and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." This transaction gives rise to the following questions. What was the rock on which the Saviour would build his Church? Whether the promise was to Peter only? and lastly, What was the power of the keys, and to whom committed?

It has been repeatedly observed in preceding pages, that a mountain, a hill, a rock, and a stone, have been adopted in all ages and countries as symbols of the Deity: they are symbols of the same import in the following texts. Moses writes, "Ascribe ye greatness to our God. He is the Rock: his work is perfect."d Speaking of the Gentiles, he says, "Their rock is not our Rock." The same symbol is continually used in all the books of the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the symbol, somewhat differently applied, signifies the Saviour regarded as the Son of God and therefore God. Thus St. Paul, speaking of the agency of the Son in conducting the Israelites in the wilderness, writes, "They drank of that spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ."e Again: "Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone, a rock of offence; and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." The Apostle here refers to the following text of Isaiah, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste." Here the stone is the Saviour. St. Peter adopts the same symbol, which appears to have been familiar with the Apostles, and with much reason, for it had been repeatedly used by the Saviour himself. This symbolical foundation-stone signifies that the Saviour was the first person of the society called the Christian Church,-was the material first used in the construction of the sacred fabric. The same is intimated by other figures d Deut. xxxii. 3, 4, 31. e 1 Cor. x. 4. f Rom. ix. 33. 1 Pet. ii. 6.

of like import. In the Ephesians, the Apostle after stating that God had put all things under the feet of Christ, proceeds to observe that "He gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is the body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." To the same purpose the Saviour says, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." These authorities leave no room for doubt that the rock or stone on which the Saviour declared he would build his Church was the eternal truth that he was God the Son of God. Such a foundation is worthy the mighty fabric; any other is utterly unworthy a structure which is bounded only by the extent of creation, and whose eternal permanence is signified by the figurative phrase, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." It shall resist and effectually repel all the attacks with which folly, malignity, and the rage of evil spirits born in hell shall assail it.

The Saviour still addressing Peter, whose answer had accidentally gained his whole attention, adds, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." The symbol of the keys had been of distinguished use in the Old Testament, and its import is clearly ascertained by the following text of Isaiah, "I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: and I will clothe him with thy robe and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open."i This symbol the Saviour adopted. Promising to Peter the power of the keys, he declared his intention of vesting him with great authority in the church, an authority which St. Paul considers to be vested equally without distinction in all the Apostles. He writes, "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries * Eph. i. 22, 23. h John xv. 3.

i Isaiah xxii. 20-22.

of God."k The word ministers plainly signifies all the Apostles, employed as they laboriously were in planting and promoting the growth of the Church of Christ. As stewards, all of them must have had the power of the keys, for all of them must have needed it. The mysteries they had to dispense were the gospel truth of the remission of sin through the mysterious agency of the atonement. Such were the powers promised to Peter by the words above cited, but not given at the time of speaking. The Saviour says, “I will give," and not "I do give.” The promise was made, the performance was deferred. The account of the performance will prove that the promise was not made to Peter only, but equally and alike to all the Apostles, as the following transaction will clearly shew.

The Saviour on the day of his resurrection entered miraculously the room where the Apostles were assembled, the doors being shut. Among other acts, "he breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained."1 Commentators are of opinion that the act of breathing was only an earnest of the promise of the Holy Ghost to be afterwards sent by the Son from the Father, and consequently that the endowment could not take place till after the Ascension. But it is submitted that the words imply an immediate performance of the previous promise, and the accompanying act of breathing was an act of entire ratification, and completed the transaction. However this may be, it is evident, since the Saviour breathed on all, that the same power was given to all the Apostles without exception.

The words recorded by St. John conferring the gift of the power of the keys, and the circumstances under which they were spoken, most decidedly imply the perfect equality of all the Apostles as to powers and privileges. This equality the

k 1 Cor. iv. 1.

1 John xx. 22, 23.

Romanists positively deny. They maintain that St. Peter was the head of the Church, the archbishop, as to power and authority, and that the other Apostles were but as his suffragans. Asserting this, they affirm that St. Peter was the bishop of Rome, and that the Pope is the lineal successor of St. Peter by vicarious ordination, and consequently that he is vested with all his powers, which render him the vicegerent of God himself on earth. Holding the powers of the keys, all the Churches of the world ought to bow to his authority, and that such as do not accede to his pretensions are heretics, and that unless he use the key to open to them the gate of heaven they must be eternally shut up within the gate of hell, and endure the pains of eternal damnation. The right to make such claim is positively denied by the Protestant Churches. This renders the question of the dispensation of the powers of the keys a matter of great interest.

m

The transactions recorded in the Acts will shew that no pre-eminence belonged to St. Peter. In the election of a substitute in the place of the traitor Judas, Peter may be said to have moved the question: but he did no more. The manner of his address does not indicate any pre-eminence of authority. All the assembly, in number about one hundred and twenty, gave their votes and made the election, in which his suffrage availed as that of a single individual and an equal. The address made by him on the day of Pentecost has been held to indicate pre-eminence, and having been what may be called the first discourse for the propagation of the Gospel, has been supposed to prove that the Christian Church was builded upon the energetic zeal of Peter. This is a mistake. The Church already existed in the one hundred and twenty believers who had acted in the election of Matthias. Nor was the address of St. Peter the first act done on the Pentecost: the wonderful works of God ex

m Acts i.

hibited in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and his ascension into heaven had previously been declared to the whole assembly by all the Apostles. The vast variety of the languages in which the works had been declared must have rendered all the Apostles speakers. The first public announcement of gospel truth was not made by Peter alone, but by all the Apostles, and therefore all may be said to have wrought alike in this early work of building the Church of Christ. Even while Peter spoke, the eleven stood with him, and thus gave their concurring testimony to the truth of his statements, and assisted in the work. Peter and John were equal actors in the case of the lame man healed at the gate of the Temple. Peter indeed spoke, but it was to bid the cripple look on both as equal agents in the miraculous cure. St. Peter was employed alone in the business of the first promulgation of the gospel to the Gentiles, in the visit to the centurion Cornelius. The Lord thought fit to appoint him to this office, but circumstances shew that it was not because he was in any respect of higher rank or authority than the rest of the Apostles. On his return he was called to account by his fellows, who said, "Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them." Thus charged, he felt himself under the necessity of justifying his conduct, in a manner certainly not that of a superior, but of an accountable equal. He rested his defence not on any authority of his own, but on the will of God. On one occasion St. Paul "withstood him face to face, because he was to be blamed:" and on others also, although Paul spake of himself with all humility, he still vindicated his equality with Peter and all the rest. To this assumption of Paul the Apostles in silence acceded; and Peter, like a Christian of true humility, submitted to rebuke, and all was peace.

The Power of the Keys given to the Apostles bears a resemblance to the authority given by a rich master to the