(31) From these expressions and differences of opinion among the Apostles,
and also from the fact that Scripture nowhere testifies of them, as of the
ancient prophets, that they went by the command of God, one might conclude
that they preached as well as wrote in their capacity of teachers, and not
as prophets: but the question is easily solved if we observe the difference
between the mission of an Apostle and that of an Old Testament prophet. (32)
The latter were not called to preach and prophesy to all nations, but to
certain specified ones, and therefore an express and peculiar mandate was
required for each of them; the Apostles, on the other hand, were called to
preach to all men absolutely, and to turn all men to religion. (33)
Therefore, whithersoever they went, they were fulfilling Christ's
commandment; there was no need to reveal to them beforehand what they should
preach, for they were the disciples of Christ to whom their Master Himself
said (Matt. X:19, 20): "But, when they deliver you up, take no thought
how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same
hour what ye shall speak." (34) We therefore conclude that the Apostles
were only indebted to special revelation in what they orally preached and
confirmed by signs (see the beginning of Chap. 11.); that which they taught
in speaking or writing without any confirmatory signs and wonders
they taught from their natural knowledge. (See I Cor. xiv:6.) (35) We need
not be deterred by the fact that all the Epistles begin by citing the
imprimatur of the Apostleship, for the Apostles, as I will shortly show,
were granted, not only the faculty of prophecy, but also the authority to
teach. (36) We may therefore admit that they wrote their Epistles as
Apostles, and for this cause every one of them began by citing the Apostolic
imprimatur, possibly with a view to the attention of the reader by asserting
that they were the persons who had made such mark among the faithful by
their preaching, and had shown bv many marvelous works that they were
teaching true religion and the way of salvation. (37) I observe that what is