an Ave Maria to her I neither understand nor believe how the repetition of the Angels message can warrant the expectation of such blessings from God by the Mediation of the B. Virgin nor can I persuade my self to say with the Votaries of Loretto we fly to your patronage O Sacred mother of God despise not our prayers in our necessities but deliver us from all dangers O ever glorious and blessed Virgin ‖ Horolog Ascet Cardinal Bona a late and most approved Writer of the Latin Church tells us that the Rosary is so called because it is composed of 150 Ave Maries as of so many sweet-smelling Roses as if the 15 Pater nosters in it did not smell as sweet as they and though he is one of the approvers of Mr. de Meaux his Exposition which saith they only pray to Saints to pray for them yet in his ‖ Ibid. Paraphrase on the Angels Salutation he saith very extravagant things of her and in another place prays unto her as unto a Donor in the following words Protect me O sweetest Virgin Mary under the shadow of thy wings and never let thy name which flows with hony depart from my mouth and heart be not far from me O most powerful mother of God because my enemies compass me round about What can I do without thee O blessed Virgin or what would become of me if thou shouldest turn away thy face from me When wilt thou come O most sweet Virgin when wilt thou appear to thy most unworthy servant Thy breath O Mary is sweeter than honey and the possession of thy love above Gold and precious Stones Let my Soul perceive the sweetness of thy Love and be always employed in thy praises because thou art my comfort next after God Have compassion on my Soul that breaths after thee have a regard unto me and make hast to help me Grant me thy grace that I may always rejoyce in thee and after this time of exile behold thee in glory My Soul breatheth after thee as a child doth after the bosom of his mother O despise me not thou mother of mercy How vehemently do I desire to see thy face O most beautiful Virgin take me up quickly unto thee and fulfil my desire Who can forbear loving of thee O Queen of hearts and mother of holy love who can forbear loving of thee O that all creatures might serve thee and live and dy in thy love Receive my heart O most beloved mother and offer it with thy most holy hands to thy most holy Son I rejoyce and exult O blessed Virgin that God loveth thee above all his works and am delighted with it above all things and I had rather undergo the pains of hell than that thy glory and dignity should be the least diminished for a moment of time Let all that know thy name trust in thee O Glorious Virgin because thou dost not forsake those that trust in thee Let the Light of thy Countenance appear unto me in my Agony and let thy Comfort most merciful mother make glad my departing Soul I might here add his Prayers to Saints and Angels in the like strain and his Invocation of the Five wounds of Christ but my present undertaking obliges me only to take notice of the extravagant honour which the Votaries of the Blessed Virgin are wont to pay unto her From Cardinal Bona I proceed to John Peckham formerly Archbishop of Canterbury who at the end of the Preface to this Psalter of the Blessed Virgin not yet printed prays her that she would be pleased to release the sins of all those for whom he prayed Usher's Answer to a challenge c. P. 493. and cause both his name and theirs to be written in the book of life In the first Psalm of it he prayeth her to make us to meditate often on Gods Law and to be made blessed in the glory of his kingdom and all the rest are filled with Petitions of the like nature From Peckham I go on to Cardinal Bonaventure who shines in the Calender of the Latin Saints He flourished about 430 years since when Superstition was in its Zenith and darkness covered the face of the earth He wrote several Tracts in honour of the Virgin Mary one called the Blessed Virgins ‖ Speculum beatae Virginis mirrhour which is a most extravagant Paraphrase upon the Angels Salutation wherein he applies to the Blessed Virgin in the Mystery whatever is Literally said of Queen Esther and the Queen of Sheba in the holy Scriptures He observes that her Name signifies Lady and that it agrees very well to so great an Empress who is Queen of Angels Men and Devils and of things in Heaven things in Earth and things under the Earth and in the conclusion of the Prologue to his Mirrhour he thus be speaks her O most benign Lady Mary accept of this small gift which thy poor friend offers up unto thee I Salute thee with this little book upon my bended knees and with my bowed head I Salute thee with heart and mouth and say AVE MARIA He composed another Office called the Crown of the blessed Virgin where one of the Orizons prescribed to be said unto her is as follows O Empress and our most kind Lady by the authority of a mother ‖ Jure matris imperae tuo dilectissimo silio Corona B. Virginis Tom. 6. Edit Rom. 1588. command thy most beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ that he would vouchsafe to lift up our minds from the love