Again Thou having the power of a Mother with God dost beyond measure gain Pardon for them who sin beyond measure For it cannot be that thou shouldst not be heard because to all purposes and in all things and through all things God obeys thee as his true and immaculate Mother This was pretty well for the eighth Age as likewise was that of Damascene who calls the B. Virgin †Joh. Damasc lib. 4. c. 15. The Lady and Go verness of all Creatures No wonder therefore that Cardinal Peter Damian coming long after these telleth her that she comes before the Altar of Reconciliation not asking only but commanding as a Lady not as a Servant I know not whether he was the Author of those glorious Titles which have since furnished some of the Hymns that we meet with in the Offices of the Blessed Virgin * Hom. 46 de Nativ B Mar. 1. Tom. 2 p. 106. The Queen of the World The Window of Heaven The Gate of Paradise The Tabernacle of God The Star of the Sea The Heavenly Ladder by which the Heavenly King came down to us below and by which man who grovelled upon the ground ascends in exaltation to Heaven But Anselm that lived in the same Age with him speaks more fully ‖ Anselm Cant. de Excell Virgin c. 11. As God is the Father and God of all things by his power creating all things so Blessed Mary the Mother of God restoring all things by her Merits is the Mother and Lady of the Vniverse Which agrees very well with that reason he had given before why her Son went to Heaven before her †Ibid. c. 7. Perhaps O Lord lest thy Court in Heaven should stand in doubt whom it should rather go out to meet See Answer to Jesuits Chall from p. 478. to p. 495. thee their Lord coming to take possession of thy Kingdom or her their Lady ascending to that Kingdom also which belonged to her by a Mothers right To this nothing could be added in so little a time beyond Bonaventure's Psalter who taking the Psalms of David put in Lady instead of Lord in this manner O come let us sing unto our Lady c. Let every thing that hath breath praise our Lady But not content with this he framed the * Psalt Bonav p. 111 112 Paris Athanasian Creed to her Service too beginning thus Whosoever will be saved before all things it is necessary that he should hold a firm Faith concerning the Virgin Mary which Faith except a man keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly And now whosoever shall consider the Litanies of the Blessed Virgin and her Rosaries and the Prayers and Hymns of her Saturday's Office and her Psalters and the vast number of Books of Devotion to her and the Worship that is accordingly given to her in pretended Catholick Countries whosoever shall consider what they say to her in those Prayers and Hymns c. which the Speculum Beatoe Virginis just now published has put together may perhaps find there are Causes of Horror which Monsieur de Meaux is not so much concerned at as he ought to be He may justly fear that if the Reformation did not give some little check neither would these excesses stop here though in many places nothing now remains to be done but without any farther reservedness to erect Altars proper to the Blessed Virgin in every Church as the †Trigautii Exp. ad Sinas lib. 5. c. 15.20 Jesuites began to do in China O Blessed God look down in thy mercy upon the miserable estate of Christianity in so many parts of the Christian World When the Blessed Virgin foretold that all Generations should call her Blessed did she mean that all Generations would Worship her would Worship her Images and Pictures would make her a Mediatrix between God and man would ascribe to her the power not of prevailing with Jesus only for any thing but of commanding him too would offer Jesus himself a Sacrifice in her Honour should burn Incense to her would use Rosaries Hours and Psalters for her especial Invocation and Service would institute and maintain Fraternities for that Service would build Temples and Chappels to her and Altars and by most solemn Invocation every-where and by proper Rites of Religious Worship and by letting Devotion run out to her more than to our Lord Jesus himself to agnize her to be the Lady of Heaven and Earth the Queen of the World No she did not mean thus in saying that all Generations should call her Blessed For thus all Generations have not served her Nothing of all this was done to her for several Generations after Christ nor any thing of it in comparison till the dregs of Time till the decay of Learning and Piety made way for gross Superstition The first beginnings of these Corruptions were more general but the Improvements of them were chiefly owing to the See of Rome which as it grew in power and greatness so it protected those Abuses more effectually A Character very ill-beseeming a Church that pretends to be the Pillar and Ground of Truth The Wit of Man could not devise any thing more serviceable to Errour to make it spread in the World and to fix it than that a powerful See grasping at Supremacy and