c. 2. citante Novarino a great Author with them who lived above Four hundred Years ago makes this Observation That at least three times this Question is asked in the Canticles in the Person of the Angels Qua est ista Who is this And he imagines the Reason to be That they are desirous that the sweet Name of Mary may be answered to that Question For says he Angels desire that her Name should be mentioned and discovered and that it should not only be renowned in Heaven And if this Concern of theirs does not move us yet Gratitude to her when she her self is also concerned in it will not fail to do it To which Purpose they tell us That her beloved Hermannus whom she married m Barthol de los Rios Hierarch Marian. l. 5. c. 40. ex Surio vit Hermanni Apr. 5. Gononi Chron. Deip. p. 242. being distracted and hindred by Business and Cares of his Monastery grow more negligent and remisâ— in reciting her Offices and Hours that formerly to whom she appeared in the Shape of an old wither'd wrinkled Woman chiding him that now her Memory was grown old with him whereas formerly he named saluted and praised her a Thousand times Upon this Rebuke he resolved by commemorating her Joys and reciting her Ave's to make her young again which he did The Name of Mary says another n Barthol de los Rios ib. l. 6. c. 11. 20. is the best Image of her and more venerable than all her Reliques and Images He that does invoke her by this sweet Name attending to the Etymology thereof thou recite compendiously great Litanies of extraordinary Merit and Efficacy Poza o Elucidar l. 2. trac 17. c. 5. and others think that the Name of Mary as far as is expedient for our own and others Salvation does confer the Effect â—n opere operato by the Work done just as the Churches Exorcisms do and as many say the same of the Sign of the Cross and of the Name of Jesus From such Principles as these they fall into those heathenish Battologies and vain Repetitions which our Saviour condemns Matt 6.7 and their Prayers become in the Phrase of the Son of Syrach p Ecclus 7.14 much babling consisting of a nauseous Repetition of one and the same Name over and over again Of this the Reader may take a shameful Instance how they abuse in this manner the blessed Name of Jesus in that which they call Jesus Psalter q See Manual of godly Prayers at the end which consists of Fifteen Petitions with the Name of Jesus ten times or rather Thirty times reiterated before every one of the Petitions The Manner of reciting the Psalter of Jesus is as follows The First Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu 3. Jesu Jesu Jesu 4. Jesu Jesu Jesu 5. Jesu Jesu Jesu 6. Jesu Jesu Jesu 7. Jesu Jesu Jesu 8. Jesu Jesu Jesu 9. Jesu Jesu Jesu 10. Jesu Jesu Jesu Mercy The Second Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu 3. Jesu Jesu Jesu 4. Jesu Jesu Jesu 5. Jesu Jesu Jesu 6. Jesu Jesu Jesu 7. Jesu Jesu Jesu 8. Jesu Jesu Jesu 9. Jesu Jesu Jesu 10. Jesu Jesu Jesu Help me Third Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu And so on as before Strengthen me Fourth Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu c. Comfort me Fifth Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu c. Make me constant stable Sixth Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu c. Lighten me Seventh Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu c. Grant me Grace to dread thee Eighth Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu c. Grant me Grace to love thee Ninth Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu c. Give me Grace to remember my death Tenth Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu c. Send me here my Purgatory Eleventh Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu c. Grant me Grace to fly evil Company Twelfth Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu c. Give me Grace to call for Help to thee Thirteenth Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu c. Make me to persevere in Vertue Fourteenth Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu c. Give me Grace to fix my Mind on thee Fifteenth Petition 1. Jesu Jesu Jesu 2. Jesu Jesu Jesu 3. Jesu Jesu Jesu 4. Jesu Jesu Jesu c. As many times as the First Give me Grace to order my Life to thee Here you see an Hundred and Fifty Rows of the Name of Jesus which being Three in a Row make up Four hundred and Fifty which must be all pattered over before those few Words that make up the Fifteen Petitions are concluded There is no Atheist or Infidel who if he had a Design to turn Prayers into 〈◊〉 could more effectually do it than by such a Prescription as 〈◊〉 But we have not the worst of it yet For you must know that it is not the Petition and the Sence following this oft repâ—…ted Name that is necessary but the Nâ—… 〈◊〉 oft used without any thing else adjoined is that which they lay much Stress upon and which makes acceptable