The keys of the kingdom of heaven and power thereof according to the word…The keyes of the kingdom of heaven and power thereof according to the word…

If it be said, Christ speaketh only of teaching such things which he had commanded, as necessary to salvation.

Answ. If the Apostles or their successors should hereupon usurp an authority to teach the people things indifferent, they must plead this their authority from some other commission given them elsewhere: for in this place there is no foot step for any such power. That much urged and much abused place in 1 Cor. 14.40. will not reach it. For though Paul requiring in that place, all the duties of Gods worship, whether Prayer or Prophesying, or Psalms, or Tongues, &c. that they should be performed decently and orderly, he thereby forbiddeth any performance thereof undecently; as for men with long hair, and women to speak in open assemblies, especially to pray with their hair loose about them. And though he forbiddeth also men speaking two or three at once, which to do, were not order, but confusion; yet he doth not at all, neither himself enjoin, nor allow the Church of Corinth to enjoin such things as decent, whose want, or whose contrary is not undecent; nor such orders, whose want or ⟨p. 28⟩contrary would be no disorder. Suppose the Church of Corinth, (or any other Church or Synod) should enjoin their Ministers to preach in a gown. A gown is a decent garment to preach in: yet such an Injunction is not grounded upon that Text of the Apostle. For then a Minister in neglecting to preach in a gown should neglect the commandment of the Apostle, which yet indeed he doth not. For if he preach in a cloak, he preacheth decently enough, and that is all which the Apostles Canon reacheth to. In these things Christ never provided for uniformity, but only for unity.

Answ. If the Apostles or their successors should hereupon usurpe an authority to teach the people things indifferent, they must plead this their authority from some other commission given them elsewhere: for in this place there is no foot step for any such power. That much urged and much abused place in