pretending to Infallibility should take it under her wing This See is the Source of all those Oppositions which they have met with that demanded a Reformation it is this See alone which hath obstructed a general Reformation when Christendom was otherwise well disposed towards it Therefore when Reformation by common consent was made Impossible by the See of Rome what remained but that the National Churches should reform themselves Our Reformation was a return to Primitive Antiquity and that it may prove a leading example let us pray without ceasing That God would bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived THE END Faults to be Corrected PAge 81 seventh line from the bottom for Consciences read Concessions P. 82 l. 3. for Reconciled r. Recommended P. 80 l. 6. for them read then P. 88 l. 7. for safely r. falsly P. 92 l. 3. for Prayers r. Praises A Catalogue of some Discourses Sold by T. Basset at the George in Fleetstreet 1. A Perswasive to an Ingenuous Tryal of Opinons in Religion 2. The Difference of the Case between the Separation of the Protestants from the Church of Rome and the Separation of Dissenters from the Church of England 3. A Discourse about the Charge of Novelty upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists asking us the Question Where was our Religion before Luther 4. The Protestant Resolution of Faith being an Answer to Three Questions I. How far we must depend on the Authority of the Church for the true Sence of Scripture II. Whether a visible Succession from Christ to this day makes a Church which has this visible Succession an Infallible Interpreter of Scripture and whether no Church which has not this visible Succession can teach the true Sence of Scripture III. Whether the Church of England can make out such a visible Succession 5. A Discourse concerning a Guide in matters of Faith with Respect especially to the Romish pretence of the Necessity of such a one as is Infallible 6. A Discourse about Tradition shewing what is meant by it and what Tradition is to be Recieved and what Tradition is to be Rejected 7. A Discourse concerning the Unity of the Catholick Church maintained in the Church of England 8. A Discourse concerning the Necessity of Reformation with respect to the Errours and Corruptions of the Church of Rome In two Parts 9. A Discourse concerning the Object of Religious Worship or a Scripture-Proof of the Unlawfulness of giving any Religious Worship to any other Being besides the one Supreme God 10. A Discourse against Transubstantiation 11. A Discourse concerning the Adoration of the Host as it is Taught and Practised in the Church of Rome Wherein an Answer is given to T. G. on that Subject and to Monsieur Bocleau's late Book de Adoratione Eucharistioe Paris 1685. 12. A Discourse concerning Invocation of Saints 13. A Discourse concerning the Devotions of the Church of Rome 14. A Discourse concerning the Celebration of Divine Service in an Unknown Tongue 15. A Discourse concerning Auricular Confession as it is Prescribed by the Council of Trent and Practised in the Church of Rome With a Postscript on occasion of a Book lately printed in France called Historia Confessionis Auricularis 16. A Discourse concerning the Worship of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints with an Account of the Beginnings and Rise of it amongst Christians In Answer to Monsieur de Meaux's Appeal to the Fourth Age in his Exposition and his Pastoral Letter A Collection of Cases and other Discourses lately written to recover Dissenters to the Communion of the Church of England by some Divines of the City of London In two Volumes in Quarto
late If the Church had then for an hundred and fifty years together served her as the Queen of Heaven with solemn Rites of Worship That man who ventured to disparage the B. Virgin in this fashion was foolish to Admiration But if Origen knew that the Church had given her these Honors from the beginning he wise was enough to have stopped this Madman's mouth with that Argument or rather to have said nothing of him since no body could need any instruction to hold him for a ridiculous Fellow But he thought fit to instruct the people how they should answer this man and that in this manner If Mary was pronounced Blessed in those hymns that were uttered by the instinct of the holy Spirit How can any man say that our Saviour denied her Origen speaks very honorably of the B. Virgin but yet he represents her as an instance of humane Frailty and one that needed Forgiveness of sins as well as the Apostles and that because she was offended as he it seems was perswaded at the Passion of Christ What says he do we think that when the Apostles were scandalized that the Mother of our Lord was free from it And so he interprets those words A Sword shall pierce through thy own Soul also by this paraphrase The Sword of unbelief shall pierce thy own Soul and thou shalt be smitten with the edge of Doubtfulness I doubt it will not