17. “I have sinned,” he says, “against heaven, and before thee.” He confesses what is clearly a sin unto death, that you may not think that any one doing penance Penitentiam agere must here and elsewhere be translated thus, for it implies not mere repentance, but the undergoing outward discipline. The word penitentia means both repentance and penance. is rightly shut out from pardon. For he who has sinned against heaven has sinned either against the kingdom of heaven, or against his own soul, which is a sin unto death, and against God, to Whom alone is said: “Against Thee only have I sinned, and done evil before Thee.” Ps. li. [l.] 4.