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
to any of the Saints before or since are equivalent to the honour of being the Mother of God And therefore we may be sure that God who said them that honour me I will honour would not have done so great an honour to any daughter of Abraham but to one who best deserved it to one of the holiest among the daughters of Israel to the most heavenly minded Virgin of the Tribe of Judah and the Royal house of David who had no superiour for holiness upon earth If we had no particular account of her graces we might rationally conclude all this of her from the history of our Lord's Incarnation for nothing less than Superlative holiness could receive such a Testimony of Divine honour from the Holy Trinity She was as it were the Spouse of God Co-Parent with him of the wonderful Immanuel who was God and man God of the substance of the Father begotten before the worlds and Man of the substance of his Holy Mother born in the world perfect God and perfect Man and yet not Two but one Christ 2. But then in the Second place we have a particular account of many of those eminent graces which adorned her in the Annunciation of the Angel as it is related by S. Luke As first of her Chastity she was a Virgin ver 27. one that knew not a man ver 34. Such a pure Virgin as was foretold by the Prophet who said a Virgin shall conceive a son Isa 7.14 a Virgin in mind as well as body such a Virgin as never looked upon a man to lust after him an entire Virgin who was all purity within as well as without who never cherished unclean thoughts nor let them grow into unchaste desires but stifled the beginnings of Lust in its first motions keeping her Body as the Sanctuary or holy place and her Soul as the holiest of holies and herself fit both in Body and Soul to be the habitation of the Holy Ghost and a Tabernacle for the Son of God Secondly we have an account of her great Modesty and Humility which put her into great disorder at the Salutation of the Angel when she saw him she was troubled at his saying and wondred what the meaning of his Salutation should be She had nothing of the Pharisee in her as doubtless many other Virgins had who would upon such an Address have presently concluded in favour of their holiness that it was so great and eminent above the holiness of other Virgins that they deserved that peculiar honour of God But she on the contrary was so very humble that she was all blush without and confusion within at the appearance and complement of the Angel She wondred what should move God to send one of the Seven Spirits that attend upon his Throne to visit her she wondred what should incline him to honour her so much and why the Angel should speak unto her as unto an holy person and the favourite of Heaven She had a greater sense of her humane imperfections and infirmities than of her vertues and in so mean and humble an opinion of herself could not imagine why she should be blessed and praised above those of her own Sex So also in her Magnificat which she delivered upon the Salutation of her Cousin Elizabeth she admires and adores the infinite condescension of God to her low Estate And truly the signal honour which God did her in chusing her for the Mother of his Son is an argument according to the Scriptures that she was lowly in Mind as well as low in Fortune For God resisteth the proud but he giveth grace which is an Hebrew phrase for shewing favour unto the lowly saith Solomon Prov. 3.34 And saith the Prophet Isaiah 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the hearts of the contrite ones And this being the usual method of God's proceeding with the Sons of Men we may conclude that the Virgin Mary was a very meek and humble Maid because God exalted her above her fellows The Third eminent Grace which we find in the Blessed Virgin was her Faith which was every way as great as that of the Father of the Faithful who being not weak in Faith saith the Apostle Rom 4.17 c. considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old neither yet the deadness of Sarahs womb but against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations not staggering at the promise of God who can quicken the dead and call those things which be not as though they were In like manner the Blessed Virgin after the Angel had told her that the power of the Highest should come upon her staggered not at the Promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able to perform She knew that he who formed Adam of the ground and Eve of one of the Ribs of Adam was also able to form the body of his Son of her Substance and therefore though she knew not a man she said unto the Angel Behold the handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word She knew it was most reasonable to rely on the word of Omnipotence and essential truth and in this She is commended above Zacharias who did not believe the message of the Angel when he told him that his wife Elizabeth should bear him a Son He objected that he was an old man and his wife well stricken in years forgetting that Sarah her self received strength to conceive Isaac when she was past age and therefore the Lord struck him with dumbness because he believed not his words But though we read of no other Graces in her yet we may be sure she had all the rest that could render her righteous and acceptable in the sight of God There must needs have been a noble Structure erected upon such a foundation of Humility Purity and Faith when these led up the dance we may be sure the whole Chore of moral Virtues followed after And therefore in the Third place 3. It is our duty who have the benefit of her example to honour and celebrate her Name and commemorate her Virtues and set forth her praises in whom there was a concurrence of so many divine Virtues such a strong Faith such abasing Humility such pure Chastity and all other Graces in as much perfection as was consistent with humane frailty So Divine so Righteous a person ought to be had in everlasting remembrance and blessed among Women from generation to generation We ought not to mention her name without honour her Name which ought to be like precious ointment wheresoever the Gospel is preached and written in the biggest and most conspicuous character in the Diptychs of
thee to be a Virgin all the earth doth worship thee the Spouse of the eternal Father all Angels and Archangels all Thrones and Powers do faithfully serve thee to thee all Angels cry aloud with a never-ceasing voice holy holy holy Mary mother of God the whole Court of heaven doth honour thee as Queen the holy Church throughout all the world doth invoke and praise thee the Mother of Divine Majesty c. Nay he hath also Transprosed the Athanasian Creed into a form of Confession to her honour and it begins thus Whosoever would be saved before all things it is necessary that he hold a firm Faith concerning Mary which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly and then though her Assumption into Heaven her sitting at the right hand of Christ and never ceasing to pray for us be made Articles of that Creed yet it concludes thus This is the true Faith concerning Mary which except a man believe firmly and faithfully he cannot be saved From C. Bonaventure I go on to Arnoldus Carnotensis who lived about Five hundred years ago and wrote an extravagant ‖ Inter opusc adscripta Cypriano Ed. Oxon. 1682. Tract in the praises of the blessed Virgin in which he saith that if he had the Tongues of Men and Angels he could not worthily set forth the glory of the holy and ever-blessed Virgin He saith She is exalted above all Creatures and that whoever bows his knee to Jesus must also fall prostrate before Mary he saith they have both one flesh one Spirit and one love and one glory that she cannot be separated from his dominion and power and that they both stand before the face of God to interceed for us and obtain remission of sins From Arnoldus I proceed to Bernard who flourished almost Six hundred years ago He was bred a Monk in a dark Age and his Sermons of the Virgin Mary's Assumption are full of very extravagant and unwarrantable expressions He calls her the Queen of Heaven and Queen of mercy and Lady of all things He saith When she ascended on high she also gave good gifts unto men seeing she neither wanted power nor will Not power because she was the Mother of God nor will because all her bowels were Charity He talks much about her Coronation and saith That no man can find out the length and breadth and heighth and depth of her mercy and that Christ bestows all his gifts and graces through her and exhorts us to give God thanks who in mercy provided us such a Mediatrice and in short what apprehensions he had for her may be seen from a prayer which begins thus We lift our hearts and eyes and hands unto thee O Queen of the World we kneel and bow before the glory of thy highness and send up our prayers with sighs unto thee to Heaven The rest of the prayer is like the beginning and towards the latter end of it he hath this expression Speak O Lady for thy Son hears and will grant whatsoever thou shalt ask There are also many such extravagant and unwarrantable things said of her and many prayers directed unto her in the Homilies de Tempore upon Christ's Nativity and the Homilies de Sanctis especially in that of the Assumption falsely ascribed to S. Augustin as the writers of the Latin Church are forced to acknowledge I have also omitted the extravagant sayings and notions about her in the School-men as that her ‖ Suarez 3. p. disp 18. S. 4. Grace was greater in the first moment of her Conception than the Grace of the highest Angel and that in the second it was doubled and so increased in Geometrical proportion unto her lives end and that she was dearer to God than the whole reasonable Creation and that he loved her more than the Universal Church I have also passed over the many Legendous stories that are told of her and to shew how dangerous it is for men to magnifie her above the condition of an humane Creature I think I may tell you of C. Scribanius Provincial of the Belgick Jesuits who in a rapture of Devotion to the blessed Virgin made a Copy of * Haereo lac inter meditans