Peter, when they that were converted by his sermon on the day of Pentecost, asked what they were to do, advised them (Acts 2:38) “to repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, for the remission of sins.” And therefore, seeing to baptize is to declare the reception of men into God’s kingdom; and to refuse to baptize is to declare their exclusion; it followeth, that the power to declare them cast out, or retained in it, was given to the same apostles, and their substitutes and successors. And therefore after our Saviour had breathed upon them, saying (John 20:22), “Receive the Holy Ghost,” He addeth in the next verse, “Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.” By which words, is not granted an authority to forgive or retain sins, simply and absolutely, as God forgiveth or retaineth them, who knoweth the heart of man, and truth of his penitence and conversion; but conditionally, to the penitent: and this forgiveness or absolution, in case the absolved have but a feigned repentance, is thereby, without other act or sentence of the absolved, made void, and hath no effect at all to salvation, but on the contrary to the aggravation of his sin.