it approved of it_ for retaining public masses.

_Finally_, we have proved, that Melancthon, in replying to this Romish
Refutation, does not charge them with having misunderstood the XXIV.
Article; but goes on to refute their arguments, implying that they had
understood him correctly.

In view of all these facts it is impossible for us to doubt, that the
word mass in the objected passages of the Article XXIV., signifies the
mass in its specific sense, and not the Lord's Supper in general: and
that when the Reformers affirm in their Confession, that "they are
unjustly charged with having abolished the mass" they meant that they
retained the mass on sacramental occasions, with the limitations and
altered explanations of the nature and application of it, specified in
different parts of the Confession; whilst they freely admitted, that
they had rejected private and closet, masses, and indeed all masses,
except on occasions when the sacrament was administered to the people.
What the Romanists considered as the essential doctrine of the mass,
viz., its being a sacrifice of Christ, offered by the priest, and its
being offered by him for others than himself, either living or dead,
and its being performed at any other time, or for any other purpose
than as a preparative for Sacramental Communion, the Confession
rejects, but the _outward_ rite itself, on public sacramental occasions,
it professes to retain: and this being the only charge made in the
_Platform_ on this subject, we appeal to every candid reader to decide,
whether it has not been fully established.

Whether Melancthon and the princes had yielded more in this Confession
than Luther approved, and whether any of the alterations confessedly
made in the Confession after Luther had approved it, related to this