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…

without so much as brandishing the sword and power of Excommunication, against those high and gross delinquents, or others, that should not obey them by that Epistle.

without so much as brandishing the sword and power of Excommunication, against those high and grosse delinquents, or others, that should not obey them by that Epistle.

Only in the last place for the further clearing the difference of the peoples interest (which the reverend Author usually calleth Liberty, sometimes Power) & the Elders rule and authority (which makes that first distribution of Church power in particular Congregations) as likewise for the illustration of that other allotment of Ministerial doctrinal power in an association or communion of Churches as severed from the power of Excommunication (which is the second.) We take the boldness to cast a weak beam of our dim light upon either of these; & to present how these have lain stated in our thoughts, to this end that we may haply prevent some readers mistake, especially about the former. For the first, we conceive the Elders and Brethren in each Congregation, as they are usually in the New Testament thus mentioned distinctly apart, and this when their meeting together is spoken of, so they make in each congregation two distinct interests (though meeting in one Assembly) as the interest of the Common-Council or body of the people, in some Corporations, is distinct from that of the company of Aldermen; so as without the consent and concurrence of both nothing is esteemed as a Church act. But so as in this company of Elders, this power is properly Authority; but in the people is a privilege or power. An apparent difference between these two is evident to us by this. That two or three or more select persons should be put into an Office and betrusted with an entire interest of power for a multitude, to which that multitude ought (by a command from Christ) to be subject and obedient as to an ordinance to guide them in their consent, and in whose sentence the ultimate formal Ministerial act of binding or loosing should consist: this power must needs be esteemed and a knowledged in these few to have the proper notion and character of Authority, in comparison of that power (which must yet concur with theirs) that is in a whole body or multitude of men, who have a greater and nearer interest and concernement in those affairs, over which these few are set as Rulers.