mer case, fear, dejection, uncertainty, and discordance; in the latter, courage, frankness, certainty, and unity. (2) The indissoluble connection between true confession and a life of revelation and in the Spirit, or regeneration; (3) between a common confession and the formation of the visible Church; (4) between the confession of the Church to Christ and Christ's confession to the Church; (5) between the character of the first believing confessor and his official calling.

3. In the text, Peter is presented to us in a two-fold relationship: (1) As Peter; (2) as receiving the keys. The former designation applied to him as the first believing confessor, the first member of the ixxanola, to which others were afterwards to be joined. Hence it referred to his practical life as a Christian bearing witness to Jesus, rather than to his official position in the Church. This spiritual character formed the basis of his office in the narrower sense, the main purport of which was to arrange individual believers into a community, and, by organizing a visible Church, to separate between the world and the kingdom of heaven. As being the first witness to Jesus, Peter, so to speak, laid the foundation of the Church: (1) By his confession on this occasion; (2) by his testimony, Acts ii.; (3) by his admission of the Gentiles into the Church, Acts x.; (4) by being the means of communicating to the Church the distinguishing feature of his character-fidelity of confession.

4. On the fact that the Church indelibly bears not only the characteristic of Peter, but of all the Apostles; or that all the apostolic offices are unchangeably perpetuated in it, comp. Com. on ch. x, (against Irvingism); and Schaff's History of the Apostolic Church, 129, p. 516, sqq.

5. In its apostolic nucleus, its apostolic beginning, and its apostolic depth and completeness, the Church is so thoroughly identified with the kingdom of heaven itself, that its social determinations should in all these respects coincide with the declaration of God's Spirit. But this applies only in so far as Peter was really Peter-and hence one with Christ, or as Christ is in the Church. That there is a difference between the Church and the kingdom of heaven, which may even amount to a partial opposition, is implied in the antithesis: "on earth”—“ in heaven.”

6. The present occasion must be regarded as the initial foundation, not as the regular and solemn institution, of the Church. The promises given to Peter still relate to the future. For the strong faith which prompted, his confession was rather a prophetic flash of inspiration (the blossom), than a permanent state of mind (the fruit). This appears from the following section.

7. In this passage Peter is represented as the foundation-stone, and Christ as the builder; while in 1 Cor. iii. 11, Christ is designated the foundation, and the Apostles the builders. "The latter figure evidently alludes to the relation between the changing and temporary labourers in the Church, and her eternal and essential character, more especially her eternal foundation; while the figurative language of Jesus applies to the relation between the starting-point and commencement of the Church in time, her outward and temporal manifestation, and her eternal Builder."

(From the author's Leben Jesu, ii. 2, p. 886). Richter (Erklarte Hausbibel, i. 157): "The Church opens the way into the kingdom of heaven. Christ built on Peter and the Apostles, not his kingdom, but his Church, which is one, though not the only, form in which Christianity manifests itself." Hence Olshausen is mistaken in regarding the xxx as simply tantamount to the βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ.

[WORDSWORTH Observes on the words: they shall not prevail; “That these words contain no promise of infallibility to St. Peter, is evident from the fact that the Holy Spirit, speaking by St. Paul in Canonical Scripture, says that he erred (Gal. ii. 11-13).* And that they do not contain any promise of infallibility to the bishop of Rome is clear, among other proofs, from the circumstance that Pope Liberius (as Athanasius relates, Historia Arian. 41, p. 291) lapsed into Arianism, and Honorius was anathemized of old by Roman pontiffs as an heretic."-P. S.]

8. For special treatises on the supposed primacy of Peter, see HEUBNER, p. 236; Danz, Universalwörterbuch, article Primat; BRETSCHNEIDER, Systematiche Entwicklung, p. 796, etc.

9. On the power of the keys, see HEUBNER, p. 240; THE AUTHOR'S Positive Dogmatik, p. 1182,-the literature belonging to it, p. 1196; Berl. Kirchl. Vierteljahrsschrift, ii. 1845, Nr. 1; ROTHE, Ethik, iv. 1066. [Compare also WORDSWORTH, ALFORD, BROWN, and the American commentators, BARNES, ALEXANDER, Owen, JacobUS, WHEDON, NAST on ch. xvi. 19.-P. S.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL HINTS.

