unhappy, and in tormenting itself with vain fears, suspicions, and jealousies: the more generous, true, and frank it is itself, the more doth it suffer; it is the martyr of its own distrusts. You know this well; and it does not belong to me to pretend to speak from this place the language of your extravagant passions.
But what a new destiny in the change of her love! Scarcely is her love of Jesus Christ commenced, when she is certain of being loved. She hears from his divine mouth the favourable sentence, which, in remitting her sins, confirms to her the love and the affection of him who remits them. Not only are her debaucheries forgotten, but she is urged to be convinced, in her own mind, that they are forgotten, pardoned, and washed out. All her fears are prevented, and ground is no more left for mistrust or uncertainty; nor can she longer suspect the love of Jesus Christ, without at the same time suspecting his power and the faithfulness of his promises.
Such is the lot of a contrite soul on quitting the tribunal where Jesus Christ, through the ministry of the priest, has remitted debaucheries, which he has washed out with his tears and his love. In spite of that uncertainty inseparable from the present state of life, whether he be worthy of love or hatred, an internal peace bears testimony in the bottom of his heart that he is restored to Jesus Christ: he experiences a calm and a joy in his conscience which can be the fruit of righteousness alone. Not that he is entirely delivered from alarm and apprehension on account of his past infidelities, and that, in certain moments, more forcibly struck with horror at his past errors, and the severity of God's judgments, he is not tempted to consider all as hopeless to him; but Jesus Christ, who himself excites these storms in his heart, has quickly calmed them; his voice still inwardly says to him, as formerly to Peter, alarmed upon the waves, f? O thou of little faith, wherefore doubtest thou?" Have I not given thee sufficient proofs of my kindness and my protection? Reflect upon all that I have done in order to withdraw thee from the ways of iniquity. I seek not with such perseverance the sheep that I love not; I recall them not from so far, to let them perish before my eyes. Distrust, then, no more my affection; dread only thine own lukewarmness or inconstancy. First consolation of her penitence; — the difference of her love.
The second is the sacrifice of her passions. She throws at the feet of Jesus Christ, her perfumes, her hair, all the attachments of her heart, all the deplorable instruments of her vanities and of her crimes; and do not suppose that in acting thus she sacrifices her pleasures; she sacrifices only her anxieties and her punishments.
In vain is it said that the cares of the passions constitute the felicity of those possessed by them; it is a language in which the world glories, but which experience belies. What punishment to a worldly soul, anxious to please, are the solicitous cares of a beauty which fades and decays every day! What attentions and constraints they must take upon themselves, upon their inclinations, upon their pleasures, upon their indolence! What inward vexations, when these cares have been unavailing, and when more fortunate