interque cruorem Inter delicias uberis lateris c. There is also such a Copy of Verses in Gazaeus his Pia Hilaria Latin Verses wherein he equals the benefits and merit of her milk to that of his bloud I have also omitted their Ancient Offices in which there are prayers to S. Joachim the Father and to S. Anne the Mother of the blessed Virgin wherein they put * Breviar Sar. July 26. O vas coelestis gratiae mater Reginae Virginum memento mater inclyta quà m potens es per filiam her in mind of the power she hath by her Daughter and tell him ‖ Brev. Rom. Antiqu. Mart. 20. O Pater summae Joachim puellae potes omne si vis nihil nepos Jesus meritò negabit nil tibi nata that his Nephew Jesus and his Daughter Mary will deny him nothing But you will perhaps say that the Latin Church hath laid aside these Devotions God be thanked for it and grant the happy time may come when she will lay aside all the rest that I have cited after the example of this truly Catholick and Apostolick Church of which we are members but then though she hath laid them aside yet since she formerly allowed and approved them she must as a learned * The Author of the R. Devotions Author observes be answerable for them till she acknowledges she was mistaken The rejecting and reforming of these and ‖ As of S. Julian in Miss secund usum Sarum Rothom Edit S. Batilde ibid. S. Scholastica ibid. S Potentiana ibid. S. Aldelmus ibid. S Martin B. and Conf. ibid. S. Sabina ibid. S. Andoenus ibid. other Offices cannot consist with her pretensions to Infallibility which I observe in answer to that Plea which saith it is most reasonable for men to be of the Infallible Church I confess a man were mad that would not rather be of an Infallible than a Fallible Church but then it is obvious to Reply That it is one thing for a Church to be Infallible and another for her or others to say she is so nay I desire to know if any Church is ever a jot the more Infallible for pretending to Infallibility or if those men do not act rationally who chuse to continue under the care of Learned and modest Physicians that own themselves Fallible rather than commit themselves to those who give out Bills of this or that Infallible Cure Thus have I shew'd you from the Ancient and Modern approved Authors of the Latin Communion how extravagant the Votaries of the blessed Virgin are in the honors they pay unto her and as I shewed before that there is no ground for them in Scripture So I am sure there is
type of Solomon's marriage prefigured the marriage of Christ to his Church In the Octave of her Nativity in the fourth Lesson of the first Nocturn it is said ‖ Laus gloria sit tibi Sancta Trinitas quae omnes nos ad hanc celebritatem convocasti Sit etiam tibi sancta Dei Mater laus Tu enim es pretiosa Margarita c. Ibid. Praise and glory be given to thee O Holy Trinity who hast called us unto this celebrity And praise be also unto thee O holy Mother of God for thou art the precious pearl of the world And then it follows in the fifth Lesson * Per te Trinitas sanctificatur per te Crux pretiosa celebratur adoratur in toto terrarum orbe Per te c. Ibid. By thee the holy Trinity is sanctified and the precious Cross celebrated and adored through the world by thee Heaven doth exult the Angels and Archangels rejoyce Devils are put to flight and man is called back to Heaven c. I have taken all this and might have taken more out of the reformed Missal and Breviary which a late small ‖ The Author of Popery anatomized Writer calls the Authentick Books of the Church of Rome And in some of these Devotions you see they pray unto her alone as unto a Deity to bless them and to bestow Spiritual and Temporal blessings upon them saying in effect unto her Have pity upon us hear our prayers c. which the late French Expositor of the Catholick Doctrine saith is the proper way of speaking unto God In others of them they pray unto God the Father through her Merits or Intercession and so make her a collateral Mediatrice with Christ In others they pray unto Christ for her sake and through her Intercession and so make her an under-Mediatrice unto him In others they desire her to interceed with God for them which also makes her a joynt Mediatrice with Christ In others they desire her to ‖ So they pray unto S. Ambr. Beate Ambrosi deprecare pro nobis filium Dei interceed with Christ for them which also makes her a subordinate Mediatrice to him In others they pray unto God through her Merits or Intercession by Christ Jesus which seems to joyn her with him in the Office of Mediator In others they joyn several of these Forms together contrary to the Scriptures which direct us to pray unto none but God and through no Mediator but Jesus Christ and which positively teach that as there is but one God so there is but one Mediator betwixt God and man the man Christ Jesus and that he ever liveth to make intercession for us Indeed they may well pray unto God and Christ through her merits who pray unto Christ through the merits of S. Joseph her reputed husband as they do on his Festival in the following Prayer We pray thee O Lord that we may be helped