Such then is the evidence borne by the writers of the Old Testament.  No prayer to angel or beatified spirit occurs from its first to its last page.  The theory which would have us account for the absence of all prayer to the saints before the advent of Messiah, by reason of their not having been then admitted into their everlasting habitations, and the immediate presence of God proves to be utterly groundless.  The holy angels were confessedly in heaven [Matt. xviii. 10.], beholding the face of {44} God; but no invocation was ever addressed to them, by patriarch, or prophet, or people, as mediators or intercessors.  God, and God alone, the one eternal Jehovah, is proclaimed by Himself throughout, and is acknowledged throughout to be the only object of any kind of spiritual worship; the only Being who heareth prayer, to whom alone therefore all mankind should approach with the words and with the spirit of invocation.  It has been argued by some writers, that in the times of the Old Testament, prayer was not offered to God through a mediator at all; and that as the one Mediator was not then revealed in his person and his offices, the subsidiary intercessors could not of course act; and therefore could not be invoked by man.  The answer to this remark is conclusive.  That Mediator has been revealed in his person and his offices; and has been expressly declared to be the one Mediator between God and man:  we therefore seek God’s covenanted mercies through Him.  Those subsidiary intercessors have never been revealed; and therefore we do not seek their aid.  To assure us that it was the mind and will of our Heavenly Father that we should approach Him by secondary and subsidiary mediators and intercessors, the same clear and unquestionable revelation of their persons and their offices as mediators would have been required, as He has vouchsafed of the mediation of his Son.  Had God willed that the faithful should approach Him by the intercessions of the saints and martyrs, is it conceivable that He would not have given some intimation of his will in this respect?  If believers in the Gospel were to have unnumbered mediators of intercession in heaven, as well as the one Mediator of redemption, would not the {45} Gospel itself have announced it?  Could such declarations as these have remained on record without any qualifying or limiting expression, “He[14] is able also to save to the uttermost them who come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”  “There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”  But this involves the question to which the next section must be devoted.  All I would anticipate here is, that if the irresistible argument from the Old Testament is sought to be evaded on the ground that no mediator at all was then revealed, we must require a distinct revelation of the existence and offices of other mediators and intercessors, before we can be justified in applying to them for their intervention in our behalf.  And the question now is.  Are they so revealed?