In the Roman Ritual
supplication is made to Abel and Abraham as well as to Michael and all
angels. If it is now lawful, if it is now the duty of the worshippers of
the true God to seek his aid through the mediation of those holy men,
can we avoid asking, Why the inspired patriarchs did not appeal to Abel
for his mediation? Why did not the inspired David invoke the father of
the faithful to intercede for him with God? If the departed spirits {23}
of faithful men may be safely addressed in prayer; if those who in their
lifetime have, to their fellow-mortals, (who can judge only from outward
actions, and cannot penetrate the heart,) appeared accepted servants and
honoured saints of our Creator, may now be invoked by an act of
religious supplication either to grant us aid, or to intercede with God
for aid in our behalf, why did not men whom God declared to be partakers
of his Spirit of truth, offer the same supplication to those departed
spirits, who, before and after their decease, had this testimony from
Omniscience itself, that they pleased God? Why is no intimation given in
the later books of the Old Testament that such supplications were
offered to Moses, or Aaron, or Abraham, or Noah? When wrath was gone out
from the presence of the Lord, and the plague was begun among the
people, Aaron took a censer in his hand, and stood between the living
and the dead, and the plague was stayed.
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