The first inquiry will more fully explain to the Fathers of the Church their present duties in an age of division, revolution, and infidelity. The second will point out to them the precedent on which those duties may be fulfilled. Christ's "kingdom is not of this world" in the sense of earthly dignities, honours, power, and influence; but Christ's kingdom is of this world in the sense, of so gradually subduing the souls of men, that not only men considered as individuals, but men considered in their aggregate mass of States, Churches, and Nations, shall eventually form the one predicted Universal Church and the revival of the Apostolic office as the first step to the healing of the nations by the restoration of the primitive Christianity, may be one of the chief means of effecting the reunion of Christians.

I shall consider the meaning of the word "Apostle" as it describes one chief office of the Son of God Himself, the Founder, the Redeemer, the Ruler, and the Judge, of the Universal Church. The titles which are given in the Volume of Revelation to the Son of God may be arranged under these three several divisions :—Those which are peculiar to Himself, and unshared by any of the children of men; as "King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. vi. 15; Rev. xix. 16); "Prince of the kings of the earth" (Rev. i. 5); " Prince of peace" (Isa. ix. 6); "Sun of righteousness" (Mal. iv. 2); "the Lord our righteousness" (Jer. xxiii. 6); “root and offspring of David" (Rev. xxii. 16); “Son of David" (Matt. xx. 30, 31); "Stem of Jesse" (Isa. xi. 1); "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending" (Rev. i. 8). Those which are common to Him with all the faithful among His followers; as "Son of God" (Luke iii. 38); "heir of God" (Rom. viii. 17); "king and priest to God" (Rev. i. 6); "joint heir of God" (Rom. viii. 17).-And those which were partaken with the Messiah by a few only of the primitive believers. Among these was the term 66 Apostle." By comparing the three several accounts of the calling and ordaining of the twelve followers of Christ to whom this name was exclusively given ', we learn that from out of the multitude that followed Him our blessed Saviour chose twelve disciples, and ordained them, and set them apart to preach and to work miracles. St. Matthew at once calls them "apostles ;' St. Mark calls them only "disciples;" but St. Luke more emphatically informs us, that after our Lord had called His disciples, and chosen twelve from among them for the purposes which are familiarly known to all, He called them "apostles." They were still His disciples; they were empowered, as St. Mark represents, to preach, and to heal. In addition, however, to these duties, and duties which were common to them with the Seventy2, He did not call them "disciples" only, but "apostles," as if the latter term signified more than "disciples." It is not sufficient, therefore, to interpret the word, as is generally done, according to its primary and literal meaning, as "one sent forth;" for the Seventy, it is expressly said, were sent forth, o Kúptoç-άTÉσTEIλev avтOúc (Luke x. 1), and the original word, "He sent," is precisely the same with that from which the

1 Matt. x. 2-4. Mark iii. 13-19. Luke vi. 13-16.

2 Luke ix. 1, compared with Luke x. 9.

word "Apostle" is derived. The Seventy, however, were only called “disciples," and not "apostles." apostles." We have no authority to conclude that our Saviour uses the word in any new sense. We cannot but believe that the inspired Evangelist employed the phrase in the common, usual acceptation in which it was understood among the people to whom he addressed his Gospel at the time he wrote.-The question is, therefore, In what sense was the word "Apostle" then used, and in what manner does the subsequent conduct of the Apostle prove that they interpreted the word according to its primary meaning? The answers to these questions will show us the manner in which the successors of the Apostles, in their Apostolic office, were required to act in circumstances similar to those in which the Apostles themselves were placed. If we can discover that they have not so acted, we then arrive at the cause of the present state of the Catholic Church. The discovery of the cause will present us with the remedy for the evil.

