otwithstanding the different opinions which they may entertain in; some
points which do not touch the foundation of the Augsburg Confession?"
(16.) It was in accordance with the sentiments expressed in this letter
when the General Synod at the same convention in Hagerstown adopted for
its district synods a constitution with a form of licensure and
ordination containing the questions: "Do you believe the Scriptures of
the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God and the only infallible
rule of faith and practise?" "Do you believe that the fundamental
doctrines of the Holy Scriptures are taught in a manner substantially
correct (wesentlich richtig) in the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg
Confession?" (43. 45.) Prior to 1864 the General Synod as such, however,
was not in any shape or manner committed to the Augsburg Confession
constitutionally. In 1835, when the Constitution was amended, Synod as
such remained non-committal. The doctrinal basis then adopted and
embodied in the Constitution does not mention the Augsburg Confession.
It reads as follows: "All regularly constituted Lutheran synods holding
the fundamental doctrines of the Bible as taught by our Church, not now
in connection with the General Synod, may at any time become associated
with it by adopting this Constitution and sending delegates to its
convention, according to the ratio specified in Art. II." (_Proceedings_
1839, 49.) Evidently this deliverance, though marking an advance over
the Constitution of 1820, intentionally omits a direct reference to the
Augustana. Till 1864, then, the exact constitutional basis of the
General Synod as such was not the Augsburg Confession, but the
indefinite phrase: "the fundamental doctrines of the Bible as taught by
our Church." All other confessional deliverances of the General Synod
till 1864 may be summarized as follows: The fundamental doctrines of the
Bible, _i.e._, the doctrines in which all evangelical (non-Socinian)
Christians agree, are taught in a manner substantially correct in the
doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession.

25. "A Solemn Farce."--The doctrinal basis of the General Synod, prior
to 1864, is limited in more than one way. It does not embrace all of the
Lutheran symbols. It includes only the twenty-one doctrinal articles of
the Augustana. It binds only to the fundamental articles of the Bible.
It presupposes that fundamental articles are such only as are agreed to
by all evangelical Churche