When God said to the priests of the Old Law, "You shall clean the leper," and he shall be "cleaned," or, "you shall unclean the leper," and he shall be "uncleaned," He only gave the legal power to see if there were any signs or indications by which they could say that God had cured the leper before he presented himself to the priest. So, when Christ said to his apostles and his whole church, "Whose soever sins ye shall forgive, shall be forgiven unto them," He only repeated what Moses had said in an analagous case: He only gave them the authority to say when the spiritual lepers, the sinners, had reconciled themselves to God, and received their pardon from Him and Him alone, previous to their coming to the apostles. It is true that the priests of the Old Law had regulations from God, through Moses, which they had to follow, by which they could see and say whether, or not, the leprosy was gone. "If the plague spread not on the skin ... the priest shall clean him ... but if the priest see that the scab spread on the skin, it is leprosy: he shall "unclean" him. (Septuagint, Levit. xiii. 3. 6.) So Christ had given to his apostles and his whole church equally, infallible rules and marks to determine whether, or not, the spiritual leprosy was gone, that they might clean the leper and tell him, I clean thee, | I forgive thy sins, or | or I unclean thee. | I retain thy sins. I would have, indeed, many passages of the Old and New Testaments to copy, were it my intention to reproduce all the marks given by God Himself, through his prophets, or by Christ and apostles, that His ambassadors might know when they should say to the sinner that he was delivered from his iniquities. I will give only a few. First: "And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature: "He that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be damned." (Mark xvi. 15, 16.) What a strange want of memory in the Saviour of the world! He has entirely forgotten that "Auricular Confession," besides Faith and Baptism are necessary to be saved! To those who believe and are baptised, the apostles and the church are authorised by Christ to say: "You are saved! your sins are forgiven! I clean you!" Second: "And when ye come into an house, salute it. "And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. "And whose soever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. "Verily, verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha, in the day of Judgment, than for that city." (Math x. 12-15.)