The Government of the Churches of Christ, Book 2 · Chapter 2
CHAP. II.
That the Grand Charter of Church-Government, or the power of the Keys, is granted not to Ministers in particular only, excluding the People, but to the whole Body of Believers.
IF any were to set down the Model of any Government whatsoever, the first and most necessary thing is, to set out first what Common-wealth, Corporation, or Body Politick, should be the Substratum, the Seat of that Government, (in and among whom it is exercised;) and to set out the Bounds and Extent thereof by which the Jurisdiction of that Government is limited, and unto which, as the Subject matter thereof, all the particulars of that Government are suited and proportioned, (as the Building is to it's Foundation) and also the Scituation and Measure of the Ground, which they make the Seat thereof. Therefore in the Inquisition after that Order and Frame of Government, which (we conceive) Christ hath instituted for his Church, it is most proper to begin in seeking out what kind of Body or Society it is, which should be that proper Adequate, intire Seat and Subject of this Government, what the Bounds and Extent thereof are, wherein Christ would have his Government exercised, and within which confined. I call the Church Sedes or Seat, not in Allusion to that Ancient Phrase used, for the Subject of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, (which Phrase yet strengthens this use of it) but in Allusion to that Scripture Phrase, 1 Tim. 3. 15. where he calls the Church foreign that is, the Seat or Ground of Truth, and as of Truth there, so (say I) of Worship and Government. This therefore as the Foundation, shall be the Subject of my Discourse, and upon the finding the true Abuttments hereof, doth the ending and determining of most of those Suits and Quarrels of this Age, about Church-Government depend. The first Charter granted by the Founder, and the Patterns of those Master Builders the Apostles, and the proportions of those Primitive Churches, must be our guide herein.
Begin we therefore to enquire what is the true purport of the first grand Charter of all the rest, and what help that will contribute hereunto; as we find in Mat. 16. 19. And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: And whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth, shall be bound in Heaven; whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth, shall be loosed in Heaven.
1. Where first, he no sooner mentions, (and it is the first mention) a New Church to be Builded by him under the New Testament, but he, together therewith, makes mention of Keys, both as means of Building it, and of governing it, following the Metaphor of an House therein. And Peter having newly made a Confession, that Jesus was the Son of God, he being declared and owned by him as such, Christ utters himself again to him, as the Son of God indeed, speaks of Building, and Contriving anew of his House, as a Prerogative proper to him, as the Son; which, to the same purpose, the Apostle in like manner alledgeth, Heb. 3. 3, 4, 5. Christ, as the Son over his own House, is the Builder thereof, which Prerogative he here holds forth, saying, I will Build my Church, and I will give Keys. The Church he intends, is the Church of the New Testament, which (the Son being himself come) was to be moulded and built anew by him, especially after his Ascension. And the Keys he means, are the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, (as the State of the Church under the Gospel is called;) which, to shew he is the Son, and hath all power committed to him, he professeth to dispose of anew, (as the Keys themselves were new) to another sort of Persons than before; The Keys of Knowledge and Government having been before in the Hands of High Priests and Levites, &c. Now as the Church was to be of a new frame, and the keys were new, so he declares a new disposement of them to other Persons than the former. So that this place strengthens the Assertion, That Christ as the Son, is the Builder of his Church, Heb. 3. 3. 6. and the Institutor of all power and means of Building in it; and also it proves that the Frame and Government of the Church under the Old Testament, delivered by Moses to those that sat in his Chair, cannot be a set Rule of the Frame and Form of Government, of the Church under the New. For Christ the Son, being come, shews his Prerogative by declaring the Old to be done away, saying, I will Build, I wil give the keys, &c. whilst he speaks of a New, the Old is done away. yea, the Persons to whom, and the Extent and Limits of the power are to be set out by him, as well as what those keys shall be, by which he will Build and have his Church governed; and he therefore says to Peter, I do give to thee. In that he singles him out electively, it argues his special Designation of the Subject or Persons, (who ever they be) to whom he will bequeath them.
