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nature_n	body_n	divine_a	unite_v	2,443	5	9.2437	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23680	An Abridgment of the prerogatives of St. Ann, mother of the mother of God with the approbation of the doctors at Paris, and thence done into English to accompany The contemplations on the life and glory of Holy Mary, and the defence of the same, with some pieces of a like nature : to which a preface is added concerning the original of the story.	Cross, John, 1630-1689. Contemplations on the life and glory of Holy Mary the mother of Jesus.; Clagett, William, 1646-1688.	1688 (1688)	Wing A108; ESTC R6614	31,825	46

Heaven and that they ought to be of Abrahams mind who said I will appear before my Lord dust and ashes as I am Hence it follows that we ought to hope for the Grace of God and Supernatural Powers It is in these Valleys of mean esteem of ones self says David that God makes the Fountains of his Favours and the Waters of his Grace to flow and not upon the Mountains and Spirits of Presumption that approach the Temples and the Altars with Head and Face lifted up before him in whose Presence the Angels tremble and the Seraphims sink down into the lowest depths with Reverence and before whom says St. Austin if thou wilt humble thy self the bait of thy Humility attracts him and he is constrain'd to descend from his Father's Bosom into thine thou possessest him and dost with him after the Inclination of thy will But if vain glory accompany thy Prayer thou findest a God who has Thunder in his hand to destroy thee 'T was in these vallies of mean esteem of her self the Prayer of St. Ann found Forces and the grant of her Requests Her Third Merit was CHAP X. Her Generous Confidence in God's Providence THE Earth in my Opinion is the Noblest tho the last of the Elements because being not able to act of its self this state gives it so much Sympathy with the Sun that it becomes fruitful through the favour of his Beams in all kinds of Production So it is a very glorious Weakness and powerful Impotence for an humble Soul to acknowledg her Miseries and her Nothing Since God beholding this Void he immediately replenishes it with his Grace for where the Creature is not there is the Creator presently found and where Manhood leaves us there the Godhead enters by a Consequence as necessary in the Order of Grace as in that of Nature the Air immediately fills those places which it finds void Now as God has extraordinary Graces that reward Humility and exalt it from its meanness into which it seems plunged among others there is a generousness of Heart which the humble Soul draws from the great Confidence she puts in this that an Infinite Wisdom both knows and is able and will help her triumphing over her Miseries and Weaknesses and being to her what her Soul is to her Body or the Heaven to the Earth Confidence in God which comprehends all the most distant degrees of nature in a most simple Unity unites these two Contrarieties to believe that we can do nothing and that we can do every thing That we are able to do nothing of our own strength and that we can do every thing in virtue of the Divine Arm on which we relye Thus when Humility has made us diffident of our selves we ought to raise our Courages by an holy and invincible Faith that may make us brave all the Disgraces and Difficulties of the World looking to this all-seeing eye and all-powerful Arm who has a heart readier to give to us than ours to ask or receive Such was the Prayer of S. Ann animated with a lively Faith not only a general one which made her believe that God to whom she pray'd was all-powerful and all-good and had a Paternal Providence and an infinite love for her but a particular faith that this gracious God would grant her the desir'd Grace according to the Pattern of another Ann the Mother of Samuel 1 King. 1. Concerning whom the Sacred Oracle pronounces that after the Prayer which she made to obtain a Son she was no more agitated by any waves of Inquietude but was left in a constant evenness and a perfect tranquility of mind as if she already had the thing she pray'd for says St. Chrysostom of the first Anna and felt the Babe form'd and stirring in her womb inasmuch as she had beg'd it with a spirit not wavering undoubtful of success but with an entire confidence and an unshaken perswasion that she should obtain 'T is thus says St. Thomas 2a 2ae Q. 83. that as Charity makes our Prayer meritorious Confidence makes it impetratorious or effectual Thus it is that those great Courages who fully confide in God glorifie him more by the Noble and high Sentiments that they have of him than a Million of narrow hearts to whom all seems lost as soon as they see any thing fail 'em and themselves left by some one of these broken reeds the Creatures on which they rely'd Thus it is that St. Basil in his 20th Orat. de Principatu exalts Confidence as much as Sacrifice and says It 's no more lawful to place it any where else than in God than to present the Cult which the Sacrifice contains to any other than him To this I add that as the Honour we give to God in Sacrifice is very great by reason of the Protestation we there make of acknowledging him for our Soveraign So that which he receives from us by Confidence is wonderful inasmuch as it is like an Oath of Fealty and an Homage whereby we oblige our selves to be willing to depend on him alone avowing his infinite bounty and infallible verity and renouncing every other hold which we might have but him which is very honourable to him and it is thus that our Saint by the vigour and firmness of her Faith merited the greatest Grace in the World next to the Personal Vnion and Divine Maternity that is to bear in her Womb the Virgin who was to be the Mother of God and to have for Grandson and embrace in her Arms no less than him who has God for his Father After these Preeminences of this great Saint we have nothing to do but to contribute our Homages by Invocation of her Powers and the imitation of her Vertues As for CHAP. XI Her Credit and Power in Heaven IF St. Ann next to the Virgin be the nearest to Jesus Christ and has a greater share of him than any of all the Saints in the Incarnation which is the cause of the Crowns they wear it is easie to conclude that this Proximity has given her the most eminent of Paradice as water partakes more of the qualities of its Spring the nearer it is to it and that her Credit is parallel to her Greatness which the better to comprehend it is necessary to remember how all Gods creatures being the productions of his Goodness by the Being which he gave them as an extract of his own he would have them to rejoyn again to him as to their final as well as efficient cause placing this Perfection in this Reunion and Return to their Principle Now according to the Doctrine of St. Thomas in his Book of the Humility of Christ his Will was to recall to himself middle things by the high and low ones by the middle and he makes use of Jesus Christ to gather together and reunite by him whatever is in Heaven or in Earth and this Jesus Christ makes use in the first place of the Holy Virgin as