The Church of Christ founded under the sentence of expulsion pronounced on Christ and His Apostles both by the Jewish Church and the State: 1. Its preparatory announcement, ch. xvi.; 2. its complete and real foundation (Golgatha); 3. its solemn institution and manifestation, Acts ii.; comp. ch. iii. and iv. and Heb. xiii. 13.-The decisive question, "Who do men say that the Son of Man is?"-Difference between opinions about Christ and the confession of Christ.-The first New Testament confession of Christ, viewed both as the fruit and as the seed of the kingdom of heaven: 1. The fruit of the painful labour and sowing of Christ; 2. The germ and seed of every future confession of Christ.-The confession of Peter an evidence of his spiritual life: 1. In its freedom and cheerful selfsurrender; 2. in its decidedness; 3. in its infinite fulness; 4. in its general suitableness for all disciples.-Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God: 1. In His nature; 2. in His mission; 3. in His work.—The joy of the Lord at the first-fruits of His mission.-The Confession of the Lord to His Congregation: 1. How it will continue to become more abundant even to the day of judgment. (Whosoever shall confess Me," etc.) 2. What it imports. (The blessedness of Simon in his character as Peter.)-The

* [But this was only an error of conduct, not of doctrine; and hence proves nothing against the inspiration of the apostles nor the pretended infallibility of the pope.-P. S.]

Son of the living God acknowledging those who are begotten of the Father as His own relatives and brethren.—The life of faith of Christians ever a revelation of the Father in heaven.-Genuine confession a fruit of regeneration. The rock on which Christ has founded His Church, or Peter in a spiritual sense, is faithfulness of confession (Bekenntnisstreue).—Fidelity of confession the first characteristic mark of the Church.-Relation between Christ, the Rock of the kingdom of heaven, the corner-stone of the everlasting Church, and the rock-foundation on which His visible Church on earth is reared: In the one case, the Apostles are the builders, and Christ the rock and corner-stone; 2. in the other case, the Apostles are the foundation, and Christ the builder.-Only when resting on that rock which is Christ will his people become partakers of the same nature.— How the Church of Christ will endure for ever, in spite of the gates of Hades. The old, legal, and typical Church, and the new Church of the living Saviour, in their relation to the kingdom of death: 1. The former is overcome by the kingdom of death; 2. the latter overcomes the kingdom of death. Complete victory of Christ's kingdom of life over the kingdom of death.-First Peter, then the keys; or, first the Christian, then the office. The power of the keys as a spiritual office: 1. Its infinite importance: announcement of the statutes of the kingdom of heaven; decision respecting the admission and continuance [of members]; or, in its threefold bearing-(a) on the hearers of the word generally, (b) on catechumens, and (c) on communicants. 2. The conditions of its exercise: a living confession, of which Christ is the essence; readiness to bind as well as to loose, and vice versa, the ratification of the kingdom of heaven.-The keys of the prisons of the Inquisition, and of the coffers of Indulgences, as compared with the keys of the kingdom of heaven, or, the difference between the golden and the iron keys.-The confession of faith kept as a secret from the enemies of Christ.-The preparatory festival of the New Covenant.

STARKE: It is useful, and even necessary, for preachers to be aware of the erroneous fancies which are in vogue among their hearers on the subject of religion.-Cramer: Every man should be able to give an account of his faith, John xvii. 3.-The discordant thoughts respecting the person of Christ.-Majus: The just must live by his own faith.-Osiander: Be not vacillating, but assured in your own minds.-Jerome: Quemadmodum os loquitor pro toto corpore, sic Petrus lingua erat Apostolorum et pro omnibus ipse respondit.-The other two confessions of Peter, Matt. xiv. 33; John vi. 68.—If we acknowledge Christ aright in our heart, we shall also freely confess him with our mouth, Rom. x. 10.-The divine and human natures combined in the person of Christ.-Blessedness of faith.-To know Christ is to be saved, John xvii. 3.—Quesnel: True blessedness: 1. It consists not in the advantages of birth, nor in natural gifts, nor in riches, nor in reputation and dignity; but, 2. in the possession of the gifts of grace through Christ.-Hedinger: All true faith is the gift of God. -Osiander: If the truth of God is mixed up with human fancies, it does

more harm than good.-Let no one hastily talk of the good which he has received, but let him first make experiment of its reality, Eccles. v. 1.