Devotion with them For thus I find in that Book of the Jesuit P. Barry r Le paradise Ouvert p. 166. The Author of 〈◊〉 is so fond of the Virgin 's Name that instead of Paul Barry he desired to be called Paul of S. Mary which contains an hundred Devotions to the blessed Virgin and is bought up for common Use as our Practise of Piety or the Whole Duty of Man for I observe Seventeen Editions of it in less than Thirty Years he gives this for one Often to pronounce the Name of Mary in imitation of a Japan Woman Concerning whom the Annals of the Jesuits report That in honour of a Deity which that Country worships called Amida she used to repeat that Name an Hundred and forty thousand times daily rising very early every Morning as she had need to perform this Task and being assisted by a familiar Spirit that awaked her This Woman was baptized An. 1621. And after she was a Christian changed this Superstition into Devotion and obliged herself in gratitude for her Conversion to pronounce every day as many times viz. a Hundred and forty thousand the sacred Names of Jesus and Mary and because now the Devil would come no more to awake her in the morning her Angel Guardian succeeded in that Office so pleasing to God says the Author was her Simplicity and Devotion This Worship so Japan and unparallell'd cannot he says be practised the Number is so great unless God give some special Grace However he advises his Philagie so he calls the devout Person he instructs to chuse a good round Number of Maries to repeat as a way to get Comfort
THE VIRGIN MARY Misrepresented by the Roman Church â—…RT I. Imprimatur Liber cui titulus The Virgin Mary misrepresented by the Roman Church Guil. Needham R R. in Christo P. ac D. Wilhelmo Archiepisc Cant. a Sacr. Domest Nov. 23. 1687. THE VIRGIN MARY Misrepresented by the Roman Church In the TRADITIONS of that CHURCH Concerning her Life and Glory And in the DEVOTIONS paid to her As the Mother of God. Both shewed out of the Offices of that Church the Lessons on her Festivals and from their allowed Authors PART I. Wherein Two of her Feasts her Conception and Nativity are considered Valde honoranda est inquis Mater Domini Bene admones sed Honor Reginae justitiam diligit Virgo regia falso non eget honore veris cumulata honorum titulis Bernard Epist 174. Securitas laudis in laude Dei est ibi laudator securus est ubi non timet ne de Laudato erubescat S. August Enar. in Psal 94. Restat ut homo mendaciter non fingat apertum quod Deus voluit manere occultum Author Serm. 35. de Assumpt apud Augustinum LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVIII CONTEâ—… OF THE PRINCIPAL MATâ—…RS INfallibility vainly pretended unless it be as secure a 〈…〉 Worship as of our Faith. 〈…〉 This pretended in Canonizing Saints though certainly 〈…〉 Devotions in the Roman Church conducted by Interest â— Strange Worship given to the Virgin in that Church and to what height they have advanced her Ibid. False Charges against Protestants that they cast Contempt upon her 4 Who say all that is fitting and all that the Scripture teaches of her 5 6 This Church has made a new Gospel about her Life and Excellencies 6 7 What Rules and Measures they take in describing her Ibid. What Privileges they conferr on her whose Numbers still increase 8 9 What they plead for the large Account they give of her when the Scriptures and Antiquity say so little 10 11 c. Their fulsome Flatteries of her Submissions to her and Expectations from her Marg. p. 15 Of her Predestination and their applying Scriptures to her that belong only to Christ 17 18 The Arians excused by what they do herein 19 They give her the Privilege of being first elected and all others predestinated for her sake 20 The late Contemplator's new Logick in referring all to her as the Means and the Conveyance of all to us 21 The Jesuit Salazar's blasphemous Conceits applying all in Prov. viij to her 21 22 c. Of the blessed Virgin 's Parents and Conception out of their Offices 27 Their Legend more at large out of the English Festival 28 All taken out of Two Apocryphal Authors especially 30 31 c. Of the Riches and Barrenness of her Parents 34 How they cry up their Faith above that of Abraham Ibid. The Fable of Joachim's being rebuked for Barrenness by the High-Priest and comforted by an Angel. 