But, in the same passage, St. Paul is equally explicit in declaring:  “He hath given to us”—­namely, the Apostles—­“the Ministry of Reconciliation”—­“the word of reconciliation."[27] In this there is no pretension that the Apostles were the reconcilers by inherent right; theirs is an agency of reconciliation, and hence does St. Paul speak of their as ambassadors of Christ.  And in virtue of this does the Apostle, when exercising the office on the incestuous Corinthian, unhesitatingly declare:  “If I have forgiven anything, for your sakes have I done it in the person of Christ."[28] What is here so positively claimed and acted on by the Apostle was very definitely instituted by our Lord, as is recounted in the Gospels.

To the Apostles and their successors did Jesus Christ impart the power to baptize all nations.  By baptism is man purified from original sin—­from his own personal or actual sins, if there be any; there is infused into him habitual or justifying grace, accompanied by faith, hope, charity, as well as the gifts of the Holy Ghost; and he is made the adopted child of God.  The efficient cause of such spiritual regeneration is Jesus Christ; and yet it is by a Minister of Reconciliation, pouring water and saying the words “I baptize thee in the name of the Father,” etc., etc., that the cleansing is effected.  It is passing strange that those who believe in baptism as the appointed means, whereby a minister reconciles a soul in original sin should hesitate to admit the ministerial power of forgiving actual sin.  The principle is the same.  Nearly fifteen hundred years ago, St. Ambrose, writing against the Novatians, said:  “If it be not lawful for sins to be forgiven by man, why do you baptize?  For, assuredly, in baptism there is remission of all sins.  What matters it whether priests claim this right as having been given them by means of baptism or penitence?  One is the mystery in both.  But thou sayest:  ’It is the grace of the mysteries that operates in baptism.’  And what operates in penitence!  Is it not the name of God?  Where you choose, you claim for yourselves the grace of God:  where you choose, you repudiate."[29]

For, in like manner, in the Sacrament of Penance, does the Minister of Reconciliation say:  “I absolve thee from thy sins, in the name of the Father,” etc., etc.  Thereupon the words produce what they signify, if the penitent is genuinely contrite.  But the Reconciler is Jesus Christ, who uses priests as His delegated agents for effecting forgiveness.  On the day of the resurrection, Jesus Christ appeared to the eleven, whom He had made priests at the Last Supper, and said:  “Peace be to you.  As the Father hath sent one, I also send you.  When 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]