5. The characteristic features of this highest office in the Christian Church have been very accurately
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delineated by M'Lean, in his Apostolic Commission. " It was essential to their office — (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 i, 21, 22), that he should have been personally acquainted with the whole min- isterial course of our Lord, from the baptism of John till the day when He was taken up into heaven. He himself describes them as ' those that had continued with Him in his temptations' (Luke xxii, 28). By this close personal intercourse with Him, they were peculiarly fitted to give testimony to the facts of re- demption ; and we gather, from his own words in John xiv, 28 ; xv, 26, 27 ; xvi, 13, that an especial bestowal of the Spirit's influence was granted them, by which their memories were quickened, and their power of re- producing that which they had heard from him in- creased above the ordinary measure of man. 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' (1 Cor. xv, 8). And this he else- where mentions as one of his apostolic qualifications : 'Am I not an apostle? have I not seen the Lord?' (1 Cor. ix, 1). So that his ' seeing 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, 14, 15). (2.) They must have been im- mediately called and chosen to that office by Christ himself. This was the case with every one of them (Luke vi, 13 ; Gal. i, 1), Matthias not excepted ; for, as he had been a chosen disciple of Christ before, so the Lord, by determining the lot, declared his choice, and immediately called him to the office of an apostle (Acts i, 24-26). (3.) Infallible inspiration was also essentially necessary to that office (John xvi, 13; 1 Cor. ii, 10 ; Gal. i, 11, 12). They had not only to ex- plain the true sense and spirit of the Old Testament (Luke xxiv, 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 generations (1 Pet. i, 25; 1 John iv, C). It was therefore absolutely necessary that the}' should be secured against all error and mis- take by unerring inspiration. Accordingly, Christ be- stowed 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 re- ceived, ' not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God' (1 Thess. ii, 13), and as that where- by we are to distinguish 'the spirit of truth from the spirit of error" (1 John iv, 6b (4.) Another qualifica- tion was the power of working miracles (Mark xvi, 20 ; Acts ii, 43), such as speaking with divers tongues, curing the lame, etc. (1 Cor. xii, 8-11). These were the credentials of their divine mission. ' Truly,' sa3S Paul, 'the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds' (2 Cor. xii, 12). Miracles were neces- sary to confirm their doctrine at its first publication, and to gain credit to it in the world as a revelation from God, and by these 'God bare them witness' (II eb. 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 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 (1 Cor. v, 3-6; 2 Cor. x, 8; xiii, 10)."
6. 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 qualifi- cations were supernatural, and their work, once per- formed, 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 authori- tative teachers of Christian doctrine and law. All of- ficial 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 injurious to the cause of Christianity than the assumption on the part of ordi- nary office-bearers in the Church of the peculiar pre- rogatives of "the holy apostles of our Lord Jesus." Much that is said of the latter is not at all applicable to the former; and much that admits of being applied can be so, in truth, only in a very secondary ami ex- tenuated sense. See Succession.