join the Episcopal Church, and to receive
four or live times more salary than my poor German fellow-members of the
Lutheran faith gave me; but I preferred reproach in and with my people
to the treasures in Egypt." (Jacobs, 298.) The confirmation form of the
Agenda contained the question: "Do you intend to remain true to the
truth of the Evangelical Lutheran Church as you have learned to know it
and solemnly confessed it?" (G.,498.)

46. Pledge of Pastors and Congregations.--In like manner as Muhlenberg
himself, all his colaborers and congregations were pledged to the
Lutheran confessions. The religious oath which Brunnholtz took reads, in
part, as follows: "I, Peter Brunnholtz, do solemnly swear and before God
Almighty do take an oath upon my soul . . . that I will abide by the
pure and unadulterated Word of God, as, according to the sense of the
Spirit, it has been diligently compiled from Holy Scripture against all
errorists in the three chief Symbols, and especially also in the true
Lutheran church-books, as the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, its
Apology, the Smalcald Articles, the two Catechisms of Luther, and in the
specific Formula of Concord, and that I will teach according to them."
(G., 283.) In similar fashion, Kurtz, Weygand, and all pastors solemnly
promised to discharge their office "according to the pure doctrine of
the apostles and prophets and all our Synodical Books." (_Lehre u.
Wehre_, 1856, 120.) According to the Agenda of 1748 the catechumens
promised faithfulness unto death "to the truth of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church which they had solemnly confessed." (488.) From the very
outset, Muhlenberg also had the congregations subscribe to articles in
which they confessed themselves to God's Word and the Lutheran Symbols.
(299.) The congregations, in agreement with the constitution of 1762,
pledged their pastors to preach "the Word of God according to the
foundation of the apostles and prophets and in conformity with the
Unaltered Augsburg Confession." True, the Pennsylvania Synod, at its
organization in 1748, did not draw up any special articles of
confession, yet, according to the Agenda which had been previously
adopted, it was regarded as self-evident that all pastors and
congregations subscribe to the Lutheran Symbols. The synodical
constitution of 1778, which was entered in the official book of record
begun in 1781, contained the following provisions: "As to his life and
teaching, every pastor is