GERLACH:-The Christian Church possesses this power of the keys, not in its outward capacity or organization, but in so far as the Spirit rules in it. Hence, whenever it is exercised as a merely outward law, without the Spirit, the Lord in His providence disowns these false pretensions of the visible Church.

HEUBNER: In order to be decided, and to become our own faith, we must publicly profess it.-How little value attaches to the opinions of the age on great men!*-The independence of Christians of prevalent opinions.-Peter's confession not his faith only, but that of all disciples, John vi. 68.-Peter's confession the collective confession of the Apostles.-See what value Christ sets on this faith.-It is impossible for any man, even though he were an apostle, to impart faith to another. This is God's prerogative.

[Not, How much great men are influenced by the opinions of the age, as the Edb. trsl., misled by the German wie viel (which must be understood ironically), reverses the meaning of the original, thus making Heubner contradict himself in the next sentence. Heubner alludes to the confused and contradictory opinions of the Jews concerning Christ, ver. 15, and then contrasts with them the firm conviction of faith in Peter, ver. 16. Great men, during their lifetime, meet with the very opposite judgments at the bar of ever-changing popular opinion, and they are not truly great unless they can rise above it and quietly pursue the path of duty, leaving the small matter of their own fame in the hands of a just God and of an appreciating posterity which will judge them by the fruits of their labour.-P. S.]

ART. V.-The Freedom of the Will as a Basis of Human Responsibility and Government; elucidated and maintained in its issue with the Necessitarian Theories of Hobbes, Edwards, the Princeton Essayists, and other leading advocates. By D. D. WHEDON, D. D. New York: Carlton & Porter. 1864.

Freedom of Mind in Willing; or, Every Being that Wills, a Creative First Cause. By ROWLAND G. HAZARD. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1864.

THESE works agree in being occupied with some preliminary discussions in regard to the nature of the Will, Liberty, and Necessity, and then in being devoted mainly and avowedly to the refutation of Edwards's famous treatise on this subject. However successful or unsuccessful these attempts, they are

certainly renewed testimonies of the highest order to the mighty power and adamantine logic of that great work. Volumes upon volumes have been published against it by the acutest of its adversaries; yet they appear not to have demolished it so thoroughly but that the representative advocates of the contrary scheme regard themselves as called upon to do the work over again, in order that it may be done effectually; that the book, in short, may be so put down as to stay down. Within not far from a quarter of a century, besides numerous elaborate criticisms in the Quarterlies, through which so many of our ablest thinkers address the public, we call to mind no less than five solid volumes, wholly or chiefly in review of Edwards on the Will, and all, with one exception, adverse. Surely there must be some strength in a fortress which, having survived all other assaults from the Old world and the New, for nearly a century, followed by the fierce bombardment of Tappan and Bledsoe here, still abides to challenge the cautious sapping and mining of Hazard, along with the furious and desperate storming of Whedon.

In truth, these very assailants contribute to its tenacity of life, not merely by promoting its continued notoriety and fame, and bearing witness that it still exerts an influence and convictive force which require to be neutralized, but by furnishing evidence, more and more cumulative, of the futility of all replies to its fundamental positions and crucial arguments. This is none the less, but all the more so, notwithstanding any flaws which may be detected in some of the many lines of argument of which Edwards's inventive logical mind was so prolific, and the still greater infelicities of language which occasionally obscure or enfeeble his sharpest distinctions and reasonings with seeming ambiguity, or even contradiction. For, in spite of all this, the main pillars of his argument stand unmoved and impregnable. The blemishes to which we have referred, developed by a century of incessant and relentless criticism, no more impair their massive and unyielding solidity, than the seams, and clefts, and fissures of the rock impair the firmness and perpetuity of the everlasting mountains. And they are shown to be all the more moveless and impregnable by the manifest impotence and absurdity of the attacks of the