of the Eastern Church in the time of St. Basil, are many regulations on the subject of penance; among others: “ That women, guilty of adultery, and who had confessed it, should not be made public, agreeable to what the Fathers had appointed.” Ep.cxcix. ad Amphiloch. Can. xxxiv. T. iii. P. 295.
ST. JAMES OF NISIBIS, G. C.-“He that has been wounded in war, blushes not to put himself into the hands of a skilful physician: and the king, when he is cured, rejects him not, but places him on the list of his veteran troops. So must the man, whom the devil has wounded, not blush to confess his failings, to fly from him, and to implore the medicine of penance. For he that is ashamed to lay open his wounds to a physician, exposes his body to a total infection; while medicine restores him to health. He that is overcome in our warfare, may hope for a cure, if he say: I have sinned, begging penance: but he that is ashamed, cannot be cured, because he will not reveal his wounds to the physician. And you, who are the disciples of our physician, as you are endowed with the power of healing, take care not to be an obstacle to the cure of those, who are in want of medicine; but apply it to those, who lay their wounds before you. Admonish him, who is ashamed, not to conceal his sin; and when he has declared it, proclaim it not in public, lest, on his account, they who are innocent, be deemed guilty by men, who profess themselves our enemies. The military legion, in which many fall, incurs most the contempt of the enemy.” Serm. vii. p. 235.—He dwells farther on the subject, comparing together the states of the wounded soldier, and the sinner, who conceal, or reveal, their wounds.
“ And do you hear-you, who have the keys of the gates of heaven; open the gate to the repentant, following the advice