35 36 How they will have the B. Virgin to have been conceived 38 Their singular Conceits about the Formation of her Body 39 Wherein they aim at making her in all like to Christ 40 They give her the use of Reason in the first moment of her Conception 41 What Contemplations they say she had in her Mother 's Womb. 42 Her Charity then also exercised and what Measures of Grace and Merits she then attained to 43 It was once by them accounted Christ's Privilege to have the use of Free-will in his Mother's Womb now granted to her 44 Her immaculate Conception asserted in allowed Offices 46 c. This Privilege of hers never thought of by the Ancient Fathers 56 How ridiculous the Controversie about it is considering the small Difference betwixt the Opinion of the Maculists and Immaculists 57 The Maculists have the old and great School-men on their Side 59 St. Austin is expresly theirs 60 Their Adversaries would have it a Secret in former Ages and why kept so 61 The Scriptures clear and full for the Maculists 62 Redemption and Salvation there as general as Sin and Death Ibid. Her preservative Redemption an absurd Shift Ibid. Two former Popes against it 63 Other Arguments of the Maculists Ibid. What the Immaculists plead for themselves 64 Scotus the first Assertor of their Opinion and doubtful in it Ibid. It has now got the Name and Credit of the Pious Opinion Ibid. The Woment engage stifly on this side 65 Their Proofs from Scripture all Allegorical 65 66 Proofs from Reason 1. Arg. That otherwise she had not been a fit Mother of God. 67 2. Arg. From the Virulency of Original Sin. 68 3. Arg. That Christ had not been a good Son unless he had preserved her 69 4. Arg. That the Maculists Opinion must needs offend the Blessed Virgin 70 5. Arg. That if Christ had not preserved her from Original Sin she must needs be guilty of Actual Sin. Ibid. How coursely Salmeron has used the Fathers and slighted them 71 The Immaculists urge Miracles and some of them set down 72 73. The remarkable Story of Thomas de Bohemia's Leg restor'd 74 Visions and Revelations urged by the Immaculists Ibid The advantages we receive by these Proofs 1. That we are excused from believing the Miracles they urge us withal 75 c. 2. That they themselves regard not this Proof but turn it off as that which produces no certainty of Faith. 77 We may be excused by the Popes sullenness who dare not determine the Point upon the Evidence of Miracles c. 78 The History of the Embassy of Two Kings of Spain to Two Popes urging in vain the Decision of this Controversy 80 81 c. What Comfort the Immaculists have above their Adversaries though it be not decided 93 How the Virgin was preserved from Original Sin according to some of their Authors 95 Concerning the Feast of her Conception that its Institution is Novel 96 Revelations of no Authority the ground of it and when first kept 96 97 c. This Feast pretended by S. Oringa's Revelation to be kept in Heaven 99 S. Bernard questions the Revelations for this Feast Ibid. This Feast interrupted in England where it first was observed 100 This Feast opposed by many great Men of their Church Ibid. Of the blessed Virgin 's Nativity and the Devotions relating to it 102 c. Their bold asserting that her Birth was the Desire and Expectation of the Patriarchs 109 We are to believe that Wonders preceded her Birth 110 Baronius will not allow us to be in our Wits if we deny this though he produces none in particular Ibid. Those that are produced are without colour of Truth 111 The time of her Birth how exactly they calculate it 112 They urge Motives of Congruity for the time 113 They differ about the Place of her Birth but most say at Nazareth 114 Poza's great doubt whether she came the common way into the World. 115 They will not allow her to cry or make her
quod scire nequis ne divinare labora Incassum That is The Virgin lacks no praise not Hybla yields More Flowers nor Ears of Corn in Libyan Fields So fair and thick as her true Vertues rise Think not to grace her then with specious Lyes Nor give her those perfections by fond guess Thou ne'er canst find and only make her less Herein indeed lies one great difference betwixt us and them That we observing that it is the plain design of the Holy Writers in the particular account they give of the wonderous Birth and Life Death and Resurrection of Jesus to engage all Men to believe That he is the Christ b Joh. 20.31 the Son of God that our eternal Life depends upon our knowing him who is the only true God c Joh. 17.3 and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent that there is no Salvation in any other nor no other name d Act. 4.12 under Heaven given among Men but his whereby we must be saved and that having the power of Judging all the World committed to him all Men are bound e Joh. 5.22,23 to honour the Son even as they honour the Father we I say finding this to be the great concern and scope of the Gospel are well satisfied with those few words of Truth and soberness we meet with there that relate to the B. Virgin his Mother and are not needlesly curious to enquire any farther It 's plain it was him they designed to advance and not her Even the Holy Spirit 's over-shadowing her Virgin Womb was rather intended to proclaim the Glory and Majesty of his Incarnation than of her Conception The Scripture mentions some other instances of her Faith and Piety wherein it places her chief Happiness as