because it will be succeeded by eternal torments. This is manifest from our unconcern about venial sins: which, because they will not subject us to the same miserable eternity, we commit with little or no scruple, notwithstanding their opposition to the sanctity of God. If, therefore, we impartially scrutinize the affections of our hearts, we shall discover that few of our actions are influenced by principles either of grace or love, and that hell is almost the only object of our fears.

But how are we to discover the real dispositions of our souls? and by what marks are we to distinguish whether the perturbation of our minds on these solemn occasions is the genuine offspring of true repentance, or whether it only orginates in the sense of shame, the effect of our wounded pride, mixed with a low, and mercenary fear? In plain terms, (for my wish is to set you right in a matter, which, though little

thought of, is of the utmost consequence) in plain terms, then, if the fear, which is so apt to beset us on these occasions, is not accompanied with à real and sincere resolution of forsaking the ways of sin, and embracing a life of true christian piety in future, be assured, that it is not the effect of sincere sorrow, and that it has nothing in it that can possibly connect it with true repentance. "Wilt thou be made whole?" said our blessed Saviour to a man striken with the palsy. The same question is proposed to you, whenever you approach the sacred tribunal of penance. Will you be made whole? Do you wish for a perfect cure? Are you bent upon renouncing your former bad habits? and do you, before God, and with a deliberative mind, firmly resolve to enter upon a new life, a life of true christian piety for the future?

This, my beloved brethren, is the

question proposed to you, and what answer are you prepared to make? Will you candidly declare that you are resolved to break the chains which bind you to the world, and to labour henceforward for salvation by the uniform and constant practice of christian virtues? Remember that the question is not, whether you have made vague and indefinite resolutions of amendmentresolutions, which will never be put in execution, and which are calculated only to deceive the penitent, and cause him to perpetrate the horrid sacrilege without a consciousness of the crime, and consequently without remorse: but the question is, have you that strong, that complete, that sincere will to be reformed, which has given proofs of its determination by the tears of compunction which it has already drawn from you? Will you be made whole? This is the question which is proposed to you in the name of Jesus.

Your conscience cannot here deceive you. A moment's reflection will discover whether you are sincere or not. All the preliminaries of a thorough conversion of the heart to God are as strongly marked as any thing in nature can be. They are instantly distinguished: they cannot be mistaken. Tears, conflicts, interior troubles, new plans of conduct, sensations which perhaps you never felt before: these are the pangs which announce the birth of the new man in the soul. In the midst of such tumults, in the conflicts. of such impetuous winds as these, if I may be allowed the expression, the Spirit of God descends on the penitent heart, as he did on the apostles, and he descends with his best gifts.

Examine yourselves, therefore, my beloved friends; you, I mean, whose lives have been devoted to the world and sin: see whether the protestations you have made to alter your

plan of life for the future, have been marked with this kind of trepidation and sorrow, these unequivocal tokens of a true repentance, whenever you presented yourselves at the sacred tribunal of reconciliation.

My object is not to aggravate the matter, but to state it to you exactly as it is. Let no man say, that the sorrow, which is concealed in the interior of the soul, is sometimes without any very sensible operation on the mind. To argue on such a supposition would be wrong. A change of life is in such direct opposition to our favourite inclinations, and is brought about by such lively, and hitherto unfelt sentiments of divine love, that it is impossible it should take place without operating powerfully on the mind. Were the penitent of a cold, phlegmatic, callous disposition, the case, perhaps, would be otherwise: but this is not your disposition. Your hearts are natu