Decree VIII

We believe our Lord Jesus Christ to be the only mediator,t and that in giving Himself a ransom for all He hath through His own Blood made a reconciliation between God and man, and that Himself having a care} for His own is advocate and propitiation for our sins. Albeit, in prayers and supplications unto Him, we say the Saints are intercessors, and, above all, the undefiled ¢ Mother of the very God the Word; the holy Angels too—whom we know to

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be set over us—the Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, Pure Ones, and all whom He hath glorified as having served Him faithfully. With whom we reckon also the Bishops and Priests, as standing about the Altar of God, and righteous men eminent for virtue. For that we should pray one for another, and that the prayer of the righteous availeth much, and that God heareth the Saints rather than those who are steeped in sins, we learn from the’ Sacred Oracles. And not only are the Saints while on their pilgrimage regarded as mediators and intercessors + for us with God, but especially after their death, when all reflective vision being done away, they behold clearly the Holy Trinity ; in whose infinite light they know what concerneth us. For as we doubt not but that the Prophets while they were in a body with .the perceptions of the senses knew what was done in heaven, and thereby foretold what was future ; so also that the Angels, and the Saints become as Angels, know in the infinite light of God what concerneth us, we doubt not, but rather unhesitatingly believe and confess.