the Temple of thy Service the congregation whereof makes me the onely point wherein the lines of their affection and admiration doe meete If women be respected for their fertillity needs must I be in great esteeme with all men who by thy eternall Predestination and fatherly providence have brought forth thy onely Sonne their Redeemer With a bowed heart and bended knees I acknowledge that thou hast faithfully and mercifully fulfilled all those thy favourable promises made me by thy Angell Gabriel my Cousin Elizabeth and thy holy Prolets Thou who can'st neither deâ—eive nor be deceived hast made me the vertue of thy Spirit operating Mother my virginall integrity still â—eserved That long long'd for Emanuel than whom nothing greaâ—â—r or better could be given by thee 〈◊〉 taken my me I have at length proâ—â—c'd to save all those that beleeve in him This magnificent immense inâ—â—haustible unvaluable Treasure â—his beloved Sonne of thine in whom thou art well pleased This Saint of Saints by whom all things in Heaven and Earth are re-establisht this Saviour of the world I here present to thee as a gift most acceptable in thy sight He whom all Nations and the Fathers themselves have so much thirsted to see The Angell of the new Testament the seed of Abraham the sonne of David the King of Israel in whom all generations are blessed the Lord of the Temple is here come to illustrate his owne house O mercifull Father open the eyes of the dimme sighted Israelites that they may see the glorious Light that now shines on them and not onely acknowledge but worship their Messias and imbrace him in their hearts as I doe in mine Armes Neither let the Rayes of this new borne starre reflect onely on them but on all those also who sit in darkenesse and the shadow of death that to them it may restore life and lustre So shall they acknowledge thee and him whom thou hast sent CHRIST IESVS and be made spirituall dwellings for thee to reside in there to receâ—ve due thankes and praise for ever and ever Betweene her Purification and passion of her Sonne she is not ofâ—â— mentioned in holy Writ but â—â—en she is it is still to her praise â—â—d honour As when her care for â—e poor made her petition Christ 〈◊〉 Wine to revive Her charity and refresh â—â—eir drooping fainting Spirits â—nd when she said to him Why â—â—ve you us'd us thus your Father â—â—d I have beene to seeke you Whence all women may learne â—umility motherly care and conâ—gall Faith She who was without â—emish as being Gods owne Moâ—her whose chaste bosome no carâ—all thought had ever entred who â—ookt on all men with the same inâ—ocency simplicity with which the beheld Statues deigned to call apoor rustical labouring man Husband from whose deare company no flight Her motherly care together with her coningal Faith and obedience terrour travaile noâ— paines could separate her Bâ— what the Scripture omitteth mâ—â—â— be supplied by our charitable imagination which cannot but coâ—ceive all those her Actions burieâ— in silence to have beene of thâ— same pure thred with the rest oâ— her life The truth of which wâ—â— finde confirm'd in her perseverance in goodnesse even to heâ— sonnes end and her ow ne Her demeanour at her Sonnes death At his death wee reade she was prâ—sent and there stood saith the Evaâ—gelist by the Crosse of Christ his Noâ—ther and her Sister Mary Cleophoâ—â— and Mary Magdalen When therefore Iesus saw his Mother and his beloved Disciple standing by he saidâ— his Mother Woman behold thy Soâ— and he said to his Disciple Behold thy Mother and from that time he tooke her for his His pardoning of the Thiefe is not a greater argument of his Mercy than his taking care for his Mother was of his Piety He gives Temperancy the custody of Chastity and commends these to each other who were resolved to live and dye Virgins Saint Bernard sayes these words of Christ to his Mother included much bitternesse for they put her in minde that she was to make a dammageable exchange of Christ for Iohn of the Servant for his Lord of the Disciple for his Master of the Sonne of God for the sonne of Zebedaeus And this was the reason if we give beliefe to Mantuan that he called her Woman not Mother lest the very sound of that deare word should make her more sensible of his approaching losse and force her into an immoderate griefe But sorrow was no Noveltie to her for that saying of Christ In this world you shall have affliction was in her verified whose life contained more miseries then minuts which she patiently underwent knowing that the more distressed she was here the more blessed she should be he reafter And if we shall adde the light of Reason to the Evangelicall Truth we shall soone perceive that a fatall sadnesse haunted her from the birth of her onely Sonne to his buriall When she was great with him and readie to lye downe the inhumanity of the Bethlemites was such that they confined her and the Lord of all things to a Stable and would not supply her with as much as Linnen a Mantle and other necessaries wherewithall she might defend her selfe and her sweet Babe from the moysture of the night the sharpenesse of the winter and other intollerable inconveniences When her Childe was eight daies old she saw him loose bloud in his Circumcision which her divining soule misgave her to be a Type of the deare remainder he was