virtue, assists us in restraining within the bounds of moderation our sense of sorrow.
That penance is a virtue may also be inferred from the ends which the penitent proposes to himself. The first is to destroy sin and efface from the soul its every spot and stain; the second, to make satisfaction to God for the sins which he has committed, and this is an act of justice towards God. Be tween God and man, it is true, no relation of strict justice can exist, so great is the distance between the Creator and the creature; yet between both there is evidently a sort of justice, such as exists between a father and his children, be tween a master and his servants. The third end is, to rein state himself in the favour and friendship of God whom he has offended, and whose hatred he has earned by the turpitude of sin. That penance is a virtue, these three ends which the penitent proposes to himself, sufficiently prove.
We must also point out the steps, by which we may ascend to this divine virtue. The mercy of God first prevents us and converts our hearts to him; this was the object of the prophet's prayer: " Convert us, O Lord! and we shall be converted." [1] Illumined by this celestial light the soul next tends to God by faith: " He that cometh to God," says the Apostle, must believe that he is, and is a rewarder to them that seek him." [2] A salutary fear of God's judgments follows, and the soul, contemplating the punishments that await sin, is recalled from the paths of vice: "As a woman with child," says Isaias, when she draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain and crieth out in her pangs; so are we become in thy presence, O Lord!" [3] We are also animated with a hope of obtaining IV mercy from God, and cheered by this hope we resolve on a change of life. Lastly, our hearts are inflamed by charity; and V. hnce we conceive that filial fear which a dutiful and ingenuous child experiences towards a parent. Thus, dreading only to affend the majesty of God in any thing, we entirely abandon the ways of sin. These are, as it were, the steps by which we ascend to this most exalted virtue, a virtue altogether heavenly and divine, to which the Sacred Scriptures promise the inherience of heaven: " Do penance," says the Redeemer, " for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand:" [4] " If," says the prophet Ezekiel, " the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die:" [5] " I desire not, saith the Lord, the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live;" [6] words which are evidently understood of eternal life.
With regard to external penance, the pastor will teach that it is that which constitutes the sacrament of penance: it consists of certain sensible things significant of that which passes inte-
