plication of this title, is in its appropriation to the SON OF GOD, who is called Heb. iii. 1. "The Apostle and High Priest of our profession." As a prophet, like to Moses, that is, as a lawgiver, (see the next verse,) he is called the apostle of our confession, agreeably to the meaning of the word which denotes one sent forth to execute any affair of importance. (i) To this our Saviour in his discourses frequently alludes, and describes himself as having been sent by, or constituted the apostle of the Father. Thus John x. 36. "Do ve charge him with blasphemy, whom the Father hath consecrated his apostle (nyaσe xα αTEσTλ) to the world, for calling himself his son?" (k) And again, chap. vii. 42. "For I proceeded and am come forth from God, I came not of myself for he sent me."

In the second degree, the appellation apostle, is given to the twelve illustrious disciples of Christ, who were at length delegated by himself as his witnesses and messengers, and constituted the primary teachers of christianity to the whole world.

But before we proceed to ascertain the exclusive prerogatives of their office, it will be essential to the investigation we have in hand, to note, that the title of appostle is applied in the new testament, and not unfrequently in the earliest ecle

(i) MACKNIGHT. (k) CAMPBELL'S Translation.

siastical writers to several of the other agents and ministers of the primitive churches. "There are many more, says EUSEBIUS, who are called apostles, by way of imitation." (1) It will be found upon examination to be given, 1.-to those who first announced the gospel in any province or city. Thus the seventy disciples are called apostles by TERTULLIAN. “After the same manner," observes VALESIUS, "every nation and city termed them apostles from whom they first received the truth of the gospel." (m) Hence Eusebius calls Mark, not only an evangelist, but also an apostle, because he first preached the gospel to the Alexandrians. (n) 2-To those early disciples and ministers who were the intimate friends and companions of the apostles. Thus Timothy is so designated by SALVIAN; Timothy and Luke by IDATIUS; (0) and Mark and Luke by ATHANASIUS. (p) To this class also it is probable, belonged Junia and Andronicus, who are mentioned, Rom. xvi. 7. as being "of note among the apostles." Some indeed have supposed them to have been apostles, in the sense first given: but the name Junia is that of a female, and denotes probably the wife of Andronicus. (q)

(1) Euseb. Hist. I. 12. (m) Val. on Euseb. I. 13. (n) Hist. II. 24. (0) In Fastis. (p) Athanas. in Synopsi. (q) So Chrysostom, Theophylact, and several other Commentators, ancient and modern.

D

They are said indeed in the verse to be St. Paul's kinsmen, but the term thus rendered properly signifies relatives; and should have been so translated. Their being "of note among the apostles," only intimates the high estimation in which, on account of their talents and virtues, they were held by several of those men of God. BENGEL thinks they were of the number of the 500 referred to in 1 Cor. xv. 6., and that they stood in this high consideration among the apostles, because they had thus seen Christ after his resurrection. 3.-The appellation is also given, (in a sense somewhat analogous to the shalichin described above) to those who travelled on commissions of temporal or spiritual business, relating to the interest of the churches.These are designated αποστολοι εκκλησίων. (γ) Such were Titus and his brethren, mentioned in the 2 Epistle to the Corinthians; and Epaphroditus, in that to the Phillippians, who (chap. ii. 25.) was the apostolos or messenger of that church to St. Paul, when imprisoned at Rome, to console him by the assurances of their love, and to supply him with that pecuniary aid which would relieve the inconveniences of his confinement,-see chap. iv. 15. 4. The nearest approach to the apostolic dignity itself, appears to have been made by Barnabas, who has the title given him (r) 2 Cor. viii. 23.

association with St. Paul, Acts xxiv. 4, and was evidently one of the principal haracters in the early church of Jerusaem. (s) This eminent christian however, hough an apostolical man, to use the expression of CLEMENT concerning him, was not an apostle in the peculiar import of the name. There are two circumstances recorded of him in the Acts, which serve to explain its application to him. He was a messenger of the churches.-As such he was deputed by the church at Jerusalem, who εξαπεστειλαν “sent him forth that he should go as far as Antioch," to visit the newly converted believers there and he was a companion of the apostle Paul, in the especial commission which they received from the Holy-Ghost, to various labours among the Gentiles, as described in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters.

In this accommodated sense also, the term has not unfrequently been applied in more recent times, to ministers of the gospel who have been eminent for their sanctified zeal, and extraordinary labours. Thus in common language, an ELLIOT, a GILPIN, a XAVIER, a WESLEY, and a COKE, are designated" the apostolic." (t) I need

(s) See Acts iv. ult., and chap. ix. 26. (t) In this acceptation of the word should every minister of Christ, endeavour the imitation of the apostolic character. To be successful in his work he must begin and carry it on in their spirit and with their aims. The eternal salvation or damnation of

not say however, that those eminent servants of God, were never chargeable with the absurd self-complacency of announcing themselves by such an epithet.

But with this subordinate application of the term we have nothing further, at present, to do. All these worthies, both ancient and modern, were apostles, not in REALITY, but, as Eusebius says, BY IMITATION: they were not such in the sense in which the first messengers of Christ were; nor in the sense in which the sacred appellation has been taken to themselves by the soi-disant APOSTLES of NewmanStreet.

Our main enquiry turns therefore, not on the inferior and accommodated, but on the proper, peculiar, and exclusive import of the term, as appropriated to THE TWELVE PRIMARY Ministers of christianity: "the glorious company of the apostles," the true "Legates a latere" of the Son of God, the consecrated and ever-memorable men, who were personally commissioned by the Redeemer, filled with his Spirit, entrusted with his doctrine, empowered to raise the structure of the church, and constituted his ambassadors to the whole world! (v)

many souls will depend much on the possession or absence of that spirit in every preacher. The beautiful work of FLETCHER on the character of St. Paul, will illustrate the analogy between the ordinary and extraordinary ministry. (v) Note F.