Paragraph 30.2
Of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646)
To these Officers, the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are committed: by virtue whereof, they have power, respectively, to retain, and remit sins; to shut that Kingdom against the impenitent, both by the Word, and Censures; and to open it unto penitent sinners, by the Ministry of the Gospel, and by Absolution from Censures, as occasion shall require.1