(2.) In the sense of
“confessing” sins, the Verb is not uncommon in the
N.T. Matt. iii. 6; Mark i. 5; James iii.
16., and in the early Fathers Irenæus, I.
xiii. § 5; III. iv. § 3; Clem. Alex. Protrept. ii.
§ 41: ἐξομολογοῦνται
οἱ δαίμονες
τὴν
γαστριμαργίαν
τὴν αὑτῶν.. Tertullian adopts the Greek word, and
calls exomologesis “the handmaid of repentance De
Pœnitentia, c. xii.,” adding that it will extinguish the
fire of Gehenna in the heart, being a second remedy for sin, after
Baptism.