Here now the door is set wide open to give admittance to all the throng of Fables that any one will invent under pretence to advance her Honour The Evangelists have said Truth enough to make Jesus glorious and they are resolved to try what may be done for Mary in the other way And every Monk or Nun of a busie Fancy is perpetually teeming forth some new privilege to grace the B. Virgin withal Albertus Magnus p De Land. Virg. super missus est had got them up to Fourteen Vinc. Bandelis q De Concept Virg. Part. 2. p. 183. reckons Twelve Privileges bestowed on her from the Fourteenth Year of her Age and afterwards which considering this date of them is an increase But Spinellus has made them up above a Score r Mariae Thronus Dei. c. 20. p. 252 253. which I will set down out of him that the Reader may try how many of them he could have Collected by perusing the Four Gospels without the help of those forenamed Principles They are these 1. She was not only elected by God but pre-elected before all others Cantic 6.8,9 There are Sixty Queens and Eighty Concubines and Virgins without number My Beloved my undefiled is but one the only one of her Mother the choice one of her that bare her 2. That she was promised by Heaven to the Fathers prefigured by mystical Miracles foretold by Prophetick Oracles and by the Sybils was honourably predicted 3. That she sprang by the kindness of God from barren Parents that vowed to give to God the Off-spring he should bestow on them that an Angel foretold her Nativity to her Parents which we do not read in the Scriptures concerning any other Woman no nor of her neither there 4. That she only of all the Children of Adam that descended from him by the ordinary way of Propagation per seminalem rationem was free from Original Sin. 5. That in the very beginning of her immaculate Conception she was so confirmed in Grace that ever after she was without stain of actual though but venial Sin. 6. That the Fomes peccati that which like Tinder so soon kindles in us was extinct in her so that she never was sensible of that Tyrannous Law of the Members or the Rebellion of the lower Part. 7. That in her very Conception she had the use of Reason and made a Vow of Virginity to God from which instant also she began to merit and that the merit of her Works was never interrupted no not so much as in her sleep 8. That in the same Conception of hers she was adorned with all Theological and Cardinal Vertues and that in that Heroick Degree as well as with all the gratiae gratis datae graces freely given 9. That at the Age of Three Years she was in the Temple according to her Parents Vow consecrated to God and there was most holily Educated 10. That this Blessed Person among Women escaped all that Curse to which mankind by reason of Adam's Sin was obnoxious 11. That she alone that had conceived without any lustful Pleasure did not undergo the Irksomness that other Women with Child are subject to 12. That by a Virgin Birth she brought forth God without pain 13. That the Lord's Body exhibited in the H. Eucharist is formed of her Blood in her Virgin Womb which therefore is compared Cant. 7. to a heap of Wheat set about with Lilies 14. That she in a singular manner did many ways co-operate to our Salvation 15. That the Fruit of Christ's Passion was in a singular manner communicated to her and standing courageously by the Cross of her Son was pierced through with the Sword of grief and therefore she first of all saw Christ when he arose from the Dead 16. That she was the Instructer and Mistress of the Apostles and Teachers 17. That her Body did not see Corruption but being assumed and taken up to Heaven in Body and Soul before the common Resurrection she was placed above the Choires of Angels and Orders of Saints at the Right-hand of her Son where she makes a distinct Order Chorus above them all and she alone obtained more glory than all the rest of the Saints and Angels put together 18. That her presence brought a great deal of accidental Joy to the Blessed in Heaven 19. That she is the Queen of Heaven and Lady of all the Angels and Saints 20. That she is the common Advocate of Sinners the Mother of Mercy the Mediatrix to intercede for them and that she is also the Mother of the Living and promotes the Salvation of all Men. 21. That she is so formidable and terrible to the Devils that they presently fly away at the mention of her Name and much more at her Command and that she hath powerfully broken their Head. 22. That all the Graces and Privileges that are dispersed among other Saints are found united