CHAPTER X. ORGANIZATION OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. 229 prophecy was a gift and function rather than an office, Christendom. But they never exercised their divine auand the evangelists were temporary officers charged with thority in arbitrary and despotic style. They always paid a particular mission under the direction of the apos- tender regard to the rights, freedom, and dignity of the tles. All three are usually regarded as extraordinary of- immortal souls under their care. In every believer, even ficers and confined to the apostolic age; but from time in a poor slave like Onesimus, they recognized a memto time God raises extraordinary missionaries (as Pat- ber of the same body with themselves, a partaker of their rick, Columba, Boniface, Ansgar), divines (as Augustin, redemption, a beloved brother in Christ. Their governAnselm, Thomas Aquinas, Luther, Melancthon, Calvin), ment of the church was a labor of meekness and love, and revival preachers (as Bernard, Knox, Baxter, Wesley, of self-denial and unreserved devotion to the eternal Whitefield), who may well be called apostles, prophets, welfare of the people. Peter, the prince of the apostles, and evangelists of their age and nation.686 humbly calls himself a “fellow-presbyter,” and raises his 1. Apostles. These were originally twelve in number, prophetic warning against the hierarchical spirit which answering to the twelve tribes of Israel. so easily takes hold of church dignitaries and alienates In place of the traitor, Judas, Matthias was chosen them from the people. by lot, between the ascension and Pentecost.702 After 2. Prophets. These were inspired and inspiring teachthe outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Paul was added as the ers and preachers of the mysteries of God. They appear to thirteenth by the direct call of the exalted Saviour. He have had special influence on the choice of officers, deswas the independent apostle of the Gentiles, and after- ignating the persons who were pointed out to them by ward gathered several subordinate helpers around him. the Spirit of God in their prayer and fasting, as peculiarBesides these there were apostolic men, like Barnabas, ly fitted for missionary labor or any other service in the and James the brother of the Lord, whose standing and church. Of the prophets the book of Acts names Agabus, influence were almost equal to that of the proper apos- Barnabas, Symeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul of Tarsus, tles. The Twelve (excepting Matthias, who, however, Judas and Silas.687 The gift of prophecy in the wider sense was an eye-witness of the resurrection) and Paul were dwelt in all the apostles, pre-eminently in John, the seer called directly by Christ, without human intervention, of the new covenant and author of the Revelation. It was to be his representatives on earth, the inspired organs a function rather than an office. of the Holy Spirit, the founders and pillars of the whole 3. Evangelists, itinerant preachers, delegates, and felchurch. Their office was universal, and their writings are low-laborers of the apostles—such men as Mark, Luke, to this day the unerring rule of faith and practice for all Timothy, Titus, Silas, Epaphras, Trophimus, and Apollos.688 They may be compared to modern missionaries. thirdly, teachers; then powers, then gifts of healing, helps, They were apostolic commissioners for a special work. governments, kinds of tongues. Neither list is intended to be “It is the conception of a later age which represents Timstrictly methodical and exhaustive othy as bishop of Ephesus, and Titus as bishop of Crete. 686 So Calvin, Inst. IV. ch. 3, § 4: “Secundum hanc interSt. Paul’s own language implies that the position which pretationem (qua mihi et verbis et sententiae Pauli consentathey held was temporary. In both cases their term of ofnea videtur) tres iliae functiones [Apostoli, Prophetae, Evan689 gelisttae]non ideo intitutae in ecclesia fuerunt, ut perpetuae fice is drawing to a close when the apostle writes.” forent, sed ad id modo tempus quo erigendae erant ecclesiae, ubi nullae ante fuerant, vel certe a Mose ad Christum traducendae. Quanquam non nego quin Apostolos postea quoque, vel saltem eorum loco Evangelistas interdum excitarit Deus, ut nostro tempore factum est.”Most Protestant historians hold substantially the same view. The followers of the “Catholic Apostolic Church,” usually called “Irvingites,” claim to have apostles, prophets, evangelists raised up by the Lord himself in these last days preparatory to his Advent; but these “apostles” died one by one, and their places remain vacant. See my Hist. of the Ap. Church, pp. 516 sqq., and Creeds of Christendom, I. 905 sqq. In a very substantial sense the original apostles survive in their teaching, and need and can have no successors or substitutes.
687 Acts 11:28; 21:19; 13:1; 15:32 688 1 Tim. 1:3; 3:14; 2 Tim. 4:9, 21; Tit. 1:5; 3:2; 1 Pet. 5:12. Calvin takes the same view of the Evangelists, Inst. IV., ch. 3, § 4: “Per Evangelistas eos intelligo, qui quum dignitate essent Apostolis minores, officio tamen proximi erant, adeoque vices eorum gerebant. Quales fuerunt, Lucas, Timotheus, Titus, et reliqui similes: ac fortassis etiam septuaginta quos secundo ab Apostolis loco Christus designavit (Luc. 10. 1).” 689 Lightfoot, p. 197. Other Episcopal writers, accepting the later tradition (Euseb., H. E. III. 4; Const. Apost. VII. 46), regard Timothy and Titus as apostolic types of diocesan bishops. So Bishop Chr. Wordsworth: A Church History to the Council of Nicaea (1880, p. 42), and the writer of the article “Bishop,” in Smith and Cheetham (I. 211).
