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 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.

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