of success depend on him, it deprives itself of all the benefit of prayer. For as soon as we reflect on the terrible majesty of God, we cannot but be exceedingly afraid, and driven away from him by a consciousness of our unworthiness, till we discover Christ as the Mediator, who changes the throne of dreadful glory into a throne of grace: as the apostle also exhorts us to แ come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (d) And as there is a rule given for calling upon God, as well as a promise that they shall be heard who call upon him; so we are particularly enjoined to invoke him in the name of Christ; and we have an express promise, that what we ask in his name we shall obtain. "Hitherto (says he) ye have asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." (e) Hence it is plain beyond all controversy, that they who call upon God in any other name than that of Christ, are guilty of a contumacious neglect of his precepts, and a total disregard of his will; and that they have no promise of any success. For, as Paul says of Christ, "All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen:" that is, are confirmed and fulfilled. (ƒ)

XVIII. And we must carefully remark the circumstance of the time when Christ commands his disciples to apply to his intercession, which was to be after his ascension to heaven; "At that day (says he) ye shall ask in my name." It is certain that from the beginning no prayers had been heard but for the sake of the Mediator. For this reason the Lord had appointed in the law, that the priest alone should enter the sanctuary, bearing on his shoulders the names of the tribes of Israel, and the same number of precious stones before his breast; but that the people should stand without in the court, and there unite their prayers with those of the priest. (g) The use of the sacrifice was to render their prayers available. The meaning, therefore, of that shadowy ceremony of the law was, that we are all banished from the presence of God, and therefore need a mediator to appear in our name, to bear us on his shoulders, and

(d) Heb. iv. 16. (e) John xvi. 24, 26. xiv. 13. (f) 2 Cor. i. 20. (g) Exod. xxviii.

bind us to his breast, that we may be heard in his person; and moreover, that the sprinkling of his blood purifies our prayers, which have been asserted to be otherwise never free from defilement. And we see that the saints, when they wished to obtain any thing by prayer, founded their hope on the sacrifices; because they knew them to be the confirmations of all their prayers. David says, "The Lord remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt-sacrifice." (h) Hence we conclude, that God hath from the beginning been appeased by the intercession of Christ, so as to accept the devotions of the faithful. Why then does Christ assign a new period, when his disciples shall begin to pray in his name, but because this grace, being now become more illustrious, deserves to be more strongly recommended to us? In this same sense he had just before said, "Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name: ask." (d) Not that they were totally unacquainted with the office of the Mediator (since all the Jews were instructed in these first principles), but because they did not yet clearly understand that Christ on his ascension to heaven would be more evidently the advocate of the Church than he was before. Therefore, to console their sorrow for his absence with some signal advantage, he claims the character of an advocate, and teaches them that they have hitherto wanted the principal benefit, which it shall be given them to enjoy, when they shall call upon God with greater freedom in a reliance on his intercession; as the apostle says that this new way is consecrated by his blood. (e) So much the more inexcusable is our perverseness, unless we embrace with the greatest alacrity such an inestimable benefit, which is particularly destined for us.

XIX. Moreover, since he is the only way of access by which we are permitted to approach God, to them who deviate from this road, and desert this entrance, there remains no other way of access to God, nor any thing on his throne but wrath, judgment, and terror. Finally, since the Father hath appointed him to be our Head and Leader, they who in any respect decline or turn aside from him, endeavour as far as they can to deface and obliterate a character impressed by God. Thus Christ is (h) Psalm xx. 3. (d) John xvi. 24. (e) Heb. x. 20.

appointed as the one Mediator, by whose intercession the Father is rendered propitious and favourable to us. The saints have likewise their intercessions, in which they mutually com mend each others' interests to God, and which are mentioned by the apostle: (f) but these are so far from detracting any thing from the intercession of Christ, that they are entirely dependent on it. For as they arise from the affection of love, reciprocally felt by us towards each other as members of one body, so likewise they are referred to the unity of the Head. Being made also in the name of Christ, what are they but a declaration, that no man can be benefited by any prayers at all, independently of Christ's intercession? And as the intercession of Christ is no objection to our mutually pleading for each other, in our prayers in the Church; so let it be considered as a certain maxim, that all the intercessions of the whole Church should be directed to that principal one. We ought to beware of ingratitude particularly on this head, because God, pardoning our unworthiness, not only permits us to pray each one for himself, but even admits us as intercessors for one another. For, since God hath constituted those who richly deserve to be rejected, advocates of his Church, if they should privately pray each for himself alone, what pride would it betray to abuse this liberality to obscure the honour of Christ?

