The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio…

7. WE say that a Minister ought to have a lawful Call, and be duly and orderly preferred in the Church of God, and that no Man ought at his own Will and Pleasure to intrude into the sacred Ministry. So that a very great Injury is done us, by them, who so frequently affirm, that nothing is done decently and in order with us, but all things are managed confusedly and disorderly; and that with us all (that will) are Priests, Teachers, and Interpreters.

8. WE say that Christ has given to his Ministers the Power of Binding and Loosing, of Opening and Shutting. And we say that the Power of Loosing consists in this, that the Minister, by the preaching of the Gospel, offers to dejected Minds and true Penitents, through the Merits of Christ, Absolution, and doth assure them of a certain Remission of their Sins, and the hopes of eternal Salvation. Or secondly, reconciles, restores, and receives into the Congregation and Unity of the Faithful, those Penitents, who by any grievous Scandal or known and public Offence, have offended the Minds of their Brethren, and in a sort, alienated and separated themselves ⟨p. 24⟩from the common Society of the Church, and the Body of Christ. And we say, the Minister doth exercise the Power of Binding or Shutting, when he shuteth the Gate of the Kingdom of Heaven against Unbelievers and obstinate Persons, and denounceth to them the Vengeance of God and eternal Punishment; or excludeth out of the Bosom of the Church, those that are publicly excommunicated; and that God himself doth so far approve whatever Sentence his Ministers shall so give, that whatsoever is either loosed or bound by their Ministry here on Earth, he will in like manner bind or loose, and confirm in Heaven: The Key with which these Ministers do shut or open the Kingdom of Heaven, we say with St. Chrysostom, is the Knowledge of the Scripture; with Tertullian, is the Interpretation of the Law; and with Eusebius, is the Word of God. We say the Disciples of Christ received this Power (from him) not that they might hear the private Confessions of the People, and catch their whispering Murmurs, as the Popish Priests every where now do; and that in such a manner, as if all the force and use of the Keys consisted only in this; but that they might go and Preach and Publish the Gospel, that so they might be a savour of Life unto Life, to them that did believe; and that they might be also a savour of Death unto Death, to those that did not believe; that the Minds of the Pious, who were affrighted with the sense of their former ill Lives and Errors, after they beheld the Light of the Gospel, and believed in Christ, might be opened by the Word of