" The truth
of this position is demonstrated even by the extract from the Smalcald
Articles, given on p. 22 of the Platform. In the Augsburg Confession,
Melanchon [sic] says (and Luther approved of it): "It, is
_unjustly_ charged against our churches, that they have abolished the
mass. For it is notorious that the _mass is celebrated among us_ with
greater devotion and seriousness than by our opponents." But seven
years later, in the Smalcald Articles, Luther employs this very
different language, which was sanctioned by his coadjutors: "_The mass
in the Papal church, must be the greatest and most terrible
abomination_, since it is directly and strongly opposed to this chief
article (of Justification through faith in Christ,)" &c. Here the
contradiction in words is positive and unqualified. But we must
recollect that the term mass here, as will be fully proved hereafter,
does not signify the Papal mass in full. It is a well-known fact, and
the Confession itself informs us, that the confessors had long before
rejected _private and closet masses_, and also had rejected the idea of
the public mass being a _sacrifice_, or offering of Christ, for the
sins of the living or the dead. But that the word mass cannot be
regarded as merely synonymous with Lord's Supper, or communion, in this
passage, as it frequently is elsewhere, is clear from the context.
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