" For it adds, "We are
willing, as heretofore, to admit ministers who receive these views,
provided they regard them as _non-essential_" (that is, as
_non-fundamental_, not, as has been asserted by others, as of minor or
of little importance), "and are willing to co-operate in peace with
those who reject them." To the List of Errors rejected no one is
required to subscribe, and it is published by the Synod as a disclaimer
of these errors, which are often imputed to us, but which are rejected
by the great body of the American Lutheran Church. The Platform cannot,
therefore, with truth, be said to exclude old-Lutherans, unless they
are so rigid as to regard their own views on these disputed points as
essential, and are unwilling to co-operate in _peace_ with their
brethren: and in that case it is certainly preferable for all parties,
that they should organize a Synod for themselves.
Says the author of the Plea, p. 6: "Suppose some Episcopal ministers
having arrived at the conviction that some of their church canons were
wrong," "would it be regarded as anything else than a most _astounding
presumption_, for such men to dare to change the character of the church
canons and denounce some of them as errors, and at the same time to
maintain that _they themselves are the true representatives of the
Episcopal Church_, and can _unchurch_ others?" Here are three
positions, all of which we regard as erroneous.
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