E church, the _Lord's Supper is_ the sacramen

Onfession, we see but little difference between several methods proposed
amongst American Lutherans; to adopt the Confession as to the
fundamentals of Scripture doctrine, leaving all free to reject the
non-fundamentals; or to publish the symbol, with a list appended of some
of its articles, which may be rejected; or to omit those same articles,
leaving them free, and adopting all the residue unconditionally. On
neither of these three plans does the _matter_ of the Confession remain
intact, even if the letter does; for in _all_, certain parts of it
divested of binding authority, and left to the judgment of each
individual. The American Recension is nothing more than a revised
edition of the Confession, in which those parts are omitted that had
already been divested of binding authority, and thus been superseded by
subsequent ecclesiastical legislation. And is it not creditable to any
church, when she finds some tenets of her creed in conflict with the
Scriptures, and calculated to circulate error, to reform and improve it?
We should suppose that every enlightened and reflecting theologian, and
still more every intelligent layman, would concur in the sentiments of
that devoted friend and defender of the Lutheran Church, _Dr. Koecher_,
of Jena, in 1759, who, discussing the charge that our church had changed
her doctrines, says, "It avails nothing merely to charge a church with
having made changes in her Creed; we must direct our attention to the
subject or doctrine itself, and inquire whether it is true or false.
Because, _not every alteration in matters of faith is inadmissible and
censurable_. Suppose a church to perceive that a doctrinal error has
crept into her creed, and to correct it by the exclusion of the error;
does she not merit our approbation, much rather that our censure or
abuse? Suppose that the Lutherans did formerly believe in
transubstantiation (as has been charged,) but in the course of time
rejected this doctrine, because they found it militate against divine
truth; suppose the earlier Lutheran divines did approve of the doctrine
of unconditional election, and limited grace of God, whilst our later
theologians had renounced them, because they are in conflict with the
teachings of God's wor

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