Jesus partook of the
Paschal supper, was captured the first night of the feast, and executed
on the first day thereof, which was on a Friday. If the _John_
narrator's account is true, that of the _Synoptics_ is not, or _vice
versa_.

[313:1] Mark, xiv. 13-16.

[313:2] Gen. xxiv.

[313:3] I. Kings, xvii. 8.

[313:4] II. Kings, iv. 8.

[313:5] Matt. xxvi. 18, 19.

[313:6] For further observations on this subject, see Dr. Isaac M.
Wise's "Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth," a valuable little work,
published at the office of the American Israelite, Cincinnati, Ohio.

[315:1] See Gibbon's Rome, vol. v. pp. 399, 400. Calvin, after quoting
_Matt._ xxvi. 26, 27, says: "There is no doubt that as soon as these
words are added to the bread and the wine, the bread and the wine become
the _true_ body and the _true_ blood of Christ, so that the substance of
bread and wine is transmuted into the _true_ body and blood of Christ.
He who denies this calls the omnipotence of Christ in question, and
charges Christ himself with foolishness." (Calvin's Tracts, p. 214.
Translated by Henry Beveridge, Edinburgh, 1851.) In other parts of his
writings, Calvin seems to contradict this statement, and speaks of the
bread and wine in the Eucharist as being _symbolical_. Gibbon evidently
refers to the passage quoted above.

CHAPTER XXXI.

BAPTISM.

Baptism, or purification from sin by water, is supposed by many to be an
exclusive _Christian_ ceremony. The idea is that circumcision was given
up, but _baptism took its place_ as a compulsory form indispensable to
salvation, and was declared to have been instituted by Jesus himself or
by his predecessor John.[316:1] That Jesus was baptized by John may be
true, or it may not, but that he never directly enjoined his followers
to call the _heathen_ to a share in the privileges of the _Golden Age_
is gospel doctrine;[316:2] and this saying:

"Go out into _all the world_ to preach the gospel to every
creature. And whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved,
but whoever believes not shall be damned,"

must therefore be of comparatively late origin, dating from a period at
which the mission to the heathen was not only fully recognized, but even
declared to have originated with the followers of Jesus.[316:3] When the
early Christians received members among them they were _not_ initiated
by baptism, but with prayer and laying on of hands. This, says
_Eusebius_, was the "_a