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I. THAT THERE IS A CERTAIN BOLDNESS AND CONFIDENCE VERY WELL CONSISTING WITH AND BECOMING OF OUR HUMBLEST ADDRESSES TO GOD. This is evident; for it is the very language of prayer to treat God with the appellation of "father"; and surely every son may own a decent confidence before his father, without any entrenchment either upon paternal authority or filial reverence. As for the nature of this confidence, it is not so easily set forth by any positive description, as by the opposition that it bears to its extremes; which are of two sorts:

(1)  In defect;

(2)  In excess.

1. And for those of the first sort, that consist in defect.

(1) This confidence is, in the first placer opposed to desperation and horror of conscience.

2. This confidence is opposed also to doubting and groundless scrupulosities. "I will," says Paul, "that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting" (1 Timothy 2:8). Why? Suppose they should doubt and waver in presenting their prayers to God. "Let not such an one," says St. James, "think that he shall receive anything of the Lord" (James 1:7). And the reason is plain, for no man is to pray for anything but what God both allows and commands him to pray for. Is it not clear that his suspicion upbraids either God's power, that He cannot, or His truth, that He will not make good the effects of His promise? But it will perhaps be pleaded in defence and excuse of such doubting, that it arises not from any unbecoming thoughts of God, but from the sense of the unworthiness of him that prays; which makes him question the success of his petition, notwithstanding all the Divine mercy and liberality. But to this I answer, that by the plea of unworthiness is meant, either an unworthiness in point of merit; and so the argument would keep a man from praying forever, forasmuch as none can ever pretend a claim of merit to the thing he prays for, as shall be more fully observed hereafter. Or, secondly, it is meant of an unworthiness in point of fitness to receive the thing prayed for; which fitness consists in that evangelical sincerity, that makes a man walk with that uprightness, as not to allow himself in any sin.

2. Having thus shown the two extremes to which the confidence spoken of in the text is opposed in point of defect, I come now to treat of those to which it is opposed in point of excess, and to show, that as it excludes despair and doubting on the one hand, so it banishes all rashness and irreverence on the other. It is indeed hard for the weak and unsteady hearts of men to carry themselves in such an equal poise between both, as not to make the shunning of one inconvenience the falling into another; but the greater the danger is, the greater must be our attention to the rule.

(1) First of all, then, confidence in point of excess is opposed to rashness and precipitation. And prayer surely, of all other duties and actions, ought to be a reasonable service. It calls upon him that undertakes it to consider before he resolves, again and again to consider, into what presence he is going, what the thing is that he is about to do, what preparedness and fitness he finds in himself for it, what the advantages of a right, and what the sad consequences of an undue performance of it are like to be. I have read that it has been reported of a holy person, that he used to bestow a whole hour at least in meditation before he kneeled down to that prayer which perhaps he uttered in three minutes. There is some boldness that is the effect of blindness; and surely it is this that brings men to so sacred and so concerning an action as prayer is, with such trivial spirits, such rambling, uncollected thoughts, and such offensive, profane behaviours.

(2) The confidence spoken of in the text, in point of excess is opposed to impudence or irreverence; which, the truth is, is but the natural effect and consequent of the former: for he that considers not the sacredness of a thing or action, cannot easily pay it that devotion and reverence that the dignity of it requires. There are many ways by which this irreverence may show itself in prayer, but I shall more especially mention and insist upon two. First. The using of saucy, familiar expressions to God. Secondly. This irreverence in prayer shows itself in a man's venting his crude, sudden, extemporary conceptions before God. Why God should be pleased with that which intelligent men laugh at, I cannot understand.

II. THE FOUNDATION OF THIS CONFIDENCE IS LAID IN THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST.

III. THE REASON WHY CHRIST'S MEDIATION OUGHT TO MINISTER SUCH CONFIDENCE TO US IN OUR ACCESS TO GOD. He that is confident in any action grounds his confidence upon the great probability of the happy issue and success of that action; and that probability of success is grounded upon the fitness of the person entrusted with the management of it. The incomparable, singular fitness of Christ for the performance of that work; which fitness will appear by considering Him under a three-fold relation or respect.

