great a blessing for his own mercy's sake. If we receive the whole
truth, can it appear otherwise than a disparagement of his perfect and
omnipotent merits, to plead with Him the merits of one, whom the Saviour
himself rebuked with as severe a sentence as ever fell from his lips,
"Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence to me; for thou
savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men;"
[Matt. xvi. 23.] and of another who after his conversion, when speaking
of the salvation wrought by Christ, in profound humility confesses
himself to be a chief of those sinners for whom the Saviour died, "This
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief?" [1 Tim. i.
15.] We feel, indeed, a sure and certain hope that these two
fellow-creatures, once sinners, but by God's grace afterwards saints,
have found mercy with God, and will live with Christ for ever; but to
pray for the same mercy at his gracious hands for the sake of their
merits is repugnant to our first principles of Christian faith. When we
think of merits, for which to plead for mercy, we can think of Christ's,
and of Christ's alone.

V. Our thoughts are next invited to that class of prayers which the
Church of Rome authorizes and directs to be addressed immediately to the
Saints themselves. {257} Of these there are different kinds, some far
more objectionable than others, though all are directly at variance with
that one single and simple principle, to which, as we believe, a
disciple of the cross can alone safely adhere--prayer to God, and only
to God. The words of the Council of Trent are, as we have already
observed, very comprehensive on this subject. They not only declare it
to be a good and useful thing supplicantly to invoke the saints reigning
with Christ: but also for the obtaining of benefits from God, through
Jesus Christ our Lord, who is our only Redeemer and Saviour, to fly to