in her after a far more perfect manner Thus far he But others * Paul Comitolus reckons up 130. Privileges Alegambe Bibl. p. 363. have enlarged her Privileges to above an Hundred These are a few Instances among many which will afterwards occurr that give the Reader a taste of the New Faith and Gospel concerning the Virgin Mary which is taught in this Church With such particulars as these the Hymns and Lessons of their Breviaries are stuffed For to establish the believe of them many of their Festivals are Instituted and to the Scandal of Christianity as well as the eternal reproach of their Missions Hierome Xaveriâ—s a Jesuit in the History of Christ which he published in the Persian Tongue An. Dom. 1602. being commanded to give an account of the Life and Actions of our Saviour by the Great Mâ—gol he not contenting himself with an Impartial delivery of that Faith which the Apostles taught and was once delivered to the Saints has together with the Gospel Story interwoven idle Tales and fabulous Legends derived from Gossiping Tradition or taken out of Books confessed by themselves to be Apocryphal and the Fictions of ancient Hereticks especially what refers to the Bl. Virgin which I suppose he intended for this end that all his Converts should set her up for an Object of their Religious Veneration otherwise that first Faith might have been sufficient for them which served those first Christians and made them wise to Salvation who only worshipped God the Father Son and Holy Ghost From all that has been said it cannot but appear that this Church has made a very bold attempt for which they must answer one day to God among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the many that have Adulterated the Word of God and corrupted it by their bad mixtures And there shame will still more appear when their sorry pretences for doing all this are laid down and examined which I shall now give a further account of They confess s Carthagena de S. arcan Deip. l. 13. hom 1. that it has been the
she now was no longer a Widow but should conceive Molanus g Lib. 3. de Imag. c. 55. tells us of a Picture in which was exhibited Joachim and Anna kissing one another at the golden Gate with this Inscription Taliter concepta est B. Maria Thus was the B. Virgin conceived The like I have met with in the Hora of the Carmelites printed at Lyons 1516. with a Motto little different His Joachim dato osculo Virginem Mariam ex Anna concepit Here Joachim by a Kiss conceived the B. Virgin of Anne And Pelbartus h Lib. 4. Stellar p. 2. art 1. affirms that this was the Sence of some of the common People in his time If the Jesuit Poza's forenamed Rule were true seeing it makes so apparently for the Honour of the B. Virgin methinks this Opinion should prevail but since the Fathers have over-ruled it especially Epiphanius i Haeres 79. calling it an Error of unhappy Men for Mary is not God says he nor received a Body from Heaven but was begot of a Man and Woman however they will consult her Honour as far as they can in this matter and yet avoid too that Heresy as Gononus k Chronic. Deip. p. 2. calls it The forenamed Jesuit l Poza Elucid l. 3. tr 2. c. 1. finds a comfortable Mystery in it for asking the Question why the B. Virgin was generated by a Man and Woman and did not come of a Virgin one of his Answers is That God took care hereby that Mary might be most dear to us and therefore she was begotten of a Man and Woman that she might more fully agree with us in the same Nature by which Reason if God intended that Jesus should have been most dear to us he should not have been born of the Virgin Mary Others that will grant her Conception to have been after the Conjugal Commerce yet assert that it was without any Motions of Concupiscence So another Jesuit m Jac. Granado de immac concep B. Virg. p. 111. It is not to be said of the B. Virgin that she was begotten by Concupiscence which signifies somewhat Inordinate for the use of Matrimony by which she was begotten was most pure and altogether without Sin. So also S. Briget n Revel l. 1. c. 19. vel 9. When it was foretold them by the Angel that they should beget a Virgin from whom the Saviour of the World should proceed they would have chosen to die rather than join in Carnal Love and all pleasure was dead in them and afterwards contra voluptatem suam ex semine eorum per divinam charitatem caro mea compaginata est By the Divine Love my Flesh was compacted of their Seed contrary to their pleasure This Galatinus o De Arcan l. 7. c. 8. has explained more fully I confess says he that S. Joachim