529. Can anyone fail to understand by the faculty of reason with which he is endowed that it is not repentance merely to confess verbally that one is a sinner, and to make many other pronouncements on the subject, like the hypocrite who was described above in 518? What is easier, when one is in anguish and agony than to heave from the lungs and so pour from the lips sighs and groans, to beat one's breast, and accuse oneself of every sin, while being unaware that there is any in oneself? Does the devil's crew, which lurks in his loves, depart together with that sigh? Do they not rather whistle at all that and stay in the person as before and make themselves at home? Such considerations make it plain that this is not the kind of repentance meant in the Word, but it is repenting of evil deeds, as it is called.