Athanasian, in the Augsburg Confession laid before Emperor Charles V,
A. D. 1530, in the Apology of the same, in Dr. Luther's Large and Small
Catechism, in the Articles subscribed to in the Smalcald Convention,
and in the Formula of Concord. He solemnly promised that he would
propose to his hearers what would be conformed and consentient to these
writings, and that he would never depart from the sense which they
give.' (Dr. W. J. Mann's _The Conservatism of Henry Melchior
Muehlenberg_, in the _Lutheran Church Review_, January, 1888.) And this
was the position not of the patriarch alone, but of his colaborers, of
the whole Synod of Pennsylvania, which he organized, and of the sister-
or daughter-synod of New York, during the lifetime of Muhlenberg and
Kunze. 'Those fathers were very far from giving the Lutheran Church, as
they organized it on this new field of labor, a form and character in
any essential point different from what the Lutheran Church was in the
Old World, and especially in Germany. They retained not only the old
doctrinal standards, but also the old traditional elements and forms of
worship; the church-year with its great festivals, its Gospel- and
Epistle-lessons, the Liturgy, the rite of Confirmation, preparatory
service for the Lord's Supper, connected with the confession of sins
and absolution. Their doctrinal position was unmistakably Lutheran, in
the sense in which Lutheranism is historically known, and is something
individual and distinct, and as such stands in opposition to Romanism on
the one hand, and to Zwingli, Calvin, and all other so-called Protestant
parties on the other. Those fathers were admitted to the ministry on
condition of their own declaration that they were in harmony with the
Confessio Augustana Invariata, and with all the other Symbolical Books
of the Lutheran Church. They demanded of those whom they admitted to the
sacred office the same condition. They allowed no organization or
constitutions of congregations without demanding the acknowledgment of
all the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church as the doctrinal
basis.'" (1,317.) In a letter dated June 14, 1774, and addressed to one
of the members of the Lutheran congregation at Charleston, S. C., some
of whose troubles and difficulties he had endeavored to adjust,
Muhlenberg stated the rule of his own personal course as follows:
"During the thirty-two years of my sojourning in America, time and again
occasions were given me to