They authoritatively taught the doctrine and the law of their Lord; they organized churches and required them to keep the traditions, the doc trines and ordinances delivered to them (Acts ii; 1 Cor. :16; ii :7, io, 13; 2 Cor. V :20 ; 1 Cor. X1:2). Saul of Tarsus, afterwards termed Paul, was also miraculously added to the number of these permanent rulers of the Christian society (Acts ix; xx:4; xxvi:15-18; i Tim. i:12; ii:7: 2 Tim. i :I I).
(4) Apostolic Office. The characteristic fea tures of this highest office in the Christian church were: (1) That they should have seen the Lord, and been eye and ear witnesses of what they testified to the world (John xv :27). This is laid down as an essential requisite in the choice of one to succeed Judas (Acts 1:21, 22). Paul is no exception here, for, speaking of those who saw Christ after his resurrection, he adds, 'and last of all he was seen of me' (i Cor. xv :8). And this he elsewhere mentions as one of his apostolic qualifications: 'Ani I not an apostle? I not seen the Lord?' (1 Cor. ix :1). So that Ins see ing that Just One and hearing the word of his mouth was necessary to his being 'a witness of what he thus saw and heard' (Acts xxii:4, t5). (2) They must have been immediately called and chosen to that office by Christ himself. This was the case with every one of them (Luke vi :13 ; Gal. i:t), Matthias not excepted ; for, as he had been a chosen disciple of Christ before, so the Lord, by determining the lot, de clared his choice, and immediately called him to the office of an apostle (Acts i :24-26). (3) In fallible inspiration was also essentially necessary to that office (John xvi :13 ; t Cor. ii :to; Gal.
i :it, 12). They had not only to explain the true sense and spirit of the Old Testament (Luke x xiv :27 ; Acts xxvi :22, 23; XXVIII :23), which were hid from the Jewish doctors, but also to give forth the New Testament revelation to the world, which was to be the unalterable standard of faith and practice in all succeeding genera tions (I Pet. i :25; I John iv :6). It was therefore absolutely necessary that they should be secured against all error and mistake by the unerring dic tates of the spirit of truth. Accordingly Christ promised and actually bestowed on them the Spirit to teach them all things, to 'bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever he had said to them' (John xiv:26), to 'guide them into all truth,' and 'to show them things to come' (John xvi :13). Their word, therefore, must be received, 'not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God' (t Thess. ii:13), and as that whereby we are to distinguish 'the spirit of truth from the spirit of error' (t John iv:6). (4) An
other apostolic qualification was the power of working miracles (Mark xvi :2o; Acts ii :43), such as speaking with divers tongues, curing the lame, healing the sick, raising the dead, dis cerning of spirits, conferring these gifts upon others, etc. Cor. xii:8-ti). These were the cre dentials of their divine mission. 'Truly,' says Paul, 'the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds' (2 Cor. Miracles were necessary to confirm their doctrine at its first publication. and to gain credit to it in the world as a revela tion from God, and by these 'God bare them wit ness' (Heb. ii :4). (5) To these characteristics may be added the universality of their mission. Their charge was not confined to any particular visible church, like that of ordinary pastors, but, being the oracles of God to men, they had the care of all the churches (2 Cor. xi:28). They had a power to settle their faith and order as a model to future ages, to determine all controversies (Acts xvi :4), and to exercise the rod of discipline upon all offenders, whether pastors or flock (t Cor. v :3-6 ; 2 Cor. x :8 ; xiii :to).
(5) No Successors. It must be obvious, from this scriptural account of the apostolical office,that the Apostles had, in the strict sense of the term, no successors. Their qualifications were super natural, and their work, once performed, remains in the infallible record of the New Testament, for the advantage of the Church and the world in all future ages. They are the only authoritative teachers of Christian doctrine and law. All offi cial men in Christian churches can legitimately claim no higher place than expounders of the doctrines and administrators of the laws found in their writings. Few things have been more in jurious to the cause of Christianity than the as sumption on the part of ordinary office-bearers in the Church of the peculiar prerogatives of the holy apostles of our Lord Jesus.' It is ti ue in deed that the word is used in this loose sense by the Fathers. Thus we find in Archippus, Phile mon. Apphia, the seventy disciples (Luke x termed apostles: and even Mary Magdalene is said to be an apostle to the Apostles. No satis factory evidence, however, can be brought for ward of the term being thus used in the Ncw Testament. Andronicus and Junia (Rom. xvi:7) arc indeed said to be of nose oniony the Apostles; but these words by no means necessarily imply that these persons were apostles; they may, and probably do, signify merely that they were per sons well known and much esteemed by the Apos tles. The felloTe-workers of the Apostles are by Chrysostom denominated fellow-apostles.