term "apostle" to which
Lightfoot had already drawn attention. A prophet, on the contrary, may
settle if he chooses, and in that case he is to receive tithes and
first-fruits; "for they are your high priests." If he be once approved
as a true prophet, his words and acts are not to be criticized; for this
is the sin that shall not be forgiven. Next comes a section (xiv., xv.)
reflecting a somewhat later development concerning fixed services and
ministry; the desire for a stated service, and the need of regular
provision for it, is leading to a new order of things. The eucharist is
to be celebrated every Lord's Day, and preceded by confession of sins,
"that your sacrifice may be pure ... for this is that sacrifice which
was spoken of by the Lord, In every place and time to offer unto Me a
pure sacrifice. Appoint therefore unto yourselves bishops and deacons,
worthy of the Lord, men meek and uncovetous, and true and approved; for
they also minister unto you the ministration of the prophets and
teachers. Therefore despise them not; for they are your honoured ones,
together with the prophets and teachers." This is an arrangement
recommended by one who has tried it, and he reassures the old-fashioned
believer who clings to the less formal regime (and whose protest was
voiced in the Montanist movement), that there will be no spiritual loss
under the new system. The book closes (chap. xvi.) with exhortations to
steadfastness in the last days, and to the coming of the
"world-deceiver" or Antichrist, which will precede the coming of the
Lord. This section is perhaps the actual utterance of a Christian
prophet, and may be of earlier origin than the two preceding sections.

3. It will now be clear that indications of the locality and date of our
present _Teaching_ must be sought for only in the second part, and in
the Christian interpolations in the first part. We have no ground for
thinking that the second part ever existed independently as a separate
book. The whole work was in the hands of the writer of the seventh book
of the _Apostolic Constitutions_, who embodies almost every sentence of
it, interspersing it with passages of Scripture, and modifying the
precepts of the second part to suit a later (4th-century) stage of
church development; this writer was also the interpolator of the
Epistles of Ignatius, and belonged to the Syrian Church. Whether the
second part was known to the writer of the _Apostolic Church Order_ is
not c