of earthly things unto heavenly desires The harshness of this petition is a little qualified in another * Psal Bonav edit Paris 1596. Edition thus Incline the countenance of thy Son upon us compel him by thy Prayers to have mercy upon us sinners Which puts me in mind of that sentence of Anselm in his Treatise of the excellence of the B. Virgin that more present relief is sometimes found by Commemorating the name of Mary than by calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus her only Son This extravagant saying of Anselm hath been since used by another of the Virgins Votaries ‖ Answer to a challenge p. 495. as Bishop Vsher observes But to return to Cardinal Bonaventure he hath made many other Offices in the Virgins praise of which that which he calls the Psalter of the blessed Virgin is most remarkable It consists of the Psalms of David converted into Forms of Prayer and Thanksgivings and Praises unto her by putting Lady in the place of Lord. The first verse of the 93. Psalm is this Deus ultionum Dominus sed tu mater misericordia ad miserandum inflectis God is a God of vengeance but thou O mother of mercy art inclined to shew mercy At the end of this Psalter he hath transprosed the Hymns of the Church the Benedicite the Benedictus and the Te Deum into her praise which begins thus We praise thee the mother of God we acknowledge
the execution of his Sons Incarnation to her acceptance and thereby admitted her to a consultive and decisive suffrage in his Counsels But to proceed the next lesson is a Prayer of the same strain in the following words * Sit per te excusibile quod per te ingerimus fiat impetrabile quod fidâ mente poscimus Accipe quod offerimus redona quod rogamus excusa quod timemus quia tu es spes unica peccatorum Per te speramus veniam delictorum in te beatissima nostrorum est expoctatio praemiorum Sancta Maria succurre miseris c. Brev. Rom. Let every thing be excused which we bring unto God by thee and let us obtain whatsoever we ask with a faithful mind Accept that we offer give that we ask and pardon that we fear because thou art the only hope of sinners We hope for the pardon of our offences by thee and in thee is the most blessed expectation of our reward O holy Mary succour those that are miserable uphold those that are faint-hearted comfort those that weep pray for the people and so forth as above recited And if this be not to derogate from the merits and mediation of our Lord I know not what is In the Advent Sundays this is a common Collect ‖ Deus qui de B. Mariae Virginis utero Verbum tuum Angelo nunciante carnom suscipere voluisti praesta supplicibus tuis ut qui verè eam genetricem Dei credimus ejus apud to intercessionibus adjuvemur Missal Rom. O God who by the Annunciation of an Angel wouldst have thy eternal Son assume flesh of the substance of the blessed Virgin Mary grant to us thy supplicants that we who truly believe her to be the Mother of God may be helped by her intercession with thee In the second Sunday after the Epiphany there is this Prayer * Haec nos Communio Domine purget a crimine intercedente B Virgine Dei genetrice Mariâ coelestis remedii faciat ejus consories ibid. O Lord let this Communion cleanse us from sin and make us partakers of the heavenly remedy by the intercession of the B. Virgin Mary the Mother of God In the Mass of her Assumption there is this Prayer * Subveniat Domine plebi tuae Dei genetricis oratio quam etsi pro conditione carnis migrasse cognoscimus in coelesti gloria apud te pro nobis intercedere sentiamus per eundem c. ibid. O Lord let the Prayer of the Mother of God help thy people and although we know she died and was carried hence yet let us perceive that she intercedes for us in heaven by the same our Lord Jesus Christ In the proper Mass of her Seven Sorrows she is called * Coeli Regina mater mundi ibid. The Queen of heaven and Lady of the world and what that signifies you shall have from a late Author who saith that ‖ Epist Dedicat to the Contemplations Kings are the most noble Images of God's Majesty in the visible world and Christian Queens the Representatives of the mother of Jesus according to which comparison it follows that as the Queen is in priviledge power authority greatness and prerogative to the King of an earthly Kingdom so the B. Virgin is to God the King of Heaven and Soveraign Lord of the world And therefore it is no wonder that in the solemn Hymn which begins * In missâ propria de 7. doloribus Eja Mater fons amoris Me sentire vim doloris Fac ut tecum lugeam Fac ut ardeat cor meum In amando Christum Deum Vt sibi complaccam Fac me vâ—re tecum flere Crucifixo condolâ—re Don â—ego vixero Fac me plagis vulnerari Cruce hac inebriari Ob amorem Filii Inflammatus accensus Per te V. sim defensus In die judicii Fac me crùce custodiri Morte Christi praemuniri Confoveri gratiâ Quando corpus morietur Fac ut animae donetur Paradisi gloria Amen Stabat Mater dolorosa they as solemnly pray unto her to make them sensible of her sorrows to make their hearts burn with the love of Christ and to imprint his wounds upon them to