succours the miserable, and hears the groans of those who under the pressure of injustice implore his aid; that he therefore executes his judgments, when the complaints of the poor arise to him, though they are unworthy of the least favourable attention. For how often, by punishing the cruelty, rapine, violence, lust, and other crimes of the impious, by restraining their audacity and fury, and even subverting their tyrannical power, has he manifestly assisted the victims of unrighteous oppression, though they have been beating the air with supplications to an unknown God! And one of the Psalmists clearly teaches that some prayers are not ineffectual, which nevertheless do not penetrate into heaven by faith.[330] For he collects those prayers which necessity naturally extorts from unbelievers as well as from believers, but to which the event shows God to be propitious. Does he by such condescension testify that they are acceptable to him? No; he designs to amplify or illustrate his mercy by this circumstance, that even the requests of unbelievers are not refused; and likewise to stimulate his true worshippers to greater diligence in prayer, while they see that even the lamentations of the profane are not unattended with advantage. Yet there is no reason why believers should deviate from the rule given them by God, or envy unbelievers, as though they had made some great acquisition when they have obtained the object of their wishes. In this manner we have said that the Lord was moved by the hypocritical penitence of Ahab, in order to prove by this example how ready he is to grant the prayers of his own elect, when they seek reconciliation with him by true conversion. Therefore in the Psalms he expostulates with the Jews, because, after having experienced his propitiousness to their prayers, they had almost immediately returned to their native perverseness.[331] It is evident, also, from the history of the Judges, that whenever they wept, though their tears were hypocritical, yet they were delivered from the hands of their enemies. As the Lord, therefore, “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good,”[332] promiscuously, so he despises not the lamentations of those whose cause is just, and whose afflictions deserve relief. At the same time his attention to them is no more connected with salvation, than his furnishing food to the despisers of his goodness. The question relative to Abraham and Samuel is attended with more difficulty; the former of whom prayed for the inhabitants of Sodom without any Divine direction, and the latter for Saul even contrary to a plain prohibition.[333] The same is the case of Jeremiah, who deprecated the destruction of the city.[334] For though they suffered a repulse, yet it seems harsh to deny them to have been under the influence of faith. But the modest reader will, I hope, be satisfied with this solution; that mindful of the general principles by which God enjoins them to be merciful even to the unworthy, they were not entirely destitute of faith, though in a particular instance their opinion may have disappointed them. Augustine has somewhere this judicious observation: “How do the saints pray in faith, when they implore of God that which is contrary to his decrees? It is because they pray according to his will, not that hidden and immutable will, but that with which he inspires them, that he may hear them in a different way, as he wisely discriminates.” This is an excellent remark; because, according to his incomprehensible designs, he so regulates the events of things, that the prayers of the saints, which contain a mixture of faith and error, are not in vain. Yet this no more affords an example for imitation, than a sufficient plea to excuse the saints themselves, whom I admit to have transgressed the bounds of duty. Wherefore, when no certain promise can be found, we should present our supplications to God in a conditional way; which is implied in this petition of David: “Awake to the judgment that thou hast commanded;”[335] because he suggests that he was directed by a particular revelation to pray for a temporal blessing.
XVI. It will also be of use to remark, that the things I have delivered concerning the four rules for praying aright, are not required by God with such extreme rigour as to cause the rejection of all prayers, in which he does not find a perfection of faith or repentance, united with ardent zeal and well-regulated desires. We have said, that although prayer is a familiar intercourse between God and pious men, yet reverence and modesty must be preserved, that we may not give a loose to all our wishes, nor even in our desires exceed the Divine permission; and to prevent the majesty of God being lessened in our view, our minds must be raised to a pure and holy veneration of him. This no man has ever performed with the purity required; for, to say nothing of the multitude, how many complaints of David savour of intemperance of spirit! not that he would designedly remonstrate with God, or murmur at his judgments; but he faints in consequence of his infirmity, and finds no better consolation than to pour his sorrows into the Divine bosom. Moreover, God bears with our lisping, and pardons our ignorance, whenever any inconsiderate expressions escape us; and certainly without this indulgence there could be no freedom of prayer. But though it was David’s intention to submit himself wholly to the Divine will, and his patience in prayer was equal to his desire of obtaining his requests, yet we sometimes perceive the appearance and ebullition of turbulent passions, very inconsistent with the first rule we have laid down. We may discover, particularly from the conclusion of the thirty-ninth psalm, with what vehemence of grief this holy man was hurried away beyond all the bounds of propriety. “O spare me (says he) before I go hence, and be no more.”[336] One might be ready to say, that the man, being in despair, desires nothing but the removal of God’s hand, that he may putrefy in his own iniquities and miseries. He does not intend to rush into intemperance of language, or, as is usual with the reprobate, desire God to depart from him; he only complains that he cannot bear the Divine wrath. In these temptations, also, the saints often drop petitions, not sufficiently conformable to the rule of God’s word, and without due reflection on what is right and proper. All prayers polluted with these blemishes deserve to be rejected; yet if the saints mourn, correct themselves, and return to themselves again, God forgives them. Thus they offend likewise against the second rule; because they frequently have to contend with their own indifference; nor do their poverty and misery sufficiently incite them to seriousness of devotion.
