Definite Platform; which would be excuseable in our brother, as his
residence amongst us is comparatively of recent date. But the truth is,
that the rejection of the custom of requiring assent to the Augsburg
Confession by the fathers in the Pennsylvania Synod _fifty years ago_,
is proof enough of their dissatisfaction with that document. Nor did
they hesitate distinctly to declare their dissent from some of its
tenets. This was done not only privately, but also in their occasional
publications. As to private confession and absolution, _they never
adopted that practice in this country;_ but from the beginning
employed a _public_ and _general_ confession, preparatory to the Lord's
Supper, as our church in Sweden and Denmark did in the days of the
Reformation. As to the _ceremonies_ of the public mass, they were
rejected by our church universally, some years after the diet of
Augsburg, as private and closet masses had been before. The General
Synod, at the adoption of her constitution in 1820, freely expressed
her dissatisfaction in the public discussions, with some parts of the
Augsburg Confession, and inserted a clause in her constitution, giving
_power both to the General Synod and to each District Synod to form a
new Confession of Faith_, for their own use. _Dr. Lochman_, one of the
most active, pious, and respected divines of our church, in his
Catechism, published in 1822, states it as one of "_the leading
principles_ of our church, [sic on quotation marks] "that
the Holy Scriptures and _not human authority_, are the only source
whence we are to draw our religious sentiments, whether they relate to
faith or practice." "That Christians are accountable to God alone for
their religious principles," and says not a word about adherence to the
Augsburg Confession, as one of the principles of our church.

He also published an edition of the Augsburg Confession, in his work,
entitled Doctrine and Discipline of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, in