enable them to weep with her and condole the crucified Jesus to be wounded with his wounds and inebriated with the love of him and to defend them in the day of judgment They also pray her to keep them by the Cross to fortifie them by the death of Christ to cherish them with her favour and to grant that when their Souls depart from their Bodies they may go into the glory of Paradise And then solemnly say Amen In another Mass they have this prayer ‖ Deus qui per gloriosissimam Filii tui Matrem ad liberandos Christi sideles à potestate Paganorum novâ Ecclesiam tuam prole amplificare dignatus es Praesta quaesumus ut quam pie veneramur tanti operis institutricem ejus pariter meritis intercessione à peccatis omnibus captivitate Daemonis liberemur Per cundem Dominum Missa B. V. M. de Mercede O Lord who by the glorious Mother of thy Son hast vouchsafed to enlarge thy Church with a new off-spring to free the faithful in Christ from the power of Pagans grant we beseech thee that we who worship the Foundress of so great a work may be delivered as well by her merits as her intercession from all our sins and the captivity of the Devil by the same our Lord. In the Mass of her Name there is this Collect * Deus qui gloriosam Matrem tuam Mariam nominari voluisti concede quaesumus ut qui dulce Maria nomen implorant perpetuum sentiant tuae benedictionis effectum Qui vivis regnas Missa de Nomine B. V. M. O God who wouldst have thy glorious Mother named Mary grant we pray thee that those who implore her sweet name may find the perpetual effect of thy benediction who livest and reignest c. In the sixth of the Octave of her Nativity one Lesson begins thus ‖ De Maria accipitur liccat mihi dicere quod scriptum est de Ecclesiâ Relinquet homo Patrem suum Matrem suum adhaerebit uxori suae erunt duo in carne unâ Lect. 6. in secundo Nocturno Brev. Roman I may say that that which is written of the Church may be understood of Mary A man shall leave his Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife and they shall be two in one flesh And accordingly in the Lesson for the Festival of her Assumption and the Octaves thereof they apply all that is said of the Church in the Song of Solomon to her as if she were indeed the Spouse of Christ and likewise those expressions of the King's Bride in the 45th Psalm * Astitit regina à dextris tuis in vestitu deaurato circundata varietate Ibid. which under the
the most glorious Virgin Mother of Jesus may God the Father Son and Holy Ghost bless and keep us now and for evermore Pag. 25. And this Cantique Let us praise thee O Mother of Jesus let us acknowledge thee our Sovereign Lady let men and Angels give honour to thee the first conceived of all pure Creatures to thee the morning-Stars and highest Seraphims sing glory for thy magnificence make intercession for us O powerful Mother of Jesus for God will not refuse thee our Petitions then shall we rejoyce in the fulness of thy glory and shall sing the praises of Jesus for ever You may perceive by the stile of this Cantique that it was composed in imitation of the Te Deum of which I shall speak more hereafter From the Contemplations I pass to the Psalter of the B. Virgin Mary which was composed in the French Tongue by a Father of the Society of Jesus and translated into English and Printed with allowance in 1624 out of which I shall present you with a few Petitions to which I need not crave your attention 1. Petition O glorious Virgin grant me grace that I may receive pardon for my sins draw near unto me O blessed Virgin who art the Mother of the afflicted my Enemies are gathered together against me and I have this only refuge to cast my self under the shadow of your wings defend me against their enterprises and bring them all to shame and confusion Your Majesty and greatness together with the incredible sweetness of your infinite mercy have obliged my lips to publish the praises of no other than of your self Be you glorified O most amiable Virgin together with your sweet Son Jesus both now and evermore Give my Soul entrance into Paradise when it shall leave the Body and by your holy prayers deliver me from the dreadful pains of Hell and let all that is due unto me for my sins be cancelled by your merits You have been the cause that God took humane flesh upon him you then as a Mother can obtain for us all that which we ask of him He will pardon us for the love of you Remember our humanity and grant that we may find grace with you who art the Foundress of our grace and Salvation Stretch forth your hand to draw me out of the filthiness of my sins and let the greatness of your mercy blot out the multitude of my offences supplying by your merits what in justice I dare not demand Turn not your face away from me for I put my trust in you ‖ 2. Petition You are the Sanctuary into which I desire to retire I magnifie you as the Foundress of Grace I will never cease to beseech you with all my desires and affections until I know that you have beheld me with compassion and given ear to my prayers I will humble my heart before you for I know that the