336 The Faith of Our Fathers Q. Is there any other object in confession, besides the seeking absolution for past sin and the quieting of the penitent's conscience? [356] A. Yes; the practice of confessing each single sin is a great check upon the commission of sin and a preservative of purity of life.457 Here we have the Divine institution of priestly absolution and the necessity and advantage of Sacramental confession plainly taught, not in a speculative treatise, but in a practical catechism, by a distinguished minister of the Church of England; taught by a minister who draws his salary from the funds of the Protestant Episcopal church; who preaches and administers in a church edifice recognized as a Protestant Episcopal church, and who is in strict communion with a Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of England. And these doctrines are upheld, not by one eminent Divine only, but by hundreds of clergymen, as well as by thousands of the Protestant Episcopalians of England. What a strange spectacle to behold the same church teaching diametrically opposite doctrines ! What is orthodox in the diocese of Bath and Wells is decidedly heterodox in the diocese of North Carolina. An ordinance which Rev. Mr. Grueber proclaims to be of Divine faith is characterized by Rt. Rev. Bishop Atkinson458 as the invention of men. What Dr. Grueber inculcates as a most salutary practice Dr. Atkinson anathematizes as pernicious to religion. Confession, which, in the judgment of the former, is a great "check upon the commission of sin," is stigmatized by the latter as an incentive to sin. "Behold how good and pleasant it is [357] for brethren to dwell together in unity."459 457 See "A Catechism on the Church." By the Rev. C. S. Grueber, Hambridge, Diocese of Bath and Wells. London: Palmer, 1870. 458 The Protestant Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina.