guish; and that you may not hesitate to adopt the remedy, ponderate the greatness of future punishment.-And as you are not ignorant, that, against that fire, after the baptismal institution, the aid of Confession has been appointed," why are you an enemy to your own salvation ?-Knowing that, for his recovery, it was instituted by the Lord, shall the sinner neglect that, whereby the king of Babylon reascended his throne?” Ibid. c. xii. p. 170.
It is plain that, through the whole of this passage, Tertullian speaks of secret sins, for the expiation of which, he deems the exomologesis or Confession absolutely necessary; but it must be allowed to be equally plain, that the Confession, on which he insists, is a public declaration to be made in the face of the Church, which was to be followed by a series of penitential acts, proportioned to the crimes, and equally public as the exomologesis.[1]
On this head I must further add, that as, in these early ages, the zeal of Christians to maintain the purity of their calling was great, and their horror of whatever might defile that purity was not less signal, it will readily be understood
- ↑ St. Isidore, the learned Bishop of Seville, in the seventh century, in a work on Etymologies, has the following observations: “Exomologesis means in Greek what confession does in Latin; and of this the signification is two-fold. It is used to denote praise; as when Christ said, (Matt. xi. 25) I praise thee, O Father, (confiteor, étouodoyoupai) Lord of Heaven and earth: or when a person declares his sins, and receives pardon from him, whose mercies fail not. Hence Exomologesis is derived ; and this confession is a declaration of what was before hidden. In sinning was pleasure or interest; but when the sinner reflects, that thereby he has deserved hell, he confesses his error. The confession of error precedes amendment; he, therefore, must amend, who confesses. Confession comes first: pardon follows. But he excludes himself from pardon, who, conscious of sin, confesses it not. Exomologesis, therefore, (in the words of Tertullian) imports the whole discipline of Penance."-Etymolog. L. vi. c. 19, p. 976. Geneve, 1672.
