A Drunken Dream of Our Brain

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 3 of 4 - How We Receive the Grace of Christ

Chapter 20 - Prayer as exercise of faith and way we receive God's benefits

Sections 21-27 - Rejecting intercession of saints

21. Departed saints can only petition God through Christ, like us - John 14:6. Appealing to saints takes honor from Christ, whose role it is to intercede for us. They do so thinking Jesus either insufficient (not true) or too severe (He is our Elder Brother).

22. God rebuked Israel for having a god for each city - Jer 2:28; 11:13 - yet Rome teaches us to pray to a different saint, depending on the need. The Carthage Council of 397 forbade praying to saints from the altar.

23. Rome confuses the role of angels - Heb 1:14; Ps 91:11; 34:7; Eph 3:10 - with that of departed saints. They claim Jer 15:1 - "Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me..." but they did not intercede, in an ultimate sense. Ezek 14:14.

24. Prayers to departed saints would disturb their own repose from earthly cares. We commend one another on earth by praying for each other - 1 Tim 2:1-2; James 5:15-16 - but "He has left us no contact with them - Eccl 9:5-6 - and as far as we can conjecture, not even left them any with us."

25. They claim Gen 48:16, where Jacob invokes Abraham and Isaac, but he only asks God to remember His promises to his ancestors, "not thinking about any intercession but paying attention to the benefit of the covenant." See Isa 63:16-17. Now that we have Jesus, we need put forward no other name. They claim Ps 132:10 - "for David's sake" - but thus "is the covenant considered, rather than the man, and under a figure the sole intercession of Christ is declared."

26. "Some are obviously influenced by the fact that we often read of the prayers of the saints being heard. Why? Because they prayed, of course." See Ps 22:4-5; James 5:17-18. We are to pray, as they did, and we will be heard, as they were - Ps 142:7; 52:6; 64:10; 34:6; 32:6.

27. "Faith grounded upon the Word is the mother of right prayer." See Rom 10:14, 17. "What pertains to the office of intercession... is peculiar to Christ." "We have nowhere read that [the dead] have been bidden to pray for us." See James 5:16. Appealing to saints "leaves nothing for Christ to do."

A surer advocate

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 3 of 4 - How We Receive the Grace of Christ

Chapter 20 - Prayer as exercise of faith and way we receive God's benefits

Sections 17-20 - Prayer in the name of Jesus

17. Jesus is our advocate and mediator with the Father, so we pray in His name. 1 John 2:1; 1 Tim 2:5; Heb 4:16; John 16:24, 626; 14:13; 2 Cor 1:20.

18. Christ has propitiated the Father's wrath, by His sacrifice, and so intercedes for us with Him in heaven. John 16:26; Ex 28:9-21; Heb 10:20.

19. Jesus is the only mediator; without Him, "nothing is left in [God's] throne but wrath, judgment, and terror." When we pray for each other, we should appeal to Christ's intercession, not depend on our own.

20. Rome says Christ is our mediator for redemption, while saints can mediate in intercession. What about 1 John 2:1; Rom 8:34; 1 Tim 2:1-5? Scripture never tells believers to mediate for others, but simply to pray for one another as equals - Rom 15:30; Eph 6:19; Col 4:3; 1 Cor 12:25-26; Rom 12:5.

All prayers a mixture of faith and error

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 3 of 4 - How We Receive the Grace of Christ

Chapter 20 - Prayer as exercise of faith and way we receive God's benefits

Sections 15-16 - God even hears defective prayers

15. Examples: Judges 9:20; 16:28; Ps 107:6, 13, 19; 1 Kings 21:29. He does this to emphasize His mercy. Ps 106:13, 43; Judg 3:9; Matt 5:45. Sometimes saints in Scripture prayed without God's promise - Gen 18:23 - or even against His command - 1 Sam 15:11; Jer 32:16. "They pray according to His will, not that hidden and unchangeable will but the will that He inspires in them." In such a case, "we must ask of God conditionally." See Ps 7:6. The "prayers of the saints.... are a mixture of faith and error."

16. God answers our prayer only by constantly forgiving the error and irreverent emotions with which our prayers are mixed. David's Psalms have this! Ps 39:13. These should be repudiated [!], but God quickly forgives as we confess. We lift our hands in prayer to agree our hearts should be lifted up to God, though they "stay on the ground." We must confess our sins, how little we feel the weight of our sins, and how few of our sins we are aware of. Our prayers are often tinged with questions in trial - Ps 80:4; Lam 3:8. These are defects of faith, but forgiven as we remain humble and reverent before God.

