ent and my feelings revolt far more
decidedly even than from the last-mentioned; and I have the most clear
denouncement of my conscience, that by offering it I should do a wrong
to my Saviour, and ungratefully disparage his inestimable merits, and
the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction of his
omnipotent {251} atonement: I mean those prayers, still addressed to
God, which supplicate that our present and future good may be advanced
by the merits of departed mortals, that by their merits our sins may be
forgiven, and our salvation secured; that by their merits our souls may
be made fit for celestial joys, and be finally admitted into heaven.

Of these prayers the Roman Breviary contains a great variety of
examples, some exceeding others very much in their apparent
forgetfulness and disregard of the merits of the only Saviour, and
consequently far more shocking to the reason and affections of us who
hold it a point of conscience to make the merits of Christ alone, all in
all, exclusive of any other to be joined with them, the only ground of
our acceptance with God.

We find an example of this prayer in the collect on the day of St.
Saturnine. "O God, who grantest us to enjoy the birth-day of the blessed
Saturnine, thy martyr, grant that we may be aided by his merits, through
the Lord." [Ejus nos tribue meritis adjuvari per Dominum. A. 544.]

Another example, in which the supplicants plead for deliverance from
hell, to be obtained by the merits and prayers of the saint together, is
the Collect for December 6th, the day of St. Nicolas.

"O God, who didst adorn the blessed Pontiff Nicolas with unnumbered
miracles, grant, we beseech Thee, that by his merits and prayers we may
be set free from the fires of hell, through," &c. [Ut ejus meritis et
precibus a gehennae incendiis liberemur. H. 436.]

Another example, in like manner specifying both the merits and
intercession of the departed saint, contains {252} expressions very
unacceptable to many of those who are accustomed to make the Bible their
study. It is a prayer to Joseph, the espoused husband of the Virgin
Mary. Of him mention is made by name in the Gospel just before and just
after the birth of Christ, as an upright, merciful man, to whom God on
three several occasions made a direct revelation of his will, by the
medium of a dream, with reference to the incarnate Saviour. Again, on
the holy family visiting Jerusalem, when our Lord was twelve year