without communicants, should
be performed once or twice. But what sense is there in terming that the
administration of the Lord's Supper at which there are no communicants.
Or in talking about administering one or two Lord's Suppers, as the
number of communicants might be large or small? For ourselves, it is
impossible to doubt, that the mass proper is here intended, which was
often celebrated by the minister alone, and which, at communion
seasons, was the usual preparation for the communion.

_And now, what is the result of our inquiry?_

We premised, as conceded by all, that as the word mass among the
Romanists does now, so it did at the time of the the [sic]
Reformation, and several centuries before, specifically signify a
certain service of about an hour's length, consisting of a commixture
of Scripture passages, long and short prayers, invocations, extracts
from the gospels and epistles, liturgic forms, the forms of
consecration of the elements and transubstantiation of them into the
Saviour's body and blood, with numerous crossings, genuflexions, the
elevation of the host and especially the self-communion of the priest,
as an offering of the body of Christ a bloodless sacrifice for the sins
of the living or dead; all of which was read and done by the _priest
himself_ before the altar; and which preceded the sacramental
communion of the congregation, and was the only preparation for the
communion.

We also admitted, that then, as now, the word mass was sometimes used
by the Romanists for the sacramental celebration in general, including
the mass proper.

Thirdly, we assumed as undenied, that the Reformers, having been born
and educated in the Romish religion till their majority, were
accustomed to this two-fold use of the term mass.

We then asserted that the Reformers continued the twofold use of the
term, and as its occasional use for the eucharist in general is not
disputed, we especially proved that they continued to observe the
distinction and to employ it in its _specific sense_, whenever the
mass proper was spoken of.

We proved from various letters and other documents of _Luther_, written
in the year of the Diet, that he makes the distinction and uses the
term mass for the above described mass proper.

We proved from various letters and other articles of _Melancthon_,
written during the session of the Diet, that he employed it in this
specific sense.

We proved that the other Reformers used the w