aside by the conduct of the Apostles and disciples of our Lord recorded
in the New {34} Testament, for more than half a century after his return
to his Father's glory.

This, however, seems to be the proper place for entertaining the first
consideration, Why did not the holy men of old, under the elder
covenant, invoke angels and archangels, as the Roman Church now does?
Writers, indeed, who have declared themselves the defenders of that
doctrine and practice, refer us to passages, which they cite, as
affording examples of the worship of angels; and we will not knowingly
allow any one of those sections of Holy Writ to remain unexamined. We
must first endeavour to ascertain the testimony borne by the books of
the Old Testament: and that presents to us such a body of evidence as
greatly increases our surprise at the perseverance with which the
invocation of angels has been maintained by any community of men
acknowledging the inspiration of the sacred volume.

The inspired writers of the Old Testament, and those to whom through
their mouth and pen the Divine word was addressed, were as fully as
ourselves acquainted with the existence of angelic beings. They were
aware of the station of those angels in the court of heaven, of their
power as God's ambassadors, and agents for good. Either their own eyes
had seen the mighty operations of God by the hands of those celestial
messengers; or their ears had heard their fathers tell what HE had done
by their instrumentality in times of old. Why then did not God's chosen
people offer to the angels the same worship and invocation which the
Church of Rome now addresses to them in common with the patriarchs and
prophets of the elder covenant, and with saints and martyrs under the
new? In the condition of the holy angels no one ever suggests that {35}
any change, affecting the argument, has taken place since the time when