authenticated by the blessing of Heaven, renders its retention
desirable, as far as it has approved itself to the conscience of the
church, after the increasing philological, exegetical, and historical
light of three progressive centuries.

The position of those who maintain that _genuine Lutheranism_ demands
perpetual adherence to everything contained in this Confession, yea, as
some affirm, to all the former symbolical books, is utterly untenable.
In the _first_ place, these brethren forget that the symbolic system,
_i.e._, the practice of binding ministers to the so-called symbolical
books, was _not_ adopted at the organization of the Lutheran Church,
_nor at any time during Luther's life_, nor until more than half a
century after the rise of Lutheranism, and more than a quarter of a
century after the noble Luther had gone to his heavenly rest.
_Symbolism is therefore no part of original Lutheranism_. The efforts of
Luther to reform the Romish Church began in 1517--the first regular
organization of Lutheran churches was not made until some time after his
excommunication by the Pope, in 1520. The first directory for Lutheran
worship was published by Luther in 1523, in which, although private
masses and the idea of the mass being a sacrifice had been rejected, the
_ceremonies_ of the mass, even the _elevation of the host_, (though not
for adoration) were retained; another improved one in 1526; and the
Augsburg Confession was presented to the Diet in 1530; but the full
symbolic system contended for by some of our opponents, was not adopted
until 1580, _after the Lutheran church had existed more than half a
century!!_ That system, historically considered, is not, therefore,
Lutheran, but _Post_-Lutheran and _Ultra_-Lutheran, for it is after him
in time, and goes beyond him at least in one point of doctrine, and far
beyond him in the abridgement [sic] of ministerial liberty of doctrinal
profession, and in exaction of uniformity on minor points. Again, these