to shed Then againe her minde was infinitely vexed for the butchery of those guiltlesse Children which were murthered for the sake of her owne innocent Infant of the sorrow and miserie of whose Mothers her tender compassionating heart was a most competent Iudge From this bloudy Massacre to save her Saviour she was constrained without taking leave of her friends or disposing of what was hers to take her flight with him through danger * Vernulaeus saies that those who flye from danger travaile most by night and therefore it is likely our blessed Lady did so darknesse and horrour to make her way into Aegypt When he was twelve yeeres old she lost him an Accident more grievous than any of the former for heretofore her study had been to preserve what she had now her care was to finde what she had not What an Agony her soule suffer'd at the lamentable tydings of the beheading of her Sonnes Forerunner I leave to the consideration of all thankefull soules for she could not without being stayned with ingratitude but mourne for his absence and violent departure out of the world who had received so much joy at her presence before he came into it But above all these the unequall'd Treacherie of Iudas who deliver'd this Lambe of God as a prey to these Wolves the infidelity of his other Disciples the malignity of his Iudges the crucelty of his Executioners conspir'd to make her miserable Nor is it unlikely
point is much cōtroverted and I leave it to the discreete Reader what to beleeve Lib. 18. Moral ca. 27. tenent of the true and ancient Catholicke Church that she conceiv'd immediately after the Angels speech whom I had rather follow then accompany many of these later times who oppose it I will onely produce a few testimonies and that of Gregory the great shall be the Leader The Angell saith he declaring and the Spirit approaching instantly the Word is in the wombe and presently in the wombe the Word is made flesh the incommutable essence coeternall to him with the Father De Symbol ad Catechum and the holy Ghost still remaining Him secondeth Saint Austin of all the Fathers the most subtle and sollid These ensuing are his owne words When the Angell saluted the Virgin then did the holy Ghost make her fruitfull then did that woman conceive a man without a man then was shee replentsht with grace then shee receiv'd the Lord that hee might be in her who made her And in another place he writeth thus Make no delay Serm. 2. infesto Annun Domin O Virgin say but the word speedily to the Messenger and receive thy Sonne give thy Faith and feele the vertue of it Behold saith she the Handmaid of the Lord be it to me according to thy word Here was no delay at all the divine Agent returneth and Christ enters the Virginall wombe The mother of God is suddenly made fruitfull and is predicated happy throughout all ages She presently conceived the Divinity of the Word without the fellowship of a man In this celebration of the Nuptials betweene God and nature while my affection advanceth one steppe my reverence retires another Here Reason is transformed into Admiration Eloquence into silence Some are rather solicitous to search into the profundity of the Mystery than humbly to acknowledge it and by Reason seeke to pry into that which excludes all reason What was before time it selfe This conception was predestinated before Time from all eternity is believed not comprehended by man for that transcends the understanding of man which was before his nature No eyes but those of Faith can penetrate this Wonder All things in God are above reason nothing above Faith Here a Virgin conceives without the losse of Chastity a Maide remaines an immaculate Mother Eternity is here encompass'd by time glory masked in misery A thing finite containes Infinity a mortall encloseth eternity Here the Sonne is as antient as his Father elder than his Mother and is made of her whom he made Here is a concurrence or a congregation of Miracles It is a miracle that in the forming of such and so great an issue the aide of man should be utterly excluded and that as he was man he was onely made of the pure bloud of the Virgin It is a miracle that the ordinary number of dayes required in the forming of a humane body is not here observ'd but in a very moment without succession of time a body is fram'd and animated But a greater miracle than all these is that at the same instant wherein the soule is joyned to the body the Divinity and Humanity are united in one person and the eternall Word is inseperably linkt with the flesh so that the Son of God and man is the same in the Virgins wombe As for the manner of her conception I doe not more mervaile at the supernaturall strangenesse of it then I doe at the daring inquisition and sensuall expression of some who relate it in words as grosse as their owne understandings I only wish I could free the most learned and ingenious Erasmus from the just imputation of a lascivious folly in the Essaying to unfold this sacred Mystery He compares God to a Woer the Angell to a sollicitour and Mary to the beloved and proceeds further than either the divine Will Eras in Annotat Lei in Appendice ad Antapologiam Sutoris or humane modesty permit He treates of this venerable this stupendious encounter betweene the Divinity and Humanity in the same amorous phrase with which the Poets describe