He had said this, He breathed on them, and He said to them: receive ye
the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them;
and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained."[30]

The passage is exceptionally clear, and for fifteen centuries was
accepted in its plain grammatical signification. Our Lord, who is
possessed of all power in heaven and on earth, makes His Apostles
"workers together with Him" in the forgiving of sin. They derive the
power from Him, and receive it by the inbreathing of the Holy Spirit.
It is no product of their learning, or experience, or piety, nor is it
any right inborn in them; but it is a divine gift, given by the
redeemer to His priests for the sanctification of souls. By it are His
legitimate ministers made co-operators in the work of reconciliation.
Already had the Scribes thought that Jesus blasphemed when He said to
the man sick of the palsy: "Son, be of good heart: thy sin is forgiven
thee." They realized not that the Almighty could impart the power of
pardoning to His creatures. To convince them that the Son _of Man_
hath power to forgive sin, Jesus performed this special miracle, and
healed the man of the palsy. The multitude, seeing this, feared and
glorified God, who had given such power _to men_.[31] The power is of
God, who alone can forgive sin, though He exercises it through men as
channels of His grace. The power of working miracles in like manner
belongs to God's omnipotence; yet did He condescend to allow His
Apostles and others to share in it. In this they were but His
delegates.

The passage, in the next place, expresses judicial power: for the
commission draws the distinction between remitting sin and retaining
sin. This exercise of discretionary power does not depend on the
arbitrary will of the Apostles, but has to be decided according to the