21. "If God bids man often repent," (sayest thou,) "He allows him often to sin." What sayest thou? Does he then who frequently points out the remedy for a crime, point out the crime? And when the physician cures, does he teach us to be constantly wounded? God wisheth not man to sin even once, and yet He delivers him from sin. Nor yet when He delivereth, doth He teach sin; as neither does he who delivers from a fire, teach to kindle it; nor does he who rescues the shipwrecked from the cliffs, drive him upon the rocks. It is one thing to be delivered from danger, another to be forced upon danger. And perchance I might allow this, if luxury were accounted penitence, on which such toil is imposed, the destruction of the flesh enjoined, continual tears, unending groans. Will he then who has been cured wish again to feel the knife, again to suffer cautery? Will he wish to sin again, and again to repent, when it is written, Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee; and again, On him that sinneth constantly I have no mercy .
22. But if, as thou sayest, he is driven into sin, to whom is pointed out the medicine of penance; what then will be his case, who is shut out even from penance? who has his whole wound laid bare, and yet despairs of any remedy? who is utterly and entirely denied any approach to life?
23. "In Baptism," (thou wilt say,) "we die once for all according to the Apostle, Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His Death? Therefore we are buried with Him by Baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. What marvel? The Apostle taught that we were renewed, that no one might sin. And yet it followed that he who had sinned should repent. The one is to live uninjured, the other cured. The innocent should receive a |346 crown, the penitent pardon: the one a reward, the other a remedy. And, lastly, the same Apostle saith, For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Much more then, being now justified by His Blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. From the wrath, that is, which was due to sinners. But if He suffered not the Gentile people to die, much more when redeemed will He not suffer them to be lost. Nor will He cast away those, whom He hath bought at a great Price. Nor is the loss of His servants a little matter in His eyes. , He That has risen again shall die no more, as it is written. But Himself is our Advocate with the Father, Himself intercedeth for our sins, no powerless Maintainer of the cause of the wretched, no inadequate Intercessor! Answer, brother; can the devil oppress the servants of God, and cannot Christ set them free?
24. Thou sayest, that "the repentance of Peter was before the Passion of our Lord?" No one adduced this instance to thee. And yet Peter had been already baptized. For to him the Lord had said , He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. Afterwards, however, he received the remedy of Christ's Death, but he repented before, and was esteemed holy before he attained to thisremedy. Nor would his repentance be written as a memorial, had it not in some way profited the penitent. He wept, it is said, bitterly. Wiliest thou not that the believer should do what Peter did? Wiliest thou not that what profited Peter should profit us? Come say, Favoureth it not me, that Thomas, after the Resurrection of the Lord, doubt of the Resurrection? Is he not marked by the Lord as guilty of faithlessness, when are shewn him the prints of the nails, the pierced Hands, the wound in the Side, when the Lord saith unto him thus, Be not faithless, but believing? What then? Was he ashamed to repent? Was he not humbled? Does he not straightway acknowledge his God and his Lord? And is not that confession his commendation?
25. How acutely now dost thou dispatch that head which I set down, that power was given unto Bishops, that |347 whatsoever they bound on earth, should be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever they loosed on earth, should be loosed also in heaven. Thou sayest, that this has reference not to the Faithful, but to Catechumens, that in the case, namely, of people yet to be baptized, sins were allowed either to be loosed or retained. Lastly, thou joinest together clauses from two Evangelists, so as to seem one; and addest, that what Matthew detailed less fully, John filled up: so that whereas the Lord had said according to Matthew, Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, He completed His words in John, saying, Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained; so that this loosing or binding may seem to refer to the Gentiles who were yet to be baptized, because the former Evangelist spoke first of the Gentiles, but the latter "filled up" concerning loosing and binding. What sayest thou? Do the two Evangelists relate meanings mutually halved between them, and but half entire? Were they mutually deficient either in language or in reason? Or did not in all the Holy Spirit fill the whole man, carrying out entirely the sense proposed, and defining the words even to the full? No one super-addeth to a man's testament when confirmed: shall another covenant change the covenant of God? What is this desire in you of overcoming, that you dare any such thing? What is this, which according to Matthew himself the Lord had said before His Passion, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven? Our Lord had foretold this in St. Matthew, and made there no mention of the Gentiles. Why then do you join on the chapter of John to him, where he has set down what is peculiar to himself, and so set it down, as to keep it distinct from the Gentiles; which, had he wished to refer to the Gentiles, he could surely join that together which himself elsewhere set down.