the wanton meeting of Dido and Aeneas in the Cave I will not rip up the particulars in which he is faulty this way lest I runne into the same errour which in him I reprehend and imprint a blush on the cheekes of my bashfull Readers This conception was as spotlesse and as cleare from all pollution as is a sweet Odour when it enters the sense Here saith Saint Austin Serm. 11. in natal Domini the Word is the Husband the Eare the Wife in this glorious splendour is the Sonne of God conceiv'd in this purity generated Of the same cleare Lib. 1. de operib spiritus sancti cap. 9. and cleane sense is Rupertus on this very passage When the truely believing Maide saith he opening at once her minde and mouth said Behold the Handmaid of the Lord be it to me according to thy Word in the very instant to make good the words of the Angell the holy Ghost came upon her and enter'd through the open dores of her Faith What part did he enter first the Chappell of her chaste bosome then the Temple of her holy and incorrupt wombe her bosome that she might be made a Prophetesse her wombe that shee might become a mother Now for the time of this conception whether or no it were precisely on the 25. day of March I will not strive to chaine any mans beleefe to a resolution herein though I finde many old and great Doctors of the Church to have held it for a truth Many questions here arise which I have neither time nor desire to discusse I will onely looke into the deportment of this incomparable creature after that she knew she was become the receptacle of a Deity The meere apprehension of such an unheard of honour in other women would have begotten pride arrogancy and disdaine not onely of all their sexe but of mankinde it selfe They would have repin'd at their breathing of common ayre and scorning the earth they trod on have nourisht an ambition to walke on the battlements of heaven But this Maide above imagination excellent the more she was grac'd and dignified the more she was humbled When all men admir'd and even ador'd her and judg'd her worthy to be presently assumed into heaven she was ready to creepe into the center of the earth and there to hide her thinking that every one pointed at her as undeserving that supreme dignity confer'd on her by God himselfe And whereas others would have studied nothing but rich Tissues and embroyderies to weare and the most costly Persian Carpers to tread on she meditated simplicity in apparell and a good pain of shooes to beare her afoot journey over the steepe and flinty mountaines intending to bestow a Visit on her cousin Elizabeth Lus. The Visitation 39. And Mary arose in those dayes and went into the Hill Country 40. And entred into
encounter of two shades softly creeping ore the face of the earth The Evangelist delivereth onely the Compendium of their conference which could not be but as long as serious They treated surely of deepe miraculous Mysteries as of the incarnation of the Word of the persecution of her and Gods onely Sonne as also of his passion and the salvation of Mankinde And here it will neither be a thing impious nor impertinent binding our selues strictly to the substance of their short discourse to ayme at the amplification thereof by which happily it may come to passe that the supposition of what they might say may turne to a Truth of what they said indeed This then or like to this was or might be the speech of the holy Matron to the more holy Virgin What looks shall I put on What words shall I assume what entertainment shall I finde out O Princely Virgin to give thee a welcome answerable to thy merits who art Superiour to the Saints in Heaven and the prime glory of thy Sex on Earth I am wholly transformed into shame when I consider every way thy Excellency and my unworthinesse Alas what is there in miserable me that should invite the mother of my Lord to afford me a visit who am the meanest of his Creatures What equality is here Thou who art full of Grace comest to mee void of it Thou who art famous for thy Fertilitie to me who have beene a long time infamous for my Barrennesse Thy Charity and Humility made thee forget thy sublime and my low estate and conducted thee to my poore Cottage no way fit to receive thee Most of thy Sexe having attained to thy supreame condition who did'st conceive and nourish the Creatour and Redeemer of the world with that thy clearest bloud of which he was made would have advanced their heads above Mortality and disdaining all inferiour Conversation would have demanded as their due to be assumed into the imperiall Heaven But in thee one heat hath expelled another the flames of thy zeale have utterly consumed those of thy Pride if any thou ever had'st and thou art so farre from vaunting that thou by all meanes seekest to conceale that daintie Fruit of which all Posterity shall taste and never be satisfied and for which all Generations shall call thee blessed But from others thou mayst hide it from me thou canst not to whom the Spirit hath reveal'd it and the springing of the Childe in my wombe hath testified it and if the Children of Israel should be so dull and unhappy as not to apprehend it God would give the stones an articulate voyce proclaime it The Lord of mee and all things else hath firmely seated himselfe in thee and chosen thee for his mother to the end that the seed of