The power of remission and retention of sins,called also the power of loosing and binding,and sometimes the keys of the kingdom of heaven is a consequence of the authority to baptize or refuse to baptize.For baptism is the sacrament of allegiance of them that are to be received into the kingdom of God;that is to say,into eternal life;that is to say,to remission of sin:for as eternal life was lost by the committing,so it is recovered by the remitting of men's sins.The end of baptism is remission of sins:therefore St.Peter,when they that were converted by his sermon on the day of Pentecost asked what they were to do,advised them to "repent,and be baptized in the name of Jesus,for the remission of sins."And therefore,seeing to baptize is to declare the reception of men into God's kingdom,and to refuse to baptize is to declare their exclusion,it followeth that the power to declare them cast out,or retained in it,was given to the same Apostles,and their substitutes and successors.And therefore after our Saviour had breathed upon them,saying,"Receive the Holy Ghost,"he addeth in the next verse,"Whosesoever sins ye remit,they are remitted unto them;and whosesoever sins ye retain,they are retained."By which words is not granted an authority to forgive or retain sins,simply and absolutely,as God forgiveth or retaineth them,Who knoweth the heart of man and truth of his penitence and conversion;but conditionally,to the penitent:and this forgiveness,or absolution,in case the absolved have but a feigned repentance,is thereby,without other act or sentence of the absolved,made void,and hath no effect at all to salvation,but,on the contrary,to the aggravation of his sin.Therefore the Apostles and their successors are to follow but the outward marks of repentance;which appearing,they have no authority to deny absolution;and if they appear not,they have no authority to absolve.The same also is to be observed in baptism:for to a converted Jew or Gentile,the Apostles had not the power to deny baptism,nor to grant it to the unpenitent.But seeing no man is able to discern the truth of another man's repentance,further than by external marks taken from his words and actions,which are subject to hypocrisy,another question will arise:who is it that is constituted judge of those marks?And this question is decided by our Saviour himself:"If thy brother,"saith he,"shall trespass against thee,go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone;if he shall hear thee,thou hast gained thy brother.But if he will not hear thee,then take with thee one or two more.And if he shall neglect to hear them,tell it unto the Church;but if he neglect to hear the Church,let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican."By which it is manifest that the judgement concerning the truth of repentance belonged not to any one man,but to the Church,that is,to the assembly of the faithful,or to them that have authority to be their representant.But besides the judgement,there is necessary also the pronouncing of sentence:and this belonged always to the Apostle,or some pastor of the Church,as prolocutor;and of this our Saviour speaketh in the eighteenth verse,"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."And conformable hereunto was the practice of St.Paul where he saith,"For I verily,as absent in body,but present in spirit,have determined already,as though I were present,concerning him that hath so done this deed;in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,when ye are gathered together,and my spirit,with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,to deliver such a one to Satan";that is to say,to cast him out of the Church,as a man whose sins are not forgiven.
Paul here pronounceth the sentence,but the assembly was first to hear the cause (for St.Paul was absent),and by consequence to condemn him.But in the same chapter the judgement in such a case is more expressly attributed to the assembly:"But now I have written unto you not to keep company,if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator,"etc.,"with such a one no not to eat.For what have Ito do to judge them that are without?Do not ye judge them that are within?"The sentence therefore by which a man was put out of the Church was pronounced by the Apostle or pastor;but the judgement concerning the merit of the cause was in the Church;that is to say,as the times were before the conversion of kings,and men that had sovereign authority in the Commonwealth,the assembly of the Christians dwelling in the same city;as in Corinth,in the assembly of the Christians of Corinth.
This part of the power of the keys by which men were thrust out from the kingdom of God is that which is called excommunication and to excommunicate is,in the original,aposunagogon poiein,to cast out of the synagogue;that is,out of the place of divine service;a word drawn from the custom of the Jews,to cast out of their synagogues such as they thought in manners or doctrine contagious,as lepers were by the law of Moses separated from the congregation of Israel till such time as they should be by the priest pronounced clean.
