Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 2.djvu/275

454 Lord's Supper. The bishop then signified that he expected a more learned argument, and supposed that Mr. Paget would have insisted upon the posture used by Christ and His disciples at the institution of the ordinance. And to convince Mr. Paget how unseemly that posture would now be in the church, his lordship gravely cast himself on a bench by the side of a table, leaning on his elbow, affirming that to have been the picture of Christ at the institution of the supper; which, said he, you cannot contradict, especially if you understand Greek. Mr. Paget replied, that whatever was his knowledge of Greek, doubtless the translators of the New Testament were skilful in that language, and they had rendered it sitting. Also he further observed that Dr. Morton, his lordship's predecessor, notwithstanding the stir he made about the translation, confessed it was a kind of sitting. However, to close the business, Mr. Paget, together with many others, was suspended from the ministry, and remained under his lordship's censure about two years." Another nonconformist writer says of the bishop that he was slow to act against the nonconformists, "but when he took action against them he did it with a will, as though he enjoyed it." He was, indeed, a man of energy and perseverance, especially in his younger days, before he was weakened by sickness and infirmity, and seldom relinquished his purpose without attaining his object, though he usually pursued it with caution, charity, and self-restraint. This was shewn alike in the management of his private affairs, in the recovery of his church's rights, and in dealing with the refractory elements in his diocese. And the family motto, whether adopted by him or by some later member of his house, was by no means unsuitable to his own character, "nec cunctando nec temere agendo," or, as it was sometimes used in a more abbreviated form, "nec temere nec timide." The bishop was hospitable towards rich and poor, and largely entertained at his palace both the clergy and laity of his diocese. With Laud and Strafford for his friends, his political and religious views may be easily conjectured. In civil politics, as