pray, to weep, day and night before the Lord, to fall down before the Priests, to kneel at the altars, and to invoke the intercession of the brethren.” De Pænitent. c. ix. p. 169.He proceeds to state the happy effects of this exomologesis or Confession, and adds: “But most people, affected more by shame, than attentive to salvation, decline this work, as a publishing of their own failings, or put it off from day to day: just as men who, having some malady which they are ashamed to exhibit to the eye of a physician, prefer to perish rather than make it known.”-He dwells on the absurdity of this false shame, particularly before brethren, “in whom is a common hope, fear, joy, grief, and suffering, in the presence of one common Lord and Father. Why should such men seem other than yourself? Why do you fear these companions in distress?"--Nothing, he observes, can be concealed from the eye of God. “I admit,” he says, “it is hard to make this Confession; but suffering is the consequence of sin. This suffering ends, and spiritual health begins, when penance has been performed. But it may be, that besides the shame of Confession, the severe discipline of penace - some acts of which he enumerates-is likewise feared. Would it become us then to supplicate pardon in the midst of luxuries and effeminate indulgences?"-Of these he gives some fashionable instances, and with his accustomed sarcasticity, adds: “Should any one enquire why you are thus engaged? say: I have sinned against God, and am in danger of perishing everlastingly: wherefore, that I may obtain forgiveness, I thus punish myself.” Ibid. c. x. xi.
He next mentions the many abasing self-denials, to which the candidates for office voluntarily submit, and returns to the point of Confession. “If still you draw back, let your mind turn to that eternal fire, which Confession will extin-