and S. Anne did couple as Man and Wife yet their ardent Devotion and vehement Contemplation their Minds being upon better things did extinguish all Bodily pleasure all Lust and Concupiscence Which a Jesuit p Spinellus Mar. Deip. c. 18. p. 240. has thus illustrated As Lot being drunk with Wine did not perceive when he lay with his Daughters so the Parents of the most sacred Virgin being inebriated with Spiritual Love yet knowing well what they did which makes it a special parallel by a special privilege of God they did not feel any unbridled pleasure of Concupiscence but begat her just as our first Parents if they had not sinned would have procreated Children in Paradise for they know exactly how this matter would have been ordered there If these have hit the mark they must grant that S. Bernard was much mistaken when he says q Epist 174. ad Canon Lugd. Quomodo peccatum non fuit ubi libido non defuit c. How could her Conception be without Sin when it was not without Lust unless we say that she was Conceived by the Holy Ghost and not by Man The secret of this fancy is only to avoid a saying or two of S. Austin's r Or Fulgentius lib de fide ad Petrum p. 1. qu. 24. so also l. 1. de Nupt. Concupis c. 24. Ex concupiscentia carnis quâ—…cunque nescitur pâ—…leâ— originali est obligata pecato Believe firmly and in no wise doubt that every one that is conceived by the commixture of Man and Woman is born with Original Sin subject to death c. Which because he was unwilling to grant of the Blessed Virgin Galatinus restrains it thus He that is generated Per concubitum cum corporis libidine voluptate where the Parents have bad pleasure which is as wise a reasoning as if when one had made this a Rule That whatsoever is nourished will at length be corrupted and die another should put in this exception Yes if it eats its meat with pleasure otherwise it is not necessary But we have not yet done with their Conceits about her Formation Many will have her Body to be formed and animated differently from other Conceptions which they say ordinarily in Females is eighty days after the Man has known his Wife S. Amideus his Revelations Å¿ Apud Th. Raymud Dipt Marian. p. 22. say That the Soul was infused into the Body of the B. Virgin six hours after the use of Matrimony by her Parents her Flesh which was unusual being in that short space of time formed and figured Bapt. Poza t Elucidar l. 3. tract 3. c. 1 c. is peremptory That she had no part of her Body which was not compleatly perfect on the first day of her Conception so that she might have been fed at the Mouth and have beheld the common light Only he is put to it to resolve without a Miracle since she might have been born the same day she was Conceived how she could have been suckled if she had then been born since according to Fienus a humane Body when it is first quickened in the Womb does not much exceed the bigness of a Barley-Corn or as others of a young Bee and it is hard in such a small Body to imagine how the Mouth can receive and draw the Mothers Breasts and it would be to no purpose to trouble you with his foolish Resolution But if you ask again what End this invention of her momentaneous formation serves Though he conceals I think one Reason which is a thing mainly intended by them to make every thing almost in her to answer what was done in our Saviour whose Body the Schoolmen u See Aquinas 3 part qu. 33. art 1 2. Durandus l. 3. dist 2. qu. 2 Becanus Sum. Theol. part 3. tract 1. c. 5. qu. 2. Estius in 3 lib. sent dift. 2. sect 6. Greg. de Valentia Tom. 4. disp 1. qu. 6 punc 1. Greg. Gallicanus says the same after them Corpus Christi in instanti fult formatum perfecte in â—arra quantitate sicut una
apis Marial p. 165. generally make to have been formed in its several parts at once and at the same instant animated and united to the Divinity yet he discovers another Mystery and he will quickly resolve you x Elucid l. 2. tract 5. c. 2. That this did that for her which Christ's being born of a Virgin did for him viz. made her not guilty of Original Sin because not included in the Covenant with Adam her Conception not being ordinary but Miraculous Nay he goes so far as to Assert that by reason of this Miraculous formation she was excused à debito originalis peccati from being liable to Original Sin as well as from the sin it self As wisely also in another place y Ibid. tract 7. c. 1. he concludes that although no violence was done to the B. Virgin when she was made of the Female Sex yet considering the perfection of her Soul and Body it was a Miracle that she