St. Austin's known saying expresses it f Tom. 6. lib. de Sanct. Virgin. Beatior ergo Maria percipiendo fidem Christi quam concipiendo carnem Christi Mary was more blessed in receiving the Faith of Christ than by Conceiving the Flesh of Christ For Materna propâ—nquitas nihil Mariae profuisset nisi felicius Christum corde quam carne gestasset Her nearness to him as a Mother had not profited her if she had not been more happy in bearing Christ in her Heart than in her Womb. Which also our Saviour confirms in that saying of his g Luc. 11.28 Yea rather blessed are they which hear the Word of God and keep it As for other matters concerning her where the Scriptures have not gone before us we are contented to remain in the dark concluding that we are not one way or other much concerned in them for if we had God would no doubt have declared them to us We think it necessary for the honour of our Lord to believe that his Mother remained a Virgin till she bare him and brought him forth We think it highly probable too that the Honour of our Lord preserved her a Virgin ever after and we detest the bad Spirit of Helvidius that made a contest of it and brought it into dispute in the Church But yet we are of the great S. Basil's mind h Homil. de humana Christi generatione that if she had not remained a Virgin afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Doctrine according to Godliness would not have suffered by it and therefore we lay not such stress upon it as upon the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We leave it without anxious inquiry about it But 〈◊〉 this Church having as much business with the Virgin as with Christ himself and making indeed more stir about her the modesty of the first Faith and the silence of the Scripture give them but little comfort if they cannot find in the old Gospel enough to proclaim her a fit object of Mens worship and to engage their Religious addresses to her rather than fail of this which they are resolved upon they will make a new Gospel which the Apostles never Preached and venture the Curse that is threatned to them that do so Gal. 1.8 First indeed the words of the Scripture must be Wire-drawn and Every Syllable of it that relates to her stretched and set upon the Tenters but still they find that the Bed is shorter than that a Man can stretch himself on it and the Covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it i Esa 28 20. They are therefore resolved to add where that is defective and to feign those privileges for her which they cannot find there To shew a little their fine way of proceeding in this Matter They have laid down this for an undoubted Rule as any Aphorism in Hippocrates that Mensura perfectionum B. Verginis est maternitas Dei. Her being the Mother of God is the measure of the Perfections of the Blessed Virgin. Not to dispute at present the Truth of it which may be granted in a sober Sence let us see what Conclusions they draw from it Aquinas k P. 1. qu. 25. art 6. ad 4tum infers That the Blessed Virgin because she is the Mother of God has a kind of infinite Dignity belonging to her from that infinite good which is God and that in this respect nothing better than she could be created as there can be nothing better than God. Ant. Spiâ—…lus the Jesuit says l Maria Deip. thronus Dei c. 5. s 4. From this Motherhood of God that Maxim owned by all Divines is drawn viz. That there is no gift of Grace that was ever granted to any pure Creature which was not bestowed upon the Virgin in a like or more perfect manner unless it were repugnant to her Sex. Wherefore all the Graces Vertues and Privileges divided among other Saints are found collected in her alone And they are very fond of that saying of S. Bernard m Epist ad Can. Lugdun Quod itaque vel paucis mortalium constat fuisse collatum fas certe non est suspicari tantae Virgini esse negatum Whatsoever has been granted to other Saints though but to a few we are not to suspect that it has been denied to so glorious a Virgin. Aquinas n Part. 3. qu. 27. art 1. 4 5. in another place from these principles has deduced her Sanctification before she was Born the Privilege never to have committed any Sin mortal or venial and a fulness of all Graces above all others This one would judge is pretty fair but a daring Jesuit o J. Baptista Poza Elucidar l. 3. tr 16. p. 1050. resolving to enlarge the Charter of her Privileges has advanced this position That all true Theology does require That in those things that belong to the greater glory of Jesus and his Mother if the Church does not prohibit it and they are sure it will not interpose to the hindrance of the Mother at least we are not to look what Two or Three Five or Ten Doctors have said in the Case but what will best defend and secure the Honour of Mary and Jesus
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.
