for his Inconsiderate Zeal See thou do it not says the Angel I am thy Fellow servant and of thy Brethren that have the Testimony of Iesus Worship God And certainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if the Blessed Virgin now in Heaven have any Knowledge of what is done here below if she sees the many Shrines and Altars erected to her and hears the Prayers and Devotions offer'd up continually by stupid and superstitious Votaries she cannot but infinitely disdain the Religious Homage paid her so much in Derogation to God and his Christ A Worship which has not the least countenance from Sacred Writ there being in those holy Books neither Precept nor Example of Devotion in this kind Our Saviour is so far from enjoyning the Worshipping of Her that he restrains upon all occasions all extravagant apprehensions of the Honour due to her as foreseeing the proneness of succeeding Ages to Superstition in this matter When he was told that his Mother and his Brethren stood without Who saith he are my Mother and my Brethren He that doth the Will of my Father the same is my Mother and Sister and Brother And when the Woman brake forth into that Rapture concerning the Blessed Mother of our Lord Blessed is the Womb that bare Thee and the Paps which Thou hast sucked Our Saviour diverts it to another thing Yea rather blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it Nor do the Apostles give us the least advice of addressing our selves to the Virgin and making use of her Intercession nay they have not so much as once mentioned her Name in all their Epistles Now if the Worship of the Blessed Virgin had been a thing in practise from the beginning can it with any colour of reason be imagin'd that our Saviour and his Apostles would have been silent in so considerable a part of Religion The truth is 't is so far from Apostolic or Primitive that neither the Scriptures nor the Christian Writers for the first three hundred years give any countenance at all to this sort of Devotion To be plain This Superstitious Practice began about the middle of the fourth Century and Epiphanius who liv'd about that time particularly calls it as he might have done a great many more The Heresie of Women There were in his days certain devout Women of Arabia who as an instance of their Worship of the Blessed Virgin offer'd up to this Queen of Heaven as they thought her certain Cakes call'd Collyrides whence they had the name of Collyridian Heretiques The Good Father hearing of this preposterous Devotion of theirs inveighs with all possible vehemency against that Superstitious Practice accounting it Damnable and Diabolical and the Persons devoted to it no better than those that attend to Seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Daemons And then he states the Worship due to the Virgin Mary thus Mary says he was a Virgin 't is true nay more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very Honourable Virgin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but she is not propos'd to us as an Object of Religious Worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the same Father Though Mary be a most Excellent Holy and Venerable Woman yet is she by no means capable of a Religious Adoration And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the Virgin be Reverenc'd but God only Worshipp'd So Zealous was Epiphanius in the matter of the Virgins Invocation a piece of Superstition before his time not known in the World What would he have said had he seen this Idolatry of Worshipping the Virgin of calling upon her and imploring her Mediation with Christ grown into such a general Reputation as to be Universally Practis'd and Establish'd by the Law of a Church which Glories in the style of Catholic His Spirit undoubtedly upon Observation of the Churches Shrines and Altars Erected to her Devotion as St. Pauls once was would have been stirr'd within him when he should have seen not only one particular City but a whole Church wholly given to this and many other Branches of Idolatry The Idols or Images set up in Honour of the Blessed Virgin being infinitely more numerous than those the great Apostle saw at Athens and both made use of to the same Religious Ends and Purposes Indeed the Romish Superstition relating to the Blessed Mary as 't is now practis'd is infinitely too gross and absurd to be in any tolerable manner accounted for and justified 'T is wholly Anti-Scriptural and 't is evident the Church of Christ knew nothing at all of it for above three hundred years after our Saviour Alas The several Periods of the Rise and Growth of this Superstitious Folly and Will-Worship as to all the parts of it are too notorious to allow it the least Pretensions to Antiquity The Council of Ephesus towards the beginning of the fourth Century gave her indeed the style of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mother of God in Opposition to the Nestorian Heresie And I know very well that in the Ages immediately succeeding they fell to making lofty and unreasonably high Harangues in her Commendation But 't was above a thousand years after Christ before any Daily Office was Instituted to Her And a long time after that was it ere the Doctrine of her Immaculate Conception appear'd in the World The Canons of Lyons are the first Men upon Record who inserted that Doctrine into their Ecclesiastical Offices and are upon that account sharply reprehended by St. Bernard About three hundred years ago Duns Scotus a School-Doctor reviv'd That Opinion and propos'd it as a thing meerly probable In favour of it Pope Sixtus the Fourth afterwards Published a Bull which was finally Approv'd and Ratifi'd by the Council of Trent So that She now passes among the Romanists if they be true to the Decrees of their Church for a Virgin perfectly free from Original Sin not to mention the several other Prerogatives and Perfections they have out of very great kindness doubtless fix'd upon Her They style her in their Missals and Offices The Queen of Heaven The Empress of the World The Ladder of Paradise The Gate of Salvation The Mediatrix between God and Man The Saviour by whom God hath sent Redemption unto his People A Goddess The Omnipotent Lady c. And the peculiar Offices which have been instituted to her are so extreamly Wild and Blasphemous that I cannot mention what they speak of the Virgin without offence to this Intelligent and Noble Auditory A Cardinal of the Romish Church who Compiled the Ladies Psalter as they call it has taken the liberty very fairly to Burlesque the Psalms of David and roundly to apply and direct to the Holy Virgin all those Noble Hymns and most Pious Ejaculations and Prayers which the Royal Psalmist presented to Almighty God So Indiscreet a Thing is Superstition that whilst it labours to Gratifie and Please God it blindly falls upon such means in order thereto as do most highly disoblige and
Imprimatur Concio haec in Luc. 1. v. 28. Gulielmus Iane Reverendo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no Henrico Episcopo Lond. à Sacris Domesticis A SERMON Preached on the FEAST of the ANNUNCIATION OF THE B. Virgin Mary AT S t Martins in the Fields Westminster BY IOHN MILL M. A. Fellow of Queens Colledge Oxon. In the SAVOY Printed by THO. NEWCOMB MDCLXXVI St. LUKE Chap. 1. Vers. 28. And the Angel came in unto Her and said Hail Thou that art highly favour'd the Lord is with Thee Blessed art Thou among Women GReat is the Mystery of Godliness says St. Paul God Manifested in the Flesh Iustified in the Spirit Seen of Angels Preached unto the Gentiles Believed on in the World Received up into Glory Mysterious Doctrines these indeed and such as transcend the Capacities of Men I do not say those poor shallow Creatures who hardly guess aright at things upon Earth and with labour find even the things that are before them but also of the Holy Angels of God Those Glorious Spirits who are all Flame and Intelligence cannot arrive to the Knowledge of them are not allow'd as much as a Glimpse into these Depths of our Holy Religion Desire they may and do as St. Peter tells us to pry a little into these Gospel Arcana but can by no means have their Curiosity gratifi'd Any Wisdom inferiour to that of God being uncapable of a full Comprehension and Understanding of them The reason is plain For what Man says the great Apostle knows even the Things of a Man our poor inconsiderable Thoughts and Designs save the Spirit of a Man which is in him Even so the Things the deep Things of God knows no Man nor for the same reason any Creature else but the Spirit of God And yet God hath revealed Them unto us says the same Apostle He has so But how and in what measure He has not explained the Modes and Reasons of Gospel-Mysteries surely Those are and will even in Heaven remain to us Unintelligible But acquainted us meerly with the Truth and Reality of them and discovered what those Supernatural Doctrines of Faith are by Extraordinary Revelation A Revelation to go on with St. Paul as early as the Prophetic Writings wherein the Apostle affirms them to be declar'd The Mystery of the Gospel says he was a thing hid from Ages and from Generations kept secret since the World began but is now by the Scriptures of the Prophets made known and manifested to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith A Truth undoubtedly clear and evident as far as concerns the Promises of a Messiah i. e. of our Blessed Saviours Mission into the World which are in the old Prophesies most expresly delivered but if extended to the several Doctrines touching his Person can only be true in this sense that the Fulness of Time was able to interpret those Ancient Records so as to discover in them even these Doctrines too The Birth Life Actions and Sufferings of our Saviour spread a sensible Light over those