CAL LUTHERAN CHURCH.

This denomination adheres to the opinions of Martin Luther, the celebrated
reformer.

The Lutherans, of all Protestants, are those who differ least from the
Romish church, as they affirm that the body and blood of Christ are
materially present in the sacrament of the Lord's supper, though in an
incomprehensible manner: this they term _consubstantiation_. They likewise
represent some rites and institutions, as the use of images in churches,
the vestments of the clergy, the private confession of sins, the use of
wafers in the administration of the Lord's supper, the form of exorcism in
the celebration of baptism, and other ceremonies of the like nature, as
tolerable, and some of them useful. The Lutherans maintain, with regard to
the divine decrees, that they respect the salvation or misery of men in
consequence of a previous knowledge of their sentiments and characters,
and not as founded on the mere will of God. See _Augsburg Confession of
Faith_.

Towards the close of the last century, the Lutherans began to entertain a
greater liberality of sentiment than they had before adopted, though in
many places they persevered longer in despotic principles than other
Protestant churches. Their public teachers now enjoy an unbounded liberty
of dissenting from the decisions of those symbols of creeds which were
once deemed almost infallible rules of faith and practice, and of
declaring their dissent in the manner they judge most expedient.

The capital articles which Luther maintained are as follow:--

1. That the holy Scriptures are the only source whence we are to draw our
religious sentiments, whether they relate to faith or practice. (See 2
Tim. 3:15-17. Prov. 1:9. Isa. 8:20. Luke 1:4. John 5:39; 20:31. 1 Cor 4:6,
&c.)

2. That justification is the effect of faith, exclusive of good works, and
that faith ought to produce good works, purely in obedience to God, and
not in order to our justification. (See Gal. 2:21.)

3. That no man is able to make satisfaction for his sins. (See Luke
17:10.)

In consequence of these leading articles, Luther rejected tradition,
purgatory, penance, auricular confession, masses, invocation of saints,
monastic vows, and other doctrines of the church of Rome.

The external affairs of the Lutheran church are directed by three
judicatories, viz., a vestry of the congregation, a district or special
conference, and a general synod. The synod is composed of ministers, a