whole church, _in actu primo sive in esse_, yet it pertained to the
presbytery alone, _in actu secundo sive in operara_; and even as the act
of speaking pertaineth to a man, as _principium quod_, but to the tongue
alone, as _principium quo_; so albeit the power of the keys doth primarily
and principally belong to the church, collectively taken, yet the actual
execution of this power belongeth only to the presbytery which
representeth the church, and unto which the church hath committed her
authority to bind and loose. Wherefore, since the Apostle writeth to the
whole church of Corinth to confirm, by their authority, their love to the
penitent man; and since this authority, in the actual execution of it
(which the Apostle craveth) did not agree to that whole church,
collectively taken, we must needs understand his meaning to be, that their
love towards that man, and their forgiving of him, should be ratified and
confirmed by the authority of those church governors, _qui ecclesiae nomen
ad coetum repraesentant, totius nimirum presbyterii authoritate atque
consensu_.

Thus have we showed that the actual use of the keys, or the execution of
the authority of binding and loosing, pertaineth to that ecclesiastical
senate in every particular church, which the Apostle calleth a presbytery.
For further illustration of the truth whereof, I add these four
observations:--

1. We must distinguish(1094) a twofold power of the keys: the one is
executed in doctrine; the other in discipline: the one _concionalis_; the
other _judicialis_. Touching the former, we grant it is proper for pastors
alone, whose office and vocation it is, by the preaching and publishing of
God's word, to shut the kingdom of heaven against impenitent and
disobedient men, and to open it unto penitent sinners; to bind God's heavy
wrath upon the former, and (by application of the promises of mercy) to
loose the latter from the sentence and fear of condemnation. When we
ascribe the power of binding and loosing to that whole consistory, wherein
governing elders are joined together with pastors, we mean only of the
keys of external discipline, which are used in ecclesiastical courts and
judicatories.

2. When we teach that the pastor or pastors of every particular church and
congregation, with the elders of the same, being met together, have power
to bind and loose, we understand this only of such places wherein a
competent number of understanding and qualified men