Encouraged to pray by a sure hope

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 3 of 4 - How We Receive the Grace of Christ

Chapter 20 - Prayer as exercise of faith and way we receive God's benefits

Sections 4-16 - Rules of prayer

Sections 11-14 - 4th rule: Pray with confident hope

11. While humbling ourselves before God in fear, we are also to take encouraging refuge in Him, trusting He will hear us. Faith is our guide in prayer, and obtains what is sought - Mark 11:24; Matt 21:22; James 1:5-7; Rom 10:14, 17.

12. We don't come uncertain if God will hear us, as if that were a mark of piety - Heb 4:16; Eph 3:12; Ps 33:22; 56:9; 5:3. We do come with anxiety over our sin and trials, but we unburden ourselves before Him "as children unburden their troubles to their parents." See Ps 41:4.

13. We can pray like this because God commands us to, and promises to answer - Ps 50:15; Matt 7:7; Ps 65:1-2; 145:19.

14. We should pray "without terror but with reverential fear." We should also be confident, for He promises to hear us - Jer 2:13; Prov 18:10; Joel 2:32; Rom 10:13; Acts 2:21; Isa 65:24; Ps 91:15; 145:18; 1 Pet 5:7; 2 Sam 7:27-29; Ps 119:76; Gen 32:10-13.

Put away all self-assurance

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 3 of 4 - How We Receive the Grace of Christ

Chapter 20 - Prayer as exercise of faith and way we receive God's benefits

Sections 4-16 - Rules of prayer

Sections 8-10 - Come humbly, with no confidence in self

8. OT saints prayed for forgiveness acknowledging nothing in them or in Israel deserved it - Dan 9:18-19; Ps 143:2; Isa 64:5-9; Jer 14:7. Calvin also quotes the Apocryphal book Baruch 2:18-19; 3:2 to the same purpose.

9. Repentance is the main part of prayer, even when asking for other things - Ps 25:7, 18; 51:5. We can't pray for deliverance from bondage to sin, or for alleviation of consequences of sin, without confessing them - Matt 9:2; 1 John 1:9. "Under the law prayers had to be consecrated with blood atonement" - Gen 12:8; 26:25; 33:20; 1 Sam 7:9.

10. What does it mean when OT saints ask God to answer them because they are righteous? Ps 86:2; 2 Kings 20:3; Isa 38:3. "By their regeneration itself they are attested as servants and chileren of God to whom He promises that He will be gracious." See Ps 34:15. "He does not set the value of prayer according to the merits of works," but assures us as we are free of guile. He won't listen if we "slumber and repose in [our] own sins without any desire for righteousness." Answered prayer still depends on God's mercy, not anyone's personal righteousness.

With sincere affection of heart

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 3 of 4 - How We Receive the Grace of Christ

Chapter 20 - Prayer as exercise of faith and way we receive God's benefits

Sections 4-16 - Rules of prayer

Sections 6-7 - Pray from your lack, and with penitence

6. Pray knowing your own insufficiency, and with an earnest, sincere desire for what you ask, not to get through a duty or to appease God.

7. We pray according to felt need - James 5:13; Ps 32:6; 94:19. But we also pray without ceasing - Eph 6:18; 1 Thess 5:17. Lawful prayer requires repentance, since we are always in need of forgiveness - Ps 145:18; Jer 29:13-14; John 9:31; Prov 15:8; 21:27; 28:9; Isa 1:15; 29: 13; Jer 11:7, 8, 11; James 4:3; 1 John 3:22.

Don't vegetate in carelessness

Calvin's Institutes (1559)
Book 3 of 4 - How We Receive the Grace of Christ

Chapter 20 - Prayer as exercise of faith and way we receive God's benefits

Sections 4-16 - Rules of prayer

Sections 4-5 - Reverence

4. Have your mind in a fit frame for conversation with God. No carnal thoughts, though anxieties naturally creep in from time to time. Ps 130:1. Use the Psalms as a model. The mind by itself wanders.

5. Levity and frivolity, "devoid of awe," are contrary to reverence. Raising hands in prayer shows that we are far from God unless we lift our thoughts to Him - Ps 25:1; Isa 37:4. We should not ask for things beyond what He promises - 1 John 5:14. The Spirit helps us to pray - Rom 8:26. We are not to "vegetate in carelessness," but to ward off "inertia and dullness." 1 Cor 14:15.