proud shall not be entertained near unto your sacred Majesty If you do not undertake our defence how shall we do to appear before Jesus put words into my mouth that I may worthily praise you since the Heavens themselves set forth your glory and that all Creatures call upon you when they are oppressed as soon as you extend your hand upon the sick they are healed and the waves of this troublesom world are soon appeased by your commandment I will never cease to praise and exalt you with Hymns Psalms and Canticles but day by day will I render you my vows Receive my Soul into your hands when it shall leave this mortal Body and take it into your protection for it will be lost with fear and will not know to what side to turn to save it self unless under the shadow of your mercy Obtain for me by your grace a place of perpetual habitation among those who be in Paradise there to enjoy the felicity which the Souls of those who have devoutly served you do eternally possess O blessed Virgin ‖ 3. Petition mother of unlimited power adored and called upon by the Universe give me strength to resist the temptations of my invisible enemies if you should have forsaken me to whom should I have then repaired that would have looked upon me with pity and compassion I will confess your name among all Nations because it is holy and will make known to all the Majesty of your greatness All the fifteen Petitions in this Psalter are full of such like devotions and the last of them concludes thus Be pleased with my prayers O sacred Virgin and may it please you not to reject this little Psalter dedicated to your Sacred Majesty a part whereof I will recite before you every day to the end you may receive my soul into your bosom when it shall depart out of this world into another life I must further acquaint you that this Author who made this Psalter in imitation of the Psalter of David adviseth his Reader to say these Psalms before an Image of the blessed Virgin Mary in some holy place or Oratory and before every Petition to say the Ave Maria in English and the Translator of it doth assure the Lady to whom he Dedicates it that it had the approbation of the better sort of Catholicks and was presented to one of the greatest Queens of Europe in its French attire The Author also tells us that he hath put the Angels Salutation before every Petition to implore the favour of the Sacred Virgin and this he did conformably to the Latin Offices which abound with Ave Maries though I profess I cannot tell why they should convert a pure Salutation which I have shewed consists of common forms of Speech into a form of Invocation Why should that which might have been spoken by the Angel to any other righteous person be esteemed such an acceptable Sacrifice of Praise to her and yet the Mystery of the holy Rosary which we are ‖ In the Advertisement before the method of saying the Rosary told the blessed Virgin revealed to Dominic I must be pardoned that I cannot add Saint consists in saying one Pater noster and ten Ave Maries at a time with one Prayer to the Virgin Mary after a Meditation upon something that happened or that they say happened to her and I must confess I cannot understand how any Office wherein there are ten or eleven Invocations of Mary for one Prayer to God ‖ Ibid. should be most efficacious for obtaining all favours from him and averting all evils from our selves Such knowledge is too wonderful for me I cannot attain unto it but I must for ever be content to be ranked ‖ 1 Serm. p 6. Serm. 6. p. 5. among those babes who are to be fed with milk and not with such strong meat My stomach will not digest it I have not been hitherto able to bear it neither yet am able nor to beg her intercession or hope to obtain the assistance of the Holy Ghost by saying
thee to be a Virgin all the earth doth worship thee the Spouse of the eternal Father all Angels and Archangels all Thrones and Powers do faithfully serve thee to thee all Angels cry aloud with a never-ceasing voice holy holy holy Mary mother of God the whole Court of heaven doth honour thee as Queen the holy Church throughout all the world doth invoke and praise thee the Mother of Divine Majesty c. Nay he hath also Transprosed the Athanasian Creed into a form of Confession to her honour and it begins thus Whosoever would be saved before all things it is necessary that he hold a firm Faith concerning Mary which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly and then though her Assumption into Heaven her sitting at the right hand of Christ and never ceasing to pray for us be made Articles of that Creed yet it concludes thus This is the true Faith concerning Mary which except a man believe firmly and faithfully he cannot be saved From C. Bonaventure I go on to Arnoldus Carnotensis who lived about Five hundred years ago and wrote an extravagant ‖ Inter opusc adscripta Cypriano Ed. Oxon. 1682. Tract in the praises of the blessed Virgin in which he saith that if he had the Tongues of Men and Angels he could not worthily set forth the glory of the holy and ever-blessed Virgin He saith