5.  The best plan by far in our judgment is to retain the great body of the Confession unaltered, and simply to omit the few sentences inculcating the disputed or erroneous topics.  The remainder is believed by all, and can be subscribed by all, whether they believe the omitted topics or not.

This is precisely the thing done by the American Recension of the Augsburg Confession. It’s [sic] principle is to omit the disputed points and, retain unaltered the remainder, on which we all agree.  On the three disputed points which alone are believed by any amongst us, namely, baptismal regeneration, the real presence of the Saviour in the eucharist, and the denial of the divine appointment of the Christian Sabbath, entire freedom is allowed.  As to the others, private confession and absolution, the ceremonies of the mass, and exorcism, which was taught not in the Augsburg Confession, but in the Appendix to Luther’s Smaller Catechism,—­they are not received by any one within the pale of the General Synod, and are so distinctly semi-Romish that they are prohibited by the Platform.  The adoption of the name, American Recension, always notifies th reader of some revision, and precluded the charge of an attempt to pass it off for the unaltered Confession of the sixteenth century.

The Synodical Disclaimer or List of these rejected errors, which is annexed to the Platform, can be dropped as soon as the churches are fully informed of the ground of our not receiving the other symbolical books, or if this be deemed unnecessary, it may be dropped at once.  By the adoption of either of the latter two methods, and especially of the last, by the individual District Synods, they would present to the world a clear profession of their faith, have a sufficient test for the admission of members, and the rejection of heretics, and could harmoniously labor together for the furtherance of the gospel.  We have thus in the fear of God and in the spirit of Christian love; but uninfluenced by the fear or favor of man, presented our deliberate convictions on the subjects now agitating the church, after six and thirty years of study of the Bible, and experience in the ministry of our divine Master.  And we close with the earnest prayer, that the Great Head of the Church, may employ these pages for the advancement of his glory, that he may conduct his beloved Zion onward in her march of development and progress, until she has attained her millennial features, and her world-wide extension, and until “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.”

APPENDIX. 
DEFINITE PLATFORM;
BEING THE
DOCTRINAL BASIS OR CREED,
CONTAINED IN
PART I.
OF THE
DEFINITE SYNODICAL PLATFORM,
REFERRED TO IN THE PRECEDING WORK, AND CONSTRUCTED
IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF THE
GENERAL SYNOD.