The power of Congregational churches asserted and vindicated in answer to a treatise of…

he giveth unto Peter, upon occasion of his public confession in the name of the Church, a promise of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore this promise is given to the Church, in Peter, in such sort, as, though the use of the Keys be various, according to the variety of callings in the Church, yet the power it self of the Keys, is here originally and primarily committed to the^* Church in general, existing in particular Churches. I might produce sundry Writers, both ancient and modern, of other Countries, and our own, if need required, to confirm this Exposition (yea, of the Authors quoted by Mr. P. not a few consenting herein;) but I shall only ⟨p. 87⟩mention Cyprian and Augustine, who, in sundry places, speak the same with us. And these two I the rather name, because I find in approved Histories, that sundry Martyrs, being confirmed in this Truth, by their Testimonies, have sealed it with their blood. Hieronimus Savonarola, a Godly learned Preacher in Florence, a man endued with a Prophetical Spirit,² was there burnt, for denying the primacy of the Pope, teaching, that the Keys were given, Ecclesiae toti, non uni Petro, to the whole Church; and that the Communion should be administered sub utrâque specie, and against humane Traditions, and the Popes indulgences, and the wicked lives of the Cardinals and Priests; and for preaching free Justification by Faith in Christ, and that the Pope is Antichrist. This was about the year, 1499. In our own Land, John Lambert, in the year,³ 1538, was burnt to death, by the sentence of King Henry the 8th, himself sitting in judgement upon him, with all his Nobles and Bishops, by the wicked counsel of Stephen Gardiner, upon 45 Articles, whereof this was the 43d Article, Whether he believed the Pope was Christs Vicar, and had power on earth to bind and loose? He denied that the Pope was ⟨p. 88⟩Christs Vicar, and affirmed, that the Keys were given to Peter, not for himself alone, but in the name of the Church, and proved it out of Cyprian, ⁴