.]

Independently, however, of this conclusive consideration, if the latter
member of this sentence had merely expressed a wish, that an angel might
be employed as {41} an instrument of good in behalf of Ephraim and
Manasseh, I could readily offer such a prayer for a blessing on my own
children. My prayer would be addressed to the angel neither immediately
nor transitively, but exclusively to God alone, supplicating Him
graciously to employ the service of those ministering spirits for our
good. Such a prayer every Catholic in communion with the Church of
England is taught and directed to offer. Such a prayer is primitive and
scriptural; and such is offered in the Church on the anniversary of
Saint Michael and all angels:

"O Everlasting God, who hast ordained and constituted the services of
angels and men in a wonderful order, mercifully grant that as Thy holy
angels alway do Thee service in heaven, so by Thy appointment they may
succour and defend us on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Such is the prayer of the Church Catholic, whether of the Roman or the
Anglican branch; it is in spirit and in truth a Christian prayer, fit
for faithful mortals to offer on earth to the Lord of men and of angels
in heaven. Would that the Church of Rome, preserving, as she has
preserved, this prayer in all its original purity, had never been
successfully tempted to mingle in the same service, supplications, which
rob the one only God of his exclusive honour and glory, as the God "who
heareth prayer;" and to rob Christ of his exclusive honour and glory, as
our only Mediator and Advocate!

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 b