Christians of all ages have riglitly seen a signal instance of St. I'eler's use of the keys in the admi.ssion of Cornelius to the Church. He thus • opened ' the door indeed to the Gentiles, ' and no man ' has ever since ' shut ' it to them. Hut there is no reason to think that this one act was all that was in our Lord's mind when He made the promise ; nor is it likely that He referred only to the aulliiiritj' to baptize at discretion exercised by the apostle. The whole of his chief-stewardship was included in the promise ; and both in his appoint- ments of other Christians to sacred olhces, in the atlminist ration of the Christian sacraments at large, and in his exi)ositions of Christian truth, he was exercising the power of the keys.
An eijually signal instance of 'binding and loosing ' on a large scale is the regulation laid down by St. Peter, along with ' the apostles and the elders,' for tne discipline of the Gentile Christians in regard to meats and manner of life (Ac I.V-'"). They 'loosed' for them all other kinds of food ; thay 'bound ' for them ' things ollcred to idols, and blooil and things strangled, and fornica- tion.' Similarly, at a later time, St. Paul at Corinlh 'loosed 'even the eating of things ollered to idols, — though he ' bound ' it in certain circum- stances (1 Co lO^'-), — and laid down various rules concerning marriago (1 Co 7), and concerning
public worship (1 Co 11-14). 'So ordain I in all Churches ' is his formula ( 1 Co 7").
Of 'binding and loosing' in relation to the in- di\'idual, the case which we are able to follow with the greatest degree of clearness is that of the incestuous man at Corinth ; which recalls with remarkable exactness the language of Mt IS'*'-. St. Paul was evidently surprised that the Church of Corinth had not dealt with the ca.se on its own responsibility. It ought to have ' mourned,' with a view to the removal of the ofl'ender (1 Co 5-). The ' mourning ' he would have expected wat clearly a public and united humiliation of the Church before God, to the intent that God might ' take away ' the man who had done the deed (sea Godet, ad loc). In answer to the solemn and concerted prayer, a stroke from heaven would liave fallen upon him, as upon Ananias and Sapphira, or, without such prayer, upon the jirofaners of the Eucharist at Corinth itself (1 Co 11""). Probably this appeal to God would have been jireceded or accompanied by an act of formal separation from the sacramental fellowship of the Church ; cer- tainly by an exclusion of the sinner from social intercourse with the brethren (ICo .5"). As tlie Corinthian Church had not thus acted, the apostle informs them of his own intended procedure, with which he demands that they sliould cooperate. Though absent from them in body, he calls upon them to assemble; he himself will .spiritually be present in the assembly, armed with 'the power (not merely with the authority) of our Lord .lesus.' The sentence which he has already passed ujjon the man 'in the name of the Lord Jesus' will then be formally pronounced. He will he 'de- livered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the .spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.' Delivery to Satan was not a rab- binical formula for excommunication in any form (Lightf. Excrcitations, adluc. ). The iihrase is prob- ably derived from Job 1'- 2". St. Paul seems to have intended that either by a judicial death, or by .some wasting disease, the man sliould be so punished as to bring him to repentance (cf. 1 Ti 1-"). The disci|iline seems to have hail the desired etlect. The majority of the Corinthian Church (2 Co 2°) administered a 'rebuke' to the man, — which was jirobably excommunication in its less severe form (' reproof with the Habylonian writers was the same with excommunication,' Lightf. p. 183). The man was overwhelmed with .sorrow, — so much so that the apostle feared lest the excess of it should be fatal to his soul (2 Co 2'). He bids the Corinthians therefore ' forgive and comfort him.' He himself, acting as Christ's representative {iv irpocruni-!)) XpiffToC) has already forgiven him, though he will not consider his forgiveness as absolute (ei' n Kix^pi-of-"-^) until the Corinthian Church has joined in it. The solemn gathering ' in the name of the Lord,' the conlidence that His 'power 'would be present to ratify what was done by His representa- tives upon earth, the punishment and the release, all appear to be directly based upon the language of our Lord recorded by Mt.
Of the exercise of discipline in less unusual cases we naturally have scantier evidence in NT. Per- haps the most interesting reference to it is thai in Ja 5'^''. The sick man is there advised to call lor the presbj'ters of the Church, who are to pray over him, 'anointing him with oil in the name.' In answer to this action of the Church repre- sented by its local heads, the writer says that the sick man will recover (for to interjiret awnfi and ^f()ti otherwise seems impossible in the context), and adils that 'if he have committed sins,' i.e. obviously, grave and marked sins, 'he shall be forgiven ' (ndf a/ia/xrfas ^ TfTrotT/Kuis, dfp(0^a€T(u airri^). That tht d0c(?i}irrrat airrif is a promise of what God will do ix