1. And first we shall consider Him in relation to God, with whom He is to mediate; who also in this business may sustain a double capacity in relation to Christ:

(1)  Of a Father.

(2)  Of a Judge.

(1) And first if we consider Him as His Father, there cannot be a more promising ground of success in all his pleas for us. For who should be heard and prevail, if not a son pleading before his father? Nature itself takes the cause in hand, and declaims it with more power and insinuation than the highest and the most persuasive oratory. To have the judge's ear is a great matter, but his son has his heart also.

(2) We have another ground of building our confidence upon Christ's mediation with God, though considered as a judge; because He Himself has appointed Him to this work: "It was He that laid help upon one that is mighty," as the psalmist says (Psalm 89:19), and "that made the Man of His right hand, the Son of Man, strong for Himself" (Psalm 80:17). He prepared and endowed Him with qualifications fit for so great an employment.

2. In the next place we are to consider His fitness for this work in reference to men, for whom He mediates; which will appear from that fourfold relation that He bears to them.

(1) And first let us look upon Him as a Friend; that is, as one that we may trust with our nearest concernments as freely as ourselves. Friendship is an active and a venturous thing, and where it is real, it will make a man bolder and more importunate for his friend than for himself. Now Christ has all the perfections of human friendship, without the flaws and weaknesses of it: and surely He will bestow a prayer for those for whom He would spend a life.

(2) Let us consider Christ as a Brother, and so we have a further cause to repose a confidence in Him, in point of His mediation for us. Brotherhood unites persons by a certain tie, that is not only forcible but sacred; and to violate it by any falseness or treachery of behaviour, is to injure not only a man, but even humanity itself. And we may be sure that Christ will be as much more concerned for our affairs than an earthly brother, as such a brother would be more than an ordinary acquaintance.

(3) Let us consider Christ as our Surety; and so we shall find the same, if not a greater cause, of being confident of Him as our mediator. And now, after such an experiment of His love to us, can we doubt that He will stick at the lesser and lower instances of kindness? that He will refuse to manage and enforce our petitions at the throne of grace, who did not refuse to make Himself an offering to justice?

(4) And lastly, for the further confirmation of our confidence in our addresses to God, we will consider Christ under a very different relation from all the former, and that is as He is our Lord and Master. Sovereignty and love are not often found together; yet Christ has united them both in Himself: for as He is the most absolute of lords, so He is the best and the most faithful of friends, the kindest brother, and the ablest surety. Nay, and He has founded our friendship and our subjection to Him, things very different, upon the same bottom; which is, obedience to His laws (John 15:14).

3. I come now in the third and last place, to demonstrate the fitness of Christ to he a mediator for us, by considering Him in respect of Himself, and those qualifications inherent in Him, which so particularly qualify and dispose Him for this work: His acquaintance with our condition: we need not spend much time or labour to inform our advocate of our case: for His omniscience is beforehand with us: He knows all our affairs, and what is more, our hearts, better than we ourselves. And it is our happiness that He does so: for by this means He is able to supply the defects of our prayers, and to beg those things for us that our ignorance was not aware of.

(2) He is heartily sensible of, and concerned about, whatsoever concerns us. Without which His knowledge would avail us but little. He that would speak earnestly and forcibly of anything, must work it into his heart by a lively and a keen sense of it, as well as into his head by a clear knowledge and apprehension. For where the heart is engaged, all the actions follow: no part or power of the soul can be inactive, when that is stirred; and being once moved itself, it moves all the rest. Now it is the heart of Christ that every believer has an interest in: and we knew that He carries that in His breast that intercedes for us with Him, as well as He with the Father.

(3) His transcendent and more than human ability to express and set forth everything that may be pleaded in our behalf to the best advantage; which is the peculiar qualification of a good advocate, and that which makes the two former considerable. For admit that he knows both his client's cause, and is heartily and warmly concerned for it, yet if his tongue and his eloquence doth not serve him to draw forth those thoughts and those affections in a suitable defence of it, he is rather a good man and a good friend, than a good advocate or mediator. But now is there anyone that may compare with Christ in respect of this faculty? to whom God has given "the tongue of the wise"; a tongue speaking with authority, commanding men, and persuading God: nay, and who Himself was able to give His disciples such a tongue, as all their adversaries, though never so learned and eloquent, were not able to resist.

