for as they do not distribute the sacraments, they have to receive the
sacrament as it is given to them." [Note 24] "_Of the mass_.--In regard
to the mass we have already given our reply: namely, that our party
retain the substantials (substantalia,) and principal parts of the
mass, so far as the consecration is concerned, &c." [Note 25] "_The
mass is not_ a work which, when applied to others, merits grace for
them _ex opere operato;_ but according to the confession of the whole
church, the _Lord's Supper is_ the sacrament, through which grace is
offered to him that receives it, which grace he also really receives,
but not by the more external act, but through faith, when he is certain
that, in it., grace and pardon of sins are offered." [Note 26]

III. We will add a few short _extracts from other reformers_, written
at the time of the Diet, to confirm our position that they also made a
distinction between the mass and the eucharist, and that by the former
they meant that performance of the priest alone at the altar, which
preceded the communion.

1. _Aurifaber_, who was a particular personal friend of Luther, and was
present at his death. In his account of the incidents of Luther and his
doctrines in the year 1530, speaking of the special committee which was
appointed on the 16th of August, consisting of seven members on each
side, he remarks: [Note 27] "These assembled and took into
consideration the Augsburg Confession of the Protestant States,
deliberating on one article after another, and the first day agreed
upon eleven articles. The second day they continued their negotiations
and agreed toll [sic] to twenty-one articles. But on the
articles concerning _the mass_, marriage of priests, _the Lord's
Supper_, monastic vows and the jurisdiction of the bishops, &c., they
could not agree and remained at variance." Here the mass and the Lord's