American Lutheranism Vindicated; or, Examination of the Lutheran Symbols, on Certain Disputed Topic | Page 6

proper
stand-point, from which the interesting and important subject before us
should be examined. The same object, viewed from different positions,
often presents a very different appearance; but contemplated from the
same point of observation, by impartial observers of sound vision, it
will, by the laws of our organization, appear the same to all. The
questions before us relate to the meaning of certain documents, which
were adopted some centuries ago in a foreign land and foreign tongue,
as a creed or test of membership in the church. A very brief glance at
this church, the authority of human creeds, and the circumstances under
which this one was published, will prepare us for the more satisfactory
solution of the points in question.
The most important visible organization of the human family, is
undoubtedly the church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The
political institutions of the world, such as republics, kingdoms and
empires, are instituted to administer the temporal affairs of men; but the
church of the divine Redeemer involves the never-dying interest of
immortal souls. The former are established and conducted by the
ordinary powers of men; the latter is heaven descended, and was
founded by the incarnate Son of God, and his inspired Apostles. The

former are sustained, as far as defensible, by the ordinary evidences of
human wisdom, manifest in their adaptation to secure our material
interests; the divinity of the latter is established by the most stupendous
miracles of Jesus and his Apostles, as well as by internal evidence of
superhuman wisdom, goodness and knowledge, seen alike in the
institutions it embraces and the truths it inculcates.
These inspired Apostles left a _written record of this divine institution_,
of the church with its ordinances, as well as of the doctrines and duties
to be inculcated by its teachers. They also pronounce this record to be
complete, and threaten to blot out from the book of life, the names of
those who add to or subtract from it. Hence it is evident, that the church
of this record is not as Romanists and Puseyites imagine, a mere
seminal principle or germ, to which equally binding additions may be
made by the church of every generation; but on the contrary, that the
church of the New Testament is the church in its most perfect and
faultless form, _is the model church for all ages_, which in its
development and adaptation to different countries and generations,
must ever remain faithful to its primitive and inspired lineaments. This
church, whilst administered by inspired men during the first century,
must also have been more pure, than in its subsequent periods, when
placed under uninspired and fallible teachers, and in corrupting contact
with Pagan philosophy, as well as in debasing union with civil
governments.
Now, in this apostolic age, this golden era of the church, we hear of no
other creed than the word of God itself, which was regarded as
sufficient. And certainly, if as Romanists, after the report of Rufinus,
believed the Apostles had either written or employed this creed, the
piety of that age would have enrolled it in the Scripture canon, and the
early church have guarded it with special care. But there is not a word
in the Old or New Testament authorizing or commanding the church of
any future age to frame a creed in addition to the Bible, as a rule for
admission into the church, or exclusion from it. The only scriptural
ground for such a creed is inferential. We are instructed "earnestly to
contend for the faith (doctrines) once delivered to the saints," and "not
to bid God speed," to him who preaches another Gospel, or denies that

Jesus is the Christ. In order to obey these injunctions we must demand,
of applicants for church membership or ordination, their views of the
prominent doctrines of the Bible, and judge whether they accord with
ours. Or we may state to them our views of these topics, and require
their assent. In either case, we have a creed, and for obvious reasons it
is preferable for us to prepare a carefully written statement of Bible
truth, so that it may be known, examined and improved by renewed
comparison with God's word. On the other hand, the Apostle
commands us to "receive into our community the brother (him whom
we regard as a true disciple of Christ,) who is weak in the faith,
(imperfect in some of his views of the truth) but not for doubtful
disputations;" not for the purpose of disputing with him on doubtful
points. Moreover, the primitive disciples, of contiguous residence, were
all united into one church by the Apostles, and the Savior enjoins it on
all his disciples to love one another, to "be one, as He and his Father
are one."