XX. Now the cavil of the sophists is quite frivolous, that Christ is the Mediator of redemption, but believers of intercession: as if Christ, after performing a temporary mediation, had left to his servants that which is eternal and shall never die. They who detract so diminutive a portion of honour from him, treat him doubtless very favourably. But the Scripture, with the simplicity of which a pious man, forsaking these impostors, ought to be contented, speaks very differently; for when John says, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ:" (g) does he only mean that he has been heretofore an advocate for us, or does he not rather ascribe to him a perpetual intercession? What is intended by the assertion of Paul, that he "is even at the right hand of God, and also maketh in*tercession for us?" (h) And when he elsewhere calls him the

(ƒ) Ephes. vi. 18, 19. 1 Tim. ii. 1. (g) 1 John ii. 1. (h) Rom. viii. 34.

one Mediator between God and man," does he not refer to prayers, which he has mentioned just before? (i) For having first asserted that intercessions should be made for all men, he immediately adds, in confirmation of that idea, that all have one God and one Mediator. Consistent with which is the explanation of Augustine, when he thus expresses himself: "Christian men in their prayers mutually recommend each other to the Divine regard. That person, for whom no one intercedes, while he intercedes for all, is the true and only Mediator. The apostle Paul, though a principal member under the head, yet because he was a member of the body of Christ, and knew the great and true High Priest of the Church had entered, not typically into the recesses within the vail, the holy of holies, but truly and really into the interior recesses of heaven, into a sanctuary not emblematical but eternal,-Paul, I say, recommends himself to the prayers of the faithful. Neither does he make himself a mediator between God and the people, but exhorts all the members of the body of Christ mutually to pray for one another; since the members have a mutual solicitude for each other; and if one member suffers, the rest sympathize with it. And so should the mutual prayers of all the members, who are still engaged in the labours of the present state, ascend on each other's behalf to the Head, who is gone before them into heaven, and who is the propitiation for our sins. For if Paul were a mediator, the other apostles would likewise sustain the same character; and so there would be many mediators; and Paul's argument could not be supported, when he says, • For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus; in whom we also are one, if we keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' Again in another place,' But if you seek a priest, he is above the heavens, where he now intercedes for you, who died for you on earth.' Yet we do not dream that he intercedes for us in suppliant prostration at the Father's feet; but we apprehend, with the apostle, that he appears in the presence of God for us in such a manner, that the virtue of his death avails as a perpetual intercession for us; yet so as that being entered into the heavenly

(i) 1 Tim. ii. 5.

sanctuary, he continually, till the consummation of all things, presents to God the prayers of his people, who remain as it were at a distance in the court."

XXI. With respect to the saints who are dead in the flesh but live in Christ, if we attribute any intercession to them, let us not imagine that they have any other way of praying to God than by Christ, who is the only way, or that their prayers are accepted by God in any other name. Therefore, since the Scripture calls us away from all others to Christ alone; since it is the will of our heavenly Father to gather together all things in him; it would be a proof of great stupidity, not to say insanity, to be so desirous of procuring an admission by the saints, as to be seduced from him, without whom they have no access themselves. But that this has been practised in some ages, and is now practised wherever Popery prevails, who can deny? Their merits are frequently obtruded to conciliate the Divine favour; and in general Christ is totally neglected, and God is addressed through their names. Is not this transferring to them that office of exclusive intercession, which we have before asserted to be peculiar to Christ? Again, who, either angel or demon, ever uttered to any of the human race a syllable concerning such an intercession as they pretend? for the Scripture is perfectly silent respecting any such thing. What reason then was there then for its invention? Certainly when the human mind thus seeks assistances for itself, in which it is not warranted by the word of God, it evidently betrays its want of faith. Now if we appeal to the consciences of all the advocates for the intercession of saints, we shall find that the only cause of it is, an anxiety in their minds, as if Christ could fail of success, or be too severe in this business. By which perplexity they, in the first place, dishonour Christ, and rob him of the character of the only Mediator, which, as it has been given by the Father as his peculiar prerogative, ought therefore not to be transferred to any other. And by this very conduct they obscure the glory of his nativity, and frustrate the benefit of his cross; in a word, they divest and defraud him of the praise which is due to him for all his actions and all his sufferings; since the end of them all is, that he may really be, and be accounted, the sole Mediator. They at the same time reject the VOL. II. 3 A