26. All thou seekest then, thou hast in Matthew. Why didst not thou, who teachest a Bishop, read the whole? Look at the first head of that command. According to the relation of Matthew himself, the Lord spake a little above to |348 Peter; (He spake to one, that from one He might lay the foundation of unity;) afterwards delivering the very same command in common to all, He still begins in the same terms as to Peter; And I say also unto thee, He saith, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And 1 will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Say, brother, did He speak this of the Gentiles only, Upon this rock, He saith, I will build My Church? Doth He call nations not baptized, the Church? Is man not as yet re-born, the body of Christ? What do I loose to the Gentiles? What is not bound? For if it is not imputed, nor bound, why bind I on, what I bind not of right? The Gentile is free from the Law. See now, on the other hand, whether both words do not agree with the baptized. He is loosed by pardon, because he was bound by sin: he is bound by anathema, because he had been loosed by faith, and set free through grace. But if I grant that this power of loosing and binding regarded the Gentiles also, much more do I prove that it appertained to the baptized. For if he could be loosed or bound, who had no chain, how much more he, who was held by the laws of faith?
27. Thou sayest that Matthew had written, If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone; and that immediately after the Lord added, Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; so that it would seem to have reference to offence given to a brother. But look, seest thou not what He saith above, If thy brother shall trespass against thee? but here He addeth, Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall loose on earthy &c. The former is a command to one, the latter a power of loosing granted to many; the one, that same looseth against whom it is committed, the other, the Church; the former is obtained without the priest, without the brethren, the latter from all. Whatsoever ye shall loose, He says. He excepted nothing whatever. Whatsoever, He says, great or small. Listen to what He saith to Peter below, that sin against man is to be forgiven seventy times seven, in |349 order to shew that in other cases it can be forgiven at least once . And yet he who sins against Peter, doth despite to the Lord, as He declares Himself when speaking to Samuel, They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me. What then is commanded to us so often, is allowed to the Church, at least, once.
28. But to return to the lost sheep, the piece of silver, and the younger son, examples upon which I slightly touched in my former letter, thou hast gone over again in full, teaching and shewing that the piece of silver, and the sheep, and the younger son, refer to publicans and sinners, that is, a lowly people, not to the image of the Christian people, nor the likeness of the faithful. I congratulate myself on being taught, but I am sorry that I comprehend not. For what shall I say? That whatsoever the law saith, it saith to those under the law, and that this was spoken principally to the former people, but as a likeness of the faithful, but as an image of those who should be, as the Apostle saith, Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come; and again, All which things in them were a shadow of good things to come. Certainly thou thyself acknowledgest that these things were spoken to publicans and sinners, that is, a lowly people, and therefore the younger. Say then, is not the Christian people itself that younger people ? Hath it not grown together into the root? Hath He not compacted these members into one? built, as it is written, upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner Stone. Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. For there is One God, Who justifieth the ungodly by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith. Certainly, that lowly people, whom God compared to the piece of silver, the younger son, and the sheep, was the Church, whence are Apostles, whence is the whole assembly of believers, whence the Christian people. |350 To this body then are joined our members also, and all portions of believers, out of the wild olive tree of the Gentiles, that they might grow together into a good olive tree, partaking, as the Apostle saith, of its fatness; and so we might be all one in Christ, Jew and Greek, bond and free. If, therefore, we with those lowly ones are one body, those things which were said to the lowly among the ancients were spoken also to us; and thus whatever was declared to a part of the body, was announced to the whole body.
29. I will speak more plainly still. This latter, this poor, this lowly people was an image of the Church, the humble and modest soul, the soul delivered through Christ. This the Lord came to save. This He left not in hell. This is the sheep which is carried back on the shoulders, that is, with the effort and might of patience. This the piece of silver, which is looked for, and, when found, is shewn unto the neighbours. Seest thou how its fashion is like unto the similitude of penitents? Seest thou that mercy is extended even to this time? Seest thou that whatever was spoken to the Church at its birth, relates also to the Church in its fulness? Thence did the Lord then add, Likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. For if all these things were written for our admonition, to whom, I ask, shall that sinful, humble, people be compared, but to the penitent people? And if, the figures recurring in regular order, the ninety and nine sheep that were safe are the whole Church, but the one that strayed in that small portion of offenders, the piece of money which was lost is that wretched sinner, let the son returning after his evil ways, be held the pattern of him that is redeemed.
