Chapter 11: THAT ONE GOD IS TO BE WORSHIPPED THROUGH CHRIST

THAT ONE GOD IS TO BE WORSHIPPED THROUGH CHRIST

Another abuse concerning these things has been rejected, by which some think by fastings and prayers they can so oblige the Virgin Mary that bare God, and other saints, as, by their intercession and merits, to be delivered from all evils, both of body and of soul, and to be enriched with every kind of good things. For our preachers teach that the heavenly Father alone is to be invoked through Christ as the only Mediator, and that we are to pray of him all things, as he himself has testified that he will refuse us nothing which we ask only in faith and in the name of Christ. Since, therefore, Paul proclaims this one man Jesus Christ as Mediator between God and men, and no one can love us more or have more influence with the Father, our preachers are accustomed to urge that this one advocate and intercessor with the Father is enough. Yet they teach the duty of honoring the most holy Virgin Mary, the mother of God, and all saints, with the greatest devotion, but that this can be done only when we strive after those things that were especially pleasing to them - viz., innocency and godliness, of which they have afforded us such eminent examples. For since all godly persons love God with all the heart and soul and strength, we can in nothing please them better than together with them, as ardently as possible, both to love and to imitate God. For they do not ascribe their salvation to their own merits, much less ever think of aiding us thereby. For every one of them, when he lived here, said with Paul: "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not make void the grace of God." Seeing, therefore, that they themselves ascribed all that they had received to the grace of God and the redemption of Jesus Christ, we can gratify them no better than if we also rely upon such assistance.