e honest language of
truth.

In the presence of God, those priests acknowledge that they have not a
sufficient fear of those _constant_ (what a word--what an
acknowledgment--constant!) temptations, and they honestly confess that
those temptations come from the hearing of the confessions of so many
scandalous sins. Here the priests honestly acknowledge that those constant
temptations, at the end, destroy _for ever_ in them the holy virtue of
purity![3]

Ah! would to God that all the honest girls and women whom the devil entraps
into the snares of auricular confession could hear the cries of distress of
those poor priests whom they have tempted--_for ever destroyed!_ Would to
God that they could see the torrents of tears shed by so many priests
because, from the hearing of confessions, they had _for ever_ lost the
virtue of purity! They would understand that the confessional is a snare, a
pit of perdition, a Sodom for the priest; and they would be struck with
horror and shame at the idea of the _continual_, shameful, dishonest,
degrading temptations by which their confessor is tormented day and
night--they would blush on account of the shameful sins which their
confessors have committed--they would weep over the irreparable loss of
their purity--they would promise before God and men that the
confessional-box should never see them any more--they would prefer to be
burned alive, if any sentiment of honesty and charity remained in them,
rather than consent to be a cause of _constant_ temptation and damnable sin
to that man.

Would that respectable lady go any more to confess to that man if, after
her confession, she could hear him lamenting the continual, shameful
temptations which assail him day and night, and the damning sins which he
has committed on account of what she has confessed to him? No--a thousand
times no!

Would that honest father allow his beloved daughter to go any more to that
man to confess if he could hear his cries of distress, and see his tears
flowing because the hearing of those confessions is the source of constant,
shameful temptations and degrading iniquities?

Oh! would to God that the honest Romanists all over the world--for there
are millions who, though deluded, are honest--could see what is going on in
the heart, the imagination of the poor confessor when he is, there,
surrounded by attractive women, and tempting girls, speaking to him from
morning to night on things which a man cannot he