e talk about sacrilege, &c., would sound more
natural among Romanists than Protestants; and the idea of deception
is utterly unfounded, because the very name adopted, "American
Recension," is a constant notification to the reader of some change.
Neither one or the other charge was ever made against the Methodist
Episcopal Church, for making four times as many changes in the
Thirty-nine Articles. As to respect for the Confession, we see but
little difference between several methods proposed amongst American
Lutherans; to adopt the Confession as to the fundamentals of Scripture
doctrine, leaving all free to reject the non-fundamentals; or to
publish the symbol, with a list appended of some of its articles,
which may be rejected; or to omit those same articles, leaving them
free, and adopting all the residue unconditionally. On neither of
these three plans does the _matter_ of the Confession remain intact,
even if the letter does; for in _all_, certain parts of it divested
of binding authority, and left to the judgment of each individual.
The American Recension is nothing more than a revised edition of the
Confession, in which those parts are omitted that had already been
divested of binding authority, and thus been superseded by subsequent
ecclesiastical legislation.

And is it not creditable to any church, when she finds some tenets of
her creed in conflict with the Scriptures, and calculated to circulate
error, to reform and improve it? We should suppose that every
enlightened and reflecting theologian, and still more every intelligent
layman, would concur in the sentiments of that devoted friend and
defender of the Lutheran Church, _Dr. Koecher_, of Jena, in 1759, who,
discussing the charge that our church had changed her doctrines, says,
"It avails nothing merely to charge a church with having made changes
in her Creed; we must direct our attention to the subject or doctrine
itself, and inquire whether it is true or false. Because, _not every
alteration in matters of faith is inadmissible and censurable_.
Suppose a church to perceive that a doctrinal error has crept into her
creed, and to correct it by the exclusion of the error; does she not
merit our approbation, much rather that our censure or abuse? Suppose
that the Lutherans did formerly believe in transubstantiation (as has
been charged,) but in the course of time rejected this doctrine,
because they found it militate against divine truth; suppose the
earlier