Here, though unwilling, by departing from the order of our argument, to anticipate our examination in its place of the Roman ritual, I cannot refrain from contrasting this prayer, the genuine offspring of Christian faith, with some forms of invocation contained in {42} the Roman service on St. Michael’s day, in which I could not join, and the adoption of which I deeply lament.  The first is appointed to be said at the part of the Mass called “The Secret:”  “We offer to Thee, O Lord, the sacrifice of praise, humbly beseeching Thee, That by the intervention of the prayers of the angels for us, Thou, being appeased, mayest both accept the same, and make them profitable for our salvation.  Through ...”  The second is offered at the Post Communion:  “Supported [propped up, suffulti] by the intercession of Thy blessed archangel Michael, we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord, that what with honour we follow[13], we may obtain also in mind.  Through ...”

[Footnote 13:  I do not understand the exact meaning of these words, which however contain no portion of that sentiment, the presence of which in this prayer I deplore.  The original is this:  “Beati archangeli tui Michaelis intercessione suffulti, supplices te Domine deprecamur, ut quod honore prosequimur, contingamus et in mente.  Per ...”  Probably the general sense is, that what we reverently seek we may actually realize.]

Still, though here the Christian seems to be taught to rest on a broken reed, to support and prop himself up by a staff which must bend and break; yet I acknowledge that so much violence is not done to my Christian principles, nor do my feelings, as a believer in God and his ever-blessed Son, meet with so severe a shock by either of these prayers, as by the invocation addressed to the archangel himself in the “Gradual” on that same day: 

“O holy Michael, O archangel, defend us in battle, that we perish not in the dreadful judgment.”

Christians of the Church of Rome! for one moment meditate, I beseech you, on this prayer.  It is not addressed to God; in it there is no mention made of {43} Christ:  having called upon the angels, and on your own soul in the words of the psalmist, to praise the Lord, you address your supplication to Michael himself; not even invoking him for his intercession, but imploring of him his protection.  If it be said, that his intercession is all that is meant, with most unfeigned sincerity I request you to judge for yourselves, whether any prayer from poor sinful man, putting his whole trust in the Lord and imploring his help, could be addressed to our God and Saviour more immediate and direct than this?  In the place of the name of his servant Michael, substitute the highest and the holiest name ever uttered in heaven or on earth, and can words form a prayer more direct to God?  “O Lord God Almighty, O Lord Jesus our only Saviour, defend us in battle, that we perish not in the dreadful judgment.  Hallelujah!”—­Can this be right?  Were the archangel allowed now, by his Lord and ours, to make his voice heard upon earth by Christians offering to him this prayer, would he utter any other words, than the angel, his fellow-servant and ours, once addressed to Saint John, when he fell down to worship before him, “See thou do it not; for I am thy fellow-servant:  worship God.”