30. Thou now seest that I rightly set down, when treating of the cure of penitents, that the Lord said, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick; and rightly again, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Whatsoever was said of publicans and sinners, will apply to all that are sick, and all that are miserable.
31. Thou sayest, "It was written of Martyrs only, Blessed are they that mourn. " Does no one bewail his sins besides |351 them? Doth not David cry, Every night wash I my bed? and again, For I have eaten ashes as it were bread; and, mingled my drink with weeping? Saith not Jacob, Few and evil have the years of my life been? Does not the Apostle write to Timothy, Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears? And yet he spoke not this of a Martyr. What now? Are the eyes of the wretched penitents dry? And they who grieve that they have sinned, know they not how to weep? We ourselves, the communicants, we, the faithful, have not we tears? Hath anyone of us pleasure in rejoicing, when the world rejoiceth? Ye, Novatians, Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us. It is not then they only who are miserable, who are the objects of commiseration .
82. Your next proposition is, that it is written by the Lord, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Either I am mistaken, or this example makes against thee. For if all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven, thou seest that pardon is not denied to penitents; all sin then, even blasphemy itself then. According to Luke you have it added, And whosoever shall sin against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. What can be more large than this as to the mercy of God, the clemency of the Judge? Is not thine eye evil because the Householder is good? May not He do, what He willeth? Moreover, Who art thou that judgest a servant? to his own Master he standeth or falleth. Yea, God is able to make him stand. But he that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit, He saith, shall not be forgiven. Thou usually readest the whole lessons. Why didst thou not read here what that meaneth, against the Spirit? Thou hast it written above, that, when our Lord was casting out devils by His word, and performing many other deeds by the power of the Spirit, the Pharisees said, This fellow doth not cast out devils but by |352 Beelzebub the prince of the devils. This it is to have sinned against the Holy Spirit, to have blasphemed against those things which were wrought by the Holy Spirit. For in other sins we either fall through error, or are conquered by fear, or are overcome by the infirmity of the flesh. This is the blindness of not seeing what thou seest, imputing to the devil the works of the Holy Spirit, and calling that glory of God, by which the. devil himself is overcome, the power of the devil. This it is then which shall not be forgiven. All other things, brother Sympronian, are forgiven to good penitents.
33. After this thou thus givest the instances of the branches and the vine: in John the Lord saith, I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it. Thou seest then that in the branches fruit is required, that is, good works of repentance, as John says, Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. Thou seest that the branches are purged. This purging is the destruction of the flesh, the loss of joy, the loss of inheritance, the toils of life; and these are the peculiar acts of penitents. You see also that the Husbandman is the Lord, Who destroyeth not even the very branches, but purgeth and gathereth, some certainly for the fire, some to renew and plant again His vineyards.
34. "Eli the priest," thou sayest, "speaketh, saying, If one man sin against another, they shall pray for him: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him? In like manner John, If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask,and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that thou shall pray for it. Thou seest that all this has reference to sins still remaining, not to those persons who have at any time sinned, and begun to repent before any one asketh for them. It were a long task to unfold the instances. Remark all the sins which God threatens, thou wilt at once see that they are present sins. But if his past righteousness shall not profit the righteous in the time of his iniquity, neither shall his wickedness which he hath forsaken hurt the wicked man in the time of his righteousness; for it |353 is written, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he shall obtain mercy. But if God hath punished even past sins, tell me, hath He it not in His own power to change His sentence against him, to whom He hath appointed punishment and suffering for things past and overlooked? Did He not deliver Rahab, Nebuchadnezzar the king, the Gibeonites, the Ninevites, and Zoar, from the destruction foretold? Doth not Joel thus speak in His Name, Turn unto the Lord your God with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him? Wherefore if thou shalt have anyhow proved that punishment is appointed for the sinner, thou must allow this, either that it is appointed for enduring sins, or that liberty is left to God of changing His sentence in their favour, on repentance.
