specially to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel, [45:6] but His conduct in this case symbolically indicated the
catholic character of His religion. He evinced His regard for the Jews
by sending no less than twelve apostles to that one nation, but He did
not Himself refuse to minister either to Samaritans or Gentiles; and to
shew that He was disposed to make provision for the general diffusion of
His word, He "appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two
before His face into every city and place whither He himself would
come."

It is very clear that our Lord committed, in the first instance, to the
Twelve the organisation of the ecclesiastical commonwealth. The most
ancient Christian Church, that of the metropolis of Palestine, was
modelled under their superintendence; and the earliest converts gathered
into it, after His ascension, were the fruits of their ministry. Hence,
in the Apocalypse, the wall of the "holy Jerusalem" is said to have
"twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the
Lamb." [46:1] But it does not follow that others had no share in
founding the spiritual structure. The Seventy also received a commission
from Christ, and we have every reason to believe that, after the death
of their Master, they pursued their missionary labours with renovated
ardour. That they were called apostles as well as the Twelve, cannot,
perhaps, be established by distinct testimony; [46:2] but it is certain,
that they were furnished with supernatural endowments; [46:3] and it is
scarcely probable that they are overlooked in the description of the
sacred writer when He represents the New Testament Church as "built upon
the foundation of the _apostles and prophets_, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief corner stone." [46:4]

The appointment of the Seventy, like that of the Twelve, was a typical
act; and it is not, therefore, extraordinary that they are only once
noticed in the sacred volume. Our Lord never intended to constitute two
permanent corporations, limited, respectively, to twelve and seventy
members, and empowered to transmit their authority to successors from
generation to generation. In a short time after His death the symbolical
meaning of the mission of the Seventy was explained, as it very soon
appeared that the gospel was to be transmitted to all the ends of the
earth; and thus it was no longer necessary to refer to these
representatives of the ministry of the universal Churc