riorly in the soul; and the faithful are to be informed, in the first place, why the Redeemer was pleased to give it a place among the Sacraments. His object was, no doubt, to remove, in a great measure, all uncertainty as to the pardon of sin promised by our Lord when he said: " If 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." [1] Pronouncing upon his own actions, every man has reason to question the accuracy of his own judgment, and hence, on the sincerity of interior penance the mind must be held in anxious suspense. To calm this our solicitude, the Redeemer instituted the sacrament of penance, in which we cherish a well founded hope, that our sins are forgiven us by the absolution of the priest, and the faith which we justly have in the efficacy of the Sacraments, has much influence in tranquillizing the troubled conscience and giving peace to the soul. The voice of the priest, who is legitimately constituted a minister for the remission of sins, is to be heard as that of Christ himself, who said to the lame man: " Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee." [2]
Moreover, as salvation is unattainable but through Christ and the merits of his passion, the institution of this sacrament was in itself accordant to the views of divine wisdom, and pregnant with blessings to the Christian. Penance is the channel through which the blood of Christ flows into the soul, washes away the stains contracted after baptism, and calls forth from us the grateful acknowledgment, that to the Saviour alone we are indebted for the blessing of a reconciliation with God.
That penance is a sacrament the pastor will not find it difficult to establish: baptism is a sacrament because it washes away all, particularly original sin: penance also washes away all sins of thought or deed committed after baptism; on the same principle, therefore, penance is a sacrament. Again, and the argument is conclusive, a sacrament is the sign of a sacred thing, and what is done externally, by the priest and penitent, is a sign of what takes place, internally, in the soul: the penitent unequivocally expresses, by words and actions, that he has turned away from sin: the priest, too, by words and actions, gives us easily to understand, that the mercy of God is exercised in the remission of sin: this is, also, clearly evinced by these words of the Saviour: " I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatever sins you loose on earth, shall be loosed, also, in heaven." [3] The absolution of the priest, which is expressed in words, seals, therefore, the remission of sins, which it accomplishes in the soul, and thus is penance in vested with all the necessary conditions of a sacrament, and is, therefore, truly a sacrament.
That penance is not only to be numbered amongst the sacra-