IV. WHETHER THERE BE ANOTHER MEANS TO GIVE EFFICACY AND SUCCESS TO THEM. If there is, it must be either —

(1)  Something within; or,

(2)  something without us.As for anything within us that may thus prevail with God, it must be presumed to be the merit of our good actions, which by their intrinsic worth and value may lay claim to His acceptance. It cannot, I confess, be the direct business of this discourse to treat of the merit of good works. But for our direction, so far as may concern the present subject and occasion, I affirm, that it is impossible, not only for sinful men, but for any mere creature, though of never so excellent and exalted a nature, properly to merit anything from God, and that briefly for these two reasons.

1. Because none can merit of another but by doing something of himself and absolutely by his own power, for the advantage of him from whom he merits, without that person's help or assistance. But what can anything that the creature can do advantage God?

2. To merit is to do something over and above what is due, no two things in the world being more directly contrary than debt and merit. But now it is impossible for any created agent to do anything above its duty, forasmuch as its duty obliges it to do the utmost that it can. It remains therefore that if there be any other ground of this confidence, it must be something without us. And if so, it must be the help and intercession either —

(1)  Of the angels; or,

(2)  of the saints.

I. And first for the angels: that they cannot be presumed to mediate for us and present our prayers before God, I suppose may be made evident by these reasons.

(1) Because it is impossible for the angels to know and perfectly discern the thoughts, that being the incommunicable property of God (2 Chronicles 6:30; Jeremiah 17:10).

(2) The second reason is, that it also exceeds the measure of angelical knowledge, for any angel by himself and his own natural power of knowing, to know at once all the prayers that are even uttered in words here and there throughout the world; and that because it is impossible for him to be actually present in all places.

2. I come now to see whether we have any greater ground of confidence from anything that the saints are like to do for us in this particular. Concerning which we must observe, that the foregoing arguments brought against the angels interceding for us, by reason of their unacquaintance with our spiritual affairs, proceed much more forcibly against the intercession of the saints, who are of much more limited and restrained faculties than the angels, and know fewer things, and even those that they do know in a much lesser degree of clearness than angelical knowledge rises to. But yet for the further proof of the saints' unacquaintedness with what is done here below, these reasons may be added over and above. As first, it is clear that God sometimes takes His saints out of the world for this very cause, that they may not see and know what happens in the world. For so says God to king Josiah (2 Chronicles 34:28), "Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and the inhabitants thereof." Which discourse would have been hugely absurd and inconsequent, if so be the saints' separation from the body gave them a fuller and a clearer prospect into all the particular affairs and occurrences that happen here upon earth. But secondly, we have yet further an express declaration of the saints' ignorance of the state of things here below in those words in Isaiah 63:16, where the Church thus utters itself to God, "Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not." Abraham and Jacob surely were saints, and those too none of the lowest rank; yet it seems they knew nothing of the condition of their posterity, understood none of their wants and necessities. Now in order to any man's establishing a rational confidence upon the intercession of the saints for us, these three things are required.

1. That they be able thus to intercede for us.

2. That they accordingly will.

3. And lastly, that a man certainly know so much.A failure in any of which conditions renders all such hope and reliance upon them most absurd and unreasonable. For what foundation of hope can there be where there is no power to help? And what help can he afford me who knows not whether I need help or no? But suppose that he does fully know my condition, yet knowledge is not the immediate principle of action, but will; and no man goes about the doing of anything because he knows it may be done, but because in his mind he has resolved to do it. And then as for the saints' will to pray for us, since the measure of their will is the will of God calling and commanding them to undertake such or such a work, where there is no such call or command to the thing we are speaking of, we are to presume also, that neither have they any will to it. But lastly, admitting that there is in them really both a knowledge, and an actual will fitting the saints for this office of interceding, yet unless we are sure of it by certain infallible arguments, we cannot build our practice upon it, which is itself to be built upon faith, that is a firm persuasion of both the reasonableness and the fitness of the thing we are to do.

(R. South, D. D.)

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KJV: In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

WEB: in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him.