2. That Peter here in this promise of the keys for the future to be given, should stand in a Representative Respect, and not meerly Personal, all Writers in all Ages, and all sides, though in Peter's Name, laying several claims unto these keys, do universally acknowledge and observe. Some say, the grant is to Peter only, considered as a Believer, having made Confession of his Faith, that Christ was the Son of God; and therefore Representing the Church of Believers, as unto whom all Church power should be first given. Others assert, this grant to be made to Peter as an Apostle, and so Representing the Apostles and Ministers only. Thirdly, others as the Papists, vindicate a personal priviledge of Peter's, above all the other Apostles, yet therein Representing his supposed Successor, the Bishops of Rome. Learned Cameron almost alone, would have it, that this was a personal priviledge to Peter, wherein none others did succeed him. Thus much seems evident to us, that our Saviour Christ speaks unto Peter, under a double consideration in these words, ver. 19. and the words before. The one was meerly Personal, and therein he speaks to him, under his own proper Name, Simon Son of Bar-Jonas, and so pronounceth him Blessed, for that his Confession, which accordingly expressed his personal priviledge, (which under that Name he had even from Circumcision) of his being Saved, without any mention of the gift of the keys. But then secondly he gives him withal a new Name, and I also say unto thee, Thou art Peter, or Rock, which was a New and Mystical Name, as the word following shew, upon this Rock. foreign and foreign, answering each to other, as fides and fidelis. And under this new Name now put upon him, he gives him a further priviledge, I will give to thee the Keys, namely as thou art Peter. This was not so much in a Personal, as a Mystical consideration, upon which this New Name was given him. And to strengthen this, it may be observed that God in first delivering his promises and grand Charters unto all sorts, singled out some one Man, in whose Name the grand Charter should eminently run. So Adam was fixed upon, when God, in his Name, gave the Earth unto the rest of the Sons of Men: So Abraham was singled out to Represent the Church, both of the Jews and Gentiles, but especially to represent the Jews who were his Children, to whom God gave the promises of the Land of Canaan, as representing all his Seed, and of the whole World, as representing all the Saints, Rom. 4. 13. And accordingly he did upon it change his Name from Abram, to Abraham, Thus in like manner here doth Christ deal with Peter. He first blesseth him personally as Simon, then changeth his Name to Peter, and so bequeaths this Charter of the keys, in his like representation of others, to whom in him the grant is made, as well as to himself. For Peter was still more forward than all the rest, to utter his Faith that Christ was the Son of God. Elsewhere indeed, (as in John 6. 69.) he speaks in the person of all the Apostles; but here where this grant is first uttered, singly in his own; And on this occasion, Christ Honoreth this Great and Eminent Confessor of him, as that Man in whose Name this great Charter should run, he bearing therein the persons of all sorts, that were to have any portion of power, whether of his Apostles, Extraordinary Officers; or of ordinary Officers, as also of the Church of Believers, and even of all to whom ever any portion of the keys was for the future to be given; yet so as this Honour was peculiarly his, and he is singled out to be this common Representer of all others under the New Testament, which Honour he doth bear to this Day in his Name, even as Abraham had the like Honour under the Old Testament. And to evidence this the more by the event, Christ did, in an especial manner, honour Peter to be the Founder as it were, and beginner of the New Christian Church, (as Cameron hath observed out of Tertullian) when he converted that Multitude at one Sermon, Acts 2.
Neither yet is this to be understood, as if those keys were given unto Peter to convey the keys unto others Derivatively, but he takes them Representatively, (and therefore it was not necessary that all power should be in Peter's person as an Apostle, otherwise than Representatively) and that not Repraesentatione Reali, as if he received all power for the Church, over her, as a King or a Parliament doth, who Represents a Common-wealth, (as the Papists and Episcopal Divines, and others say of the Officers, that they Represent the Church) but only Repraesentatione Typicali, a Typical Representation, (as Baynes Distinguisheth) that is, that power which the Church or others that were Officers unto her, should receive in themselves afterwards, he now received in a Representation both of her and them, as a common Person standing for, and spoken to for all the rest. And Christ therefore doth not say, I give, which if he had spoken to him only as an Apostle, constituting him such thereby at present, he would have done; but I will give for the future, because many of those whom Peter Represented here, the power was afterwards to be given to, when the Lord should be pleased to declare it by himself or his Apostles.
