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[Dubourg <ant...@to...>]

He character of the deacon, or subordinate minister's office, is
introduced in consequence of the complaints of the Hellenist Christians:
the number of the apostles is increased by the addition of Paul and
Barnabas, not appointed, as Matthias had been, by the other apostles
themselves, but by the prophets and teachers of the church of Antioch.
Again, the churches founded by St. Paul were each, at first, placed by
him under the government of several presbyters; but after his
imprisonment at Rome, finding that they were become greatly corrupted,
he sends out single persons, in two instances, with full powers to
remodel these churches, and with authority to correct the presbyters
themselves: yet it does not appear that these especial[7] visitors were
to alter permanently the earlier constitution of the churches; nor that
they were sent generally to all the churches which St. Paul had founded.
Indeed, it appears evident from the epistle of Clement, that the
original constitution of the church of Corinth still subsisted in his
time; the government was still vested not in one man, but in many[8].
Yet a few years later the government of a single man, as we see from
Ignatius, was become very general; and Ignatius, as is well known,
wishes to invest it with absolute power[9]. I believe that he acted
quite wisely according to the circumstances of the church at that
period; and that nothing less than a vigorous unity of government could
have struggled with the difficulties and dangers of that crisis. But no
man can doubt that the system which Ignatius so earnestly recommends was
very different from that which St. Paul had instituted fifty or sixty
years earlier. [Footnote 7: The command