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. In our Lutheran Manual, we have
simply presented the article of the Confession in full, in
juxtaposition with the Smalcald Article, treating of the same subject;
and have done so without note or comment, except the remark, that the
latter refutes the tolerant views of the mass expressed in the former.
We can, therefore, see no inconsistency between what we have published
on this subject at distant intervals, certainly much less than might
have occurred to the most careful and conscientious writer, on a
subject so closely connected with the fluctuations of language.
Doubtless, by taking detached portions of a paragraph apart from the