our Saviour did for the pardon of my sins, what sorrows, what ignominies, and what pains He suffered for them, that will soon appear but little to me which God requires for their pardon. And again, if I ponder how much Almighty God might require of me if He would extend His rigour, seeing I merited sorrow, ignominy, and eternal torments, I shall presently see that He requires of me but very little. And therefore I may imagine that the same words are spoken to me which were spoken to leprous Naaman by his servants, "Father, if the prophet" Mizeus had "bid thee do some great thing" to cure thy leprosy, " thou surely shouldst have done it; how much rather what he now hath said to thee, Wash and thou shalt be clean?" [1]
Colloquy. — O my soul, if Almighty God should command thee many things very hard and heavy to heal the leprosy of thy sins, it were reason thou shouldst do them with great promptness and speed: how much more bidding thee do a thing so easy to do as is, Confess thy sins, and thou shalt be healed: "wash seven times in the Jordan" of penance, accompanying thy confession with the seven affections above named, and thou shalt be cleansed of the leprosy of thy sins. Glory, like Job, in not hiding thy sin "as a" frail "man," nor concealing " thy iniquity' in thy bosom. [2] Take the counsel of the Wise man, who says, " For thy soul, be not ashamed to say the truth: for there is a shame that bringeth sin, and there is a shame that bringeth glory and grace." [3] If, vanquished by shame, thou concealest thy sin, thou increasest it; but if with shame thou confessest it, thou shalt obtain a crown of great glory, for the victory thou gainest by confessing thy sins.
