10. Patriarchs.--These officers hold the keys of blessings in the church. The order of this priesthood was confirmed to be handed down from father to son, and rightly belongs to the literal descendants of the chosen seed, to whom the promises were made.[118] There is one general and a number of local patriarchs in the church. The first is patriarch to the whole church, and he may minister in any branch or stake in it, his jurisdiction in blessing the people being co-extensive with the church. He holds the keys of the patriarchal blessings upon the heads of all the Lord's people. And whomsoever he blesses shall be blessed, and whomsoever he curses shall be cursed; and whatsoever he binds on earth shall be bound in {346} heaven; and whatsoever he looses on earth shall be loosed in heaven.[119] He holds the sealing blessings of the church, "even the Holy Spirit of promise," whereby men are sealed up unto the day of redemption; that they may not fall, notwithstanding the hour of temptation that may come upon them.[120] The local patriarchs referred to above are patriarchs appointed and ordained by the apostles to hold and exercise the powers of giving patriarchal blessings to the Saints within the branches and stakes of Zion in which they are appointed to minister in this calling, but they are not to minister outside of their respective districts. Hence they call them local patriarchs. They possess the same powers in blessing within the district where they are appointed to labor as the general patriarch of the church does in his wider sphere.