by the merits of the Spouse of thy holy Mother Sanctissimae genetricis tuae sponsi quaesumus Domine meritis adjuvemur ut quod possibilitas nostra non obtinet ejus nobis intercessione donetur Qui vivis regnas cum Deo Patre Brev. Rom. that what our weakness cannot obtain may be given unto us by his intercession who livest and reignest with the Father So they pray unto God through Christ and S. Nicolas together in the following words Deus qui Beatum Nicolaum innumeris decorasti miraculis tribue quaesumus ut ejus meritis precibus à gehennae incendiis liberemur per Dominum ibid. O God who hast graced S. Nicolas the Bishop with many Miracles grant we beseech thee that we may be delivered from hell fire by his merits and prayers through Christ our Lord. But to return to the B. Virgin I think it very agreeable to my present subject and undertaking to tell you the story of her Assumption out of the Office which I have so often cited Ex antiquâ accepimus traditione quod tempore gloriosae dormitionis c. Quartâ die infra Octavam Assumptionis B. Mariae Lect. 4. and which gives us this account thereof When she died all the Apostles wheresoever dispersed to preach the Gospel were suddenly caught up in the air and brought to Jerusalem Being met together a vision of Angels appeared to them and the Vision was attended with a sweet Psalmody of the heavenly powers in which the B. Virgin resigned her soul into the hands of God in a glorious manner and the Angels and Apostles continuing to sing together her body was carried out and put in a Coffin and buried at Gethsemane where the Angels continued to sing three days together At the end of three days Thomas who was not with the Apostles when she died came to Jerusalem and being desirous to worship the Body of the B. Virgin they went to Gethsemane to take it up but when they had opened the grave and the Coffin to their great astonishment there was no body there and they all agreed in this opinion that it had pleased the Word of God and the Lord of Glory who took his body out of the B. Virgin not to suffer hers to see corruption but to do her the honour to translate it into Heaven before the common and universal resurrection I cannot but observe here how that Thomas was absent at this meeting of the Apostles just as he was at that in which Jesus stood in the midst of them and shewed unto them his hands and his side Poor unfortunate Apostle that art always tardy and canst never come in time to meet the rest of thy Brethren But perhaps he was at the Indies and had a greater journey than the rest who were nearer to Jerusalem I am as content as any man to admit this excuse and if you further desire to know what death the B. Virgin died of the Author of the Contemplations will tell you p. 80. that she died of a spiritual Feaver into which she fell through a Seraphick vehemency of divine love which enflamed her blood and set her sacred heart on fire and that her assumption was on this manner Her glorious soul saith he p. 84. descended from her Imperial seat in Heaven accompanied with Seraphims and chiefest Saints and re-assumed her sacred body and ascended with it again and placed it above all the troops of the blessed p. 89.90 c. Being assumed in body and soul intâ—â—eaven she was seated on a Throne above all Seraphims next to the most Glorious Trinity and inaugurated proclaimed and acknowledged Queen of all pure creatures and at her Coronation she was cloathed with the Sun and had the Moon for her footstool and was Crowned with an Imperial Crown of twelve Stars And truly in some of her Offices the 1st verse of the 12th chap. of the Revelations is applyed to her where it is written And there appeared a great wonder in heaven a woman
the most glorious Virgin Mother of Jesus may God the Father Son and Holy Ghost bless and keep us now and for evermore Pag. 25. And this Cantique Let us praise thee O Mother of Jesus let us acknowledge thee our Sovereign Lady let men and Angels give honour to thee the first conceived of all pure Creatures to thee the morning-Stars and highest Seraphims sing glory for thy magnificence make intercession for us O powerful Mother of Jesus for God will not refuse thee our Petitions then shall we rejoyce in the fulness of thy glory and shall sing the praises of Jesus for ever You may perceive by the stile of this Cantique that it was composed in imitation of the Te Deum of which I shall speak more hereafter From the Contemplations I pass to the Psalter of the B. Virgin Mary which was composed in the French Tongue by a Father of the Society of Jesus and translated into English and Printed with allowance in 1624 out of which I shall present you with a few Petitions to which I need not crave your attention 1. Petition O glorious Virgin grant me grace that I may receive pardon for my sins draw near unto me O blessed Virgin who art the Mother of the afflicted my Enemies are gathered together against me and I have this only refuge to cast my self under the shadow of your wings defend me against their enterprises and bring them all to shame and confusion Your Majesty and greatness together