l or inherited sin,
unless it be repented of; or that it condemneth all who are not born
again of water and the Holy Ghost." (Jacobs, 385.) The paragraph of the
"Declaration" on Baptism and the Lord's Supper reads: "9. That Christ
has instituted the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper for the
perpetual observance and edification of the Church. Baptism is the
initiatory ordinance, and signifies the necessity of holiness of heart;
and the Lord's Supper is frequently to be celebrated as a token of faith
in the atonement of Christ and of brotherly love." In 1839, at
Chambersburg, the General Synod had censured both the Franckean and
Tennessee Synods as the two extremes "causing disturbances and divisions
in our churches," and standing in the way of the union advocated by the
General Synod. (_Proceedings_, 17.) In 1857, however, in order to pave
the way for a union with the Franckean Synod, Synod rescinded its action
of 1839 as "not in accordance with the spirit of our constitution, and
not the sentiment of this convention," thus indirectly declaring its
willingness to receive both, the most radical and the most orthodox of
Lutheran synods. (25.) And in 1864, at York, after protracted debates
and subsequent to the declaration on the part of the Franckean delegates
that they fully understood that in adopting the constitution of the
General Synod they were adopting its doctrinal position, _viz._, "that
the fundamental truths of the Word of God are taught in a manner
substantially correct in the Augsburg Confession," the following
resolution was carried, with 97 against 40 votes: "Resolved, That the
Franckean Synod is hereby received into connection with the General
Synod, with the understanding that said Synod, at its next meeting,
declare, in an official manner, its adoption of the doctrinal articles
of the Augsburg Confession as a substantially correct exhibition of the
fundamental doctrines of the Word of God." The credentials of the
delegates were then presented and their names entered upon the roll of
Synod. (12. 17. 18. 19. 23. 41.) Abolition of the "Declaration" was not
demanded. (_L. u. W._ 1864, 283.) Majority men argued: Recognition of
the Augsburg Confession was not required in order to unite with the
General Synod; the principle excluding the Franckean Synod necessitated
the expulsion also of the Platform synods; it was destructive of the
General Synod itself, because its original constitution did not refer t