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Objection 1: It would seem that the priests of the Law had the
keys. For the possession of the keys results from having orders. But
they had orders since they were called priests. Therefore the priests
of the Law had the keys.
Objection 2: Further, as the Master states (Sent. iv, D,
18), there are two keys, knowledge of discretion, and power of
judgment. But the priests of the Law had authority for both of
these: therefore they had the keys.
Objection 3: Further, the priests of the Law had some power over
the rest of the people, which power was not temporal, else the kingly
power would not have differed from the priestly power. Therefore it
was a spiritual power; and this is the key. Therefore they had the
key.
On the contrary, The keys are ordained to the opening of the heavenly
kingdom, which could not be opened before Christ's Passion.
Therefore the priest of the Law had not the keys. Further, the
sacraments of the old Law did not confer grace. Now the gate of the
heavenly kingdom could not be opened except by means of grace.
Therefore it could not be opened by means of those sacraments, so that
the priests who administered them, had not the keys of the heavenly
kingdom.
I answer that, Some have held that, under the Old Law, the keys
of the kingdom were in the hands of the priests, because the right of
imposing punishment for sin was conferred on them, as related in Lev.
5, which right seems to belong to the keys; but that these keys were
incomplete then, whereas now they are complete as bestowed by Christ
on the priests of the New Law.
But this seems to be contrary to the intent of the Apostle in the
Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. 9:11-12). For there the
priesthood of Christ is given the preference over the priesthood of the
Law, inasmuch as Christ came, "a high priest of the good things to
come," and brought us "by His own blood" into a tabernacle not made
with hand, whither the priesthood of the Old Law brought men "by the
blood of goats and of oxen." Hence it is clear that the power of that
priesthood did not reach to heavenly things but to the shadow of
heavenly things: and so, we must say with others that they had not the
keys, but that the keys were foreshadowed in them.
Reply to Objection 1: The keys of the kingdom go with the
priesthood whereby man is brought into the heavenly kingdom, but such
was not the priesthood of Levi; hence it had the keys, not of
heaven, but of an earthly tabernacle.
Reply to Objection 2: The priests of the Old Law had authority to
discern and judge, but not to admit those they judged into heaven, but
only into the shadow of heavenly things.
Reply to Objection 3: They had no spiritual power, since, by the
sacraments of the Law, they cleansed men not from their sins but from
irregularities, so that those who were cleansed by them could enter
into a tabernacle which was "made with hand."
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