was not a Man rather than a Woman since all the wonderful productions mentioned in the Scripture that sprang of barren and effoete Parents were all Males We are told by Aegid Gelenius z De Colon. Magnit p. 266. of a great rarity shown at Colen viz. some remains of the place I suppose of the Dust or Earth where the Blessed Virgin was Conceived And Xaverius has given us another Discovery a Hist Christi p. 18. and I think none has prevented him herein that S. Anne conceived the Blessed Virgin upon a Thursday But all this refers to her Body and if there should be nothing Rare and Extraordinary said of her Soul this better part would bear no Proportion with the other But they have taken care that it shall have no reason to complain though we have for obtruding upon us such raw and indigested Fancies We all know that our Reason comes very slowly upon us and that the first Life we live is meerly animal Our Understanding begins to dawn a little like the first Peep of Day some while after we are born and so proceeds by an imperceptible Progress as Light does till we arrive at our Noon which is very late But in her they tell us it was quite otherwise Nescit tarda molimina c. Her Understanding is anticipated b Vinc. Bruni Med. de B. Virg. p. 74. and they give her the use of her Reason in the first Moment of her Being c Raynaudus ibid. p. 158. she had the Use of Free-Will and perfect Light in her Mind says S. Bernardine d De concep Virg. Serm. 4. Art. 1. c. 2. even in her Mothers Womb so that she could from the first Moment exercise supernatural Acts both of Knowledge and Faith e Raynaud ib. p. 159. and by this Use of her Reason she disposed herself to all that Grace that she received in her first Sanctification just as the School-men say That the Angels disposed themselves to all that Grace in which they were created For her Sanctification was not in the way that other Infants are sanctified f Vasquez in 3 part tom 2. qu. 27. art 6. c. 3 4. only by the Infusion and Reception of habitual Grace but instar adulti like one of age by her own proper Act of Conversion to God proceeding from the Assistance of Divine Grace Only here is a great Doubt whether this use of Reason was granted as a Privilege to the Blessed Virgin only for that Moment of her first Justification and Conception as Vasquez speaks g Ibid. c. 4. and then ceased till she came at the ordinary time to find it again as some Infants have by a Wonder spoke once and no more in their Infancy This he says indeed was Cajetan's Opinion but it seems more probable That the Blessed Virgin from the instant of her Conception and so forward all the time of her Infancy without Interruption had the full use of her Reason at least in those things that appertained to God and Vertue Having an uninterrupted Influence says our late Contemplator h Contempl. L. Gl. of H. Mary p. 20. of actual Graces so quickening her great Soul that no one Moment of her Life from the first Conception of her Soul was vacant from divine Contemplations heavenly Affections and Ecstasies of supernatural Love or as he more fantastically expresses it elsewhere i Ibid. p. 45. She from the first positive Instant of the Infusion of her Soul ever exercised the most sublime Operations of the contemplative and unitive Life without Recourse to the Images of Imagination or Dependance on Sense Her great Soul was so compleatly actuated even in the Womb of her Mother that her Contemplations Sallies of Love and Vnions with God were restless ever increasing in their Vigour and still expatiating through the vast Motives and Methods of mystical Love. Nay She was says another k Novarini Umbr. Virg. n. 1323. in such perpetual Contemplation of God and divine Things that she was never so busied or so fast asleep but she directed her Mind towards God and thought of him so that in this Respect she was in the State of the Blessed par beatis If you have a mind to understand this still more particularly the Contemplator l Ibid. p. 45. tells us That by the Help of abstractive Lights divinely infused were represented 1. The several Essences Attributes and Motions of the whole Body of the Creation in their several Degrees and Stations 2. The Divinity of God with its manifold Emanations Operations and inexplicable Comprehensions And 3. The Humanity of Jesus with all the Orders of Grace Mysteries of Salvation and extatick Loves of the Saints But S. Bernardine m Loc. ante citat informs us of Seven things that according to some she understood perfectly in her first Sanctification viz. in her Mothers Womb. 1. Irrational