be convenient to enquire of Origen any further As for Athenagoras Minutius Felix St. Cyprian Arnobius Lactantius they have left us nothing at all concerning her unless St. Cyprian says somewhere that Christ was conceived in the Womb of a Virgin c. But if that be all I am sure he neglected some very inviting occasions of putting his People in mind of a great deal more which he ought not to have neglected if the Doctrine of the Primitive Church concerning the B. Virgin had been the same with that of the pretended Catholick Church at this day And so we are gotten out of the three first Ages But perhaps Athanasius makes amends for all that were before him in the Sermon upon the Annuntiation of the Blessed Virgin That Sermon I confess is a very surprising thing to any man that considers there was not the least preparation for the Doctrine it would pretend to establish in the foregoing Ages But then this as well as many other things that go under the name of Athanasius is none of his as Bellarmin and others of his party obliged by the Strength of Truth have actually confessed And in all probability it was written no less than 348 Years after his Death In his genuine Works there is more frequent mention of the Virgin then in the Fathers before him especially in his Orations against the Arrians which he wrote about the Year 360. But we must go further down to find where her Worship began for as yet there is no Appearance of it Hilary who wrote about the same time says nothing new in this Matter Hilar. Pictav Com. in Matth. p. 497. He does Industriously assert the Virginity of Mary which and the like things were done by some of those that went before him But of her Worship not a word To conclude the Fathers do generally speak of her without the Addition of any Title of Honor. For the most part they call her Mary sometimes the Virgin the Mother of our Lord rarely and the mother of God never I think till the Church was obliged to guard the belief of the Divine Nature of Christ by all kind of proper Expressions And even then this honourable Appellation was used not for her sake but to secure the right Faith of our Lord's Divinity especially against the Nestorian Heresie In short the Protestants do customarily mention the Virgin Mother with honorable Additions beyond what the Fathers of the Three First Ages did But we Worship her just as they did that is Rev. 19.10 not at all For my own part when I consider that she had the Glorious Priviledge to be the Mother of God I should have much ado to forbear regretting the little Regard wherewith some of the Fathers speak of her sometimes but that I find our Saviour himself in those * Luke 2.49 Ch. 11.27 28. Joh. 2.4 three Sayings concerning her which are reported in the Gospels not to Magnify her over greatly And the Truth is I should have wondred at that too had not the excess of later Devotion to her put me in mind that the H. Writers were guided by a Spirit of Prophecy and have therefore recorded nothing that Christ said to his most H. Mother but what might be of use in such times as these §. 8. Let us now see whether the Religion of Praying to Martyrs and Saints and Worshipping their Images and Reliques has the Authority of the Primitive Church and all Antiquity It may very well be presumed that it has not unless we think that the Fathers preferred the other Saints before the B. Virgin But to say the Truth tho hitherto the Virgin and the rest of the Saints were equal as to any Religious Worship neither she nor they being yet thought of for that purpose yet when Superstition at length began to creep into the Church the Martyrs got the start of the Virgin In process of time her Worship overtopped theirs but theirs began before her turn came The most holy Religion of the Gospel was delivered all at once and which is most considerable it is the Religion which God hath sealed and so it was and is all of a piece But the Corruption of that Religion coming on by degrees as contingent Occasions gave Birth and Growth to it could not be regularly contrived but would need a great deal of patching and mending to bring it to a Face of Uniformity As for Praying to Saints I know not how any Man can imagin that the Primitive Fathers taught or used it who considers in what Terms they taught that God only was to be Invocated That they counted the Worship of Invocation a better Sacrifice than those which had been offered to God as the Law of Moses required and which all acknowledge were to be offered to God only and that they argued the Divinity of Christ from hence that Prayers were to be offered to him Irenoeus tells us that the Church did nothing by Invocations of Angels or Incantations to them or any other evil Curiosity Fevardentius pretends that this excludes evil Spirits only from being invoked But let any unprejudiced Man judge by what follows Iren. lib. 2. c. 57. But says he she directs her Prayers chastly purely and manifestly to the Lord that made all things Now according to Fevardentius he should have added and to good Spirits also For 't is a vain thing to say that he intended to oppose those only that Worshipped malicious Spirits since if this had been his Intention the plain laws of Discourse had obliged him rather to omit
