liberty to deviate from the Augustan
Confession whereinsoever they conceive it as erroneous. Some ministers
have declared that they did not care what the Augustan Confession
teaches, that they simply taught the doctrines of the Scriptures;
further, that Luther was only a man, and was therefore liable to err. In
answer to this, I observe that Lutheran ministers have no right to
deviate from any article of this Confession because the whole of it is
viewed by the Lutheran community as true and Scriptural. Let them
remember their solemn vows! Such as think proper to deviate, infringe
upon the rights of the community. It must, however, be admitted that if
any one should discover that this confession is unscriptural, he would
be justifiable in renouncing it. By doing so no one would be deceived.
If there are errors in this confession, why should any man who has
discovered them yet pretend to preach under its covert? Such as believe
that this Confession contains errors practise a twofold fraud. The one
is, that they cause Lutherans to think that they hold the same doctrines
as they do themselves, when yet they do not. The other is (provided it
be true what they affirm), that they encourage the people in those
errors, because they pretend to support the very confession which
contains them. That the Bible is the proper rule of doctrine must be
confessed; yet the question is, Does the Augustan Confession contradict
it? That Luther was a man, and therefore liable to err, is not denied;
but that he did err with regard to the doctrines contained in the
Augustan Confession remains to be proven. But if he erred, why do such
as believe this call themselves Lutherans? Such practise a fraud by
being called Lutherans, when they affirm that Luther taught erroneous
doctrines; or else [they] must own that, by being called after him, they
sanction such errors." (37 f.)

103. Truth Always Seeks the Light.--In his justification of the
procedure of the Tennessee Synod, David Henkel continues as follows:
"The intention of the public debate which was offered to the ministers
of the North Carolina Synod was to afford them an opportunity of
manifesting the doctrines we teach, and to prove them as erroneous. The
same [opportunity] we would also had to have treated theirs in like
manner. The propositions which were made were calculated to have brought
all these things to light. They would not only have offered the hearers
who might have been present t