]; but that He will favourably answer the prayers which we supplicate
angels to offer, or which we offer to Himself through the merits and by
the intercession of departed mortals, is no where in the covenant.
Moreover, when God invites me and commands me to approach Him myself, in
the name of his Son, and trusting to his merits, it is not Christian
humility, rather it savours of presumption, and intruding into those
things which we have not seen [Coloss. ii. 18.], to seek to prevail with
Him by {399} pleading other merits, and petitioning creatures, however
glorious, to interest themselves with Him in our behalf, angels and
saints, of whose power even to hear us we have no evidence. When Jesus
Himself, who knows both the deep counsels of the Eternal Spirit, and
man's wants and weaknesses and unworthiness, and who loveth his own to
the end, pledges his never-failing word, that whatsoever we ask the
Father in his name, He will give it us, can it be less than an unworthy
distrust of his truth and faithfulness to ask the Father for the merits
and by the intercession of another? and as though in fear lest God
should fail of his promise, or be unmindful of us Himself, to invoke
angels and the good departed to make our wants known unto HIM, and
prevail with HIM to relieve us?
Surely it were wiser and safer to adhere religiously to that one way
which cannot fail, than to adopt for ourselves methods and systems, for
the success of which we have no guarantee; which may be unacceptable in
his sight; and the tendency of which may be to bring down a curse and
not a blessing.
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