created Nature 2. Rational created Nature 3. Spiritual created Nature 4. Divine increated Nature 5. All things that were to be avoided 6. All things to be followed and embraced 7. After what manner and to what degree all things were to be hated or loved He that could believe all this might well add That she was when imprisoned in the Womb in a more sublime State of Contemplation than any humane Creature ever was in its perfect Age and though she slept in her Mothers Womb as other Infants do yet Sleep did not effect that in her it does in us for in us it buries the Acts of Reason and Free-Will and by Consequence Acts of Merit but I believe her Soul by free and meritorious acting did then tend unto God so that she did more perfectly contemplate when she slept than any others ever did when they were awake The Jesuit Poza n Elucidar lib. 2. trac 15. cap. 4. tells us of Fr. Ximenes a Patriarch of Jerusalem who has given an account of some of her sorrowful Thoughts and also joyful Reflections she made in her Mothers Womb.
him to wound thee with the Dart of Original Sin. The Characters which Solomon gives of the Spouse their Church has apply'd to her and they argue the same For She is among the Daughters as the Lily among the Thornes z See Delrio's Florida Mariana orat 1. applying this to her Cant. 2. Thou art all fair my Love there is no Spot in thee * Bellarm. Greg. Valentia ubi supra Cant. 4. Which we are told a Pelbartus l. 4. Stellar p. 1. art 3. were the Words of Alex. Ales which he spake when dying to the Virgin commending by her his Soul to God. Tota pulchra es amica mea nulla macula neque originalis neque actualis est in te Thou art Beautiful Comely as Jerusalem Terrible as an Army with Banners c. 6. My Dove my undefiled is but one The Daughters saw her and blessed her ibid. Who is she that looketh forth as the Morning fair as the Moon clear as the Sun c. Their Adversaries perhaps will say that these Texts rather agreed to her after-Sanctification than to her first Conception But Jac. de Valentia has one place in Reserve which he thinks comes home to the Point Psal 46.5 Adjuvabit eam deus manè diluculo God shall help her and that right early It had not been early enough if she had sinned in Adam before she was sanctified Thus we have seen as remarkable a Verification as can any where be met with of that usual Reproach they cast upon the Scriptures that it may be made a Nose of Wax to bend and stand any way I suppose they would not think it safe to use the Laws of the Land in this manner but according to their Principles they may make bolder with God Almighty and his Oracles for this is but a small matter for their Patroness to obtain Pardon for an Abuse of Scripture when one that sealed a Writing giving his Soul to the Devil to enjoy a Wench b Tursellinus in Hist Lauret lib. 3. c. 33. and another that denied Christ himself in such another Bargain with the Devil to get an Estate c Caesarius l. 2. exempl c. 12. Vinc. Belluac spec Hist l. 7. c. 105 106. yet both of them were secured and forgiven by applying themselves to the Blessed Virgin. As for their Arguments from Reason they are of the same Strain with the former very witty and very ridiculous The chief Argument that Bellarmine d Loc. ante citat and most of the Schoolmen insist on is this That it being certain that God could have preserved her from this Guilt the only Reason why he should not must be because he would not do it And here they undertake a pretty hard Task as well as a very sawcy one to determine what is decent and fitting for God to will in this Case when he has not declared one Syllable concerning it God be thanked that he has told us what he himself thought was fitting with Reference to our Saviour otherwise these Reasoners would undoubtedly have concluded That it was no decent Preparation for the coming of the Son of God into the World to lie in a Cratch nor for his going out of it to hang upon a Cross But Gods Thoughts are not like ours nor his Ways like our Ways Esa 55. But let us hear their Proofs such as they are 1. Some urge e Francisc a Christo ubi supra that it was most fitting God should do this in respect of the Mother for if she had been obnoxious to Sin she had not been idonea Mater Dei a fit Mother of God. Rupertus has been so bold before them to assert That it was requisite that she should be sanctified that is cleansed from all Sin both actual and original that so Christ that was born of her might be altogether Holy though I find one Jesuit f Raynaudus ibid. p. 215. says Quamvis Mater Christi sorduisset peccato