sentence to the Augsburg Confession, nor omits anything that has the
least pretension to be considered "a fundamental doctrine of Scripture,"
it is perfectly consistent with the doctrinal test of the General Synod,
as contained in her Formula of Government and Discipline, Chap. XVIII.,
§ 5, and XIX., § 2. The Apostles' and Nicene Creeds are also universally
received by our churches. Hence any District Synod, connected with the
General Synod, may, with perfect consistency, adopt this Platform.

DOCTRINAL BASIS OR CREED.

Whereas it is the duty of the followers of Christ to profess his [sic]
religion before the world (Matt. x. 32), not only by their holy walk
and conversation, but also by "walking in the apostles' doctrines"
(1 Cor. xiv. 32), and bearing testimony "to the faith once delivered to
the saints" (Jude 3), Christians have, from the earlier ages, avowed
some brief summary of their doctrines or a Confession of their faith.
Such confessions, also called symbols, were the so-called Apostles'
Creed, the Nicene Creed, &c., of the first four centuries after Christ.

Thus also did the Lutheran Reformers of the sixteenth century, when
cited by the Emperor to appear before the Diet at Augsburg, present the
Confession, bearing the name of that city, as an expose of their
principal doctrines; in which they also professedly reject only the
_greater part_ of the errors that had crept into the Romish Church.
(See conclusion of the Abuses Corrected.)

Again, a quarter of a century after Luther's death, this and other
writings of Luther and Melancthon, together with another work which
neither of them ever saw, the Form of Concord, were made binding on
ministers and churches, not by the church herself, acting of her own