with the incredible sweetness of your infinite mercy have obliged my lips to publish the praises of no other than of your self Be you glorified O most amiable Virgin together with your sweet Son Jesus both now and evermore Give my Soul entrance into Paradise when it shall leave the Body and by your holy prayers deliver me from the dreadful pains of Hell and let all that is due unto me for my sins be cancelled by your merits You have been the cause that God took humane flesh upon him you then as a Mother can obtain for us all that which we ask of him He will pardon us for the love of you Remember our humanity and grant that we may find grace with you who art the Foundress of our grace and Salvation Stretch forth your hand to draw me out of the filthiness of my sins and let the greatness of your mercy blot out the multitude of my offences supplying by your merits what in justice I dare not demand Turn not your face away from me for I put my trust in you ‖ 2. Petition You are the Sanctuary into which I desire to retire I magnifie you as the Foundress of Grace I will never cease to beseech you with all my desires and affections until I know that you have beheld me with compassion and given ear to my prayers I will humble my heart before you for I know that the proud shall not be entertained near unto your sacred Majesty If you do not undertake our defence how shall we do to appear before Jesus put words into my mouth that I may worthily praise you since the Heavens themselves set forth your glory and that all Creatures call upon you when they are oppressed as soon as you extend your hand upon the sick they are healed and the waves of this troublesom world are soon appeased by your commandment I will never cease to praise and exalt you with Hymns Psalms and Canticles but day by day will I render you my vows Receive my Soul into your hands when it shall leave this mortal Body and take it into your protection for it will be lost with fear and will not know to what side to turn to save it self unless under the shadow of your mercy Obtain for me by your grace a place of perpetual habitation among those who be in Paradise there to enjoy the felicity which the Souls of those who have devoutly served you do eternally possess O blessed Virgin ‖ 3. Petition mother of unlimited power adored and called upon by the Universe give me strength to resist the temptations of my invisible enemies if you should have forsaken me to whom should I have then repaired that would have looked upon me with pity and compassion I will confess your name among all Nations because it is holy and will make known to all the Majesty of your greatness All the fifteen Petitions in this Psalter are full of such like devotions and the last of them concludes thus Be pleased with my prayers O sacred Virgin and may it please you not to reject this little Psalter dedicated to your Sacred Majesty a part whereof I will recite before you every day to the end you may receive my soul into your bosom when it shall depart out of this world into another life I must further acquaint you that this Author who made this Psalter in imitation of the Psalter of David adviseth his Reader to say these Psalms before an Image of the blessed Virgin Mary in some holy place or Oratory and before every Petition to say the Ave Maria in English and the Translator of it doth assure the Lady to whom he Dedicates it that it had the approbation of the better sort of Catholicks and was presented to one of the greatest Queens of Europe in its French attire The Author also tells us that he hath put the Angels Salutation before every Petition to implore the favour of the Sacred Virgin and this he did conformably to the Latin Offices which abound with Ave Maries though I profess I cannot tell why they should convert a pure Salutation which I have shewed consists of common forms of Speech into a form of Invocation Why should that which might have been spoken by the Angel to any other righteous person be esteemed such an acceptable Sacrifice of Praise to her and yet the Mystery of the holy Rosary which we are ‖ In the Advertisement before the method of saying the Rosary told the blessed Virgin revealed to Dominic I must be pardoned that I cannot add Saint consists in saying one Pater noster and ten Ave Maries at a time with one Prayer to the Virgin Mary after a Meditation upon something that happened or that they say happened to her and I must confess I cannot understand how any Office wherein there are ten or eleven Invocations of Mary for one Prayer to God ‖ Ibid. should be most efficacious for obtaining all favours from him and averting all evils from our selves Such knowledge is too wonderful for me I cannot attain unto it but I must for ever be content to be ranked ‖ 1 Serm. p 6. Serm. 6. p. 5. among those babes who are to be fed with milk and not with such strong meat My stomach will not digest it I have not been hitherto able to bear it neither yet am able nor to beg her intercession or hope to obtain the assistance of the Holy Ghost by saying
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