"Let any one examine the theological mastership, which this learned
and honored disciple of Christ (Melancthon) exhibited in his Apology
for the Augsburg Confession--and he will be convinced of the folly of
those, who presume to think, that he, or his mighty coadjutor,
(Luther,) might be materially benefited by the dogmatical and exegetical
instructions of the theological professors and authors of the present
times." p. 7.8. This all sounds well enough in the abstract, and we
ourselves have frequently and with equal sincerity, praised these great
reformers. But after all, they were fallible men. This same Melancthon,
in this same Apology for the Augsburg Confession, regards Private
Confession and Absolutism [sic] as the third _sacrament_. At
the Diet of Augsburg, he was willing to yield to Romish bishops the
dangerous powers which they formerly had exercised over the churches,
and when he saw danger thicken around him, he positively wrote to
Luther, inquiring whether they might not, yield to the papists in the
matter of _private and closet masses_, as will be seen in the sequel!
Besides, these modern "professors, authors," and, we will add, pastors,
do not propose to improve the Confession by any light of their own; but
by the progressive light, which the Providence of God has vouchsafed to
the prayers, the philological and exegetical studies of three centuries.
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