principle of exegesis, is one principal object of our investigations
in the following pages.

It has often been affirmed by some, who have not examined the history
of that eventful diet with particular care, that the Augsburg
Confession was prepared under the most favorable circumstances for an
impartial and full exhibition of all the views of the confessors, both
of positive truth and papal errors. The contrary was, however, the
case, as will be distinctly shown in the sequel. But we will first
reply to the _General Observations_ of the Plea of our esteemed brother,
the _Rev. Mr. Mann_. Let it be remembered, however, that whatever may
be the import of this and other creeds, they have all been formed since
the age of inspiration, they are all uninspired and therefore fallible.
Hence, it is equally the duty of the church, in every generation, to
test her existing creed by the word of God, and to correct and improve
it, if found unscriptural in any of its teachings, or if experience has
taught that it is too brief or too extended, successfully to accomplish
the legitimate purposes of such documents. The idea of the
infallibility of any human creed, or even its semi-inspiration, is
philosophically unreasonable, and either a remnant of Romish
superstition, or an amiable weakness of judgment. Melancthon himself
did not regard his Confession as perfect, for he made sundry
alterations in it in his successive editions. And even at Augsburg,
after the confession had been sent to Luther, at Coburg, and returned
with his approbation on the 16th of May, Melancthon, in a letter to
him, dated six days later, (May 22,) employs the following language:
"In the Apology, (which was the name first intended for the Augsburg
Confession,) I daily make _many changes_. The section concerning
'_Vows_,' which was too meagre, I have stricken out, and have treated
the subject more fully. I am now doing the name with the section