Quest. CLXXIX. Are we to pray unto God only?
Answ. God only being able to search the hearts, hear the requests, pardon the sins, and only to be believed in, and worshipped with religious worship, prayer, which is a special part thereof, is to be made by all to him alone, and to none other.
Quest. CLXXX. What is it to pray the name of Christ?
Answ. To pray in the name of Christ is in obedience to his command, and in confidence on his promises to ask mercy for his sake, not by bare mentioning of his name, but by drawing our encouragement to pray, and our boldness, strength, and hope of acceptance in prayer, from Christ and his mediation.
Quest. CLXXXI. Why are we to pray in the name of Christ?
Answ. The sinfulness of man, and his distance from God by reason thereof, being so great as that we can have no access into his presence without a Mediator; and there being none in heaven or earth appointed to, or fit for that glorious work, but Christ alone; we are to pray in no other name but his only.
In these answers we have a farther explication of what is briefly laid down in the last; and that, more especially, as to what respects the object of prayer; and the method prescribed in the gospel, relating to our drawing nigh to God, through a mediator, which is called praying in the name of Christ; together with the reason hereof.
I. It is observed, that prayer is to be made to God alone, and to none other. This appears,
1. Because it is an act of religious worship, which is due to none but God; as our Saviour says, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve, Matt. iv. 10.—This can be denied by none who are, in any measure, acquainted either with natural or revealed religion; in which we are obliged to extol, adore, and admire those divine perfections which are displayed in the works of nature and grace, and to seek that help from him, and those supplies of grace that we stand in need of to make us completely blessed, which supposes him to be infinitely perfect and all-sufficient. Now to ascribe this divine glory to a creature, either directly, or by consequence, is, in effect, to say that he is equal with God, and thereby to rob him of that glory that is due to him alone, to seek that from the creature, that none but God can give, or to ascribe any of the perfections of the divine nature to it, is the highest affront that can be offered to the divine Majesty. Now as prayer without adoration and invocation, is destitute of those ingredients which render it an act of religious worship; so to address ourselves, in such a way, to any one but God, is an instance of such profaneness and idolatry, as is not to be mentioned without the greatest detestation.
2. Prayer is to be made only to God, inasmuch as he only is able to search the heart, which is a glory peculiar to himself, in which he is distinguished from all creatures, 1 Kings viii. 39. Acts i. 24. It is the heart that is principally to be regarded in prayer: If this be not right with God, there is no glory that we can ascribe to him, that will be reckoned any better than flattering him with our mouth, and lying to him with our tongues, Psal. lxxviii. 36, 37. as the Psalmist says: Therefore, the inward frame of our spirit, and the principle, or spring from whence all religious duties proceed, being only known to God, prayer is only to be directed to him.