from Storms and Tempests she stops there and makes choice of the strongest Branch and the nearest to Heaven to feed there and breed her young ones Imagine now that God is this Eagle who running over with his Eyes as it were so many beautiful Trees all the Women who were to be from the first to the last perceiv'd not any one so worthy to receive the Glorious Virgin who was to be the little Nest of the Heavenly Eaglet who is the Word Incarnate as St. Ann in whom he rested himself as in the Tree of Paradice which he knew to be the tallest in Devotion the deepest in Humility the largest in Charity and of the most pleasant odour in Sanctity O Beautiful Tree and far other than that which was represented in a Picture at the triumphant entry of Mary de Medicis Queen Mother of Lewis 13. which bore Scepters for Boughs Crowns for Flowers Kings for the Stock and little Deities for the Fruits St. Ann was the fair Tree of the Genealogy of Jesus and Mary whose Stock is made up with the Davids the Solomons and other Kings whose Flowers are Diadems but the Holy Virgin the richest Crown as being the finest Flower of Heaven and Earth and her Fruit is the Incarnate Son of God. Certainly as the most glorious Diadem of the First of the uncreated Persons is the Production of his Word the second Person whom he begat in the splendor of Saints so if in one word you would know the price of that Crown which St. Ann bore both on Earth and in Heaven it must be said and this is to say all that her Treasure and her Crown was the giving being to her who gave it to a God which is to be Crown'd with the Merits of Mary like the Tree with its Flowers and Fruit. Whence it is to be concluded That the Dignity the Grace and the Holiness of this only and only Perfect Daughter ought to reflect back to her Mother even to a point That she render'd her incomparable in Sanctity as she was in her Dignity For of two things one must of necessity happen Either that this holy Virgin had not the Power or that having the Power she communicated to her whatever we can fancy greatest in Grace Her Paps have too much credit and access with the Word her Son not to have the Power who being in the terms of Clement of Alexandria the Pap of his Heavenly Father which gave foecundity to all Nature would also as he had been the Principle of the Universe by being Mamelle de son Pere the Virgin should be his and that from the Bosom of his Mother should proceed a Power but yet not without proportion and a Force to establish a World of Grace to make Saints and to make them worthy of Glory So that it is true in some sort and good Divinity to say That the Felicity of the Saints is deriv'd from Mary and that there is no body who is not oblig'd to her for the fortification of his Patience for the Victory over his Temptations for Preservation from Falls for Augmentation of his Merits for his final Grace and finally for his Glory This Principle suppos'd who will doubt that St. Ann was not the Masterpriece of Maries Workmanship and that the Power of this last was not the Measure of the Excellence of the former She could make a Prodigy of Virtue and a Miracle of Greatness therefore she did and not only from the time that She was her Daughter but ev'n before She was created we may say That She labour'd on this Masterpiece And it is one of the greatest Miracles of the Mysteries of our Religion that the Children give Life to their Parents and those who are not yet give admirable Advantages to those who already are Thus Jesus is the Son of Adam according to Nature and his Father according to Grace the Virgin is the Mother of the Saviour by the shadowing of the Holy Spirit and is likewise the eldest Daughter to the Redeemer Thus St. Ann is in the state of Grace the Daughter of her Daughter the Holy Virgin by a Plenitude of Grace which She from her received Which ought not to be thought strange by him who has tasted the Sense and universal Consent of the Fathers who assert that what was giv'n in Plenitude to Christ ought in Proportion to be attributed to the Holy Virgin that they both were busied in the cares of our Salvation with the same Courage tho not the same Power It 's then the Spirit of Christ is not only diffus'd in the new but has its extent over all the Old Testament and no Body was sav'd but by his Merits anticipated wherefore should one deny Jesus Christ to have in favour of the foreseen Merits of his Mother granted some Graces as well before as after his Conception to certain Souls especially to those most nearly alli'd to him Among these St. Ann in Consideration of the Merits of this Virgin was elevated to the Prerogatives and Crowns which ought to answer the degree of Alliance which she had to her which was no less than of a Mother to a Daughter an Alliance which establishes CHAP. III. The first Reason of the Prerogatives of St. ANN. SHE gave to the Virgin Being and Life which is the dearest Treasure of Man and the Foundation of other Perfections In exchange therefore it is reasonable the Virgin should impart to Her all the Noble Qualities which might make a Soul fill'd with Complacency to her God. For if our Lady had an extream Zeal to carry Jesus Christ into the House of her Cousin Elizabeth so to sanctify her Child while he was inclos'd in her Womb if this Zeal thought long and her Love gave her Wings to fly thither without fear of the Inconveniences and Fatigues of the Journey with design of procuring Holiness to her Relations and her Blood. God having put a perfect Order in her Affections and Loves must it not be said That that which She had for the rest of her Relations was but a spark in respect of the cares which She had for her which was her Mother And must it not be believ'd She gave her a better allotment in Jesus Christ and his Graces there being nothing so reasonable as to do all the good She could to her Parent Certainly one of the most powerful Arguments for convincing a generous Spirit is the fitness of the matter and this fitness is more prevalent with good Judgments than the strictness of Laws Whence St. Thomas speaking of the two highest Mysteries the Incarnation of the Word and the Reality of his Body the adorable Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Altar says they ought to be believ'd because it was fit that the Son of God for the perfect Vnion of himself with us should be alli'd by the Personal Vnion with our Nature and be really in the Eucharist to satisfy the Rules of Love which require a continual Presence of the beloved