35. Thou sayest it is further written, If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cast them from thee. The meaning of this Moses foretold by the testimony of the Book of Deuteronomy, If thy brother, (for these are our eyes and our hands,) or thy daughter, or thy wife, which is in thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known: then he added below, Thou shalt accuse him, and thine hand shall be upon him to put him to death. Dost thou see then that this was not spoken of penitents, but of those who not only themselves persevere in wickedness, but also cease not to put stumblingblocks in our way? These, however dear they be, we must relinquish; however useful, we must abandon.
36. Further, thou settest forth that the Apostle Paul said, Put away from among yourselves the evil thing ; the evil which continues, that is. But repentance is not an evil, for |354 David saith, It is a good thing to make confession unto the Lord. And yet he who is doing penance is not with me, nor is he joined in the portion of the saints, nor in peace. But the Apostle saith, If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one not even to eat. Thou seest that not without cause doth it stand, if he be, i. e. one who is not yet penitent, who has not ceased to be wicked. And certainly the same words apply to the covetous, to drunkards, and to railers. Answer, brother, is no one of this kind comprehended in your communion? Thence then is it that God crieth by Isaiah, The destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together; not of the penitent, not of those who are busied in works of mercy, to whom God saith again in the same Isaiah, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
37. "Nevertheless," thou sayest, "the Apostle condemned him that erred. For in the first Epistle to the Corinthians he saith thus: For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have already judged, concerning him that hath so done this deed, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus ." Mark, brother, first that he condemns not those with whom this man is in communion. He alone who had done this deed, is delivered to Satan, he only is excommunicated, the peace of the Saints being kept entire. Ye for one sinner condemn all churches. Next thou seest, that this very incestuous sinner is not delivered to death, but to Satan, to be reformed, to be buffeted, to repent. Lastly, he says, for the destruction of the flesh, not however of the soul, not even of the spirit also, but for the destruction of the flesh only, trials, namely, straits in the flesh, wearing of the members, as in another place he saith of them who refrain not, Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the flesh. Wouldest thou know? In the second Epistle to the Corinthians, the same Paul absolves this same wicked man. For of him he |355 saith. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you, that ye would confirm your love toward him. And so below, To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the Person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us. Seest thou the indulgence of the Apostle, tempering even his own sentences? Seest thou his most gentle lenity, so far removed from your pride? Widely differing from the front which Novatian assumes, but consulting for the common life and salvation of all?
38. But thou inveighest against us also with the severity of a censor. Thou sayest, that "according to the law of heaven it is not allowed to break one of the commandments, and that lambs ought not to hold communion with wolves, and that all consenting unto such is in fault, that he then who toucheth pitch is defiled, and that there is no society of light with darkness, of the temple of God with idols, or agreement of Christ with Belial ." Thou sayest at last that we "rescind the commandments of God." Do we alter one tittle of the law, or the Novatians rather, who have violated all laws of the Church, all laws of concord, who, after so many years of peace, so many sacred treaties, have produced these new laws of yours, new customs, new rites, feigning sanctity under an inexorable front, a sanctity heretofore unknown? Do we receive wolves into the Church, who avoid the very faces of heretics, or the Novatians rather, who, themselves rapacious wolves, shudder at the poor sheep but little more wretched than themselves? Do we "consent unto the wicked," do we "touch pitch," have we fellowship with darkness, do we join ourselves unto idols and unto Belial, or they who received Evaristus, who received Nicostratus, and the others who left the Church, defiled in tongue, |356 in hand, in life? Have we dealings with adulterers and thieves, or they who preferred Novatus over their own lives and heads, after he had embezzled the money of orphans and widows, the murderer of his wretched parent and of his wife's offspring, not only not penitent, but even glorying?
39. But the Apostle Paul said, Lay hands suddenly on no man. Yet he teacheth, that slowly and after repentance it must not be refused. "Yet at the destruction of Jericho Achan the son of Carmi was put to death for stealing a garment." Slay ye then all who have stolen our money and our books, and exercise your fury against the bones of Novatus. Take upon you again that yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. Why delay ye, O Novatians, to ask eye for eye, tooth for tooth, to demand life for life, to renew once more the practice of circumcision and the sabbath? Put to death the thief. Stone the petulant. Choose not to read in the Gospel that the Lord spared even the adulteress who confessed, when none had condemned her; that He absolved the sinner who washed His feet with her tears; that He delivered Rahab at Jericho, itself a city of the Phoenicians; that He set Tamar free from the sentence of the Patriarch; that when the Sodomites also perished, He destroyed not the daughters of Lot; willing likewise to have delivered his sons-in-law, had they believed the destruction to come.