The meaning, then, of the word "Apostle" among the contemporaries of the Evangelists, of the twelve disciples who received that honourable appellation, and of St. Paul, [the chief of the Apostles who succeeded the twelve, who was enrolled among the twelve,] must be found in the custom which prevailed among the Jews, by which the High Priest sent forth an officer of indefinite authority and power to require submission to the ordinances of the Mosaic Law, and to the commands of the High Priest, the chief dispenser and enforcer of that Law. The nature of that office is explained in the Acts of the Apostles (chap. viii.). St. Paul was the Apostle of the High Priest of the Jews on earth, before he was elected and commissioned as the fittest person for a higher office, the Apostle of the High Priest in heaven. In his character as Apostle of the secular High Priest, he was entrusted with the general, undefined, unlimited commission, to require, in every part of the world, where the authority of the High Priest at Jerusalem was recognised, obedience to his decisions as the administrator of the laws of Moses, and of the decrees of the Sanhedrim. He made havoc of the Church in Judæa and in Jerusalem, entered every house, and committed men and women to prison. When he had thus scattered the Christians in the Holy Land, he obtained an extension of his commission beyond the limits of Judæa. Damascus was at that time one of the most flourishing colonies of the Jews. The threatening and slaughter-breathing Apostle3 obtained a commission giving him power over all the synagogues of the province, that if he found any Christians, he should bring them bound unto Jerusalem. He was entrusted with a general, indefinite authority, not over one synagogue, but over all the synagogues of a province, to enforce the decrees and ordinances of the Law. He was the Sheliach, or Apostle, of the High Priest; and the word must be interpreted, according to its then general use, to denote an ecclesiastical delegate of general and undefined authority and power. And the only difference between the Apostle of the High Priest on earth, and the Apostle of the High

• Εμπνέων ἀπειλῆς καὶ φόνου, Acts ix. 1.

4 Ὅπως ἐάν τινας εὕρῃ τῆς ὁδοῦ κ. τ. λ. Acts ix. 2.

Priest who was at the same time on earth and in heaven", and who united in Himself all power both in heaven and in earth, consisted in this,-that the one was commissioned to persecute and to coerce, the other was commissioned to preach, persuade, and bless. But when the Divine Founder of the Christian Church perceived that the fit time had come to send forth His select disciples to teach His laws, enforce His mandates, and lay the foundation, conjointly with Himself, of the Church, which shall eventually embrace the whole race of mankind, He did not call them disciples, because they were learners in His school; nor preachers only, because they heralded His mercy and proclaimed His will. He did not call them deacons only, because they waited upon Him, and served Him. He did not call them priests, either as commemorating His Sacrifice, or offering up to God the prayers of His followers. He did not call them elders, as being merely the rulers and governors of synagogues and congregations. Nor did He call them bishops, as being limited to the government of districts, cities, provinces, or towns. He called them "Apostles," as the representatives of the true High Priest, sent forth, commissioned, and authorized with a general authority over the whole Church. They were jointly to rule, to teach, and to govern.-As Christ was the Apostle whom the Father sent forth, first to convert Judæa, then Samaria, then finally the whole world; so were the Apostles entrusted with the unlimited authority to convert the land of Judæa; then, after the death of their Master, Samaria, the provinces of the Roman empire, and finally the whole world. As the Holy Spirit of their blessed Master was not limited or confined to province, town, or city, the Apostles were not so limited nor so confined. The commission of St. Peter was apparently limited to the Circumcision only; but he still spake to and wrote for the Gentiles in every part of the world without exception. And as the commission of St. Paul was apparently granted to the Uncircumcision, or Gentiles only, but he still spake to, and wrote his immortal Epistles for, the Jews and Gentiles in every part of the world without exception; so was it with all the Apostles. The traditionary accounts in the primitive Churches of their proceeding to various destinations, and confining their labours to certain districts and provinces only, rest on no certain foundation. They all received one equal commission; they all met in one holy council; they all possessed one general, unconfined, unlimited authority. The government of the Church rested generally and equally upon them all. The weight of character, superior energy, warmer zeal, and other distinctions, may have made one more influential than another in the Primitive Church; but all who received their Divine name from on High were called Apostles, possessing the same indefinite and universal authority, signified by one name, derived from one source, and explained by the usages of the age, as to the interpretation of the sacred title with which their Divine Master had honoured them.

5 "The Son of man which is in heaven." John iii. 13.

SECTION VIII.

The foregoing view of the absence of all limit to the field of Apostolic labour confirmed by the testimony of Scripture, especially with reference to St. Peter, St. James, St. Paul, St. John, and St. Jude.

