Dominick apt ministers to employ therein and to exhort them vnto penance after which if they persist in their wickednes do your iustice what it wil with them I haue done with them Hereupon his diuine Maiestie let his thunder fal out of his hands his boyling anger coole and at his Mothers prayers was for that once content to pardon man Hauing then a Mother in heauen so powerful as she let vs haue recourse to her and put vs in shelter vnder her as children do vnder their Mothers when they fly their Fathers wrath and that especially when wee finde our selues most prest with ill fortune or calamity and say vnto her Sub tuum praesidium c. O mother of God and of vs wee put our selues vnder your paotection refuse vs not in our necessities nor abandon vs vnto the afflictions that threaten vs and haue a firme confidence that she wil succour you and haue pitty of your miserable estate who neuer refuses those who haue recourse to her In so much as a holy Doctour sayes If so great be the enormity of our crimes as we feare to appeare with them before Alm. God our best course were to addresse our selues to her and she infallibly wil succour vs. And S. Chrysostom in one of his Sermons sayes vnto her You haue been chosen from eternity sayes he Mother of God to the end that those whom God in iustice cannot saue should arriue by your pittiful intercession vnto saluation And with this accords wel that Vision which B. Leo had one of holy S. Francis companions in which he had a representation of the finall Iudgement day where he sawe two ladders reared vpp the one a read one reaching from earth to heauen where our B. Sauiour al in terror sate the other of white iust of the same proportion extended to the B. Virgins throne where she sate in al sweetnes and affability and he obserued that those who mounted vp by that read one did fal to groūd agayne some from the neather rounds and so vpwards euen vnto the very topp vntil Saint Francis called to them and admonished them to clime by that white one and he would assure them of better speed and he sawe that those who followed his counsel were gratiously receiued by our Lady introduced into heauen From which vision and we haue before deduced results an euidēt proofe of her motherly Care of vs and how she loues vs euer to passion procuring with extraordinary solicitud al wee stand in need of both in heauen and earth With good reason then ought we to reuerence her and haue her in honour and veneration with good reason are we to serue her affectionately and consecrat vnto her the best desires of our hart and this al lawes both diuine and humane exact of vs to witt that if she be our mother we should loue and honour her and if a loue and honour be due from vs to our parents who engender vs into this world with how much more reason is it due to her who so carefully procures our regeneration to a better life Let vs not cease then to loue reuerence this soueraigne Lady both of heauen and earth since God himselfe doth it as wel as we and according to Methodius hath a kind of obligation also to doe it she being his Mother and consequently the precept of honouring our parents hauing also reference vnto him yea and it seemes in more particular manner vnto him then vs since she was more particularly his parent then any can be ours both because he had no other on earth but her as also because she could haue no other sonne You haue good reason to reioice sayes the sayd Methodius since you haue him in a manner on the score with you to whom al mortals are indebted else And so he went still honouring her heer on earth as his deare Mother and as such was obedient to her et erat subditus illis as the holy Scripture sayes neither doth he lesse honour her now in heauen but as some deuout Doctors sayd after his glorious resurrection first saluting her with a Salue sansta Parens he iterated it at her Assumption into heauen and there seating her at his owne right hand al the Court of heauen doing reuerence to her the while he constituted her in absolut power and authority ouer the trine Empire of the Vniuerse where al bow down before her as to the daughter mother and spouse of the Alblessed Trinity the Queene of Angels Empresse of the World and most faithful Mediatrix of al Christian soules vnto her Blessed Sonne who grants al things at her request Hovv to put these reuerences in practise wherby the B. Virgin is to be honored CHAP. VII IN the precedent chapters we haue seen of what excellency and valour is the exercise of Reuerences to the B. Virgin and how acceptable vnto her it is we haue moreouer sufficiently informed our selues of the reasons which should moue vs vnto her reuerence as that she is the mother of the king of heauen her surpassing glory there and that she is of higher dignity then al the quiers of heauen that she hath al power heer on death and finally that she is our Mother and soueraigne Lady also And yet much more could alleage I alleage to moue vs to deuotion did not the feare deterr me of ingulfing my self into so wide and profoūd an Ocean Wherfore now it remaines that I treat of the Method we are to vse to put in practise this so laudable deuotion First then I say we are to endeauour by often genuflexions and inclinations of the body to honour her in which the better to actuat our selues we are to banish from