ministers--the dispensers of the mysteries of Christ-resolving to turn from his evil ways, and to bring forth fruit worthy of penance—there is then, and not otherwise, an authority left by Christ to absolve such a penitential sinner from his sins : which authority, we believe, Christ gave to his Apostles and their Successors, the Bishops and Priests of his Church, in those words, when he said: Receive ye the Holy Ghost, &c. John xx. 22, 23.
SCRIPTURE.
Matt. xvi. 19. “ And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.” -Ibid. xviii. 18. “Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven.”—John, xx. 21, 22, 23. “ As the Father hath sent me, I also send you."-When he had said this, he breathed on them, and he said to them: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”
FATHERS.
CENT. II.
TERTULLIAN, L. C.—“ If thou thinkest heaven is still closed, recollect, that the Lord left the keys thereof to Peter, and, through him, to the Church.” Scorpiaci c. x. p. 830. .
CENT. III.
St. CYPRIAN, L. C.-“ It was not consistent with justice,
