a leaning upon the left arm, and so not lying, but sitting with a certain inclination. When, therefore, we read of lecti discubitorii tricliniares, in quibus inter coenandum discumbebant,[1246] we must understand them to have been seats which compassed three sides of the table (the fourth side being left open and void for them who served), and wherein they did sit with some sort of inclination.
Yet Bishop Lindsey is bold to aver,[1247] that the usual table gesture of the Jews was lying along, and this he would prove from Amos vi. 4, “They lie upon beds of ivory, they stretch themselves out upon their couches.”
Ans. 1. If we should yield to this prelate his own meaning wherein he taketh these words, yet how thinks he that the gesture of drunkards and gluttons, which they used when they were pampering themselves in all excess of riot, and for which also they are upbraided by the Spirit of God, was either the ordinary table-gesture of the Jews, or the gesture used by Christ and his apostles in their last supper?
2. If any gesture at all be touched in those words which the prelate citeth, it was the gesture they used when they lay down to sleep, and not their table-gesture when they did eat; for mitta and ngheres (the two words which Amos useth) signify a bed or a couch wherein a man useth to lay himself down to sleep. And in this sense we find both these words, Psal. vi. 7, “All the night make I my bed (mittathi) to swim: I [pg 1-410] water my couch (ngharsi) with my tears.” The Shunnamite prepared for Elisha a chamber, and therein set for him a bed (mitta), and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick, 2 Kings iv. 10. The stool or chair was for sitting at table, but mitta, the bed, was for lying down to sleep. Now, the prelate, I hope, will not say, that the lecti tricliniares, wherein the Jews used to sit at table, and which compassed three sides of the same (as hath been said), were their beds wherein they did lie and sleep all night.
But, 3. The place must be yet more exactly opened up. That word which is turned in our English books, they lie, cometh from the radix schachav, which in Pagnin's lexicon is turned dormire. We find, Ruth iii. 7, lischcav, which Arias Montanus turned ad dormiendum, to sleep. Our own English translation, 2 Sam. xi. 9, saith, “Uriah slept,” where the original hath vauschcav; and the very same word is put most frequently in the books of the Kings and the Chronicles, where they speak of the death of the kings of Judah and Israel. Pagnin turneth it et dormivit; and our English translators everywhere, “And he slept with his fathers,” &c. These things being considered, we must, with Calvin, read the place of Amos thus: Qui decumbunt vel dormiunt in lectis. The other word which the prophet useth is seruchim. Our English version turneth it, “They stretch themselves out;” but Pagnin, Buxtorff, Tremellius, and Tarnovius, come nearer the sense, who read redundantes, superfluentes, or luxuriantes; which sense the English translation also hath in the margin. The Septuagints followed the same sense, for they read, κατασπαταλὼντες, i.e., living in pleasure. So, 1 Tim. v. 6, she that lived in pleasure, σπαταλῶσοι; and, James v. 5, Ye have lived in pleasure, ἐσπαταλησατε. The radix is sarach, redundavit, or luxuriavit. So, Exod. xxvi. 12, sarach, and, verse 13, saruach, is put for a surplusage or superfluous remainder, redundans superfluum, as Tremellius readeth. Now, then, it is evident that the thing which Amos layeth to the charge of those who were at ease in Zion, in the words which the prelate citeth against us, is, that they slept upon beds of ivory (such was their softness and superfluity), and swimmed in excessive pleasures upon their couches; and, incontinent, their filthy and muddy stream of carnal delicacy and excessive voluptuousness which defiled [pg 1-411] their beds, led him back to the unclean fountain out of which it issued, even their riotous pampering of themselves at table; therefore he subjoineth, “And eat the lambs out of the flock,” &c. For ex mensis itur ad cubilia, ex gula in venerem, saith Cornelius à Lapide, commenting upon the same text. Thus have I cleared the place in such sort, that the Bishop cannot but shoot short of his aims; wherefore I go on to other replies.
4. If the apostles, when they received the Lord's supper, or the Jews, when they did eat at table, were lying all along, how could their mouths receive drink unspilt? or how could they have the use of both their arms? which the Bishop himself would not, I am sure, gainsay, if he would once try the matter in his own person, and essay to eat and drink whilst lying along.