opinions of the Doctors. As regards the rest, even the inexperienced
[common people] can judge.

In a propitiator these two things concur. In the first place, there
ought to be a word of God from which we may certainly know that God
wishes to pity, and hearken to, those calling upon Him through this
propitiator. There is such a promise concerning Christ, John 16 23:
Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you.
Concerning the saints there is no such promise. Therefore
consciences cannot be firmly confident that by the invocation of
saints we are heard. This invocation, therefore, is not made from
faith. Then we have also the command to call upon Christ, according
to Matt. 11, 28: Come unto Me, all ye that labor, etc., which
certainly is said also to us. And Isaiah says, 11,10: In that day
there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign to
the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek. And Ps. 45, 12: Even the
rich among the people shall entreat Thy favor. And Ps. 72, 11. 16:
Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him. And shortly after: Prayer
also shall be made for Him continually. And in John 6, 23 Christ
says: That all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father.
And Paul, 2 Thess. 2, 16. 17, says, praying: Now our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself, and God, even our Father,... comfort your hearts and
stablish you. [All these passages refer to Christ.] But concerning
the invocation of saints, what commandment, what example can the
adversaries produce from the Scriptures? The second matter in a
propitiator is, that his merits have been presented as those which
make satisfaction for others, which are bestowed by divine imputation
on others, in order that through these, just as by their own merits,
they may be accounted righteous. As when any friend pays a debt for
a friend, the debtor is freed by the merit of another, as though it