to venerate her Memory who being a virgin did conceive thy only begotten Son and remaining a Virgin did bring forth our Lord Jesus Christ There also you find the Blessed Virgin included in a Gloria Patri Gloria Patri genitaeque proli Flamini Sancto Virginique Matri Quae Dei natum genuit hominem Sit laus perennis Amen Glory be to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and perpetual Praise to the Virgin Mother of whom the Son of God was born a Man. Amen The present Roman Breviaries though they are not so express in the Point of Immaculateness yet are full of other unwarrantable Applications Oratio Brev. Rom. Reform ad 8 Decemb. Famulis tuis quaesumus Domine coelestis gratiae munus impartire ut quibus Beatae Virginis partus extitit salutis exordium conceptionis ejus votiva solemnitas pacis tribuat incrementum Per Dominum c. A Prayer Lord we beseech thee bestow upon thy Servants the Gift of heavenly Grace that they to whom the Birth of the Virgin was the Beginning of Salvation the vow'd Solemnity of her Conception may contribute to the increase of their Peace Through our Lord c. Lect. 1. Ecclus 24. Ex Ore Altissimi prodivi primogenita ante omnem creaturam ego feci c. Lesson 1. I came out of the Mouth of the most High the First-Born of every Creature c. Lect. 2. Ab initio ante saecula creata sum usque ad futurum saeculum non desinam in habitatione sancta coram ipso ministravi c. Less 2. From the Beginning and before all Ages I was created and I shall never fail in the holy Habitation I ministred before him c. Lect. 3. Ego mater pulchrae dilectionis timoris agnitionis sanctae Spei In me gratia omnis viae veritatis in me omnis spes vitae virtutis Transite ad me omnes qui concupiscitis me à generationibus meis implemini Qui audit me non confundetur qui operantur in me non peccabunt qui elucidant me vitam aeternam habebunt Less 3. I am the Mother of fair Love and Fear and Knowledge and holy Hope In me is the Grace of every Way and Truth in me is all the Hope of Life and Vertue Come unto me all ye that are desirous of me and from my Off-spring ye shall be filled He that heareth me shall not be confounded and they that work by me shall not do amiss they that brighten me shall have eternal Life REMARKS THere is no Controversy ever was started that has more busied the Wits of those of the Roman Communion nor any that ever was managed with greater Heats and Animosities in their Schools than this of the Immaculate Conception A Question that never entred into the Heads of any of the Ancient Fathers for as Vasquez a Part. 3. disp 117. c. 1. confesses it is manifest that before the times of S. Bernard there was no Dispute among the ancient Fathers concerning the Blessed Virgins Preservation from Original Sin since none of them so much as mention it Though in his time it appears by his 174 Epistle to the Canons of Lyons there was some Debate about it among Divines I shall make bold to add that this Controversy betwixt the Two Parties they who assert her Conception in Original Sin whom we shall call to avoid Circumlocution Maculists and those who deny it the Immaculists is not only Late and Novel but also extreamly foolish and ridiculous when you consider where the Difference lies betwixt them They themselves confess b Vasquez ibid. qu. 27. disp 114. c. 1. Bellarm. de amiss gratiae l. 4. c. 15. that it is agreed on all Hands in their Church that she was sanctified in her Mothers Womb before she was born so that the only Question and it is a very wise one is Whether in the first Moment of her Conception c Th. Raynaudus Dipt Mar. p. 132. she was immaculate yea or no Both Parties agreeing that she had the Use of her Reason as we heard before in the first Moment of her Conception one might have been tempted to think considering the Zeal of the opposite Side that the Maculists had brought her in loaded and labouring for some Months together in her Mothers Womb under a sense of Gods heavy Displeasure for Adam's Sin which the other side could not endure to suppose and that this made them so very angry But there is no such matter I assure you they are as civil to the Blessed Virgin in this Respect as one can possibly desir◠For one of their Adversaries d Franciscus a Christo praelect de Incarnat fol. 189. has given us an account of Three Opinions among them and all of them very favourable to her The Severest is that of S. Thomas who thinks that she was in Sin for a time but so short a time that none can measure it to wit so much time as intervenes between two Moments inter duo instantia for in the first Instant of her Conception she contracted the Original Stain in the next Moment after it she was purged from it so that she was obnoxious to Sin only the time that must come between those Two Moments Others think that the Blessed Virgin was a whole Moment of Time in Sin integro temporis instanti but all the time that is coupled with that Instant was in Grace and so grant that her Son delivered his Mother from Guilt as soon as it was possible for Divine Omnipotency to effect it This will not please the Immaculists for this Reason because if they say that the first Instant she was in Sin tho they grant that in the next Instant Grace was infused to take it away yet because two Instants according to the Philosopher 6 Physic cannot immediately cohere no more than Two Atoms in continued Quantity without a middle Time between them therefore the Blessed Virgin must be in Sin according to this Opinion not only the first Instant but also the time between that and the second But he says there are a third Sort and they are the very Pinks of Courtesy who come thus far as to say That in the first Instant in which she contracted Guilt she was also delivered from the same by God Only they crave Leave to divide an Instant into Three in tria Signa In the first of which she contracted Sin in the second sanctifying Grace was infused into her Soul but more incompleat and transient abiding with Sin but ready to expel it In the third the same Grace is understood as permanent and actually to have expelled Sin. This indeed is too subtil to be Intelligible yet however one would think it should be kindly taken by those of the other Opinion since if they will but allow them the third Part of a Moment for her stay under the Original Guilt they then declare her to be as immaculate as the