Questions of religion cast abroad in Helvetia by the adversaries of the sameQuestions of religion cast abroad in Helvetia by the aduersaries of the same

The power which Christ¹ hath given to the Ministers of the Church, is rather an office than a power: for power belongeth to Christ alone. And that power or Office which the Ministers or Priests have received, is to edify, and not to destroy, as Paul manifestly teacheth. 2. Cor. 10. And the keys of the kingdom of god are given in deed unto the Ministers of the church. ⟨image 127⟩For our Lord promised them to Peter² and to the rest of the Apostles, Math. 16. with these words: I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt lose in earth shall be loosed in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: the same he gave to all the Disciples. John. 20. saying: Even as my father sent me, so send I you: who soevers sins you shall remit, they shall be forgiven, and whose sins you shall retain, they shall be retained. Therefore³ to lose, is to forgive sins: and to bind, is not to forgive or to retain sins. But because no man can remit or forgive sins but God only, therefore the Ministers of God by his commandment preaching the Gospel, do declare that god forgiveth their sins, and remitteth all punishment, if they believe in Christ: and that on the other side their sin remaineth, and that they shall be punished for the same if they believe not in Christ: and therefore for this cause doth the Scripture say, that the Minister doth bind or lose, ⟨p. 117⟩forgive or retain sins. And as the minister doth truly preach this, so doth it undoubtedly come to pass both on the faithful and unfaithful. For God being in heaven, performeth that which his ministers here do promise on the earth. By this we may easily gather, that the keys are nothing else but the preaching of the gospel, and not a peculiar jurisdiction or power, as our adversaries reach. For even as a master of some house, giveth his keys unto his servant, to open and shut the house, to let men both in & out. So is the church the house of God, in the which who so ever abideth, is an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven, & those which through infidelity, are not in the church, have no portion in the kingdom of heaven, but are even as it were in hell: and the ministers received the keys of the kingdom of heaven from Christ, that is to say, the preaching of the Gospel, that thereby they might open & shut.