3. Further as all this is spoken of Peter here as a Representative Person, so in an indefinite and general way. And as it is the first Great promise and Charter, in which all particular portions of power, to whomsoever afterwards distributed, are included, so likewise as the other first and great promises of God use to be, this is as comprehensive, so indefinite also, not designing at particulars; such was that grant of the Earth to the Sons of Men, whom afterward God divided into several Nations, to whom by his Providence, suited to his Decrees, he set out the bounds of their several Habitations, Acts 17. 26. and in Deut. 23. 8. The like was, that first Charter made of Canaan to Abraham, which was afterwards particularly designed out by Lot, to the several Tribes, &c. whose Right was yet all indefinitely comprehended, and intended in that first grant to Abraham. So accordingly all the expressions in this promise are general, and indistinct; and to be taken in an indefinite and comprehensive way.
1. As first, where he saith, He will Build his Church, it is hard to know how to limit it, for he means all sorts of Churches: he means the Mystical Church, for he saith, The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it, wwhich is only true thereof; for they have prevailed against particular Churches, and may: And yet again he must include particular Churches too, for it is certain that the Mystical general Church, hath not the power and exercise of all the keys; but only as divided into particular Churches, or if it might be supposed to have the keys of Rule in General Councils, yet not of the Sacraments, not of Preaching the word; for, as for such Ordinances, that Church cannot meet, and therefore exerciseth them only in several parts, and divisions of it self.
2. Those words the keys, are a general comprehensive expression, answerable to that of the word Church, taking in keys of all sorts; viz. the keys whereby the Universal Church, as such, is Built and Reared, that is, those means whereby Men are Converted, and made Members thereof; which God oftentimes blesseth in the Hands of others than Ministers. And they are therefore called the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven at large, not the keys of the Church, as restraining it to a political Church; and therefore (as Bellarmine, though to a wrong purpose, urged, namely for the Transcendency of the Pope's power above the Church, yet for the thing it self rightly) is larger than that in Matth. 18. It is there meant of a Church political, but the keys here in Matth. 16. 19. have relation to the opening the Door of Faith, as in Acts 14. 27. it is called, and therefore implies all means of conversion. And accordingly the opposite thereunto is the Gates of Hell, which shall not prevail: And yet again on the other side, the keys or the power that is given to particular Churches are intended, for this is the general grant, afterwards setled in Matth. 18. where, go tell the Church is mentioned. And the binding and loosing spoken of there, is comprehended under the binding and loosing, which is spoken of here. So as Churches of all sorts, and keys of all sorts, keys given to Churches in a way of Discipline, and to private Persons to build up one another, keys given to Officers of all sorts, Apostles and others, are all here intended. And therefore Melancton well saith, Claves Ecclesiae datae sunt, sed juxta electionem a christo institutam. And it is certain that in Matth. 18. He instituteth a Church power, as touching the Persons to whom it belongs, distinct from Peter's, and that of the Apostles as such; and yet whatsoever Church-power there mentioned was to be in any, Peter receiveth it here. And as when we say all Civil power is in a Kingdom, it is meant, sensu diviso, the King hath one part, the Nobles another, the People another; and the several Officers of a Kingdom, they have their part; and so it is here, and all at the first was now given unto Peter, as bearing the Person of all these.
