rally tender, and easily affected. In the ardour, with which you have followed after earthly objects, you have shewn the sensibility of your nature, and have sufficiently proved what your minds are capable of.. You even boast of the goodness and benevolence of your disposition. And is it possible that your hearts should be then only void of feeling, when God challenges your affections? Is it possible that sorrow for sin should be the only sorrow that can make no impression on your minds? This is an illusion, my beloved friends. If men are not as much in earnest in the great duty of repentance, as they usually are in the pursuit of their pleasures, the reason is, that they are sincere libertines, but that they are by no means sincere peni

tents.

True contrition, therefore, consists not merely in the dread of the tor

ments of hell, or in ineffectual resolutions of amendment; but it consists principally and essentially in a true and sincere grief of heart for having offended so great, so good, so amiable a God. It takes its rise, not in the love of ourselves, but in the pure love of God above all things.This love necessarily induces the penitent to také proper measures to avoid a repetition of the same offences: and these measures are not confined within any given time. It obliges the penitent to renounce the world, at least in affection, and all pleasures and pastimes. from which God is excluded. It obliges. him to pluck out an eye, and cut off a limb, or, in other words, to make the most painful sacrifices when his eternal. interests require them.-This is truecontrition.

What opinion, then, must we form of those penitents, who are only soli

.

citous to avoid sin for a few days previous to their confession; whose only interior monitor is the catalogue of sins in their prayer-books; whose only sentiments of contrition are those transient affections which are excited by the perusal of the preparatory prayers; who confess their sins only by halves; who make some faint resolutions of amendment, keep them for a few days, and then relapse into their former disorders? These false penitents receive not, the sacrament. Their sins are still imputed to them, with the addition of the enormous crime of sacrilege. What a state is this, my beloved! How hopeless is their salvation! And yet, nothing is more common: the number of true penitents is very small. Many are called to the sacrament of penance, but few partake of its fruits.

Enter, therefore, seriously into yourselves. Now it is, that the Church in a particular manner solicits the Lord

to shower down his mercies on the most abandoned sinners. Let each one interrogate his own heart. Let him enquire what have been his principal pursuits, and what the general tenor of his conduct through life. Perhaps he will find that his present failings are but a continuation of the follies of his youth that they have increased with his years that he is at present precisely what he appeared to be almost at the first dawn of reason, voluptuous, passionate, and tepid. Yes: we have passed through the different stages of life, but our passions have attended us through them all. Our lives have been one continued series of transgressions, diversified only by circumstances, and change of situation. One day hath instructed the next, and one night hath uttered knowledge to the ensuing, Ps. xviii. 3. The buds of our passions appeared in our childhood, and our riper years were defiled with the same

produce of corruption, which imbitters our palate at the present moment.

And yet, my God! thy avenging arm has not been stretched upon me. From the throne of thy justice thou didst witness my abominations, and thou hast spared me in preference to thousands. Ah! why hast thou prolonged my days to this hour, in the midst of such wickedness? Thou hast undoubtedly mercies in store for me. Thou wouldst not have preserved me from the dangers which have so often threatened my life, wert thou not desirous of shewing forth the riches of thy grace in my repentance.

Great God! I begin to detest my evil ways sincerely. Finish thy work, and cause me to love the remedy. The state of my conscience fills me with alarm; the corruptions and the disorders of my life overwhelm me with confusion: the remorse occasioned by my crimes imbitters all my days. Fi