She is exalted above all Creatures and that whoever bows his knee to Jesus must also fall prostrate before Mary he saith they have both one flesh one Spirit and one love and one glory that she cannot be separated from his dominion and power and that they both stand before the face of God to interceed for us and obtain remission of sins From Arnoldus I proceed to Bernard who flourished almost Six hundred years ago He was bred a Monk in a dark Age and his Sermons of the Virgin Mary's Assumption are full of very extravagant and unwarrantable expressions He calls her the Queen of Heaven and Queen of mercy and Lady of all things He saith When she ascended on high she also gave good gifts unto men seeing she neither wanted power nor will Not power because she was the Mother of God nor will because all her bowels were Charity He talks much about her Coronation and saith That no man can find out the length and breadth and heighth and depth of her mercy and that Christ bestows all his gifts and graces through her and exhorts us to give God thanks who in mercy provided us such a Mediatrice and in short what apprehensions he had for her may be seen from a prayer which begins thus We lift our hearts and eyes and hands unto thee O Queen of the World we kneel and bow before the glory of thy highness and send up our prayers with sighs unto thee to Heaven The rest of the prayer is like the beginning and towards the latter end of it he hath this expression Speak O Lady for thy Son hears and will grant whatsoever thou shalt ask There are also many such extravagant and unwarrantable things said of her and many prayers directed unto her in the Homilies de Tempore upon Christ's Nativity and the Homilies de Sanctis especially in that of the Assumption falsely ascribed to S. Augustin as the writers of the Latin Church are forced to acknowledge I have also omitted the extravagant sayings and notions about her in the School-men as that her ‖ Suarez 3. p. disp 18. S. 4. Grace was greater in the first moment of her Conception than the Grace of the highest Angel and that in the second it was doubled and so increased in Geometrical proportion unto her lives end and that she was dearer to God than the whole reasonable Creation and that he loved her more than the Universal Church I have also passed over the many Legendous stories that are told of her and to shew how dangerous it is for men to magnifie her above the condition of an humane Creature I think I may tell you of C. Scribanius Provincial of the Belgick Jesuits who in a rapture of Devotion to the blessed Virgin made a Copy of * Haereo lac inter meditans interque cruorem Inter delicias uberis lateris c. There is also such a Copy of Verses in Gazaeus his Pia Hilaria Latin Verses wherein he equals the benefits and merit of her milk to that of his bloud I have also omitted their Ancient Offices in which there are prayers to S. Joachim the Father and to S. Anne the Mother of the blessed Virgin wherein they put * Breviar Sar. July 26. O vas coelestis gratiae mater Reginae Virginum memento mater inclyta quà m potens es per filiam her in mind of the power she hath by her Daughter and tell him ‖ Brev. Rom. Antiqu. Mart. 20. O Pater summae Joachim puellae potes omne si vis nihil nepos Jesus meritò negabit nil tibi nata that his Nephew Jesus and his Daughter Mary will deny him nothing But you will perhaps say that the Latin Church hath laid aside these Devotions God be thanked for it and grant the happy time may come when she will lay aside all the rest that I have cited after the example of this truly Catholick and Apostolick Church of which we are members but then though she hath laid them aside yet since she formerly allowed and approved them she must as a learned * The Author of the R. Devotions Author observes be answerable for them till she acknowledges she was mistaken The rejecting and reforming of these and ‖ As of S. Julian in Miss secund usum Sarum Rothom Edit S. Batilde ibid. S. Scholastica ibid. S Potentiana ibid. S. Aldelmus ibid. S Martin B. and Conf. ibid. S. Sabina ibid. S. Andoenus ibid. other Offices cannot consist with her pretensions to Infallibility which I observe in answer to that Plea which saith it is most reasonable for men to be of the Infallible Church I confess a man were mad that would not rather be of an Infallible than a Fallible Church but then it is obvious to Reply That it is one thing for a Church to be Infallible and another for her or others to say she is so nay I desire to know if any Church is ever a jot the more Infallible for pretending to Infallibility or if those men do not act rationally who chuse to continue under the care of Learned and modest Physicians that own themselves Fallible rather than commit themselves to those who give out Bills of this or that Infallible Cure Thus have I shew'd you from the Ancient and Modern approved Authors of the Latin Communion how extravagant the Votaries of the blessed Virgin are in the honors they pay unto her and as I shewed before that there is no ground for them in Scripture So I am sure there is