fabric of Catholicity, should, through the agency of the ministers of his wicked designs, have assailed, with all his might, this bulwark of Christian virtue. The pastor, therefore, will teach, in the first place, that the institution of confession is most useful and even necessary.
Contrition, it is true, blots out sin; but who is ignorant, that to effect this, it must be so intense, so ardent, so vehement, as to bear a proportion to the magnitude of the crimes which it effaces? This is a degree of contrition which few reach, and hence, through perfect contrition alone, very few indeed could hope to obtain the pardon of their sins. It, therefore, became necessary, that the Almighty, in his mercy, should afford a less precarious and less difficult means of reconciliation, and of salvation; and this he has done, in his admirable wisdom, by giving to his Church the keys of the kingdom of heaven. According to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, a doctrine firmly to be believed and professed by all her children, if the sinner have recourse to the tribunal of penance with a sincere sorrow for his sins, and a firm resolution of avoiding them in future, although he bring not with him that contrition which may be sufficient of itself to obtain the pardon of sin; his sins are for given by the minister of religion, through the power of the keys. Justly, then, do the Holy Fathers proclaim, that by the keys of the Church, the gate of heaven is thrown open; [1] a truth which the decree of the Council of Florence, declaring that the effect of penance is absolution from sin, renders it imperative on all, unhesitatingly to believe. [2]
To appreciate the advantages of confession, we should not lose sight of an argument which has the sanction of experience. To those who have led immoral lives, nothing is found so useful towards a reformation of morals, as sometimes to disclose their secret thoughts, their words, their actions, to a prudent and faithful friend, who can guide them by his advice, and assist them by his co-operation. On the same principle must it prove most salutary to those, whose minds are agitated by the consciousness of guilt, to make known the diseases and wounds of their souls to the priest, as the vicegerent of Jesus Christ, bound to eternal secrecy by every law human and divine. In the tribunal of penance they will find immediate remedies, the healing qualities of which will not only remove the present malady, but also prove of such lasting efficacy as to be, in future, an anti dote against the easy approach of the same moral disease.
Another advantage, derivable from confession, is too important to be omitted: confession contributes powerfully to the preservation of social order. Abolish sacramental confession, and, that moment, you deluge society with all sorts of secret crimes - crimes too, and others of still greater enormity, which men, once that they have been depraved by vicious habits, will
