15:22⁠–⁠24), where he saith, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming; then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when He shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power”; it is manifest that we do not in baptism constitute over us another authority, by which our external actions are to be governed in this life; but promise to take the doctrine of the apostles for our direction in the way to life eternal.

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: and therefore St.