TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.
THE PEOPLE'S INTEREST IN THEIR MINISTER'S COMMISSION.
And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. (Matt. xvi. 19)
In these words our blessed Lord delivers to St. Peter, the same commission, as we find Him, in chapter xviii. of the same Gospel, giving to the rest of the apostles; the commission, power, and authority of chief shepherds, or pastors to the Church;—the commission to be the keepers and guardians of the revealed word, of God, and to have authority to teach the people out of it, what they must do to be saved, what course of faith and duty will admit them to heaven, through the sacrifice of Christ: and what will exclude them from all claim to the salvation which He has purchased for man. It is to this part of the commission that St. Paul alludes when he says, "As we have been allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, so we speak not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts, (1 Thess. ii. 4); and again he says, "we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us." (2 Cor. v. 20.)
But something beyond the ministration of the Word, is committed to the care of the pastors, when our Lord speaks of "the keys of heaven," viz. the ministration of the sacraments. The sacrament of Baptism, by which souls are admitted into covenant with God, and without which none can enter into the kingdom of heaven, (John iii. 5.); the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, by which the souls of the faithful are strengthened for their Lord's service, and brought into union with Him, (1 Cor. x. 16.) and, without which they are, ordinarily speaking, cut off
