_A._ In the office for the ordaining of Priests the Bishop is directed to say, “Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in the Church of God. Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven.” In the office for the visitation of the sick it is said, “Our Lord Jesus Christ hath left in His Church power to absolve all sinners that truly repent and believe in Him.” In the order for morning and evening prayer we say again, “Almighty God hath given power and commandment to his ministers to declare and pronounce to His people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of their sins.” _Q._ For what purpose hath Christ given this power to Priests to pronounce absolution in His name? _A._ _For the consolation of the penitent; the quieting of his conscience._ _Q._ What must precede the absolution of the penitent? _A._ _Confession...._ Before absolution privately given, confession must be made to a Priest privately. _Q._ In what case does the Church of England order her ministers to move people to private, or, as it is called, to auricular confession? _A._ When they feel their conscience troubled with any weighty matter. _Q._ What is weighty matter? _A._ Mortal sin certainly is weighty; sins of omission or commission of any kind that press upon the mind are so, too. Anything may be weighty that causes scruple or doubtfulness. _Q._ At what times in particular does the Church so order? _A._ In the time of sickness, _and before coming to the Holy Communion_. _Q._ Is there any other class of persons to whom confession is profitable? _A._ Yes; to those _who desire to lead a saintly life. These, indeed, are the persons who most frequently resort to it._ _Q._ Is there any other object in confession, besides the seeking absolution for past sin and the quieting of the penitent’s conscience? _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.