But God does not so much consider the sentence of the Priest, as the life of the penitent; and as the Levites did not cleanse the lepers, but only separated those that were cleansed from such as were not, by the knowledge which they had of the malady: even so the Bishop or the Priest does not bind those that are innocent, and loose the guilty ; but having heard the difference of sins, he knows whom he should bind, and whom loose, in the discharge of his ministry.” Comm. in cap. xvi. Matt. T. iv. Pars. 1. p. 75.
CENT. V.
ST. AUGUSTIN, L. C.-“ Man bound in the chains of so many grievous crimes still draws back, and hesitates to have recourse to the keys of the Church, by which he may be loosed on earth, to the end that he be loosed in heaven.Let him then now willingly judge himself, whilst he has it in his power, and reform his manners, lest, when he shall not be able, he be judged by the Lord. And when he shall have passed on himself a severe, but medicinal, sentence, let him come to the Priests, by whom, in the Church, the power of the keys is administered.” Serm. cccli. T. v. p. 1358-9.—“ Whatever is loosed by the keys of the Church, is promised to be loosed in heaven.” Ibid. p. 1363.
St. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, G.C.—“Christ, dispensing the holy Spirit, said: Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained; (John xx.) though he alone be God by nature, and have power of releasing the guilty from their sin.-How then, or why did he impart to his Disciples a power which belongs