vs al tepidity and drowzynes and make choice of time and place most conuenient for it and first touching the circumstance of place priuary is the cheifest thing we are to regard of time the night seemes fittest as that which is freest from distraction best composeth the mind We reade in Surius how S. Elizabeth daughter of the King of Hungary exercised herselfe with such affections in this so laudable deuotion as she appointed one of her women euery night to awake her at a certaine houre by some secret way she had when she would rise vnknowne to the Prince her husband and spend most part of the insuing night in these adorations which the Roman Breuiary makes mention of Shee rising in the nights says it from her husband and the time in prayer and genuflections At which time no doubt but the Angels reioyced to see her vertuously imployed being riche and noble by birth but far more by vertue and her true deuotion and finally her performing that on earth which the Angels account themselues happy to do in heauen Now for the number of them I wil prescribe none but leaue it to the deuotions of those who are desirous to exercise themselues therin nor the manner how it is to be done either of
particular care and protection of those that are deuoted vnto them perpetually procuring for them fauours and assistances from Alm. God this verity is Orthodox confirmed and approued by many Councels and holy Doctours Now for the Saints Founders of Religious Orders which by excellence are called Patriarcks because as Abraham for exāple was stiled by that name for that so many people descended from him so from them so many Religious are propagated in the Church Of this sort is S. Benet S. Augustine S. Francis and S. Dominick and of later-yeares S. Ignatius c. Al which are to be had in highest veneration by those of their holy Orders not only on the particular dayes when their feasts are honoured but euery day of the yeare besides and that Religious man who desires to augment in him the deuotion he hath to the Founder of his Order should do wel to assigne a particular day of the week for honouring him that Wednesday in particular as the most conuenient for this effect when with some extraordinary deuotion of fasting praying reuerēcing him and the like he is to procure to honour him more particularly referr vnto that end al which he doth that day which finally hath reference al vnto the honour of our Sauiour Christ and to imploy some houres of the day in the meditation of the particular vertues of that Blessed Saint It is the general doctrine of the learned that the Founder of each Religious Order hath a particular care not only of the Order in general but also of each Religious in particular more or lesse according as their merits are and that they assidually defend them strengthening their forces and weakening the enemies who oppugne and fight against them Of which great priuiledge and prerogatiue Brother Leo in particular had an excellent reuelation vision of holy S. Francis which I wil heer recount S. Francis being happily departed vnto rest hauing rendred his body to the earth and his soule to heauen Brother Leo one of his most affectionat disciples bearing impatiently the absence of one whom he loued so dearely wel prayed instantly vnto Alm. God to make him so happy that once more in this life he might enioy the happy aspect againe of his beloued Maister and iterating his petition both earnestly often it pleased Alm. God that one day he being retired into a solitary place he beheld S. Francis appearing vnto him in a strāge mysterious shape al shining with glorious light but for the rest winged with golden wings and tallonted both hands and feete with Eagles clawes The Brother transported with ioy al sight of him was running to embrace and kisse his hands and feete but espying in what strange equipage they were he al amazed demanded of the Saint the reason why he appeared in that sort the Saint answered againe vnderstād these are no other then markes of the affection I beare my Order and the Religious thereof and these do signifie that amongst al the other riche prerogatiues his diuine Maiesty hath honoured me withal since my arriuing into heauen one is the authority power to vindicat my Religious from their necessities and defend them from any aduersity that presses them as often as with confidence they invoke my aide and these wings and tallons now I haue assumed to signify my readines and promptitud in succouring mine and the force and violence with which I oppugne al those who iniure them Good reason then haue the Children of this great Pattiarcke to reioice on earth for hauing so powerful a protector of him in heauen so louing a father and so careful an Aduocate I would aduise them to be assidual in honouring him with those reuerences of which we haue spoken and particulary to salute him euery day with fiue times bowing their knees vnto the ground in honour of the fiue woūds so miraculously imprest vpon him while he liued reioycing and congratulating with him for so highe and so sublime a dignity It being no doubt one of the most acceptable deuotions we can exhibit vnto him now he is in heauen Of the Adoration of the Angels CHAP. XI AND if we be obliged to honour the B. Saints with that due reuerēce appropriated their worship as we haue amply proued