through mediators whom we should regard as having, more than our blessed Redeemer, a fellow-feeling with us, and at the same time resistless influence with Him; his own invitation and assurance is, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest:”  [Matt. xi. 28.] “No one cometh unto the Father but by me:”  [John xiv. 6.] “Him that cometh to me I will {369} in no wise cast out:”  [John vi. 37.] “Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” [Heb. iv. 16.]

How entirely opposed to such passages as these, breathing the spirit that pervades the whole Bible, are those doctrines which represent the Virgin Mary as the Mediatrix by whom we must sue for the divine clemency; as the dispenser of all God’s mercies and graces; as the sharer of God’s kingdom, as the fountain of pity, as the moderator of God’s justice, and the appeaser of his wrath.  “Show thyself a mother.”  “Compel thy Son to have pity.”  “By thy right of mother command thy Son.”  “God is a God of vengeance; but thou, Mary, dost incline to mercy;” such expressions convey sentiments and associations shocking to our feelings, and from which our reason turns away, when we think of God’s perfections, and the full atonement and omnipotent intercession of his Son Christ our Redeemer.  But it must not be disguised, that these are the very sentiments in which the most celebrated defenders of the worship of the Virgin, in the Church of Rome, teach their disciples to acquiesce, and in which they must have themselves fully acquiesced, if they practised what they taught.  It is very painful to make such extracts as leave us no alternative in forming our opinions on this point; but it is necessary to do so, otherwise we may injure the cause of truth by suppressing the reality; a reality over which there seems to be a strong disposition, in the present day, in part at least, to draw a veil; an expedient which can only increase the danger.

The first author, whose sentiments I would request you to weigh, is Gabriel Biel, a schoolman of great celebrity[135]. {370} In his thirty-second lecture, on the Canon of the Mass, he thus expresses himself, referring to a sermon of St. Bernard, “The will of God was, that we should have all through Mary....  You were afraid to approach the Father, frightened by only hearing of Him....  He gave you Jesus for a Mediator.  What could not such a Son obtain with such a Father?  He will surely be heard for his own reverence-sake; for the Father loveth the Son.  But, are you afraid to approach even Him?  He is your brother and your flesh; tempted through all, that He might become merciful.  THIS BROTHER MARY GAVE TO YOU.  But, perhaps, even in Him you fear the divine Majesty, because, although He was made man, yet He remained God.  You wish to have an advocate even to Him.  Betake yourself to Mary.  For, in Mary is pure humanity, not only pure from all contamination, but pure also by the singleness of her nature[136].  Nor should I, with any doubt say, she too will be heard for her own reverence-sake.  The Son, surely, will hear the Mother, and the Father will hear the Son.”