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A43675
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Speculum beatae virginis a discourse of the due praise and honour of the Virgin Mary / by a true Catholick of the Church of England.
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Hickes, George, 1642-1715.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing H1869; ESTC R10946
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41,343
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46
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IMPRIMATUR C. Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. à Sacris Martii 26. 1686. SPECULUM BEATAE VIRGINIS A DISCOURSE OF THE DUE PRAISE AND HONOUR OF THE Virgin Mary By a true CATHOLICK of the Church of ENGLAND LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1686. THE PREFACE THE chief End for which I undertook to make this following Discourse was to set before the English Reader a prospect of the Devotions which the Church of Rome pays and allows to be paid to the Blessed Virgin and to give him thereby an opportunity of judging Whether the R. Catholicks do indeed no more than pray to the Saints in Heaven as they do to their Brethren upon earth to pray for them in the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ This is the Summ of the late Apologies for Worshipping of Saints and whether in reality it be so or no among them I leave the candid and honest Reader of what Religion soever to judg They have no reason to be offended at me for my Vndertaking for if their Devotions to the Virgin be good and Orthodox I have done them and their Church no dishonour but if they be not however I have done them no wrong for I have not misrepresented their Prayers and Hymns and Antiphones nor put any false Colours upon the use of them but have presented them as they are in themselves and treated those that use them without any provoking or reproachful Language and perhaps many that at first sight cannot read such offensive Devotions without Indignation will think I have treated the Virgins Votaries too gently and said rather too little than too much But what may perhaps justly move their Passions will not move mine who am used to read the Latin Offices and other allowed Books of Devotion among those of the Latin Communion and I think fit also to acquaint the Reader that I could have proved from their most Authentick Prayers to other Saints as well as to the Virgin that they do more than desire the Saints to pray for them Hymn Beate pastor Petre. in Brev. Rom. D. 28. Jan. alibi Hymn Tu natale solum protege Brev. Rom. in Festo S. Martinae Antiph Michael Archangele veni in adjutorium populo Dei Brev. Rom. in Fest S. Mich. Hymn Vt queant laxis Brev. Rom. in Nat. S. J. Bapt. Hymn Egregie Doctor Paule Br. Rom. Die 29. Jan. Orat. Deus cujus dexterâ Br. Rom. D. 6. Jul. Orat Omnipotens misericors Deus Br. Rom. D. 14. Jul. Hymn Regis superni nuntia Brev. Rom. in Festo S. Tiresiae Hymn Placarc Christe Servulis Br. Rom. in Festo omnium Sanctor Et Orat. Sempiterne Deus ibid. Et Hymn Salutis aeternae dator ibid. in tert Nocturn Orat. Sacrificium nostrum Missal in Fest S. Andraeae as sick men desire the Prayers of the Congregation as any indifferent person will be satisfied they do if he please to consult the Hymns and Prayers cited in the Margin Since I finished this Discourse I met with another Hymn made of the Te Deum to the Blessed Virgin which is a more exact Transprosal of it than that I have cited out of Cardinal Bonaventure I shall here set it down almost verbatim as I find it translated in a little * Entituled A Decree of our Holy Father Pope Innocent XI c. book Printed at Oxford 1678. We praise thee O Mary we acknowledge thee to be the Lady All the earth doth worship thee the Mother of the everlasting God To thee all Angels cry aloud the Heavens and all the powers therein To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry Holy venerable wonderful Mother of the Lord God of Sabbaoth Heaven and earth are full of the fruitfulness of thy Virginity The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee The goodly number of the Prophets praise thee The holy Church throughout the world doth acknowledge thee The Mother of infinite Majesty Thine honourable true and only Son Conceived by the Holy Ghost the Comforter Thou art the Queen of Glory O Mary Thou art the true Mother of the Son of the Everlasting Father When he took upon him to deliver man thou didst afford him thy Virgin-womb Thy Seed having overcome the sharpness of death the Kingdom of Heaven is open to all believers Thou sittest at the right hand of thy Son in the glory of the Mother We believe that thou shalt come with thy Son the Judg. We therefore pray thee help thy Votaries whom thy Son hath redeemed with the precious blood he had from thee Make them to be numbred with the Saints of God in eternal glory O Lady save thy people and bless thy Sons inheritance Day by day we magnifie thee And we worship thy name ever world without end Vouchsafe O Lady to keep us this day without sin O Lady have mercy upon us have mercy upon us O Lady let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust is in thee O Mary in thee have I trusted after God let me never be confounded The Publisher of the forecited Book took the Original of this Hymn out of a book written by Melchior Inchofer a Jesuit which that Father saith was sent to the Messeneses by the Blessed Virgin and he thinks it was the same or not much differing from that which Pope Paul the Fifth approved and which the present Pope hath prohibited and suppressed by a Decree It is a decree worthy of his holy Character and I wish for his honour he had prohibited it as Impious or Blasphemous or Idolatrous or contrary to the word of God However the bare prohibition of it ought to be acknowledged for a good work and I beseech Almighty God to pour out the Spirit of Reforming more and more upon the Bishop and Clergy of the Roman Church that instead of Expounding Palliating and Excusing they may set themselves in good earnest to Reform and amend whatever is amiss that so the Church wheresoever dispersed over the Vniversal World may be restored to the truly Ancient Catholick and Apostolical Doctrine Worship and Discipline and become one undivided Catholick Communion through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen SPECULUM BEATAE VIRGINIS S. LUKE I. 28. And the Angel came in unto Her and said Hail thou that art highly favoured the Lord is with Thee Blessed art thou among Women THE words of my Text are the Salutation of the Angel Gabriel unto the Virgin Mary when he came to tell her that God had chosen her to be the Mother of the Messias And that they are words of pure Salutation and not of Devotion is evident from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hail which is a form of Saluting as may be seen in those two mock-salutations of our Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hail Master Hail King of the Jews as likewise from the use of the Original word in Acts 15.23 where it is said that the Apostles and Elders wrote Letters and sent greeting to
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