in the precedent Chapters with farr more reason are we to honour the holy Angels as the noblest in substance of al created things and representing most liuely their Creatours vnlimited power and magnificence And although it be true that both men and Angels are both Creatures of Alm. God and workes of that soueraigne Artificer that they are either framed according to his Image and by the faculties of their memory vnderstanding their wil capable of his grace and of being participant of his glory and eternal felicity and that many circumstances there are which equal Man with Angels yea and in consideration of the Hypostatical vnion and the Mother of our Sauiour Christ it may pretend some pre-eminence aboue them also Yet if we weigh their natures and ballance them equally one against the other no doubt but we shal find the one farr exceeding the other and as lead can neuer arriue to the excellency of siluer nor siluer of gold no more can a body any way equal in excellency a soule nor the soule of man naturally speaking the most inferiour Angel that is in heauen Vnto which our B. Sauiour infallibly alluded when he sayd Verily I say vnto you amongst the sonnes of men hath not been borne a greater then Iohn Baptist neuerthelesse the least in the Kingdome of heauen is farr greater then he But now before we wade any further into this matter we are to vnderstand that the word Adoration is a notion general to good Angels and men In conformity to which we find it in holy Scripture indifferently vsed for either as where it is sayd that the Israelits adored both their king God they bowed downe sayes he and adored God and afterwards their King So the Children of Israel adored their brother Ioseph then Gouernour of AEgypt after his brothers had adored him c. For which reason the Doctours both ancient moderne haue distinguished it into three seueral species of Adoration Latria Dulia and Hyperdulia the first being exhibited only vnto God himselfe as a souueraine kinde of adoration only fitted to the soueraine power he hath with the second we honour Saints and Angels And as for the third it appertaines to the B. Virgin alone and vnto her who surpasseth in excellence both Angels and al rest of Saints besides and of this in the precedent Chapters we haue discours't at large In breefe then we establish this conclusion we are to adore Angels and men deseruing it and this is an Article of faith according to Suares defined by Pope Felix the first of that name in the Councel at Rome the 7. th Synod And S. Augustine speaking of the B. Apostle S. Peter sayes An infinit number of the
mind Inthroned in a most glorious manner aboue al the rest as becomes the soueraine Empresse of them al al ful of glory and of Maiestie encompassed round about with innumerable Saints and Angels perpetually making Court to her and honouring her with humble reuerences amongst whom thou art to imagine they selfe and making thy first approches of adoring her without vttering any word but only fixing thy mind vpon her excellent beauty and Maiesty procuring to begett in thy mind the whilst frequent acts of affectionat loue and complacency in so much beauty and Maiesty as thou conceiu'st to be in her congratulating with her that her high dignity of being Mother of God and consequently Queene of heauen and earth Acts which if they be performed with due intention and deuotion it is impossible to imagine how grateful they wil be to her and how profitable for those who are exercised therein We haue an example of a deuout Religious woman recounted by F. Heroide Dominican who being afflicted with a greeuous malady after much paine and sufferance died thereof whose soule appearing some dayes after to the sub-Prioresse of the Conuent said amongst other discourses Know Mother that the reward which Alm. God bestowes vpon the least good work of ours is so excessiue great as if it were putt to my choice I would returne euen from the ioyes of heauen vnto the earth againe and suffer al my former afflictions only to recite one Aue Maria that returning thence againe I might acquire a new merit by it in heauen and this although I were not certaine to say it without tepidity or distraction so that I were but in grace the while and free from al mortal sinne And if this holy Religious woman would haue exposed her self to such cruel paine and sufferances only for the merit of so smal an act how great shal their merit be who exercise themselues in this deuout exercise of reuerencing her being one of the greatest most excellent seruices which a Christian can render vnto the Mother of God Hitherto we haue treated of the interior cōportment of the mind during this our actual reueencing the B. Virgin Now let vs come to the exterior of the body First we are to bow the knee in crossing our hands before our breast with a litle inclination of the head and after hauing prayed in that māner we are to rise agayne and iterat the same deuotion for the second time and so forwards as our deuotion shal instruct vs the which Adorations we likewise may performe only with bowing one knee to the ground ioyning of our hands and fixing of our thoughts on the Maiestie of the B. Virgin the while and if any through infirmity find difficulty in these inclinations they may helpe themselues by leaning or the like or only bow downe