4. Whereas the Controversie hath been, whether Peter Represented the Apostles and the Ministers only; or whether he Represented the Church also, or whether Peter is here personally to be taken, as the sole and single Subject of a personal priviledge? We say all these are here intended by Christ, in this his first promise, uttering it himself in this indefinite way, which was afterwards to be further and more distinctly divided, and set out by himself and his Apostles: So that whether Peter had it granted to him as an Apostle, and as an Apostle representing Apostles and other Ministers, we will not contend; but yet that Peter had it also Representing the Church it self, and Saints built upon the Rock, the Arguments are as convincing and concluding to prove it, if not more than those that on the other side are framed to prove, the words should be spoken of him as an Apostle, Representing the other Apostles and Elders, and therefore we safely take in all. The main Argument urged to prove that it is spoken to him as an Apostle, is drawn from this, that the Person spoken unto, viz. Peter, was an Apostle, and the other Apostles were present, and so intended; and therefore his Grant here, should be Restrained to Peter, and them as such. And the Arguments for the other, Namely, that ordinary Believers also should be intended, is taken from the occasion and ground of Christ's Speech, which was a confession of Faith made by Peter, and therefore that Christ should take in, and intend other ordinary Believers and Confessors, to have an interest in the keys, as well as Elders and Apostles, and accordingly to have been by Peter Represented. So as the pleas of this Suit, (so far as concerns this place) do lie between the sort of Persons spoken to, and that were present; and the qualification of that Person, as a Believer, namely, and the ground of Christ's Speech. And all the Arguments that are brought to prove, they were given him as an Apostle, are not exclusive, that they are not given him also as a Believer. Austin's Expression, non tantum Petro, sed Ecclesiae, not to Peter, (that is, as an Apostle) only, but also to the Church, doth rightly divide the share between both.
The occasion of the promise, was Peter's confessing that Christ was the Son of God, which holds forth nothing proper unto Ministers only, or himself as an Apostle only; and therefore the priviledge here, must be common unto that sort, that make confession of Faith, as well as to Ministers. It was a common Faith confest, not of what belonged unto Apostles only, but unto Believers; The promise is therefore suited unto the occasion. And this is a stronger inference, than that other, which is brought, that he Represented the other Apostles only, namely, because that they were present, when as Peter here did not intend to speak it in their Names, as in John 6. 69. he did; but rather he steps out and prevented them, and therefore also Christ speaks first unto him, in his personal condition, Blessed art thou Simon, Bar-Jonas; and then in his Representative condition, as representing those whose Faith he had confessed, as well as the Apostles, whom if only or simply, Christ had intended that he should represent, he might have spoken to them all, as well as to Peter, they being then present.
And then again, his Name Petros, Peter, which Christ here anew gives him with the Reason of it, viz. upon the Rock, &c. in an Allusion to Petra, signifying one built on the Rock, and so of the same nature with the Rock, argues this to have been Christ's Scope, in promising to him the keys. This change of his Name thus into Peter, Elegantly served to suit and answer the thing which Christ was speaking, Namely, the Building his Church on the Rock, whereon Peter (thus confessing himself) was built. Thou art Peter, that is, Thou art built on this Rock, thou art a stone in this Rock, and unto thee as such I speak. And further, he doth not say, Thou shalt be called Peter, but Thou art Peter, that is, Thou art a stone, thou art built on a Rock; and thus it answereth to his being a Believer, which is all one as to be a Member of the Church so built, and therefore it is spoken of Peter, considered in the Person of Believers built with the rest of the Church upon the Rock, as well as the Apostles, whose priviledge alone this was not, and it is farther observable, that of all the Apostles, this Peter, here spoken to, should, as if only intended alone, use this very similitude, to this particular purpose, and in effect, apply what is said here of himself, [Thou art Peter] to all Believers in 1 Pet. 2. 5. Ye also as lively stones, are built up a Spiritual House, &c. As if he had said, It is not I only that am the Peter, that Christ intended, it was not spoken to me, but unto you all. And his expression in 2 Pet. 2. 1. is all one with this in his first, To all that have received like precious Faith with us, i. e. with me; as in 1 John 9. John saith, that receiveth not us, that is, that receiveth not me: And almost all Divines of all sides do thus far yield this, they say the keys are given primarily to the Faithful, only they explain it, and say, they are given in bonum Ecclesiae, for the good of the Church, but unto the Officers of it.