be done upon Prayers made where the Reliques of the Martyrs were that is at their Memories And some thereupon believed that they were done at their Intercession and joyning their own Prayers with the Prayers of the Christian that came thither In which they were more confirmed by some confident Reports of Visions and Apparitions of the Martyrs to those that had obtained their suits Aug. de Curâ pro Mortis c. 16. Now of those who believed the Martyrs were within hearing it is very likely that some called to them with an Ora pro nobis and then no wonder that Eunapius charged the Monks with raking for dead mens Bones and making dead men the Messengers of their Prayers As for the Miracles said to be done in those times they are urged by the Romanists as an invincible argument of Gods approving the honour that was given to the Saints and their Reliques in that Age of the Church But I wish they would attend to what St. Augustine says who after a pretty large account of Miracles that were wrought in his time and some too at the Memories of Martyrs plainly says that whether they were wrought by the Ministry of Martyrs or Angels for that he knew not they were wrought to give Testimony to that Faith for which the Martyrs died Aug. de Civ Dei lib. 22. c. 9. and particularly to the Resurrection of Christ and to our Resurrection at the last day There is no reason to suppose that every circumstance of the Devotion of Christians that received miraculous relief must be attested by those Miracles which God wrought in farther confirmation of the truth of Christianity God has made use even of wicked men for the working of Miracles and I cannot understand why a Miracle may not be wrought in behalf of a sincere man without approving his weakness any more than the others wickedness is approved by Gods making use of him to testifie the truth But I would be content to let them use this Argument from Miracles without contradiction if they would extend it no farther than in favour of that use of Reliques which we yet meet with In the fourth Age they ransacked all places for them and when as they thought they got 'em they put them in fine Linnen or in curious Boxes and Repositories and laid them up in the Church But whatever good they expected from these Treasures they did not yet worship them they did not Incense them and expose them to receive the Adorations of the People Vigilantius it seems had asked with some derision Why dost thou kiss and adore a little Dust put up in fine Linnen Hieron Adv. Vigil Tom. 2. p. 158. Colon. To which St. Hierom that went as high as any in the Age for honouring Reliques answered Who O thou giddy-brain'd man ever adored the Martyrs Who has taken a man for God Indeed St. Hierom thought that holy Reliques made the Devils roar for very pain but yet he did not think that they were to be adored Ibid. no not the Martyrs themselves but God onely We could wish that all Superstition were banish'd from amongst Christians but if the Church of Rome would be content with such things as St. Hierom blames in some silly men and religious women that had a Zeal but not according to knowledge Ibid. viz. burning Wax-Candles by day-light in honour of the Martyrs we would be content too for these are tolerable faults and such as should not break the Peace though they were better mended I would say to any contentious man what St. Ibid. Hierom said to Vigilantius What dost thou lose by it if others are a little foolish I confess I should beg of these Gentlemen for the honour of our Religion and of the testimony of Miracles not to pretend the Miracles of the fourth and fifth Ages as a testimony to every Punctilio of Honour done in those times to the Reliques of the Saints to the opinion which some conceived of them And as I said before it would be more discreetly done to let those Miracles go as St. Austin did for a notable confirmation of the Truth of that Religion for which those Martyrs died by whose dead Bodies God was pleased to do some wonderful things But it is by no means advisable to stretch them in favour of some other things whereof the lighting of Candles for the Martyrs may go for one and the unwillingness of some of 'em to build Churches unless they could get Reliques to lay there for another and the scattering of Reliques in little pieces up and down may pass for a third and stealing them for a fourth which I know not how came to be excused at least as an effect of great and religious Zeal by some men of no mean note I do not think such things as these are very easie to be defended and therefore it were much better that Miracles were not brought in to justifie them But least of all should they be urged in favour