"For what concerns confession, behold the method which I judge the fittest for these quarters of the East, where the licence of sin is very great, and the use of penance very rare. When a person, hardened in a long habit of vice, shall come to confession, exhort him to take three or four days time of preparation, to examine his conscience thoroughly; and for the assistance of his memory, cause him to write down the sins which he has observed in all the, course of his life, from his childhood to that present time. Being thus disposed, after he has made his confession, it will not be convenient that you should be too hasty in giving him absolution. But it will be profitable to him to retire two or three days, and abstain from his ordinary conversation and dealings with men, and to excite himself to sorrow for his sins, in consideration of the love of God, which will render his sacramental absolution of more efficacy to him. During that little interval of retirement, you shall instruct him in the way of meditation, and shall oblige him to make some meditations from the first week of exercises. You shall counsel him to practise some mortification of his body; for example, to fast, or to discipline himself, which will help him to conceive a true sorrow for his offences, and to shed the tears of penance. Besides this, if the penitents have enriched themselves by sinister ways, or if, by their malicious talk, they have blasted the reputation of their neighbour, cause them to make restitution of their ill-gotten goods, and make reparations of their brethren's honour, during the space of those three days. If they are given to unlawful love, and are now in an actual commerce of sin, cause them to break off those criminal engagements, and forsake the occasions of their crime. There is not any time more proper to exact from sinners those duties, the performance of which is as necessary as it is difficult; for when once their fervour is past away, it will be in vain to demand of them the execution of their promise; and perhaps you will have the trouble of seeing them fall back into the precipice, for want of removing them to a distance from it. "In administering the sacrament of penance, take heed of discouraging those who begin to discover the wounds of their souls to you, by appearing too rashly and too hastily severe. How enormous soever their sins may be, hear them, not only with patience, but with mildness; help out even their bashfulness, by testifying to them your compassion, and not seeming to be amazed at what you hear. Insinuate into them, that you have heard in confession sins of a much more crying nature: and, lest they should despair of pardon for their faults, speak to them of the infinite mercies of the Lord.