Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	angel_n	golden_a	incense_n	1,470	5	12.0788	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59894	A short summary of the principal controversies between the Church of England, and the church of Rome being a vindication of several Protestant doctrines, in answer to a late pamphlet intituled, Protestancy destitute of Scripture-proofs.	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1687 (1687)	Wing S3365; ESTC R22233	88,436	166

for the office of a Mediator considered as a Mediator consists wholly in Intercession whence his authority and interest to intercede arises is of another consideration and therefore S. Iohn distinguishes between Christ's being an Advocate for us and a Propitiation for our sins 1 John 2. 1 2. if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous And he is the Propitiation for our sins Christ is our only Redeemer who has bought us with his own Blood but to be our Redeemer and to be our Mediator and Advocate are two things by the Constitution and Appointment of God both these are united in one person that he who is our only Redemer is our only Advocate also but yet to redeem with his Blood and to intercede with his Father for us differ as the death of the Sacrifice doth from the intercession of the Priest. To Redeem and make Atonement for our sins by shedding his Blood upon the Cross is not his Intercession for us and to intercede for us in Heaven is not to redeem us by shedding his Blood though he intercedes in vertue of his Blood. So that though Christ be our Redeemer yet considered as our Mediator and Advocate his mediation consists wholly in his Intercession for us And therefore to say that there is one Mediator and one Intercessor is the very same thing Suppose then the Apostle had said there is one God and one Intercessor between God and Men the man Christ Iesus would this have proved that there are no Mediators of Intercession but only Christ Or would they still say that there is an Intercessor of Redemption and Intercessors of Intercession and yet that there is but one Intercessor But besides this this very distinction between a Mediator of Redemption and a Mediator of pure Intercession that is such a Mediator as mediates in vertue of his Blood and Sacrifice and a Mediator who intercedes only by prayers and personal interest and Merits is contrary to the Analogy both of the Old and New Testament For as there is no Remission or Expiation so there is no mediation without Blood. For to mediate and intercede is not merely to pray for another but it signifies a Ministerial authority to apply the vertues and merits of a Sacrifice Thus it was under the Law of Moses The High Priest was the Mediator or as the Apostle speaks every High Priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and Sacrifices for sins Heb. 5 1. Thus he mediates by offering Gifts and Sacrifices by making Atonement and Expiation of sin And no Man has authority to do this but by God's Appointment No man taketh this honour to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron v. 4. Since there is no remission of sins without shedding Blood without the Atonement and Expiation of Sacrifice there can be no mediation but in vertue of the Sacrifice and therefore there can be no Mediator but he who offers the Sacrifice which confines mediation to the Sacerdotal Office. And therefore if we have but one High Priest there can be but one Mediator also between God and Man. But that we may rightly apprehend this matter and be able to distinguish betwen the prayers of good Men for themselves and for each other and the intercessions of a Mediator we must distinctly consider the vertue of the Sacrifice the prayers of the people and the Intercession of the Priest all which must concur to an effectual Prayer to obtain our requests and desires of God. Thus it was in the Mosaical Law. The Sacrifice was slain instead of the sinner and to bear the punishment of sin and without shedding of blood there was no remission Prayers could not expiate sin without a Sacrifice and therefore even in the time of the Patriarchs an Altar which is for Sacrifice was the place of their Devotions Thus Noah as soon as he came out of the Ark built an Altar and offered Sacrifice to God. Thus we frequently read how Abraham in his Travels whereever he made any stay built an Altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord that is he offered Sacrifices and Prayers to God. The like we read of Isaac and Iacob So that an Altar was the place of their solemn Devotions that is they offered up their prayers to God in vertue of a Sacrifice For sinners must not go directly to God without the Atonement and Expiation of a Sacrifice Hence under the Law while the Priest offered the Sacrifice the people offered up their prayers to God to ascend together with the Sacrifice and therefore those who lived in places remote from Ierusalem which was the only place of Sacrifices or those who could not attend the daily Sacrifices in the Temple yet were to observe the time of offering their Sacrifices for the time of their Prayers Whence it is that the time of offering the Sacrifice is called also the hour of Prayer Thus the people were to offer a Sacrifice for sin and to offer up their prayers in vertue of the Sacrifice but then neither their prayers nor their Sacrifice were acceptable to God unless they were offered by the Priest who sprinkled the blood of the Sacrifice upon the Altar to make Atonement and offered Incense as an emblem of their prayers To which the Psalmist alludes Let my prayer be set before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening Sacrifice And therefore the Evangelist observes that the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of Incense that their prayers might ascend as Incense Thus we expresly read in the Book of the Revelations of An Angel who stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne and the smoke of the Incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended before God out of the Angels hand Which expresly applys these legal Types to the state of the Gospel that great Sacrifice and great High Priest who presents our prayers to God. The death of Christ upon the Cross was the Sacrifice for all our sins in vertue of this Sacrifice we pray to God but Christ our great High Priest is now ascended into Heaven to present himself before his Father to offer his own blood and in vertue of that to offer our prayers to him This is the work of a Mediator and High Priest not so much to pray for us as to offer up our prayers to God in the vertue and efficacy of his own Sacrifice and with the authority of a heavenly Mediator and High Priest. Now this plainly shows the difference between the prayers of good Men for themselves and one another and the Intercession of a Mediator Good men are humble supplicants