of that kind of Worship which the Church of Rome now gives them and not onely to the Bodies Bones or Ashes but to the Girdles Slippers and little Vtensils of the Saints and Martyrs which kind of things anciently were not thought of God wrought Miracles by the hands of St. Paul and the rest of the Apostles when they were alive Now if we had their Bones or some pieces of them and God should be pleased to work Miracles by them still there would be I am confident no more reason upon this account to give their Reliques any Religious Worship now the Apostles are dead than there was to worship the Apostles themselves upon the same account when they were alive Moreover God wrought Miracles by the Brazen Serpent and yet when the People had faln to burn Incense to it it was broken to pieces to his great honour who opposed a Zeal with knowledge to the blind Zeal of the People But to deal freely I am not fully satisfied that these Miracles by the Bodies of Saints and Martyrs were half so frequent as the noise that was made of them in this Age or in the next would make us believe I more than fear that those times were too credulous or that the Writings of those Fathers have met with more foul play than has been yet discovered though no small discoveries of that kind have been made since the Reformation It is some prejudice against the credibility of those relations that in the three first Ages we hear nothing of Miracles wrought by Reliques which we are not to wonder at because they lay quiet in their Graves and the Ancient Church was so little concerned in this Religion of Reliques that the Bodies of Martyrs that suffered under Dioclesian and Licinius that is Ambros de Exhort ad Virg. Sozom. lib. 9. c. 2. at the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth Age lay undiscovered till Chance or pretended Revelations brought them to light
respected even till now as the Doctors of Truth But hold a little if great Names will do the business let us see what we can do in this kind Can you endure my Brethren those who have forsaken the Ireneus's the Justin-Martyrs the Clemens's of Alexandria the Tertullians the Origens the Cyprians the Athanasius's whom all Christians do pretend even now to respect as Doctors of Truth Those my Brethren that were more Ancient than the Ambroses c. and most of whom laid down their lives in a Glorious Martyrdom which none of the other did It is true Brethren p. 29. that some part of the Prophecies was fulfilled when the Empire took the Church into its protection but we do not find it was foretold also that the Christians of that Age would be wiser or better than their Forefathers p. ◠Does not Monsieur de Meaux tell us that Antichrist must come according to the Predictions of the Apostles But when that happens the times are not to be much the better for it It was the admirable goodness of God to Crown the Church at last with Peace and Glory But do not think the Authority of that Age is to be regarded the more because it was Illustrious for the Wealth and Splendor of this World least by the same reason you should undervalue the Authority of the more Ancient Ages which were Illustrious for nothing but Truth and Godliness and Martyrdom which if you should do my Brethren might we not well cry out Oh prodigy unheard of amongst Christians that we should begin to think it a better mark of a pure Church to have it in its power to persecute others than to endure persecution her self after the example of Christ and his Apostles It is an easie matter to requite a Declamation But would not the Bishop of Meaux say to this that the Ireneus's c. do not condemn what is now practised in the Church of Rome So do we say that we are far from charging the Ambroses c. with Idolatry and that the Doctrines and Practises of that Age with respect to the points that we are upon are so vastly different from what we now see in the Church of Rome that if the Church of Rome be Idolatrous it does by no means follow that the Fourth Age was so So that we must come to disputing at last whether we will or not if we talk of these questions to any purpose I have shewn the first steps that were made towards the Invocation of Saints which I confess is an Innovation maintained by the Church of Rome that of all the rest bids the fairest for Antiquity Because there was a certain Address to Martyrs used by many Christians and commended by some of the Fathers towards the latter end of the Fourth Age which looks something like it till you come near to examine the matter throughly But then you may discern so considerable a difference that 't is a vain thing to pretend that the Invocation of Saints as now practised in the Church of Rome was as Ancient as the Conclusion of the Fourth Age. All that we need to grant is this That those beginnings are so Ancient which first did give occasion to it and which with the help of Ignorance and Superstition did at length bring it into the Church § 10. Hitherto the Honour