45. Unqualified Subscription to Entire Book of Concord.--Like the
"Fathers in Halle," Muhlenberg, self-evidently, desired to be a
Lutheran and to build a Lutheran Church in America. He himself says, in
a manner somewhat touchy: "I defy Satan and every lying spirit to lay at
my door anything which contradicts the teaching of our apostles or the
Symbolical Books. I have often said and written that I have found
neither error, nor mistake, nor any defect in our Evangelical doctrine,
based, as it is, on the apostles and prophets, and exhibited in our
Symbolical Books." _Dr. Spaeth:_ "The standards of the Lutheran Church
of the sixteenth century were accepted and endorsed by Muhlenberg
without reservation, and in his whole ministerial work he endeavored to
come up to this standard, as he had solemnly pledged himself in his
ordination vow before the theological faculty of the university at
Leipzig, on August 24, 1739, which committed to him the office of
'teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments according to the
rule given in the writings of the prophets and apostles, the sum of
which is contained in those three symbols, the Apostolic, Nicene, and
Athanasian, in the Augsburg Confession laid before Emperor Charles V,
A. D. 1530, in the Apology of the same, in Dr. Luther's Large and Small
Catechism, in the Articles subscribed to in the Smalcald Convention,
and in the Formula of Concord. He solemnly promised that he would
propose to his hearers what would be conformed and consentient to these
writings, and that he would never depart from the sense which they
give.' (Dr. W. J. Mann's _The Conservatism of Henry Melchior
Muehlenberg_, in the _Lutheran Church Review_, January, 1888.) And this
was the position not of the patriarch alone, but of his colaborers, of
the whole Synod of Pennsylvania, which he organized, and of the sister-
or daughter-synod of New York, during the lifetime of Muhlenberg and
Kunze. 'Those fathers were very far from giving the Lutheran Church, as
they organized it on this new field of labor, a form and character in
any essential point different from what the Lutheran Church was in the
Old World, and especially in Germany. They retained not only the old
doctrinal standards, but also the old traditional elements and forms of
worship; the church-year with its great festivals, its Gospel- and
Epistle-lessons, the Liturgy, the rite of Confirmation, preparatory
service for the Lord's Supper, connected with the confession of sins
and absolution. Their doctrinal position was unmistakably Lutheran, in
the sense in which Lutheranism is historically known, and is something
individual and distinct, and as such stands in opposition to Romanism on
the one hand, and to Zwingli, Calvin, and all other so-called Protestant
parties on the other. Those fathers were admitted to the ministry on
condition of their own declaration that they were in harmony with the
Confessio Augustana Invariata, and with all the other Symbolical Books
of the Lutheran Church. They demanded of those whom they admitted to the
sacred office the same condition. They allowed no organization or
constitutions of congregations without demanding the acknowledgment of
all the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church as the doctrinal
basis.'" (1,317.) In a letter dated June 14, 1774, and addressed to one
of the members of the Lutheran congregation at Charleston, S. C., some
of whose troubles and difficulties he had endeavored to adjust,
Muhlenberg stated the rule of his own personal course as follows:
"During the thirty-two years of my sojourning in America, time and again
occasions were given me to join the Episcopal Church, and to receive
four or live times more salary than my poor German fellow-members of the
Lutheran faith gave me; but I preferred reproach in and with my people
to the treasures in Egypt." (Jacobs, 298.) The confirmation form of the
Agenda contained the question: "Do you intend to remain true to the
truth of the Evangelical Lutheran Church as you have learned to know it
and solemnly confessed it?" (G.,498.)
46. Pledge of Pastors and Congregations.--In like manner as Muhlenberg
himself, all his colaborers and congregations were pledged to the
Lutheran confessions. The religious oath which Brunnholtz took reads, in
part, as follows: "I, Peter Brunnholtz, do solemnly swear and before God
Almighty do take an oath upon my soul . . . that I will abide by the
pure and unadulterated Word of God, as, according to the sense of the
Spirit, it has been diligently compiled from Holy Scripture against all
errorists in the three chief Symbols, and especially also in the true
Lutheran church-books, as the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, its
Apology, the Smalcald Articles, the two Catechisms of Luther, and in the
specific Formula of Concord, and that I will teach according to them."
(G., 283.) In similar fashion, Kurtz, Weygand, and all pastors solemnly
promised to discharge their office "according to the pure doctrine of
the apostles and prophets and all our Synodical Books." (_Lehre u.
Wehre_, 1856, 120.) According to the Agenda of 1748 the catechumens
promised faithfulness unto death "to the truth of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church which they had solemnly confessed." (488.) From the very
outset, Muhlenberg also had the congregations subscribe to articles in
which they confessed themselves to God's Word and the Lutheran Symbols.
(299.) The congregations, in agreement with the constitution of 1762,
pledged their pastors to preach "the Word of God according to the
foundation of the apostles and prophets and in conformity with the
Unaltered Augsburg Confession." True, the Pennsylvania Synod, at its
organization in 1748, did not draw up any special articles of
confession, yet, according to the Agenda which had been previously
adopted, it was regarded as self-evident that all pastors and
congregations subscribe to the Lutheran Symbols. The synodical
constitution of 1778, which was entered in the official book of record
begun in 1781, contained the following provisions: "As to his life and
teaching, every pastor is to be found in consonance with the Word of
God and our Symbolical Books." "In case complaints are lodged against
teachers, the investigation must concern itself with: 1. express errors
against the clear sense of Holy Writ and our Symbolical Books of
faith." (529.) Muhlenberg's devotion to the Lutheran doctrine appears
also from the interest and zeal which he showed in furthering the
institution of catechetical instruction and in establishing parochial
schools. One of the chief questions to engage the attention of the
first convention of Synod in 1748 was, "What is the condition of the
schools?" Yet, though Muhlenberg, in the manner described, stood for
confessional Lutheranism, it cannot be maintained convincingly that his
influence in this direction was sound and salubrious in every respect.
His was not the genuine Lutheranism of Luther, but the modified
Lutheranism, then advocated in Europe and Germany generally, notably in
Halle and the circles of the Pietists, a Lutheranism inoculated with
legalism, subjectivism, indifferentism, and unionism. Muhlenberg's
confessionalism was of the historic kind, that is to say, reverence for
the venerable Lutheran symbols rather than the living power of Lutheran
truth itself, directing, permeating, and shaping one's entire
ecclesiastical activity both as to teaching and practise.