not be thought vain and hypocritical But whereas S. Austin distinguishes Souls departed into three orders those who are so perfectly good that they need not our Prayers others less perfect to whom our Prayers are beneficial and a third sort so wicked that their estate is irrecoverable and so past the relief of our Prayers S. Chrysostom mentions but two sorts sincere good Christians and Infidels and such as die without Baptism and bad Christians whom he places in the same rank As for the first he expresly tells us that after Death they are in a state of Rest and Happiness and upon this very account condemns those extravagant expressions of sorrow at their Funerals and therefore he never thought of a Popish Purgatory for I think we have great reason to lament those who are in Purgatory a place of torment though not Hell. As for others he thinks they deserve our Sorrow and Compassion and Prayers and Alms not that this can deliver them out of the state of the damned but that he thought it gave some little ease and relief to their torments And this was not only the sense of S. Chrysostom that the damned themselves were eased by the Prayers of the living but S. Austin seems to be of the same mind when he says that the suffrages of the living are profitable either ut plena fiat remissio aut tolerabilior sit ipsa damnatio to obtain perfect forgiveness or to make damnation it self more tolerable And I think what Basil of Seleucia relates concerning Thecla That by her Prayers she obtained the Soul of Falconilla who died a Pagan signifies that he believed something more than this that the Prayers of the living may not only ease the torments of the damned but deliver them out of Hell it self Now this the Church of Rome believes no more than we do They reject all the reasons for which the Ancients prayed for the Dead and have invented some new reasons which the ancient Fathers never thought of viz. to Pray Men out of Purgatory and therefore though they still Pray for the Dead and we do not yet they no more Pray for the Dead in the sense of the ancient Church than we do however I think from hence it appears that they cannot prove a Popish Purgatory from the practice of the ancient Church in Praying for the Dead which is all I intended to prove at this time XI Desiring the Intercessions of the blessed is more superstitious and derogatory to our Lord's Mediatorship than intreating the Prayers of holy Men Militant This I answered Was as plain in Scripture as that Christ is our only Mediator in Heaven who alone like the high Priest under the Law who was his Type is admitted into the Holy of Holies to make expiation and to interceed for us The summ of what we teach about this matter is this That we must worship none but God and therefore must not Pray to Saints and Angels as our Saviour teaches Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve That there is but one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus and therefore we must not make more Mediators to our selves nor put our trust in the Intercession of Saints and Angels Thus far we have plain Scripture proof and then we think common sense teaches us the rest That it is an injury to an Only Mediator to set up other Mediators with him That good Men on Earth are not Mediators but Supplicants which is no encroachment on Christ's Mediatorship and that Saints in Heaven according to the Church of Rome Pray as Mediators and Intercessors who appear in the presence of God for us and this is not reconcilable with Christ's Onely Mediatorship in Heaven To this our Author answers Page 7. It is not at all in Scripture that our Saviour is our only Mediator of Intercession therefore this proposition is not plain there If such an only Mediatorship of Intercession be plain in Scripture it had been easie and kind to have named such a plain Scripture Yet none is brought unless the Answerer meant Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God c. for such a one Truly I see not how he can deduce from it any thing to his purpose till it appear that all Prayer is Divine Worship or that we Pray to Saints just as we do to God. This is all his answer and I think I might trust every ordinary Reader with it without any reply but I must be civil to our Author and therefore will try if I can make him understand this matter The Reader will easily see That that Text Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and what he has concealed in an c. as if he were afraid to let his own People who possibly may read his Book know what follows and him only shalt thou serve was never intended to prove that Christ is our only Mediator of Intercession The proof I insist on is in 1 Timothy 2. 5. There is one God and one mediator between God and men the Man Christ Iesus But says our Author this does not prove that there is but one Mediator of Intercession But why does it not prove this Is a Mediator of Intercession a Mediator if he be and there be but one Mediator then there is but one Mediator of Intercession for there is but one Mediator in all As for his distinction between a Mediator of Redemption and Intercession there is no such distinction to be found in Scripture and therefore when S. Paul asserts without any distinction that there is but one Mediator I think we have reason to do so too for if we admit of unscriptural distinctions I know no Article of our Faith but what may be distinguished away When the Apostle says There is but one God why may not a Heathen distinguish upon this That it is very true there is but one Supreme and Sovereign God though there are many inferior Deities as well as a Papist say That there is but one Mediator indeed of Redemption but there may be many Mediators of Intercession For both here and in 1 Cor. 8. 5. The Apostle makes Christ the one Mediator just as God is the one God and that sure signifies the only God and the only Mediator For though there be that are called Gods whether in Heaven or in Earth as there be Gods many and Lords many but to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Iesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him Where as one God is opposed to the multitude of Heathen Gods so one Lord or one Mediator as Baalim and Lords signified those mediating powers between the Gods and Men is opposed to the many Lords and Mediators among the Heathens Indeed as there is no foundation in Scripture for this distinction between a Mediator of Redemption and Intercession so there is no sense in it