Still, if the Augsburg Confession were _strictly binding on us_, we should be under the necessity of adopting on sacramental occasions all the public ceremonies then and now usual in the Romish Church in celebrating public mass." Here again we see the following points, which were clearly proved above: 1.

That the Augsburg Confession denies having rejected the mass.2.That she does reject those doctrinal errors which gave rise to the Romish mass.3.That it was their custom on public occasions (when persons were present who desired to commune) to say a mass, and then administer the sacrament to them.4.That the Confession explicitly asserts that "_no perceptible change_" had been made in the public ceremonies of the mass, except the introduction of German hymns along with the Latin ones in several places.

Hence the inference would necessarily follow, that if they had made no perceptible change in the public ceremonies of the mass, we could make none, if the Confession was _strictly binding_ on us: and as the ceremonies of the Romish mass are the same now as then, the ceremonies which the Confession prescribes are the same as those now observed in the church, and if we obeyed the Confession, we should have to perform the same without any "_perceptible_" difference, except the addition of German hymns along with the Latin, which were at that time used in the Lutheran Church.

These, Luther for sometime himself defended, as it is certain he did the elevation of the host, (but not for adoration,) till 1542, more than _twenty years_ after he commenced the Reformation.

Those who object to these statements confound the teachings of the Confession with the _subsequent practice of Luther and the churches_; yea, it has appeared to us, in the course of our recent examinations on these subjects, that the Augsburg Confession was not even up to the progress of reform attained by churches at that day, and this may be one reason why Luther told Melancthon he had yielded too much to the Papists in the Confession.