Now, their minds frequently wander, and are almost absorbed in vanity; and they also need pardon in this respect, lest languid, or mutilated, or interrupted and desultory prayers should meet with a repulse. God has naturally impressed the minds of men with a conviction that prayers require to be attended with an elevation of heart. Hence the ceremony of elevating the hands, as before observed, which has been common in all ages and nations, and still continues; but where is the person, who, while lifting up the hands, is not conscious of dulness, because his heart cleaves to the earth? As to praying for the remission of sins, though none of the faithful omit this article, yet they who have been truly engaged in prayers, perceive that they scarcely offer the tenth part of the sacrifices mentioned by David: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”[337] Thus they have always to pray for a twofold forgiveness; both because they are conscious of many transgressions, with which they are not so deeply affected as to be sufficiently displeased with themselves, and as they are enabled to advance in repentance and the fear of God, humbled with just sorrow for their offences, they deprecate the vengeance of the Judge. But above all, the weakness or imperfection of their faith would vitiate the prayers of believers, were it not for the Divine indulgence; but we need not wonder that this defect is forgiven by God, who frequently exercises his children with severe discipline, as if he fully designed to annihilate their faith. It is a very sharp temptation, when believers are constrained to cry, “How long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?”[338] as though even their prayers were so many provocations of Divine wrath. So when Jeremiah says, “God shutteth out my prayer,”[339] he was undoubtedly agitated with severe trouble. Innumerable examples of this kind occur in the Scriptures, from which it appears that the faith of the saints is often mingled and agitated with doubts, so that amidst the exercises of faith and hope, they nevertheless betray some remains of unbelief; but since they cannot attain all that is to be wished, it becomes them to be increasingly diligent, in order that, correcting their faults, they may daily make nearer approaches to the perfect rule of prayer, and at the same time to consider into what an abyss of evils they must have been plunged, who even in their very remedies contract new diseases; since there is no prayer which God would not justly disdain, if he did not overlook the blemishes with which they are all deformed. I mention these things, not that believers may securely forgive themselves any thing sinful, but that, by severely correcting themselves, they may strive to surmount these obstacles; and that, notwithstanding the endeavours of Satan to obstruct them in all their ways, with a view to prevent them from praying, they may nevertheless break through all opposition, certainly persuaded, that, though they experience many impediments, yet God is pleased with their efforts, and approves of their prayers, provided they strenuously aim at that which they do not immediately attain.
XVII. But since there is no one of the human race worthy to present himself to God, and to enter into his presence, our heavenly Father himself, to deliver us at once from shame and fear, which might justly depress all our minds, has given us his Son Jesus Christ our Lord to be our Advocate and Mediator with him;[340] introduced by whom we may boldly approach him, confident, with such an Intercessor, that nothing we ask in his name will be denied us, as nothing can be denied to him by his Father. And to this must be referred all that we have hitherto advanced concerning faith; because, as the promise recommends Christ to us as the Mediator, so, unless our hope 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 “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”[341] 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.”[342] 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.[343] 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.[344] The use of the sacrifice was to render their prayers effectual. 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 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.”[345] Hence we conclude, that God has from the beginning been appeased by the intercession of Christ, so as to accept the devotions of believers. 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.”[346] 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.[347] 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 has 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 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 commend each other’s interests to God, and which are mentioned by the apostle;[348] 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, when those who richly deserve to be rejected, if they should privately pray each for himself, are appointed by God as advocates of his Church, 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,”[349] 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 intercession for us?”[350] And when he elsewhere calls him the “one Mediator between God and man,” does he not refer to prayers, which he has mentioned just before?“[351] 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 veil, 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 believers. 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 men, 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 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 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 goodness of God, who exhibits himself as their Father; for he is not a father to them, unless they acknowledge Christ as their brother. Which they plainly deny, unless they believe themselves to be the objects of his fraternal affection, than which nothing can be more mild or tender. Wherefore the Scripture offers him alone to us, sends us to him, and fixes us in him. “He,” says Ambrose, “is our mouth, with which we address the Father; our eye, by which we behold the Father; our right hand, by which we present ourselves to the Father. Without whose mediation, neither we, nor any of all the saints, have the least intercourse with God.” If they reply, that the public prayers in the churches are finished by this conclusion, “through Christ our Lord,” it is a frivolous subterfuge; because the intercession of Christ is not less profaned when it is confounded with the prayers and merits of the dead, than if it were wholly omitted, and the dead alone mentioned. Besides, in all their litanies, both verse and prose, where every honour is ascribed to dead saints, there is no mention of Christ.