Ancient Volumes and made these Essential Truths of the Gospel appear otherwise or not at all or very hardly discernable The Truth is there is so much Obscurity in their Manifestations of them if I may so speak without absurdity that 't is almost as difficult out of the Prophets to conclude the Reality of any such Mysteries as 't is impossible to understand the Natures of them For to instance in that one which more particularly relates to the present Festival I mean the Mysterious Incarnation of our Lord This Truth I confess was in some sort delivered to our first Parents in that promise of bruising the Serpents Head by the Seed of the Woman But this was a wonderfull dark Insinuation of the Mystery I grant also that Abraham had some Knowledge of this Matter our Saviour himself attests so much Ioh. 8. 56. So likewise had the Patriarchs and several Godly Men in the first Ages of the World They embrac'd This among many other things of the Gospel nay they saw them says the Author to the Hebrews Chap. 11. v. 13. but then 't was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a far off at a vast distance and so implies a very Inadequate and small Discovery The Prophet Isaiah may seem indeed to have had a much clearer and more advantagious view of Christ Incarnate in his account of it Ch. 7. v. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call his Name Immanuel For if the Prediction relate to Christ then the Prophet knew that the Mother of our Lord was to be a Virgin But that the Virgin there mentioned was to Typifie the Virgin Mary and the Immanuel to be born our blessed Saviour we have only the warrant of a Mystical Interpretation made indeed by St. Matthew Chap. 1. v. 23. and so most undoubtedly true but such as otherwise we should never have thought upon the plain Letter of the Text only pointing out to a Child to be born immediately after the Prophesie whoever he was as a Sign to King Ahaz that Ierusalem should be secured from the Arms of the Kings of Israel and Syria So that for all the Prophetical accounts of this and the like Doctrines of Faith we are like to be left infinitely in the dark unless the Divine Goodness unfolds what they wrap'd up in Types and displays the Truth of them in such an evident manner as may procure and establish a belief of them in the minds of Men. But blessed be God who will not suffer the World to remain under the Prophetic Shades and continue ignorant of the Principles of Christianity any longer It suffic'd the Wisdom of Heaven to have kept these Glorious Things unknown in a manner during the Mosaic Oeconomy But now the fulness of time is come when the Mysterious Abyss of the Gospel shall be broken up and the Glories of Christianity appear in so eminent and illustrious a manner that all the Ends of the World may see the Salvation of God The Grand Design of Heaven is to be laid open and unravel'd successively in all the Parts and Branches of it The first of them and Foundation of all the rest I mean the Manifestation of God in the Flesh was explain'd to us this very day by the Message of an Angel God sent one of those blessed Spirits from Heaven on purpose to inform us who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Virgin as the Prophet Isaiah styl'd her by way of Eminency that blessed Woman of all the World who was to be the Mother of our Lord. And who was this Virgin think ye who was to be Christ's Mother and to whom upon that account so extraordinary an Embassy was dispatch'd Some great and and noble Personage certainly highly eminent for her Extraction and Quality No such matter but on the quite contrary a poor mean Daughter of Israel expressing indeed in her Name something
Recorded in Scripture to have been fill'd with the Holy Ghost And indeed every good Christian may be said to be Partaker of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. To have put on Christ Gal. 3. 17. Nay to have Christ formed in him Gal. 4. 19. in a Spiritual sense But the Blessed Virgin was the Person alone of all the World in whom the Almighty would not by the Gifts and Graces of his Spirit only but Essentially Locally Properly reside whose Womb was to be the real Receptacle and Temple of God and in whom was to dwell all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Behold says St. John what manner of love the Father hath bestow'd upon us that we should be called the Sons of God If so great be the love of God to us in making us his Sons what must That be whereby be made the Blessed Virgin besides the favour she enjoys in common with the best of Christians our Saviours Mother We are his Sons only in a Qualified and Spiritual Notion but she is in Truth and Reality the Mother of God This is her Title and this is her Memorial for all Generations So that now we shall adventure to take up again the Angels Salutation and say Hail Thou that art highly favoured the Lord is with Thee Blessed