people, he will deliver, even if we were sitting in the fiery furnace at
Babylon." [Note 17] Thus have we heard abundant evidence from the lips
of Melancthon and Luther themselves, that the circumstances under which
the Augsburg Confession was composed, in eight days, before its
submission for Luther's sanction, and the increasing pressure under
which Melancthon afterwards made numerous changes in it, during five
weeks before its presentation to the Diet, were far from being favorable
to a full and free exhibition of the deliberate views of the Reformers
even at that date, and fully account for some of the remnants of
Romanism still found in that confession, whose import we are now to
examine. The declaration of that elaborate historian _Arnold_, is
therefore only too true; "_Melancthon had prepared the Confession amid
great fear and trembling, and in many things accommodated himself to
the Papists_." (Nun hatte dieselbe Melancthon zuvor in grossen Zittern
und Angsten aufgesetzet, und sich in vielen nach den Papisten
bequemet." [Note 18]

Of similar import is the judgment of _Dr. Hazelius." [sic on
quotation mark] [Note 19] In reference to the article of Baptism, says
he, we have first to remind the reader of the sentiments expressed by
the Confessors, in the preface to this (the Augsburg) Confession,
declaring there, and in various passages of their other writings, that
_it was their object_, not only to couch the sentiments and doctrines
they professed, in language the least offensive to their opponents,
but also to GIVE WAY AS FAR AS CONSCIENCE WOULD PERMIT. This being
premised, we shall endeavor to discover the meaning of the Reformers in
regard to the article of baptism from some of those portions of their
writings, where they had not cause to be so circumspect and careful of
not giving offence to the Roman party, as they had in the delivery of
the Augsburg Confession."