Yes, it may be said, but what work? We grant there is the use of the word ‘priest,’ but the whole question turns upon the sense in which it is used. Oh, brethren, listen with simple hearts of reverence, loving and seeking only the truth, to the solemn and awful words which follow: “Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained; and be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God, and of His holy Sacraments: in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” {85c} And then, further, delivering the Bible into the hand of each: “Take thou authority to preach the Word of God, and to minister the Holy Sacraments in the congregation where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto.” {85d} Now, not only is there evidently in all this a general superior commission given, but there is the particular and specific difference which I affirm can only be accounted for by the intentional full recognition of the priestly idea and priestly office as we have all along explained and taken those terms. And the words settle, as it seems to me, beyond dispute, another question,—which yet is not another, though it may bear a separate word of comment in our argument,—namely, whether the Church of England considers our Lord’s ministerial commission to His Apostles to have been confined to them, or whether it was His will, by virtue of His words, “As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you,” {86} that they should again transmit the powers of the priesthood on to others after them? For observe particularly what words they are which are used by the bishop to give this commission to the priest. “Receive,” he says, “the Holy Ghost for the office of a priest, in the Church of God;” and then, “Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained.” Now from whence do these words come? Who used them before, and to whom did they then give a commission? Let us turn to the twentieth chapter of St. John’s Gospel, and we shall find the Divine record: “Then said Jesus to them again,” (viz. to the Apostles,) “Peace be unto you; as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” {87}