from the unique and exclusive nature of the authority the apostles derived from Christ, as well as from the nature of the commission given to them, namely, to be witnesses to what they had seen and heard of the salvation which appeared in Christ. Out of this power and commission of the apostles, the church received its foundation and canon, which therefore bears an irrepeatable and exclusive character. The closedness of the canon thus rests in its very foundation upon the absolutely unique significance
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