THIS view of the Apostolic office is confirmed by every allusion and hint in the New Testament which refers to the manner in which the Apostles discharged their sacred duties. When the persecution at Jerusalem scattered abroad the disciples, the Apostles remained at Jerusalem. To permit them to attend more certainly to their unlimited and undefined duties, they are said to have appointed one who was not of the twelve to be the bishop, or superintendent, of the congregations or Churches at Jerusalem itself. James, the brother of Christ, was honoured by receiving a limited authority over the early converts at that place': and to his manner of wording the decision of the Council which met at Jerusalem on the subject of commanding the rite of circumcision to the converts, they all assented; though it is not possible to imagine that they resigned their own authority. They retained the care of the gradually enlarging Zion; and they remained at the first scene of their duty, to hear and receive the reports from the provinces, and to regulate the affairs of the Universal Church. When the conversion of Samaria was made known at Jerusalem, the Apostles ordered the confirmation of its faith. When the conversion of the Gentiles excited surprise, the matter was explained by the Apostle Peter to the Apostles as well as to his brethren'. The Apostles as well as the brethren decided the question of the receiving the uncircumcised into the Church. So it was with all the Epistles. The Gospel of the circumcision was committed to St. Peter; but he addressed his Epistle, not to the Jews only, but to the proselytes of the Gentiles. The Epistle of St. James the Apostle, though not the bishop, was not addressed to the Church of Jerusalem only, but to the whole of the twelve tribes, that is, to the Universal Church under this appellation. The Epistle to the Romans was not limited to Jewish or to Gentile converts alone; it was addressed to both, that is, to all that were in Rome who had embraced the Gospel, whether from among the Jews or the Gentiles; as also were all the Apostle Paul's other Epistles. And it is impossible to understand the allusions in St. Paul's various letters to the Churches, unless we remember that though he was peculiarly the Apostle of the Gentiles, he addressed Jews as well as Gentiles, as an Apostle or pastor, or one of the chief pastors of

6 Acts xi. 19-22.

7 That James was made Bishop of Jerusalem appears from Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. lib. ii. c. 1, where he cites Clement. Inst. lib. vi. in proof of this.

8 Διὸ ἐγὼ κρίνω, Acts xv. 19.

2 Παρεπιδήμοις διασπορᾶς, 1 Pet. i. l.

9 Acts viii. 14.

1 Acts xi. 1.

3 Ταῖς δώδεκα φυλαῖς, James i. l.

4 Πᾶσι τοῖς οὖσιν ἐν 'Ρώμῃ ἀγαπητοῖς Θεοῦ, Rom. i. 7.

8

the Universal Church. There is, indeed, a tradition mentioned by Eusebius", that the Apostles divided the world among themselves; that Thomas received Parthia; John, Asia; Andrew, Scythia; and that Bartholomew' went to India. Peter and Paul also are said by Irenæus to have founded the Church of Rome. Whether these traditions be true or not, they do not prove that the Apostles confined themselves, like diocesan bishops, to these respective districts, as if they had been the limited spheres of their labours; for Thomas, who is said by Eusebius in one place to have gone to Parthia as the scene of his ministry, is said by Gregory Nazianzen and Jerome' to have gone to India. Though they avoided, as much as possible, any interference with the labours of each other, so that they might not preach where their Apostolic brethren had already preached, lest they should seem to build upon another's foundation', yet they regarded themselves as the watchful coadjutors and inspectors of the conduct of each other. When St. Peter judaized, contrary to his own principles, St. Paul reproved him openly: yet they both loved each other. Both acted as the vigilant guardians of the common faith. Both considered themselves superintendents of the Catholic Church. Both were unfettered by limited, defined, determined boundaries. Both ruled under Christ, their common Lord. As it was with St. Peter and St. Paul, so does it appear to have been with St. John, St. Jude, and St. James. The Epistles of St. John, though primarily addressed to an individual, were received by the Churches as universal directions to all Christians. The Epistles of the Apostle of the Gentiles to Timothy and Titus were received as mandates to the universal Clergy of all ages, and not only to the two bishops or elders of Ephesus and Crete. The Epistle of St. James was addressed to the spiritual twelve tribes; the Epistle of St. Jude was addressed to all Christians'; and the Apocalypse itself, though addressed to the Seven Churches of Asia, is no less written for all who are interested in the Revelation of the events which should befal the Churches. The office of the Apostles was universal, general, uncircumscribed, unlimited. They had one joint indefinite power: and so long as that power was preserved, the Churches of Christ were united, and peace prevailed among Christians.

5 I deduce no additional argument from the Epistle to the Hebrews, though I believe it to have been written by St. Paul, because the authorship of that Epistle has been disputed.

6 Eccles. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 1.

8 Adv. Hæres. lib. iii. cap. 2.

7 Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. v. cap. 10.

9 Eccles. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 1.

1 Greg. Naz. Orat. xxv. ad Arian. Hieron. Epist. ad Dextrum. § 9.

2 Ἵνα μὴ ἐπ' ἀλλότριον θεμέλιον οἰκοδομῶ, Rom. xv. 20.

3 Τοῖς ἐν Θεῷ Πατρὶ ἡγιασμένοις, Jude 1.