_Baetis_. This plan we always
regarded as too lax, and preferred the distinct avowal of the Augsburg
Confession as to the fundamental doctrines of the Bible, and were
ourselves instrumental in introducing its qualified recognition into
the General Synod's Theological Seminary in 1825, and her Constitution
for District Synods in 1829. Still we have recently been denounced as
unfaithful to the confession, by those unacquainted with the history of
our church during the last five and thirty years.
2. Shall we _adopt a new creed_, to supercede [sic] the venerable
Augsburg Confession? This is unnecessary, because the points regarded as
erroneous in it, are confessedly few and non-essential. When these are
erased, the great mass of Christian truth remains intact, and not one
of all the cardinal doctrines of the Reformation is affected.
3. Shall we adopt and publish the entire Augsburg Confession, _with a
list annexed to it, of those points believed by the majority to be
erroneous_, providing that they may be rejected by all who do not
believe them? This would be a contradictory procedure, first to publish
the whole, and then to reject a portion of it as not symbolic or
binding. If these supposed errors are not to be received, why
perpetuate their memory, and afford to the enemies of our venerable
church, a constant supply of material to fight against us, and render
the church odious in the popular eye?
4.
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