he power of church officers, and to open the door for
popular government; no ordinance of Christ, but a mere human invention,
(as will after appear upon examination of that scripture upon which it
is grounded,) and therefore this limb of the distribution is redundant,
a superfluous excrescence. 4. The texts of Scripture upon which this
distribution of the keys is grounded, are divers of them abused, or at
least grossly mistaken; for, Luke xi. 52, key of knowledge is
interpreted only the key of saving faith. But knowledge, in strict
speaking, is one thing, and faith another; there may be knowledge where
there is no faith; and knowledge, in a sort, is a key to faith, as the
inlet thereof. And the key of knowledge, viz. true doctrine and pure
preaching of the word, is a distinct thing from knowledge itself. This
key the lawyers had taken away by not interpreting, or misinterpreting
of the law; but they could not take away the people's faith, or
knowledge itself. Touching Col. ii. 5, 6, _your order_, it will be hard
to prove this was only or chiefly intended of the keys delivered to
Peter: doth it not rather denote the people's moral orderly walking,
according to the rule of faith and life, as in other duties, so in
submitting themselves to Christ's order of government, as is elsewhere
required, Heb. xiii. 17? And as for Gal. v. 13, produced to prove the
key of liberty, _Brethren, you have been called unto liberty_, there is
too much liberty taken in wresting this text; for the apostle here
speaks not of liberty as a church power, of choosing officers, joining
in censures, &c., but as a gospel privilege, consisting in freedom from
the ceremonial law, that yoke of bondage, which false teachers would
have imposed upon them, after Christ had broken it off; as will further
appear, if you please with this text to compare Gal. v. 1, 11, 15, 10,
and well consider the current of the whole context.

2. The inferences upon this distribution of the keys premised, are very
strange and untheological. For it may be accepted in general, that it is
a groundless fancy to make several first subjects of the keys, according
to the several distributions of the keys; for, had all the members of
the distribution been good, yet this inference thereupon is naught,
inasmuch as the Scripture tells us plainly, that all the keys together
and at once were promised to Peter, Matt. xvi. 19, and given to the
apostles, Matt, xviii. 18, 19, with xxviii. 18-20