40. Come, dost thou not remember that the Lord saith by David, With them that hated peace was I peaceful? and that the sentence of Solomon is not withheld when he saith, A brother that helpeth a brother shall be exalted? What says the Apostle? Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so shall ye fulfil the law of Christ; and again, (which I have before quoted,) I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh; and |357 again, I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save all ; that is, so as to share their groans with the wounded, suffering with the sick, death with the dying, to be able to blend the fall of brethren with his own standing, to abate from his own health, and apply medicine to the sinking.
41. What profiteth it you to harden yourselves with an haughty and hard brow, to be stiff and bear your necks high, to turn away your faces from the miserable, to close the ear and eye? Have ye, I pray you,never fallen? Is there no stain on your minds? No mote, I pray, in your eyes? Who will boast that he hath a clean heart, or that he is free from sins? Ye, I suppose, are just, benevolent, temperate, your members are all sound, your whole body unharmed, ye have no need of a physician, nor of medicine for weakness! Enter ye heaven at once, penetrate the approaches to paradise while the sword gives way before you, close your holy gifts against so many nations of ours, who confess the One and Only God! But if they are in a far different state from that which the implacable rigour of nature and your cruelty pretend, ye must see now, O Novatians, that God can have mercy; now, that a remedy, late though it be, is open to wretched brethren who confess what is past; now, that that wounded man, passed by by the Levite and Priest, can be healed by Christ; now, that the prayers of the Church are not to be refused to the humble; now, that the hands of the Priests are to be imparted to those brethren who deserve pity.
42. But we understand, as thou reproachest us, that the Church of God is a dove, not bitter with gall , not fierce nor rending with talons, white moreover with small and tenderplumage. We know likewise that, being the well of living water, and a fountain sealed, it is defiled with no filth of engulfing heresy, and that it is a garden enclosed and full of herbs great alike and small, vile and precious; that it is the eight souls from the Ark, among whom, however, was Ham also, and those thousands of birds and beasts, in pairs and in sevens, clean alike and unclean. But by the dry fountains and clouds carried about of winds we understand the barrenness of heretics, and the assaults of strangers' voices.
43. Neither do we promise liberty, when we are ourselves the servants of punishment, but we confess our sins, and exhort the rest also to confess theirs, and to believe on Him Who justifieth the wicked by faith, Who revoketh the sentence pronounced against wickedness. When also we avoid you, we beware of false prophets and ravening wolves. But we believe that Jannes and Mambres withstood Moses, as ye do the Catholics. Whence the Apostle layeth it down thus, Now as Jannes and Mambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. That this was spoken against you, is clear; for ye can neither proceed further, nor hide your folly.
44. He that is washed by the dead, profiteth nothing , he, that is, who is dipped in an heretical fountain, and in like manner, he who is anointed with the oil of the sinner, who is filled, that is, with an unclean spirit. So then ye shall be also children of blood. For ye desire not the peace, but the blood of brethren. Your cruelty is a false faith. An heretical congregation is an adulteress woman; for the Catholic hath never from the beginning left the couch and the chamber of her Spouse, nor gone after other and strange lovers. Ye have painted a divorced form in new colours, ye have withdrawn your couch from the old wedlock, ye have left the body of a mother, the wife of One Husband, decking yourselves out with new arts of pleasing, new allurements of corruption.
45. For whereas ye bring forward as a witness against me the most blessed Cyprian, because in his Epistle on the Lapsed he says that Moses and Daniel and Job prayed for sinners, and obtained not, our Lord saying, Though. Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they shall deliver neither son nor |358 daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. Would, would ye did rely on the witness of Cyprian, would ye acquiesced in doctrines so salutary! For when he was urging the lapsed to penance, who were unwilling to do penance because they said that they had received peace from Confessors or Martyrs, he taught and shewed that not even those Patriarchs obtained any thing for the unrepentant. For who can deliver one unwilling? Who can humble himself for the proud? Who obtain any thing for the unrepentant? So when he said this, he was constraining them to the remedies of penance. Nor did a man of such gravity and merit in any wise contradict himself, but he taught that the sinner must pour forth prayer, and must love Confession.