Christus ex ea nasci potuisset neque tamen minus sanctus fuisset quam nunc sit quique sanctificaâ—to orta ex unione ad verbum fons secundariae sanctitatis Christo communicatae fuit independens à sanctitate Matris so Ingenuous as to profess that His Sanctity did not at all depend upon Hers. Here again their Fancies work amain It 's altogether fitting and becoming God's Wisdom says Gab. Biel g In Fest Concept Serm. 3. that the Immaculate Lamb of God should proceed from one that was immaculate and if so in Body why not rather so in Soul Christ would sit says another h Bernar. de buft Serm. 8. p. 86. upon the Foal of an Ass on which no Man had sate before and would lie in a Sepulchre in which no Man had lain so also take Flesh of a Virgin where the Devil had never sate and in whose Soul Sin had never dwelt If the Host i Idem Serm. 9. p. 99. Si in aliquo calice semel stercorizatum fuisset licet postea purificatus esset non tamen honestum esset in eo consecrare SS sanguinem Domini nostâ—i J. Christi sic indecens fuisset in muliere in qua semel Diabolus peccati stercora projecisset dei filium procreari Christus noluit acceptare in matrem nec Deus pater in Conjugem should fall into stinking Mire or into the Mouth of a Mad Dog or a Swine who would consecrate it into the Body of Christ So absurd would it be if of her that had rolled in the Filth of Sin and been worried in the Mouth of a stinking Devil foetentis Diaboli the most pure Body of our Saviour should have been form'd A Maculist may easily with one Breath blow away all these pretty Similitudes like so many Bubbles For it 's to be hoped that in spight of original Sin and the Devil one that is guilty of it if no other Sin intervenes may still be a true and pure Virgin and then the Sanctification of her Soul being supposed the Son of God resolving to be made Flesh need no more abhor this Virgins Womb than the Holy Ghost does the Bodies of those that have been very Impure after they are washed and sanctified so far from it that he vouchsafes to dwell there and they become his Temple 2. Others insist much upon the Virulency of original Sin k Raynaud ibid. p. 145. plerique alii which Raynaudus says always seem'd to him to be the strongest Argument For this is a mortal Sin and makes a Man a Child of Wrath and the Devil's Slave by reason of this an Infant is a Monster in that Rank of Beings that is destinated to a supernatural End. It seems clear therefore that original Sin which has so frightful and horrid a Form had no Place in her for so the Throne of God would have become the Seat of the Devil If she had been conceived under this Guilt says another l Bernar. de bust
ceâ—sing 〈…〉 Wind blowing they came safe to Shore Thus the 〈…〉 was first begun to be kept in S. Anselm's Monastery 〈◊〉 â—…terwards in the Church of Canterbury when he was 〈…〉 thither That Anselm was the First that instituted this Feast iâ— England is acknowledged by Simon Mepham a Vid. Thiers loc citat p. 323. who 〈◊〉 provincial Synod at London Am. 1328. made a Constitution to observe it treading in the Steps of his Predecessor Venerable Anselm who says he superadded this Feast to those of blessed Mary that were more ancient Jacobus de Voragine b Lombard Hist c. 188. Which the old Roman Missal shows was the current Tradition cited by Balingham Peruas Mar. p 27. Triforme prodigium odoceâ—â—…fficium probat hoc 〈◊〉 justum esse Do◠〈◊〉 afragium Sacerâ—…a 〈◊〉 Levita refugium 〈…〉 his Notes upon it mentions Three other Revelations requiring this Feast to be observed The First of which is the very same for Substance with the former only it is dated somewhat before it and the Names are different For he makes it to be in the time of William the Conqueror about the Year 1070. and the Person to whom the Apparition was when the Tempest threatned Shipwrack to be one Helsinus others call him Elpinus the Abbot of Ramsey the rest agrees with what was set down before The Second Revelation or Apparition is this In the Days of Charles no body knows which King of France there was a Clerk a Kinsman of his a great lover of the blessed Virgin and one who daily read her Hours devoutly who by the Advice of his Parents consenting to marry with a fair and noble maid and receiving the nuptial Benediction from a Priest after Mass was ended he remembred that he had not read that Day the Ladies Hours wherefore making all go out of the Church and sending his Spouse home he read the Lady's Hours hard by the Altar and when he repeated that Antiphona Thou art fair and comely O daughter of Jerusalem suddenly the blessed Virgin