Abraham may breake the head of the Serpent and the Sonne of David bring reliefe to his forlorne and distressed Church streightly beseiged by the Prince of Darknesse and his infernall Troopes True it is I am above thee in yeares but in desert infinitely below thee and therfore ought to have prevented this thy painfull joyrney by comming first to thee to congratulate thy happinesse and not onely in the behalfe of my selfe my kindred and Nation but in the name of Gods selected people to tender thee most humble though not condigne thanks for so readily assenting to beare bring forth and educate their Soveraigne Lord and Redeemer But thou having gotten the start of me in goodnesse art come to me ere I could set forward towards thee and now thou art here Irepine at nothing more that at my disability to serve thee Thou who meritest to have the earth the water and the ayre ransack't to please thy pallat shall have nothing here but the simple viands of Nature prepared by as simple an Art But trust me what ever is here is truely thine owne and my selfe to boot My willing heart to waite on thee and obey all thy Commands shall supply all other defects Such is my desire to attend and please thee that doe but signifie thy pleasure by the least becke or nod and thou shalt see how nimbly I will bestirre these aged limmes and place before thine eyes a plaine and evident conversion of Impoteney into Ability I shall not thinke any paines my weakenesse can endure too great nor any cost my purse can compasse too deare for thee Wherfore I earnestly beseech thee to blesse me and my house with thy long abode and let not our course and slender fare make thee hasten my death in thy sudden returne O my brightest Starre envy me not thy comfortable shine but let me Live in it till I exchange it for a brighter in Heaven The dayes of my Pilgrimage are even now at an end O leave me not then who art the Staffe and Solace of mine Age but stay the arrivall of my last minute and with thy fairest hands close up these my dimme eyes So shall I bid farewell to this world with content and enter the other with glory Thou my sweetest Princesse who hast verified the Prophecy of Esay and being an unspotted Virgin dost conceive and bring forth to the world our Emanuell grant this my first and most humble request O thou daughter of Abraham who hast surpassed thy Fathers Faith in beleeving things which seeme more impossible to humane Reason if in this rude speech of mine I have over-talked my selfe or underspoken thee impute it to my declining and doting yeares and grant me thy Pardon Thus I end but not without adding to those I have already given thee a Myriade of Welcomes and a million of Aves more The vertuous Maid undoubtedly was not here mute but devided her speech betweene God and her Cousin She directed with I know not whether greater Piety or Prudency her praise to the former ere she would vouchsafe to make a reply to the latter An answer without all peradventure her humanity afforded her and to this purpose for ought we know might it be Dearest Cousin your own wisedome will plead my excuse in that I rendred him laud to whom it belongs ere I accepted of it my selfe to whom it is not due You magnifie me and I my Creator Your sacred issue moved with delight at the sound of my harsh voyce and my spirit rejoyceth in the Mercy of my sweetest Saviour You give me attributes more proper to my Maker than to me not unlike those Heathen who take off the heads from the Images of their Gods and fasten them to the shoulders of their Princes Statues Your commendations fit your selfe better than me and resemble those resplendent rayes which returne into the radiant body that sent them forth In a word you have subscribed my Name to your owne Character The humbling and undervaluing of your self is a strong argument of your vertue forâ—â— in a field of Corne we see the empty eares to hold up their heads the fuller to hang them downe I am in my Spring you in your
Hand-maid of the Lord be it to mee according to thy Word Others give her Charity the uper hand which as Saint Paul testifies gives life and spirit to all other vertues they being without it no other than dead Images Lastly some there are who will not award the Crowne to this or that peculiar vertue residing in her but to the united Harmony of them altogether for they say it is not this string or that makes the Musicke but the accord and consent of all For my owne part Divinity not being the spheare wherein my studies move a modest inquisition will better become me than a bold and peremptory Conclusion in any point of Controversie Wherfore I most humbly submit this and all things else divine by me handled to the Censure and determination of the Church of England whose not Connivence alone but approbation I know I shall have in boldly affirming that she was a transcendent Creature not to be ranked in respect of her worth with any of her sexe but to have a place assign'd her apart and above them all being not to be considered as a meere woman but as a Type or an Idaea of an Accomplisht piety They who uphold the latter of the aforesaid opinions erre not so much in my judgement in the adoring extreame as some too severe maintainers of the former doe in the neglecting They are so farre from praising her themselves that they most unjustly deprive