g us who is not legally ordained. We testify that we
live in brotherly love and harmony. September 5, 1826." (6.) In 1839 the
General Synod publicly denounced the Tennessee Synod, charging her with
un-Lutheran as well as unchristian doctrine and conduct. The matter,
brought to the attention of Tennessee by a petition from the
congregation at New Market and from Coiner's Church, was disposed of by
the following resolutions: "1. Resolved, That it is to us a matter of
small importance whether the General Synod recognizes us as an
Evangelical Lutheran Synod or not, since our orthodoxy and our existence
as a Lutheran body in no wise depends on their judgment. 2. Resolved,
That we cannot recognize the General Synod as an Evangelical Lutheran
body, forasmuch as they have departed from the doctrines and practises
of the Lutheran Church. 3. Resolved, That under present circumstances we
have no inclination whatsoever to unite with the General Synod, and can
never unite with them, except they return once more to the primitive
doctrine and usages of the Lutheran Church. 4. Resolved, That Pastor
Braun be appointed to draw up our objections to the General Synod, and
to show from its own publications wherein that body has departed from
the doctrine and usages of the Lutheran Church, and submit his
manuscript to this Synod at its next session for examination; and that,
if approved, it be printed." (B. 1841, 11; R. 1842, 8.) In this
connection the Tennessee Synod likewise resolved in no wise to take part
in the centenary of the Lutherans in America as recommended by the
General Synod. (15.) At the next session of Synod the committee reported
that they had examined the manuscript submitted by Rev. Braun, and that
it was "well calculated to place in their proper light the views and
practises of the General Synod and expose its corruptions and departures
from Lutheranism, as well as to evince the fact that the Tennessee Synod
still retain in their primitive purity the doctrines, and adhere to the
usages of the Lutheran Church." (10.) When, in 1853, the Pennsylvania
Synod called upon all Lutheran synods to follow their example and unite
with the General Synod, Tennessee took cognizance of this matter in the
following resolution: "Whereas we regard the Unaltered Augsburg
Confession as the authorized and universally acknowledged Symbol of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church, and consequently the belief and
acknowledgment of it, in its entireness, a