done to the Martyrs was that of Founding Churches upon their Reliques and frequenting them both for the publick Service of God and for private Devotions in which the Martyrs themselves were sometimes called upon as if they were present at their Memories But this was done before their Images came to be set up in the Church so much as for Ornament and long before they were thought of for Worship We have already noted the Act of Epiphanius in tearing the Picture of Christ or some other Saint for he knew not well what it was which he found upon a Veil An act of Indignation so much the more remarkable because the Church where it was done was in the Diocess of John Bishop of Hierusalem Hieron Tom. 2. Ep. 60. v. fin to whom therefore Epiphanius thought fit to give an account of it in that Epistle which is to be seen in St. Hierom's Works And the reason he gives for what he did is as remarkable as the Action was When I saw this in a Church of Christ that the Picture of a man should be hanged up there against the Authority of the Scriptures I tare it c. And again I intreat thee to command the Presbyters of that place to provide for the future that such Veils being contrary to what our Religion allows may not be hanged up in the Church of Christ. But as for the Images of Martyrs and Saints why should I go about to prove that they were not yet brought into Churches when the pretended Catholicks are fain to give reasons why they were hardly to be met with amongst Christians even out of Churches Petavius excuseth the matter thus The Images of Christ and the Saints were not used lest they should be taken by the rude and unskilful people for Idols to which they shad been accustomed And afterward Petav. Dogm Theol. Tom. 4. part 2. c. 13. p. 582 583. Images are not evil of themselves nor forbidden by any Law of God nevertheless that no shadow of Superstition and Idolatry might give offence to the tender and as I may say the unsetled minds of Christians and that the Gentiles might not object to those of our Religion who abhorred Idols and disswaded men from them that themselves also had certain Images of their own is likely they were but sparingly used for about the first Four Ages all which time the abominable Worship of Devils in Idols together with a most cruel vexation of the Christian name went on At length the Fifth Age being come after that the Church had gained her freedom and began boldly to stretch forth her arms Images began to appear in most places and were shewn in Temples and Oratories whereas hitherto though they had been in some use yet they were not to be seen so promiscuously and frequently In good time But if such a man as Petavius could have shewn any use of Images all this while that any Art could draw to his purpose he had not served the Cause with this miserable account of the late setting up of Images With the like to which Salmeron satisfied himself as to the silence of the Scriptures about the Worship of Saints as we have already seen Now to make this appear likely he insists upon it that the Ancients disputed against the Temples and Altars of the Heathens though when peace and liberty was given to the Church the Christians had magnificent Churches and Altars of their own But nothing can be more vain for from the first the Church had its Altars or holy Tables and its holy Places too such as the times would permit And therefore this Instance doth
A great deal more to this purpose you may find in this excellent Father and that in the place by me cited by which you may see what the strain of that Age was as to the Blessed Virgin and how very unlike to that which was taken up in following times some instances of which we have in Homilies falsly attributed to * De uno Legislatore In Samaritanam c. Tom. 6. St. Chrysostom In short if we set aside spurious Writings such as the Sermon concerning the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin published in St. Hierom's Works and attributed by some to Sophronius but was most certainly written long after they were both dead and the two Prayers attributed to * Tom. 4. St. Ambrose Preparatory to Mass in the second of which God is desired according to the Genius of after times to inspire the Blessed Virgin first and then the Apostles and then the Martyrs and Confessors with the thought of praying to God for the Priest But the best learned amongst the Papists have been ashamed to produce these Prayers as St. Ambrose's they are so evidently suppositions If we set aside also the Book of Meditations which the Latin Rhymes that are in it convince of Novelty and the Treatise of the Assumption attributed to St. Austin and the Sermons under his name upon the Feast of the Annuntiation which could be none of his because that Feast was not then in being And in one word all those Writings which Learned men of the Roman Communion have themselves confessed to be at least doubtful though they had for some time gone under the names of Fathers