his
work the political rulers or princes determined for them, in
consultation with some leading divines. Still we may fairly regard those
confessional writings as symbolical, which have been prescribed by the
government, and received and _practiced_ on by the churches. Now, if the
"Taufbuechlein," " Tract or Directory for Baptism," of Luther, _in which
Exorcism is commanded_, was thus prescribed and received [tr. note:
there is a space here which could be meant to contain the word "by"] two
or three principalities or provinces of Europe, the position of the
Platform is vindicated; but the truth is, it was received by entire
kingdoms and provinces, and retained in practice for centuries; so that
the Platform is more than sustained. Let us _first_ hear the testimony
of the best authorities of Germany on the subject, and _then_ sum up
the results.

(_a_) _Dr. Guericke, [Note 1] Professor of Theology at Halle, the author
of a well-known Church History, testifies: "Moreover, the Smaller
Catechism (of Luther) contained, even in the oldest known German
edition, (Wittenberg, 1529,) several forms of prayer, the Family
diretory [sic] or selection of Scripture passages on the
duties of all orders and conditions of men, and the Directory for
marriage and _baptism, all of which supplementary tracts were also
received into the_ FIRST _authentic edition of the German "Book of
Concord_." The baptismal directory was therefore received into the very
first authentic edition of the symbolical books.

(_b_) _Dr. Koellner_, Professor of Theology at Goettingen, in his
excellent "Symbolik," p. 501, states: "There was a Latin Directory for
Baptism extant, (in the Romish church,) which Luther translated into
German unaltered in 1523. It is found in Vol. II. of his works, Jena
edition, pp. 248-252, and Vol. II. All, pp. 304-327. But in 1524 or 1526
he wrote the Baptismal Directory, and brought it into the form in which
it was added to the Catechism. Thus it is found Vol. II. of Altenb. ed.
p. 227. It was therefore added to the Catechism by Luther himself, and
at the earliest period (of the Reformation.) [Note 2] The directory for
the solemnization of matrimony was also added by Luther in the 2d
edition. Both those Tracts were usually published together with the
smaller Catechism; and were also received into the Corpus Thuring. and
into _the first edition of the Book of Concord_, June, 1580."

Again, we see that this Directory for baptism in wh