their body or make some light inclination with the head Alwayes remembring that this exteriour behauiour is not the cheifest thing we are to regard but that which is proceeding from the interiour as the words pronounc't or by the hart or mouth the whilst now saying I adore you ô sacred Mother of God repeating it as oftē as we make our reuerēces or els pronouncing these two words only of Aue Maria with which the Angel Gabriel saluted her and in that reuerent manner it is supposed which we heer prescribe to her deuout seruants to imitat so doing we shal performe that Angelical office too as wel as he nay in a manner more excellent for he saluted her but as a humble Virgin we as the Mother of God and daughter of the most holy Trinity he in the lowly house of Nazareth and we in the highe Court of heauen where she sitts maiestically enthroned and crowned Queene of the whole Vniuerse he finally while she was yet subiect to mortality and the incommodities it goes annex't withal but we now when she is aboue it participant of eternal life glory and felicity Great then is their prerogatiue who salute her so and great shal their merit bee if they do it with that due deuotion and reuerence as they ought Hov in the like manner We are to reuerence God as also the Saints in Heauen CHAP. XIV HAVING spoken of the Interiour Exteriour reuerences we are to honour the Mother with al Let vs make application of them vnto God himselfe with the soueraine honour of Latria due to his most diuine Maiestie We must then procure to reuerence him so as these exteriour deuotions may proceed from the redundancy of the Interiour to which effect be fore we put in practise the foresaid reuerences we are to fixe our interiour eyes on the Maiesty of Alm. God confidering his immense greatnes incomprehensible perfections in which we are infinitly to take complacence as in his being what he is so exceeding good so exceeding great and then we are to accompany this Interiour act of ours with most profound reuerences and inclinations bowing euen vnto the ground before that Maiesty before whose glorious Throne the Angels themselues adore in prosterning their faces on the ground And to acquit our selues the better of this deuotion we are especially euery morning when we rise as at night when we retire to rest most profoundly to reuerence this our Alm. Lord and whilst we remaine in that humble posture on our knees we are to cast the eyes of our mind with an affectionat regard on that high incomprehensible Maiestie so to begett interiour acts of Ioy and complacency of the soueraine power he hath and soueraigne goodnes accompanying it And this let vs do as often as we bow our knees in reuerencing Alm. God accompanying it stil with some interiour act of the loue of him an act which no creature in heauen and earth can truly imagine the excellency of it being an operation which God continually is exercising in himselfe to wit of ioy and complacencie in his infinit goodnes whence doth proceed the loue of it which must likewise be infinit These acts of loue then let vs endeauour to stirr vp in our selues and assure our selues that the least of them is sufficient to rayse a soule to a most highe degree of perfection As witnesseth this story extracted out of the second part of the Chronicles of the Friers Minors A certaine Religious matron beheld in vision thirty Religious of the Conuent of Paris al departing this life at once whereof fiue only were cōdemned to Purgatory the rest went al immediatly to heauen one amongst the rest had his place assigned him amongst the Seraphins She being returned from her vision and astonished thereat had recourse to the Guardian of the Friars where she liued and declared vnto him al that she had seen who like a prudent man aduised her to beseech Alm. God in continuation of his former fauour to reveale vnto her the name of him who was so highly aduanced aboue the rest therby more particularly to know the truth of the vision
bowing one knee to the ground or both of lifting vp their hands or crossing them before their breasts but let them choose that posture which likes them best and which makes most for their deuotion Only I wil speake a word or two in the commendations thereof in general as first of the facility wherewith it is don there being none so much employed or infirme who cannot with ease do somewhat in this kind either in bending the knee or bowing the head actions which are compatible with al in what estate or imployment soe'r they be Then it is a king of deuotion this of adoration of al others the most noble and acceptable to the Queene of Heauen the office of Angels and who then would not be ambitious of it to doe the same on earth which al the celestial Courtiers do in heauen and I beseech deuout persons that they would but consider how diligently and with what care your earthly Princes are serued and honoured by their followers and Courtyers which whosoeuer shal but obserue must needs blush for shame if they be not as careful and assiduous in seruing their Queene of Heauen And to incite our deuotions thereunto it would do wel to read of the diligence of Saints in this particular as namely in Surius of S. Albert how he bowed his knees a hundred times a day and fifty times prostrated himself on the ground saying each time an Aue Maria in honour