The Apostles associated with themselves many other fellow-labourers: but in none was there the same assuredness of faith as in those whom the Lord himself had called and directed by the same Spirit as the Apostles. We read that Barnabas, Judas, and Silas were next to the Apostles in authority and in zeal for the extension of the Church, for the Holy Ghost had been shed upon them in the same way as on the Apostles, since, when the Holy Ghost descended visibly on the day of Pentecost, there were met together in the same place with the Twelve, all who had been present at the election of Matthias; and although Barnabas was not numbered among the Twelve, he did not therefore cease to be an Evangelist.

Although the authority of Mark and Luke was great on account of the Gospels written by them, yet I do not reckon them among the Seventy Evangelists, because they were called to the ministry of the Gospel by man. Tertullian, in his fourth book against Marcion, writes thus; "Luke was not an Apostle, but

an Apostolic man; not a master, but a disciple, and consequently less than a master, or at all events in so far inferior, as he was the follower of an Apostle, who was himself called later than the others. Eusebius informs us, that Papias left in his commentaries the following testimony concerning St. Mark. "Mark, being the interpreter of Peter, wrote exactly whatever he remembered, not indeed in the order in which things were spoken and done by the Lord, for he was not himself a hearer or follower of Christ, but afterwards, as I said, followed Peter, &c. Wherefore Mark by no means erred in committing to writing certain things which he had heard, in the order in which he learnt them, inasmuch as he took good heed not to omit any thing of what he had heard, nor to add any thing that was false."

So wrote Papias. It is well known that Mark was inferior in authority to Barnabas, being his follower, and, as it were, disciple, as well as of St. Paul and St. Peter, and so

a Eccl. Hist. iii.

of the same rank with Titus and Timotheus. So great however was his fidelity, and that of St. Luke, in recording what they had received from the Apostles, that their Gospels are reckoned among the Canonical Scriptures, and are equal in authority to those of St. Matthew and St. John: for St. Mark and St. Luke merely lent their aid as amanuenses to the Apostles and Evangelists: so that, whilst the Gospel by St. Matthew is the work of St. Matthew alone, and that by St. John of St. John alone, the Gospels by St. Mark and St. Luke may rather be considered as the work of all the other Apostles and Evangelists together, than of St. Mark and St. Luke alone. Wherein great is the glory due to them, in that they were subject to none of the errors into which ordinary historians fall, but followed the guidance of the spirit of the Apostles and Evangelists, as accurately as these could have done had they themselves been the writers. St. Paul attests this of St. Luke "And we have sent with

when he says,

G

him (Titus), the brother whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches"." From what has now been said, it may be understood who were Evangelists properly so called, and who were not.

b 2 Cor. viii. 18.

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CHAP. V.

CONCERNING THE FROPHETS.

As we admit no one to the company of the Twelve Apostles but St. Paul alone, so no others are considered equal to the Seventy Disciples, of whom we have just treated. For, although God might have added to those Seventy, others in no way inferior to them, even as he added Paul to the Twelve, yet, since there is no evidence in Scripture of his having so done, it would be rash to affirm that he did make any such addition. Since, however, there were others besides the Twelve and the Seventy who received the first-fruits of the Spirit, by what name are they to be distinguished from others not so privileged? Of the hundred and twenty