Obj. 1, If it be said, that if they be given to Peter as a Believer, then unto all Believers, to Women and Children, and the like.
Answ. The Answer is, First, when it is said the keys are given to a Believer, it is to be understood not Reduplicativè, as if only, and to all such, all sorts of the keys are given but Extensivè, that is, to Peter, as Representing Believers also, and not barely as an Apostle; but yet such Believers as after should be more specially determined to have their share in them. For they are given unto Believers, in Peter, Representing such, according to Christ's Disposement, after to be declared; it is an indefinite Charter to be formed up by him afterwards, only now declaring that those, of that sort, should have them. And Christ hath afterwards made a peculiar exception of Women not to speak, nor to usurp Authority in the Church, 1 Cor. 14. 34. which being an Exception, it must be from a Rule, and so firmat regulam, argues and confirms that the Rule is, that Males have liberty and power to speak and judge in some Cases. And yet Secondly, even they have a sprinkling of the keys in their proportion, if you take keys in that large Sense before explained, for the keys of Conversion and Edification, may be through God's blessing in their Hands: Their Speeches and Instructions in private may, and often do Convert and Edifie the Souls of others. Thus Tit. 2. 4. That the Aged Women may Teach, (namely, by private instructions, and the like) the younger Women to be Sober, to love their Husbands: And other of them may be Instruments to Convert or Build up, Servants and Children, Friends, &c. in their Families; yea, their Husbands may be won without the word, by their chast Conversion, 1 Pet. 3. 2. Yea, and as Members of a Church, they have power to bind sin upon a Man, in private personal Admonition; first, which is a Degree, and in order to that publick, if a Man Repents not; which yet personal Admonitions of others to those, not in Church-fellowship, (as in England formerly) are not in order unto. For when a Woman doth tell a Man of his sin, if she makes it out and prove it, she tells it him with this bond upon him, that if he repent not, she bringeth it to the Church; and so she binds him before, and in the Church, which she doth as a fellow Member, though not as a Judge: And the same Sentence that a Woman hath thus pronounced in private against him, the same the Chuach afterward Ratifies, even as what the Church Ratifies, is bound in Heaven. The mistake of the Objection lies in this, to infer that, because Women have not the Authority, the publick power of the keys; that therefore they have no pow-of the keys committed to them, whereas none hath all that others have, not the Apostles themselves.
Obj. 2. If further it be Objected, that the keys are given to others than Believers, as to Ministers, though not true Believers.
Answ. The Answer is; yet so as that they are visibly Believers, or they ought not to be Ministers; so Judas was. And so if it be given to Ministers only, and Apostles, it is supposed that they are Faithful, The things that thou hast heard, commit to Faithful Men, that they may teach others, 2 Tim. 2. 2. Just, Sober, Holy, Tit. 1. 18.
Obj. 3. And if it be said further, That then they are given to Believers singly, and out of Church-fellowship.
Answ. The Answer is; Although they are here given to Believers materially, yet formally but as built up in a Church, according as Christ should after order it. And if we speak of the Judiciary Power, Elders themselves must needs be supposed to be set over a Church, ere those keys are given unto them; and so also what is granted to Saints hereof, those keys must needs fall under the same supposition. But if we speak of the keys in a larger Sense, so they are given to all, and every one singly, whether they be in Church-fellowship or no. Now Christ's grant here being general and indefinite, though it takes in all, yet each according to Christs order; and so if the Judiciary keys are said to be intended, they must be understood to be here given, as Christ afterwards should particularly design, how they should be exercised, and that is, and can be only in Church Society; and whether by Saints or Elders only, as they are rightly form'd up into fixed Bodies.
But for a conclusion, that which from this place we take along with us, towards the finding out the Seat or Subject of Church-power, is this; That the keys were indefinitely and materially here given, as well to Saints, as Elders, in the Person of Peter, in their several proportion, and afterwards were particularly determined, and held forth in the Rules and Examples set by the Apostles.