xviii. 2), though as decisive a proof as
any could be of the benignity of his temper, and very expressive of the
character of the religion which he wished to inculcate, was not by any
means an obvious thought. Nor am I acquainted with anything in any
ancient writing which resembles it.
The account of the institution of the eucharist bears strong internal
marks of genuineness. If it had been feigned, it would have been more
full; it would have come nearer to the actual mode of celebrating the
rite as that mode obtained very early in the Christian churches; and it
would have been more formal than it is. In the forged piece called the
Apostolic Constitutions, the apostles are made to enjoin many parts of
the ritual which was in use in the second and third centuries, with as
much particularity as a modern rubric could have done. Whereas, in the
history of the Lord's Supper, as we read it in Saint Matthew's Gospel,
there is not so much as the command to repeat it. This, surely, looks
like undesignedness. I think also that the difficulty arising from the
conciseness of Christ's expression, "This is my body," would have been
avoided in a made-up story.
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