XXII. But their folly rises to such a pitch, that we have here a striking view of the genius of superstition, which, when it has once shaken off the reins, places in general no limits to its excursions. For after men had begun to regard the intercession of saints, they by degrees gave to each his particular attributes, so that sometimes one, sometimes another, might be invoked as intercessor, according to the difference of the cases; then they chose each his particular saint, to whose protection they committed themselves as to the care of tutelary gods. Thus they not only set up (as the prophet anciently accused Israel) gods according to the number of their cities,[352] but even according to the multitude of persons. But, since the saints refer all their desires solely to the will of God, and observe it, and acquiesce in it, he must entertain foolish and carnal, and even degrading thoughts of them, who ascribes to them any other prayer, than that in which they pray for the advent of the kingdom of God; very remote from which is what they pretend concerning them—that every one of them is disposed by a private affection more particularly to regard his own worshippers. At length multitudes fell even into horrid sacrilege, by invoking them, not as subordinate promoters, but as principal agents, in their salvation. See how low wretched mortals fall, when they wander from their lawful station, the word of God. I omit the grosser monstrosities of impiety, for which, though they render them detestable to God, angels, and men, they do not yet feel either shame or grief. Prostrate before the statue or picture of Barbara, Catharine, and others, they mutter _Pater Noster_, “Our Father.” This madness the pastors are so far from endeavouring to remedy or to restrain, that, allured by the charms of lucre, they approve and applaud it. But though they attempt to remove from themselves the odium of so foul a crime, yet what plea will they urge in defence of this, that Eligius and Medardus are supplicated to look down from heaven on their servants, and to assist them? and the holy Virgin to command her Son to grant their petitions? It was anciently forbidden at the Council of Carthage, that at the altar any prayers should be made directly to the saints; and it is probable that, when those holy men could not wholly subdue the force of depraved custom, they imposed this restraint, that the public prayers might not be deformed by this phrase, “Saint Peter, pray for us.” But to how much greater lengths of diabolical absurdity have they proceeded, who hesitate not to transfer to dead men what exclusively belongs to God and Christ!
XXIII. But when they attempt to make this intercession appear to be founded on the authority of Scripture, they labour in vain. We frequently read, they say, of the prayers of angels; and not only so, but the prayers of believers are said to be carried by their hands into the presence of God. But if they would compare saints deceased to angels, they ought to prove that they are the ministering spirits who are delegated to superintend the concerns of our salvation, whose province it is to keep us in all our ways, who surround us, who advise and comfort us, who watch over us; all of which offices are committed to angels, but not to departed saints.[353] How preposterously they include dead saints with angels, fully appears from so many different functions, by which the Scripture distinguishes some from others. No man will presume, without previous permission, to act the part of an advocate before an earthly judge: whence, then, have worms so great a license to obtrude on God as intercessors those who are not recorded to have been appointed to that office? God has been pleased to appoint the angels to attend to our salvation, whence they frequent the sacred assemblies, and the Church is to them a theatre, in which they admire the various and “manifold wisdom of God.”[354] Those who transfer to others that which is peculiar to them, certainly confound and pervert the order established by God, which ought to be inviolable. With equal dexterity they proceed to cite other testimonies. God said to Jeremiah, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people.”[355] How, they say, could he thus have spoken concerning persons deceased, unless he knew that they were accustomed to intercede for the living? But I, on the contrary, deduce this conclusion—That since it appears that neither Moses nor Samuel interceded for the Israelites, there was then no intercession of the dead. For who of the saints must we believe to be concerned for the salvation of the people, when this ceases to be the case with Moses, who far surpassed all others in this respect while alive? But if they pursue such minute subtleties, that the dead intercede for the living, because the Lord has said, “Though they interceded,” I shall argue, with far greater plausibility, in this manner—In the people’s extreme necessity, no intercession was made by Moses, of whom it is said, Though he interceded. Therefore it is highly probable, that no intercession is made by any other, since they are all so far from possessing the gentleness, kindness, and paternal solicitude of Moses. This is indeed the consequence of their cavilling, that they are wounded with the same weapons with which they thought themselves admirably defended. But it is very ridiculous, that a plain sentence should be so distorted; only because the Lord declares that he will not spare the crimes of the people, even though their cause had been pleaded by Moses or Samuel, to whose prayers he had shown himself so very propitious. This idea is very clearly deduced from a similar passage of Ezekiel—“Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in the land, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God;”[356] where he undoubtedly meant to signify, if two of them should return to life again; for the third was then alive, namely, Daniel, who is well known to have given an incomparable specimen of his piety, even in the flower of his youth. Let us then leave them, whom the Scripture clearly shows to have finished their course. Therefore Paul, when speaking of David, does not say that he assists posterity by his prayers, but only that “he served his own generation.”