her of the praise given her by others The Puritans in generall but especially the obstinate non-Conformists of this Land are those I meane who as in their Course oratory they called Queene ELIZABETH Queene Besse So they give this Holy Virgin no higher a stile than of * J have both heard these irreverent speeches and read them censurd in a Manuscript of a most learned Doctour of the English Church And this is very credible to al such as heare and peruse their illiterate Sermons full of invectives against the antient Saints and Fathers of the Church and abounding with predications of their owne ignorant Brethren Mal Gods Maide They reject all Testimonies of her worth as Haile Mary full of Grace The Lord is with thee and thou hast found grace with God and Hee that is mighty hath magnified mee and All generations shall call mee Blessed and Blessed is the wombe that bore thee and Blessed are the paps that gave thee sucke and whence comes this that the Mother of my Lord should come to me and Blessed art thou amongst women and Blessed is the fruit of thy wombe They abhorre to heare her call'd Domina Lady or Deipara God-bearing few of them being so learned even in their owne Faculty as to know that they who so stile her thinke not that the God-head proceeds from her but that she brought forth Christ in whom was the union of both Natures and therefore they being inseparable she must by strong consequence be deliver'd of both God and Man And why are they deterr'd from giving her these honourable Epithites Because forsooth they challenge to themselves a greater measure of knowledge but a lesser of Piety than did their Ancestors By disclaiming words and phrases familiar to Antiquity and by inventing new lesse reverent and significant they give all men to understand that they had rather be reputed good Grammarians than Christians and had rather give names to the Church than accept them from her and cherish prophane Novelties rather than allow of Reverent Antiquities They wrest many places of Scripture to prove that Christ himselfe slighted and rebuked her which depravations of theirs were my Readers Turkes I would draw into the Light and lay their deformity open to all but it is needlesse I trust to informe a Christian that he who hath said Honour thy Father and thy Mother would surely never breake his owne Commandement and by slighting his Mother trench upon a sinne of all others most detestable in his sight Ingratitude Of one thing I will assure them till they are good Marians they shall never be good Christians while they derogate from the dignity of the Mother they cannot truely honour the Sonne They are I confesse much more favourable to her than the Iewes but by farre more detracting from her than the Turkes which Assertion of mine is strengthened with evident proofes both out of the Iewish Thalmud and Turkish Alchoran The Iewes call her Thlua as much as to say Butcheresse or the wife of a Butcher and Sono a publike sinner and Thmea one polluted with all manner of uncleane and filthy lust And all of their Religion are enjoyned in solemne Prayer made in their Sinagogues thrice every day to curse Christ his Mother and all the Christian Sect as is to be found at large in the third Booke of the Thalmud wholly compos'd of ridiculous Fables grosse Errors and horrid Blasphemies True it is That the Turkish Alchoran now acknowledgeth Christ to be God and now againe denies him taking him in at the fore-dore and shutting him out at the backe yet doe they hold him the greatest of Prophets next their Mahomet But his Mother they magnifie above all women that ever breathed this Ayre Let us heare this Oracle speake in all things else false but in this most true These ensuing are the very formall words of the Alchoran O Mary excellent above all men and women who perseverest in the study of God onely And in another place O Mary God hath chosen thee and purified thee hee hath elected thee to make thee famous above the women of all Ages and againe Mary by behaving her selfe wisely is guilty neither of Malice nor any wickednesse which caused us to breath our soule into her Lastly that Many men have beene perfect but no woman was ever found perfect but Mary the Mother of Iesus But though truth is to be imbrac't where ever we finde it yet it will appeare more gracefull in the mouthes of Christians whose most learned most eloquent and most judicious Doctour we will produce giving this Testimony of this our dearest Lady S. Austin lib. de nat grat cap. 36. Except saith he the holy Virgin Mary whom for the honour I owe my Lord and Master I will not name when sinne is my subject whom to have had grace infus'd into her wholly to subdue sinne wee know by this that shee was thought worthy to conceive and bring forth him who assuredly was without sinne This Virgin I say excepted if we could Recall and Assemble together all the Saints departed and should aske them if they were without sinne they would unanimously thus answere If we should say we have no sinne we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us But because the Fathers are no way suspected of neglect towards her we will spare their verdicts and chiefly insert their Commendations of her who were the first Reformers of our Church Luther shall be their Leader who faith That none but the Virgin Mary either was or ever