worship God."

Such then is the evidence borne by the writers of the Old Testament. No
prayer to angel or beatified spirit occurs from its first to its last
page. The theory which would have us account for the absence of all
prayer to the saints before the advent of Messiah, by reason of their
not having been then admitted into their everlasting habitations, and
the immediate presence of God proves to be utterly groundless. The holy
angels were confessedly in heaven [Matt. xviii. 10.], beholding the face
of {44} God; but no invocation was ever addressed to them, by patriarch,
or prophet, or people, as mediators or intercessors. God, and God alone,
the one eternal Jehovah, is proclaimed by Himself throughout, and is
acknowledged throughout to be the only object of any kind of spiritual
worship; the only Being who heareth prayer, to whom alone therefore all
mankind should approach with the words and with the spirit of
invocation. It has been argued by some writers, that in the times of the
Old Testament, prayer was not offered to God through a mediator at all;
and that as the one Mediator was not then revealed in his person and his
offices, the subsidiary intercessors could not of course act; and
therefore could not be invoked by man. The answer to this remark is
conclusive. That Mediator has been revealed in his person and his
offices; and has been expressly declared to be the one Mediator between
God and man: we therefore seek God's covenanted mercies through Him.
Those subsidiary intercessors have never been revealed; and therefore we
do not seek their aid. To assure us that it was the mind and will of our
Heavenly Father that we should approach Him by secondary and subsidiary
mediators and intercessors, the same clear and unquestionable revelation
of their persons and their offices as mediators would have been
required, as He has vouchsafed of the mediation of his Son. Had God
willed that the faithful should approach Him by the intercessions of the
saints and martyrs, is it conceivable that He would not have given some
intimation of his will in this respect? If believers in the Gospel were
to have unnumbered mediators of intercession in heaven, as well as the
one Mediator of redemption, would not the {45} Gospel itself have
announced it? Could such declarations as these have remained on record
without any qualifying or limiting expression, "He[14] is able also to
save to the uttermost them who come unto God by Him, se