inferior to the twelve heads of tribes. No solemnity of prayer precedes their selection: they go forth to preach; they give an account of their mission; and no more is heard of them during our Lord's ministry. They have no place assigned them about his person, no name is appropriated to them, nor is any commission afterwards given to them by Christ or the Spirit, to rule the Church or take his authority. They appear only as a subordinate and secondary class of preachers.

But how different is the case with the Apostles. During Christ's abode upon earth, the authority and regulation of the visible Church, for obvious reasons, centered entirely in Him; the Apostles as yet are merely chosen to minister under Him, to be with Him continually, and to qualify themselves for the important part they were afterwards to act. Only a prospective and subordinate authority had yet been given them'. No independent authority could be needed, or exercised, till his death. But then it is given, and given only to the Apostles,

Christian dispensations, there are some good observations in Townsend's Arrangement of the New Testament, vol. ii. 166, in one of those valuable and condensed notes which enrich that work.

1 Hammond, from the juxta-position of Mar. iii. 14, Luc. xx. 11. 19, Jo. xx. 23, Matt. xxviii. 19, ingeniously argues that the advance of the Apostles by Jesus through the several degrees to the highest order of the ministry may be traced. Vide Dissertationes Quatuor, &c. Dissert. tertia, cap. iv. §. 15-19.

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low the course of events there, to the completion of this commission, we shall find the same solemnities and appropriation of power followed up. They are appointed, but they have not yet received the credentials of their calling; and they are directed to wait at Jerusalem, till they should, as Jesus had been before them, be baptized with, or visibly receive the power of the Holy Ghost, and be endued with those gifts and proofs which the peculiar state of the Church and of her office render necessary.

I have used the very words of Christ, "baptized with the Holy Ghost;" and I wish the phrase to be marked. For the link it forms in a complete chain of evidence has never, to my recollection, been sufficiently noticed. Let it be connected with the visible descent of the Spirit on Jesus, and the voice from heaven at his baptism1, with the declaration of St. Paul, that Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest, but He that said unto him, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee; and, finally, with the visible descent of the Spirit on the Apostles, and their immediate entrance upon their office; and you have then clearly the Apostles by the same authority, in the same orderly manner, invested with a similar jurisdiction over the Church, to that which Christ himself exercised, and in which He sent them forth, as his Father had sent Him. You advance thus as far as the Scriptures can advance. You want

1 Matt. iii. 16, 17.

3 Acts ii.

2 Heb. v. 5.

another link, to carry on the same principle in the Church, among the immediate successors of the Apostles. And here it is, with a plain allusion to the above passages, in the words of Clement of Rome, an apostolical man, and, according to primitive testimony, ordained by St. Peter himself. "The Apostles have preached to us from our Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ from God. Christ therefore was sent by God, the Apostles by Christ; so both were orderly sent, according to the will of God. For, having received their command, and being thoroughly assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and convinced by the Word of God, with the fulness of the Holy Spirit, they went abroad, publishing that the kingdom of God was at hand. And, thus preaching through countries and cities, they appointed the first fruits of their conversions to be bishops and ministers over such as should afterwards believe, having first proved them by the Spirit."-Clem. Rom. Wake's Translation'.

1

Jeremy Taylor (Consecration Sermon) says St. James, the Bishop of Jerusalem, is by St. Paul called an Apostle : "For there were some whom the Scriptures call the Apostles of our Lord; that is, such which Christ made by his word immediately, or by his Spirit extraordinarily; and even into this number and title, Matthias, and St. Paul, and Barnabas, were accounted*. But the Church also made Apostles † ; and these were called by

* 1 Cor. viii. 23.

+ Phil. ii. 25.

If this does not complete the chain, I know not what moral evidence can establish any historical fact.

But to return to the thread of our observations. Till this power had been "orderly given," we cannot but observe the guarded accuracy of

St. Paul dróσroλoi ékkλŋoiwv, “Apostles of the Churches ;" and particularly Epaphroditus was the "Apostle of the Philippians ;"

"properly so," saith Pinnasius; and "what is this else but the Bishop ?" saith Theodoret; “ for τοὺς νῦν καλουμένους ἐπισκόπους ὠνόμαζον αποστόλους, those who are now called Bishops were then called Apostles," saith the same father.

Hammond draws the following parallel between the " commission" of Jesus and of the Apostles :

Mirum est quàm hæc a Christo signanter, quàm ad omnem clarissimæ veritatis ignorationem pertinaci sæculo extundendam,, accuratè et sollicitè enunciata, quàm fere omnibus, quæ excogitari poterant, dictionum figuris et schematismis variata nobis tradantur, Pater judicium dedit Filio. Joh. v. 22. Filius judicium Apostolis dedit. Matt. xix. 28; Luc. xxii. 30; 1 Cor. vi. 3; 2 Cor. x. 6. Pater Filio potestatem dedit remittendi in terris peccata. Matt. x. 6. Filius Apostolis potestatem dedit remittendi itidem in terris peccata. Joh. xx. 23. Pater claves Filio dedit. Matt. xvi. 19; Isai. xxii. 22; Apoc. iii. 7. Filius Apostolis claves dedit. Matt. xvi. 19. Pater Filio dedit sedere cum eo in throno ejus, itidemque Filius Apostolis dedit sedere cum eo in throno ejus. Matt. xix. 28; Luc. xxii. 30. Pater Filium dedit fundamentum, aut lapidem angularem ecclesiæ. Matt. xxi. 42. Filius Apostolos dedit fundamenta super fundamento. Eph. ii. 20. Θεμέλιον ̓Αποστόλων ὄντος ἀκρογωνιαίου αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Pater denique Filium απέσταλκε καὶ ἔπεμψε. Joh. v. 24, et xvii. 18. Filius dein Apostolos απέσταλκε καὶ ἔπεμψε. Joh. xx. 21.-Dissert. iii. cap. 2. § 13.