[357] XXIV. They further object—Shall we then divest them of every benevolent wish, who through the whole course of their lives breathed only benevolence and mercy? Truly, as I do not wish too curiously to inquire into their actions or thoughts, so it is by no means probable that they are agitated by the impulse of particular wishes, but rather that with fixed and permanent desires they aspire after the kingdom of God; which consists no less in the perdition of the impious, than in the salvation of believers. If this be true, their charity also is comprehended within the communion of the body of Christ, and extends no further than the nature of that communion permits. But though I grant that in this respect they pray for us, yet they do not therefore relinquish their own repose, to be distracted with earthly cares; and much less are they therefore to be the objects of our invocation. Neither is it a necessary consequence of this, that they must imitate the conduct of men on earth by mutually praying for one another. For this conduces to the cultivation of charity among them, while they divide, as it were, between them, and reciprocally bear their mutual necessities. And in this, indeed, they act according to God’s precept, and are not destitute of his promise; which two are always the principal points in prayer. No such considerations have any relation to the dead; whom when the Lord has removed from our society, he has left us no intercourse with them, nor them, indeed, as far as our conjectures can reach, any with us.[358] But if any one plead, that they cannot but retain the same charity towards us, as they are united with us by the same faith, yet who has revealed that they have ears long enough to reach our voices, and eyes so perspicacious as to watch over our necessities? They talk in the schools of I know not what refulgence of the Divine countenance irradiating them, in which, as in a mirror, they behold from heaven the affairs of men. But to affirm this, especially with the presumption with which they dare to assert it, what is it but an attempt, by the infatuated dreams of our own brains, forcibly to penetrate into the secret appointments of God, without the authority of his word, and to trample the Scripture under our feet? which so frequently pronounces our carnal wisdom to be hostile to the wisdom of God; totally condemns the vanity of our mind; and directs all our reason to be laid in the dust, and the Divine will to be the sole object of our regard.
XXV. The other testimonies of Scripture which they adduce in defence of this false doctrine, they distort with the greatest perverseness. But Jacob (they say) prays that his own name, and the name of his fathers, Abraham and Isaac, might be named on his posterity.[359] Let us first inquire the form of this naming, or calling on their names, among the Israelites; for they do not invoke their fathers to assist them; but they beseech God to remember his servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their example, therefore, is no vindication of those who address the saints themselves. But as these stupid mortals understand neither what it is to name the name of Jacob, nor for what reason it should be named, we need not wonder that they so childishly err even in the form itself. This phraseology more than once occurs in the Scriptures. For Isaiah says, that the name of the husband is “called upon” the wife who lives under his care and protection. The naming or calling, therefore, of the name of Abraham upon the Israelites, consists in their deducing their genealogy from him, and revering and celebrating his memory as their great progenitor. Neither is Jacob actuated by a solicitude for perpetuating the celebrity of his name, but by a knowledge that all the happiness of his posterity consisted in the inheritance of that covenant which God had made with him: and perceiving that this would be the greatest of all blessings to them, he prays that they may be numbered among his children; which is only transmitting to them the succession of the covenant. They, on their part, when they introduce the mention of this in their prayers, do not recur to the intercessions of the dead, but put the Lord in remembrance of his covenant, in which their most merciful Father has engaged to be propitious and beneficent to them, for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. How little the saints depended in any other sense on the merits of their fathers, is evinced by the public voice of the Church in the prophet: “Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer.”[360] And when they thus express themselves, they add at the same time, “O Lord, return, for thy servants’ sake;” yet not entertaining a thought of any intercession, but adverting to the blessing of the covenant. But now, since we have the Lord Jesus, in whose hand the eternal covenant of mercy is not only made but confirmed to us,—whose name should we rather plead in our prayers? And since these good doctors contend that the patriarchs are in these words represented as intercessors, I wish to be informed by them, why, in such a vast