of the Fourth Age. Setting these aside I say we find but moderate things spoken of the Blessed Virgin After all the pains that have been taken to make some of her Festivals Ancient it is more than probable that as yet she had none and that the Fathers of the Fourth Age who are cited for one or two of them have been without their consent made to speak the sence of after-Ages that were loath to be destitute of all pretence from Antiquity for making the honour of the Blessed Virgin out-shine all that was done to others Martyrs and Saints For the * Constit Apost l. 8. c. 33. Constitutions do not so much as mention one of her Festivals where one would think they should have omitted none The Salutation of Ave Maria has now for some time run through the Religion of the Church of Rome in publick and private Devotions but in this Age no Example or Recommendation of any such thing is to be met withal No nor one Prayer to her do we yet hear of which plainly shews that whatever the superstition of some one private Person or other might be of which we cannot affirm or deny any thing her Worship was no part of the Religion of the Age. If you would know the first bold man after the Collyridians that brought her into the Church to be invocated Nicephorus will tell you it was †Niceph. Hist l. 15. c. 28. one Peter Fullo a Bishop indeed but an Eutychian who found out four very profitable things if you will believe Nicephorus one whereof was that the holy Name of the Virgin should be called upon in every Prayer How the invention of this man was entertain'd I cannot say He lived near the sixth Age. But neither is thus much Antiquity to be boasted of nor was it for the credit of the Innovation to have an Heretick for its Author The Church was full of the Memories of the Martyrs but as yet the Blessed Virgin had none What a strange thing was it that Theodoret who ran the honour of the Martyrs to that height that it requires some Candour 〈◊〉 bring him down with safety and honour that he I say should make no mention at all of the Blessed Virgin and the Solemnities that were due to her and that in â— Discourse where he professedly brings in the Martyrs supplanting those Doemons which had been so long served by the Pagan World He could name * Theod. de 〈◊〉 â—ndis Graec. affect De Martyr ad Fin. Peter Paul Thomas Sergius Marcellus Leontius Antoninus and Mauritius Do we think the Blessed Virgin had been left to be understood amongst the other Saints that had their Solemnities also if she had had even in Theodoret's time any at all But why should we talk of her Memories when as yet her Reliques were not sound nor in all likelihood sought for since if they had 't is not to be doubted but those Monks or others like them that went up and down with the Bones of Martyrs if indeed they were Martyrs Bones would have gratified the curiosity of devout People with some of those Reliques that Posterity a long time after was blessed with viz. some of the Blessed Virgin 's Hair her Combs her Hood her Slipper her Espousal Ring nay and some of her Milk too with such other things which came not to light till some Ages after the zeal of Reliques began in the Church But when once Devotion began to turn towards her no time was lost and though it was late first yet her Service presently overtook and at last went beyond the honour that was done to the other Saints and Martyrs The Thirteenth Age produced a Relique of the B. Virgin so famous for the Miracle that brought it into Europe and for the Miracles that have been done by it ever since that the Reliques of the other Saints are nothing to it And that is her House once at Nazareth where she was Born and visited by the Angel which House was carried by Angels out of Palestine into Dalmatia and from thence into Italy where it now stands and is our Lady of Loretto's Chappel By the Forthteenth Century she had gain'd no less than seven Festivals in the year which I mention to shew the growing Devotion of the Roman Church towards the B. Virgin not that we make this any great matter of complaint no though they were twice seven if the Facts upon which they were grounded were true and the grounds reasonable and God onely were worshipped in the celebration of such Festivals The later Doctors have made too much amends for the modesty of the Ancient Fathers who spake indeed of her very honourably but within bounds The World was something altered in the middle of the Seventh Age if Pope Martin said what we find in †Collectan Anast. p. 73. Anastasius Whoever does not Honour and Adore the Blessed Virgin the Mother of God let him be accursed Of which Curse * German in Biblioth P. Tom. 12. p. 704. Germanus the Patriarch of Constantinople was in no danger if he addressed himself in this manner to the Blessed Virgin No body is replenished with the knowledge of God but by thee O most Holy No body is saved but by thee O Mother of God No body is delivered from danger but by thee O thou beloved of God