Power to bind and

of the keys,

66

unlearned Jew,-in those days, may be such as to require some examination and careful reflection to enable us, of a distinct Age and Country, to apprehend them in the same sense. When however we do examine and reflect, we can hardly doubt, I think-considering to whom, and at what time, He was speaking-that our Lord did sanction and enjoin the formation of a permanent religious Community or Communities, possessing all those powers which have been above alluded to. The power of binding and loose, power loosing;"-i. e. enacting and enforcing, and of and power abrogating or suspending regulations, for a Christian Society, was recognised by his promise1 of the divine ratification of those acts,-the "binding and loosing in heaven." The "Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven," denote the power of admitting persons Members of the Church, and excluding them from it. And the expression respecting the "remitting and retaining of sins," if it is to be understood (as I think it is) as extending to anything beyond the power of admitting members into Christ's Church by Baptism for the remission of sins," must relate to the enforcement or remission of ecclesiastical censures for offences against a Christian Community.

of remission

of sins.

66

i See Appendix, Note (C.)

By attentive reflection on the two topics I have here suggested—namely, on the rights and powers essentially inherent in a Community, and consequently implied in the very institution of a Community, so far as they are not expressly excluded; and again, on the declarations of our Lord, as they must have been understood by his Disciples, by reflection, I say, on these two topics, we shall be enabled, I think, to simplify and clear up several questions which have been sometimes involved in much artificial obscurity and difficulty.

tion of the

Church.

§ 4. And our view of the sense in which our ConstituLord's directions are to be understood will be Jewish the more cleared and decided, if we reflect that all the circumstances which have been noticed as naturally pertaining to every Community, are to be found in that religious Community in which the Disciples had been brought up;-the Jewish Church, or (as it is called in the Old Testament) the Congregation, or Ecclesia, of which each Synagogue was a branch.1 It had regular Officers; the Elders or Presbyters, the Rulers of Synagogues, Ministers or Deacons, &c.—it had Bye-laws; being not only under the Levitical Law, but also having authority, within certain

k

Septuagint.

1 See Vitringa on the Synagogue.

Rights exercised by the Jewish Church, familiar to the

Disciples.

limits, of making regulations, and enforcing them by penalties (among others, that which we find alluded to in the New Testament, of excommunicating or "casting out of the Synagogue") and it had power to admit Proselytes.

With all these points then, the Disciples of Jesus had long been familiar. And He spoke of them in terms with which they must have been well acquainted. For instance, the expression" binding and loosing" m was, and still is, perfectly familiar to the Jews, in the sense of enforcing and abrogating rules; or,—which amounts precisely to the same thing,—deciding as to the manner, and the extent, in which a previously existing law is to be considered as binding as is done by our Judges in their recorded Decisions.

But

The Jewish Church was indeed subject, by divine authority, to the Levitical Law. minute as were the directions of that Law, there were still many points of detail, connected with the observance of it, which required to be settled by some competent authority: such as, for instance, what was, or was not, to be regarded as "work," forbidden on the Sabbath :-what was to be considered as " servile work," forbidden on certain other days:-and in what way the

m See Lightfoot on this subject, and also Dr. Wotton's valuable work on the Mishna.

injunctions respecting their food, their garments, the sowing of their fields, and several other matters, were to be observed."

of Jewish

cognised

In regard to regulations of this kind, our Lord Authority recognises the authority of the Jewish Rulers, as Rulers rebeing so far successors of Moses; for He tells by Christ. His hearers, "The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat; all, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe, and do." And though He adds a caution not to "do after their works, for they say, and do not," He does not teach that their personal demerits, or even that gross abuse of their power which He so strongly reprobates, could invalidate the legitimate exercise of that power. Indeed, since there is hardly any human Government that has not, at some time or other, abused, more or less, the power entrusted to it, to deny on that ground all claims whatever to submission, would be the very principle of anarchy.

power by

The Jewish Rulers went beyond their proper Abuse of province, when, instead of merely making such Jewish regulations as were necessary with a view to the due observance of the Mosaic Law, they super

n

Those who can procure, or gain access to Dr. W. Wotton's Selections from the Mishna, will find in it much curious and interesting information relative to these and several other particulars, which throws great light on many passages of the New Testament.

Rulers.

How the disciples

would understand

added, on the authority of their supposed Tradition, commandments foreign to that Law; and, still more, evasions of the spirit of it."

Jesus accordingly censures them severely, as "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men ;" and again, as "making the Word of God of none effect, by their Tradition." But still He distinctly recognises their legitimate authority in making such regulations as were necessarily left to their determination.

§ 5. And His disciples, therefore, who heard both of these His declarations, could not have been at any loss to understand what He meant given them. by giving to themselves and the succeeding Officers of a Christian Church, the power to

the Com

mission

Power to

make regu

lations.

66

" bind and loose." He charged them to "teach every one to observe all things whatsoever He had commanded them;" promising to be "with them always, even to the end of the world;" and He also gave them the power of " binding and loosing;" saying, "whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;" (i. e. ratified by the divine sanction) " and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven."

They would of course understand by this, not that they, or any of their successors, could have