The preface postulates 'That the prime Act of power enstated by Christ on his Apostles, as for the governing of the Church (and exorcising or banishing all devils out of it) ' and that the Church continue 'only under one of two notions, either of an empty piece of formality or of an engine of state'. 'Binding and Loosing' refers to something which is forbidden by an indisputable authority.'That the prime Act of Power enstated by Christ on his Apostles, as for the governing of the Church (and exorcising or banishing all devils out of it) , so for the effectual performing that great acts of Charity to mens souls, reducing pertinacious sinners to repentance, should be so either wholly dilapidated, or pitifully deformed, as to continue in the Church only under one of these two notions, either of an empty piece of formality, or of an engine of State, and specular contrivances (the true ChristIan use of shaming sinners into reformation, being well-night vanished out of Christendome). Hammond, a favourite of Charles I, who thought him one of the best orators. Of the Power of the Keyes' harks back to when Peter would usher in the Kingdom of God on the Day of Pentecost, the power then assigned to other Apostles. It was either to admit a soul to the Kingdom of Heaven or to excommunicate. The keys are a means by which Christ gives power to the Church to bind or loose souls.