or by some of our opponents, was not adopted
until 1580, _after the Lutheran church had existed more than half a
century!!_ That system, historically considered, is not, therefore,
Lutheran, but _Post_-Lutheran and _Ultra_-Lutheran, for it is after him
in time, and goes beyond him at least in one point of doctrine, and far
beyond him in the abridgement [sic] of ministerial liberty of doctrinal
profession, and in exaction of uniformity on minor points. Again, these
brethren forget that Luther thought it his duty to _reform_ the church
of his birth, and did _not leave it until driven out by the Pope_. The
efforts of American Lutherans to reform and render more biblical the
ecclesiastical framework of our church, is therefore, _truly Lutheran in
principle_, indeed far more Lutheran, than to retain unaltered those
symbols, when we believe that the progress of Protestant light and
biblical investigation for three hundred years, has proved them to
contain important errors.

Thirdly, they forget that _Luther himself never saw, much less approved,
the most objectionable and stringent of these books_, the Form of
Concord, the profession of which they would make essential to
Lutheranism.

Fourthly, they overlook the fact that _entire Lutheran kingdoms, such as
Denmark and Sweden, from the beginning rejected some of these books_,
and yet are everywhere acknowledged as Lutherans.

Fifthy, [sic] they forget that the _Form of Concord itself professes to
regard Confessions of faith only an exhibitions of the manner_ in which
Christians of _a particular age understand the Scriptures;_ implying
that they were not supposed even by the authors of the symbolic system
themselves to be unchangeable, although their incorporation with the
civil law of the land, closed the door against all subsequent
improvement.

A revision of our symbolic standpoint, is therefore perfectly consistent
with primitive Lutheranism; and according to the Congregational or
Independent principles of Lutheran church government, advocated by
Luther, and hitherto practiced on by our American church, as well as
avowed by the Constitution of the General Synod, each District Synod is
competent to do this work for herself as long as she retains "the
_fundamental_ doctrines of the Bible as taught by our church."

How then can this important work be best accomplished, of releasing
ourselves on the one hand from the profession of the errors contained
in the Confession, a