hen ministers of a
church are firmly convinced, that the avowed standards of their church
contain some tenets contrary to the word of God, publicly to disavow
them, that their influence may not aid in sustaining error; and if the
majority of a synod participate in this opinion, it is their duty to
change their standards into conformity with God's word. The Augsburg
Confession itself was such, a disclaimer of Romish errors, and avowal
of the truth: and if it was the duty of the ministry in the sixteenth
century to make their public profession conform to their belief of
Scripture truth, it is equally the duty of every other age. But
although their case involves the _principle_ objected to by the _Plea_,
the following cases are more exactly analogous. The Episcopal ministry
and laity did, after the American Revolution, change their doctrine,
that the king is the head of the church and adopted the opinion that no
civil officer, as such, has any office in the church. They accordingly
rejected from their creed Article XXI., and also excluded from their
liturgy and forms of prayer, all allusion to the king as the head or
governor of the church. Listen to the testimony of the _Episcopal_
ministers of Maryland, in 1783, soon after the acknowledgment of the
independence of this country. They passed a number of resolutions, of
which the fourth reads thus: "That as it is the _right_, so it will be
the _duty_ of the Episcopal Church, when duly organized, constituted,
and represented in a Synod or Convention of the different orders of her
ministers and people, to revise her liturgy, forms of prayer and of
public worship, in order to adapt the same _to the late Revolution_,
and OTHER LOCAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF AMERICA," [Note 1] &c.

Our _Presbyterian_ brethren also changed their Confession of Faith, and
adapted it to their belief. Hear the testimony of _Dr. Hodge_, in his
Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church in the United
States: [Note 2] the Synod then "took into consideration the twentieth
chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith, the third paragraph of
the twenty-third chapter, and the first paragraph of the thirty-first
chapter; and having made some alterations, agreed that the said
paragraphs, as now altered, be printed for consideration, together with
a draught of a plan of government and discipline." They were
subsequently adopted.

In like manner did our _Methodist Episcopal_ brethren deal with the
Thirty-ni