here is . . . one
Mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus."

_I answer that,_ Properly speaking, the office of a mediator is to
join together and unite those between whom he mediates: for extremes
are united in the mean (_medio_). Now to unite men to God
perfectively belongs to Christ, through Whom men are reconciled to
God, according to 2 Cor. 5:19: "God was in Christ reconciling the
world to Himself." And, consequently, Christ alone is the perfect
Mediator of God and men, inasmuch as, by His death, He reconciled the
human race to God. Hence the Apostle, after saying, "Mediator of God
and man, the man Christ Jesus," added: "Who gave Himself a redemption
for all."

However, nothing hinders certain others from being called mediators,
in some respect, between God and man, forasmuch as they cooperate in
uniting men to God, dispositively or ministerially.

Reply Obj. 1: The prophets and priests of the Old Law were called
mediators between God and man, dispositively and ministerially:
inasmuch as they foretold and foreshadowed the true and perfect
Mediator of God and men. As to the priests of the New Law, they may
be called mediators of God and men, inasmuch as they are the
ministers of the true Mediator by administering, in His stead, the
saving sacraments to men.

Reply Obj. 2: The good angels, as Augustine says (De Civ. Dei ix,
13), cannot rightly be called mediators between God and men. "For
since, in common with God, they have both beatitude and immortality,
and none of these things in common with unhappy and mortal man, how
much rather are they not aloof from men and akin to God, than
established between them?" Dionysius, however, says that they do
occupy a middle place, because, in the order of nature, they are
established below God and above man. Moreover, they fulfill the
office of mediator, not indeed principally and perfectively, but
ministerially and dispositively: whence (Matt. 4:11) it is said that
"angels came and ministered unto Him"--namely, Christ. As to the
demons, it is true that they have immortality in common with God, and
unhappiness in common with men. "Hence for this purpose does the
immortal and unhappy demon intervene, in order that he may hinder men
from passing to a happy immortality," and may allure them to an
unhappy immortality. Whence he is like "an evil mediator, who
separates friends" [*Augustine, De Civ. Dei xv].

But Christ had beatitude in common with God, mortality in commo