120:4] and from that time forth I began to compare it with
the texts of Scripture which teach penitence. Lo, there began a
joyous game! The words frollicked with me everywhere! They
laughed and gamboled around this saying. Before that there was
scarcely a word in all the Scriptures more bitter to me than
"penitence," though I was busy making pretences to God and trying
to produce a forced, feigned love; but now there is no word which
has for me a sweeter or more pleasing sound than "penitence." For
God's commands are sweet, when we find that they are to be read
not in books alone, but in the wounds of our sweet Saviour.

After this it came about that, by the grace of the learned men
who dutifully teach us Greek and Hebrew, I learned that this word
is in Greek _metanoia_ and is derived from _meta_ and _noun_, i.
e., _post_ and _mentem_,[3] so that _poenitentia_ or _metanoia_
is a "coming to one's senses," and is a knowledge of one's own
evil, gained after punishment has been accepted and error
acknowledged; and this cannot possibly happen without a change in
our heart and our love. All this answers so aptly to the theology
of Paul, that nothing, at least in my judgment, can so aptly
illustrate St. Paul.

Then I went on and saw that _metanoia_ can be derived, though not
without violence, not only from _post_ and _mentem_, but also
from _trans_ and _mentem_, [4] so that _metanoia_ signifies a
changing[5] of the mind and heart, because it seemed to indicate
not only a change of the heart, but also a manner of changing it,
i. e., the grace of God. For that "passing over of the mind," [6]
which is true repentance, is of very frequent mention in the
Scriptures. Christ has displayed the true significance of that
old word "Passover"; and long before the Passover, [Ex. 19:11]
Abraham was a type of it, when he was called a "pilgrim," [1 Cor.
5:7] i. e., a "Hebrew," [7] that is to say, one who "passed over"
into Mesopotamia, as the Doctor of Bourgos[8] learnedly explains.
With this accords, too, the title of the Psalm [Ps. 39] in which
Jeduthun, i. e., "the pilgrim," [9] is introduced as the singer.

Depending on these things, I ventured to think those men false
teachers who ascribed so much to works of penitence that they
left us scarcely anything of penitence itself except trivial
satisfactions[10] and laborious confession, because, forsooth,
they had derived their idea from the Latin words _poenitentiam
agere_,[11] which i