appeared between Two Angels with Christ in her Arms saying to him If I be so fair and comely wherefore is it that thou leavest me and takest another Spouse Am not I fairer than she is Hast thou seen any so fair He made Answer O my Lady thy Brightness excels all the Beauty of the World thou art elevated above the Quâ—… of Angels what wouldest thou have me to do She aâ—…ed if thou wilt forgo thy carnal Spouse for my Love 〈◊〉 shalt â—…ve me for thy Spouse in the celestial Kingdom and if thou wilt solemnly celebrate the Feast of my Conception yearly upon the Sixth of the Ides of December and preach the Celebration of it thou shalt be crowned with 〈…〉 of my Son after which Words the 〈…〉 of Christ vanished The Clerk refusing to return 〈…〉 in another Country and after a short 〈…〉 he was made the Patriarch of Aquilegia and carefully celebrated the Feast of her Conception and ordained it to be kept yearly The Third Revelation is a scandalous Story of a Priest a devout Worshipper of the Virgin that used to sing her Hours who after he had been committing Adultery with another Mans Wife entered into a Vessel to pass over the River Sâ—…e and as he sailed sung the Virgin 's Hours and when he came to these Words Ave Maria gratia plena being in the midst of the River a company of Devils overturned the Vessel and drowned him carrying his Soul to Torments On the Third Day the blessed Virgin with a company of Saints came to the place where the Devils tormented him and said to them Why do you so unjustly punish the Soul of my Servant They answered W◠〈…〉 â—…ve him for he was taken doing our Work. The Virgin replied If they ought to have him whose Woâ—…â—e was imployed in then he is mine for when you drowned him he was seing my Mattins so that you are guilty of Injustice to me When she had said this the Devils fled away and she restored his Soul to his Body and taking him by the Arm commanded the Waters to stand as a Wall on the right hand and left and so brought him from the Bottom safe to his Harbourâ— Who falling down at her Feet and asking her what Return he should make for her Kindness She desired him for the future to have a care of committing Adultery and both to keep himself and exhort others to keep the Feast of her Conception upon the eighth of December Upon the saying which he saw her asâ—…d into Heaven and he led ever after a Hermit's Life telling what had befel him and doing as he was commanded We are also told c Raynaudus ubi supra p. 135. out of the Acts of S. Oringa alias Christiana who died in Etruria An. 1310. how this Feast was celebrated in Heaven being made known to her by a Revelation For she was rapt up in an Ecstasy into Heaven and saw the blessed Virgin sitting on a bright Throne by her Son cloathed in a most precious Garment with all the Saints rejoicing about her and keeping a solemn Feast Oringa admiring the Cause of all this and the whiteness of the Garment wherein the mother of God shone Christ himself gave her an account of it That on that Day they kept in Heaven the Feast of her immaculate Conception who remaining a Virgin conceived and bore him who is the true God and Man and that the whiteness of her Garment denoted the Prerogative of her singular Innocency Now what slender Credit is to be given to these Stories of Apparitions and Revelations S. Bernard will tell us who it seems himself had met with them and treats them very coursly in his Epistle to the Canons of Lyons d Epist 174. They produce a Writing of heavenly Revelation as they call it As if any one might not in like manner produce a Writing in which the Virgin seem'd to command the same thing sc the observing a Feast for her Parents according to Gods Command saying Honour thy Father and thy Mother Little did he imagine that Joachim and Anne should have had a Festival appointed for them when he wrote this which was not then thought of I am not apt to be moved by such Writings which are neither back'd with Reason nor favoured by certain Authority And it 's very observable that the Credit of this Feast decayed in a little time even here in England where it was first observed For in a Council held by Stephen Langton Arch-Bishop at Oxford An. 1222. it was ordered e Concil Labbetom 11. part 1. p. 274. That all the Feasts of blessed Mary should be kept except the Feast of the Conception for the celebrating of which no Necessity is imposed In this Council it is left at Liberty and in another Synod a while after at Worcester An. 1240. under Walter de Cantilupo the Bishop there where the Feasts of his Diocess are mentioned this is left