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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33211	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 M. de Meaux's appeal to the fourth age, in his Exposition and pastoral letter.	Clagett, William, 1646-1688.	1686 (1686)	Wing C4384; ESTC R171370	81,086	123

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

Passages concerning her intimated a greater Regard to her Service in their Practice than they have shewn in their Writings or if they discovered but some obscure Prints and Footsteps of such a Devotion to her as we seek for Let us therefore see after what manner they speak of the B. Virgin I observe that the highest Strains in her Praise Justin Dial. cam Tryph. p. 327. Paris run upon a Comparison between her and Eve Thus Justin Martyr who says very little else of her tells us that Eve being a Virgin conceived by the Word of the Serpent p. 290. and brought forth Death But the Virgin Mary receiving the Message of the Angel conceived in Faith therefore that which was born of her was Holy viz. the Son of God He proves also against Trypho that Christ was to be born of a Virgin according to the Prophets After Justin comes Irenoeus and with greater circumstance pursues the forementioned Comparison against these stupid Hereticks that denied God to be the Creator of all things and that he used his own Works For against these Irenoeus amongst other Arguments produced this That Christ took Flesh of Mary And then he proceeds to shew how convenient it was that he should be Born of a Virgin First he opposes the disobedience in the case of the Forbidden Tree 〈◊〉 ab 5. c. 18.19 by which Sin came into the World to that obedience which was performed upon a Tree by him that brought Life to the World He opposes also the Cheat that was put upon Eve to the Truth that was told Mary He opposes the Virgin Eve now designed to be a Wife to the Virgin Mary who was also espoused and the Virgin Eve deceived by an evil Angel to the Virgin Mary believing a good Angel The Word which I translate Comforter is in Latin Advocata from whence Bellarmin and Fevardentius conclude very absurdly in behalf of Invocation of Saints tho Irenaeus had meant what we usually understand by Advocate But by the fidelity of the Latin-Translator in keeping to the Ecclesiastical use of words it seems evident that the Greek word in Irenaeus was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which how it is to be Translated see M. Daille who has largely treated this matter and I doubt not to ●ay has made an end of it De Relig. Cultus Object p. 41. c. And sayes he as Eve was seduced and forsook God so Mary was induced to obey God that the Virgin Mary might be a Comforter of the Virgin Eve and that as Mankind was through a Virgin bound over to Death so they should be released through a Virgin One thing being thus rightly ballanced against another the disobedience of a Virgin by the the Obedience of a Virgin The sum of all is this That there appeared a notable Congruity in divers respects that as Eve a Virgin led the first man Adam into transgression in whom all Mankind fell so the Virgin Mary brought forth him into the World the second Adam the Lord from Heaven who was to redeem all Mankind No honest Man will go about to make less of these Passages but he must be a very subtle man that can make more of them And yet Fevardentius triumphs in this Testimony as if he had found here the Primitive Church and all Antiquity for the Invocation of the B. Virgin And no less satisfied he was with a like strain of Irenoeus against those Hereticks in another place Adv. Haer. lib. 3. c. 32.33 who said That Christ took nothing from the Virgin Mary and by consequence that she was not really his Mother nor he really but only seemingly a Man Now amongst other things Irenoeus argues the contrary from the congruity of our Saviours being born of a Virgin that a Virgin might bring as much good to the World as a Virgin had done mischief whereby it became plain that God defea●ed the Devil in a congruous way who by the Virgin Eve had seduced Adam and brought death upon his Posterity But why did not Irenoeus complain that this Heresy overthrew the very Foundation upon which the Church gave a super-excellent Worship to Mary viz. because she was the Mother of God nay why did not he silence this wild Conceit by alledging the Worship which she every where received upon this account Fevardentius elsewhere makes a mighty matter of Irenoeus his pressing Hereticks with Catholick Tradition Why therefore was not so obvious and convincing an Argument as the Catholick Tradition and practice of worshipping the Virgin Mary brought fourth upon this occasion Even because there was no such Tradition or Practice to be alledged as any man that is not overruled with prejudice must confess 'T is a sign that ancient Testimonies run very low with them when they are fain to make much of these But if Irenoeus forgot this Argument 't is something strange that Tertullian after him should forget it too For writing against the same stupid opinions he uses just the Argument that Irenoeus had done before him The Image and Similitude of God saith he being captivated by the Devil God recovered it by * aemulâ operatione Tert. de carne Christi c. 27. Adv. Praxeam c. 27. a Work that defeated the Devil in his own way For the word that was a Foundation of Death had crept into Eve being yet a Virgin and agreeably by the word that should restore life was to be received by a Virgin that Mankind who by means of that Sex fell into Perdition might through the same Sex be recovered to Salvation Eve had believed the Serpent Mary hath believed Gabriel The Offence which the former hath committed in believing the latter hath blotted out by believing And what he means by blotting out Eve's Offence is plain from what follows that Mary brought forth him who was to save even his Murderers and that Christ was to come of her for the Salvation of Man What Tertullian says of her beside is very little and by the bye as that she was a Virgin because Christ was said to be made of a Woman And that being born of her he was therefore of the House of David and the like Clemens Alexandrinus to illustrate a Moral Lesson tells us That Mary was a perfect Virgin after the Birth of her Son and mentions a particular proof of it which some affirm'd S●rom lib. 7. And farther he says not that I can remember His Scholar Origen acknowledged also the perpetual Virginity of Mary And in his Homilies upon the first Chapter of St. Luke where he could not avoid speaking of her he hath these passages In Luc. Hom. 7. Some body says he I know not who hath run into such a madness as to affirm that Mary was renounced by our Saviour inasmuch as after his Birth she was joyned to Joseph Conte● pl. of Life c. Now if the Church had then believed the Story of her Assumption which hath been so poetically described to us of