or MICHEL, (i.e. who is like to God?) The scripture account of Michael is, that he was an archangel, who presided over the Jewish nation, as other angels did over the Gentile world, as is evident of the kingdoms of Persia and Greece, (Dan. x. 13.) that he had an army of angels under his command (Rev. xii. 7.) that he fought with the Dragon, or Satan and his angels; and that, contending with the Devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, (Jude 9.). As to the combat between Michael and the Dragon, some authors understand it literally, and think it means the expulsion of certain rebellious angels, with their head or leader, from the presence of God. Others take it in a figurative sense; and refer it, either to the contest that happened at Rome between St Peter and Simon Magus, in which the apostle prevailed over the magician, or to those violent persecutions under which the church laboured for three hundred years, and which happily ceased when the powers of the world became Christian. Among the commentators who maintain the former opinion is Grotius; and among those who take it in a figurative sense are Hammond and Mede.

The contest about the body of Moses is likewise taken both literally and figuratively. Those who understand it literally are of opinion, that Michael by the order of God hid the body of Moses after his death; and that the Devil endeavoured to discover it, as a fit means to entice the people to idolatry, by a superstitious worship of his relics. But this dispute is figuratively understood to be a controversy about rebuilding the temple, and restoring the service of God among the Jews at Jerusalem; the Jewish church being fitly Michael, enough styled the body of Moses. It is thought by some, that this story of the contest between Michael and the Devil was taken by St Jude out of an apocryphal book called The Assumption of Moses.

The Romish church celebrates three appearances of Michael, of which no mention is made in scripture, and which have happened, they say, a long time after the age of the apostles. The first appearance of this archangel was at Colosse in Phrygia, but at what time is uncertain. The second is that of Mount Garganus, in the kingdom of Naples, about the end of the fifth century. The third is his appearance to Aubert bishop of Avranches, upon a rock called the Tomb, where at this day is the abbey of St Michael. This was about the year 756. The first of these festivals is observed on the 6th of September, the second on the 8th of May, and the last on the 16th of October. It has been supposed, that it was Michael the archangel who conducted the Iraclites in their journey through the wilderness, (see Exod. xxxii. 20, 23, and xxxiii. 2.) that it was he who appeared to Moses in the burning bush; who appeared to Joshua in the fields of Jericho, and to Gideon and Manoah the father of Samson; and, in a word, to him have been imputed the greatest part of the most remarkable appearances either in the Old or New Testament.