of the Queene of Heauen And of S. Catherine of Sucina daughter of S. Brigit how according to the same Authour she was from her tender infancy so exercised in prayer as besides our Ladye Office which she recited euery day with the Penitential Psalmes other such deuotiōs she imploy'd her selfe fower houres euery day continually in this exercise of genuflexions vnto the B. Virgins honour accompanying it with many teares As for that which S. Iohn Damascen hath left written of Simon Stilites it doth more cause our wōder then imitation his standing on a pillar exposed vnto the rigors of winters and scorching of sōmers heate thirty fixe cubits highe situated on an eminent Mountaines topp and this continued for more then thirty yeares making a thousand and a thousand genuflexions and inclinations euery day and one of the seruants of B. Theodoret Bishopp of Cyrene obseruing him one day counted aboue a thousand two hundred and forty inclinations of his and that of those more painful ones he bowing as it were euen round in performing them So of the glorious Apostle S. Bartholomew we reade that a hundred times a day and as many by night he vsed to bend his knees which was more in one who was so perpetually and assidually imployed in preaching and conuerting of the world then a hundred times so much were in another man Wel did he vnderstand of how highe price and value with the B. Virgin these Reuerences and adorations were vnderstanding things in such an illuminatiue manner as he did or els he had neuer been so careful punctual in performing them But no wonder that the holy Saints and freinds of Alm. God haue produced such strāge effects as these left to vs so litle hope of imitating them since the diuine grace that superabounded in them the ardent fire of the holy Ghost that incessantly inflamed their harts and that height of perfection they had attained vnto al concurred vnto the rendring them actiue vigours and diligent in this holie exercise But as for vs weaklings as we are destitut of those spiritual forces which they had and that mind to apply those forces to the best if we cannot imitat them so nearly yet at least a farr off we may do somewhat in their imitation and bitter is it so to do do it deuoutly then weary our selues by enterprizing too much and so become wholy dulled and dis-animat and rather loose spirit then gayne by the excesse There is an Example concerning this taken out of the Mirrour of examples which is this A certaine Religious woman had a daily deuotion to say an hundred and fifty Aue Maries accompanying each one with a profound reuerence but she growing cold in the performance of them by reason the number seemed excessiue great was diuinely admonished in vision to diminish them to a third part vnder the condition that she should say those with greater feruour deuotion And S. Hierome to this purpose sayes it is farr better to say one Psalme deuoutly and with alacrity of spirit then the whole Psalter with negligence and tepidity Notwithstandiug supposing al be equal certainly much better it is to do more then lesse in these or any other exercises of piety since good workes ar the more meritorious stil with the more difficulty they ar perform'd and the more grateful is the doing of it to those vnto whose reuerencs it is exhibited Hovv the aptest time for the exercise of these deuotions is the particular feasts of our B. Lady CHAP. VIII THE Church euer guided by the holy Ghost hath in al tymes erected Tēples and consecrated Altars in reuerence of the sacred Queene of Heauen and hath honoured her with vowes Hymnes Canticles and Laudes and diuers other deuotions and seruices which the feare of detayning the Reader too long makes me forbeare the relation of but aboue the rest some feasts it hath commaunded to be kept wheron she is more particularly honoured Those may be diuided into two Classes the greater the lesser the greater include her Conception Natiuity Purification Annunciation and her Assumption into heauen The lesser which are not of precept her Praesentation Visitation others among which we may add the Saturday To begin then from the lowest the Saturday is dedicated by the holy Church vnto her honour namely in the Councel of Trent where it is ordained that Masses and Offices should be sayd of her on those dayes when they concurr not with any other feast Moreouer it hath been an antient custome of deuout Christians to fast that day in her honour which kind of deuotion is most acceptable vnto her as appeares by this following story S. Anselme writes of a certaine Theefe who entring once into a poore widowes house with intent to despoile her of what she had and finding her so slenderly furnished as he imagined it not worth his paines he to decline the suspition of what he came for ask't her what victuals she had whither she had broke her fast that day God forbid replied she that I should violat so my vow I haue made to the B. Virgin of fasting in her honor euery saturday why so sayd the theefe because sayd she agayne I haue heard a certaine learned preacher say that whosoeuer did it should neuer die without Confession The theefe was so strucken at the report of this as remayning a long time in consideration of his wicked life at last he started out of that melancholy posture wherin he was and setting one knee to the