art Thou among Women Highly favoured And that not only upon account of our blessed Lords Incarnation the Reason hitherto insisted on but also II. Upon the score of those Excellent Graces and Vertues wherewith she was in a very eminent degree dignified and accomplish'd God might 't is true had it so pleas'd Him have made choice of any other even Unsanctified Virgin as well as the Virgin Mary wherein to transact the Mysterious Incarnation of his Son And I know very well there are a sort of ill-natur'd Fanatical Spirits who will not allow this Holy Woman any Extraordinary Grace nay indeed not any Civil Respect upon the account of this her Honourable Relation She was say they beloved meerly gratis without the least respect had to any peculiar Graces and Qualifications she could pretend to An Assertion so far true indeed that her Piety could not challenge either This or any other Divine Favour strictly and by way of Merit but if so extended as to exclude the Singular Eye or Respect God had to her Vertues and Graces in so grand an Affair as this was is an absurd and unworthy Doctrine For if according to the Wise mans Aphorism Into a Malicious Soul Wisdom shall not enter nor dwell in the Body that is subject unto Sin 't is infinitely gross to imagine that our Blessed Lord who is the Wisdom of the Father should inhabit the Body and cloath Himself with the Flesh and Blood of an Irreligious Woman Far be this from our Conceptions The Holy IESVS undoubtedly had a very tender and special regard not only to the low estate Vers. 48. but much more to the Piety of this Hand-maiden whom he design'd for his Mother Not that I would here be thought in the least wise to affirm the Blessed Mary perfectly free from all Actual Sin much less from Original Corruption I leave such Anti-Scriptural Doctrines to be Established by the Council of Trent and Preach'd up by the Franciscan Fryars We have no warrant for any Magnificent Strains of that kind concerning her Having on the contrary as good Assurance as Scripture can give us that all Men the Virgin Mary no where excepted are conceived and born in Sin All that I aim at is this that the Mother of our Blessed Saviour was an eminently Religious and Holy Woman And truly we need not go far for an Argument of this Truth St. Luke has in this very Chapter given us a sufficient account of her Graces The History of the Annunciation representing to us these several Particulars 1. Her Chastity She was a Virgin V. 29. one that knew not a Man V. 34. free from all carnal Uncleanness and Pollution Her Mind and Body entirely pure and Immaculate not in the least measure sullied and ruffled by Lust and consequently devoid of what might otherwise have alienated her from the Divine Love and render'd her Body an unfit Temple for the God of all Purity to inhabit 2. Her Humility and Modesty Vertues express'd in her behaviour towards the Angel V. 29. When she saw him says the Evangelist she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of Salutation this should be She was troubled at his saying Poor Virginâ— The Angels Complyment is in all Circumstances too big for her Modesty The Address in her Apprehension most infinitely unsuitable to a Woman of her low Rank and Condition in the World What! An Angel clad all in Robes of Glory come to visit a poor mean Daughter of Israel Can it be that Heaven should in Her of all the Women in the World find any thing that might incline God to respect and favour Her She blushes upon the Angels Address Sees and hears herself highly magnifi'd Thinks upon the Message deeply Considers it again and again But after all cannot apprehend any thing in herself which may in any wise correspond to the Angels Character Her Modesty will not allow her to understand the least part of the Import of the Angels Salutation How she of all others should be the great Favourite of Heaven advanc'd and honour'd above all her Sex a Person to be celebrated throughout all Ages she cannot imagine And as for her Humility 't was the same after her Exaltation as before In her Magnificat she expresses herself sensible of her low Condition and takes occasion to meditate upon and adore the Mercy of God who rejects the Proud but gives Grace and Honour to the Humble He hath scattered says she the Proud in the Imagination of their Hearts He hath put down the Mighty from their seat and hath exalted the Humble and Meek Vers. 51 52. Her Humility was one of the principal Graces which procur'd her this favour God delights in this Grace in a peculiar manner Loves those and only those that are Humble He loves and lives with them Thus saith the high and lofty One who 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 Heart of the Contrite Ones Isai. 57. 15. The next Grace observable in the Virgin Mary is her Faith express'd Vers. 38. Behold says she the Handmaid of the Lord Be it unto me according to thy Word She staggers not at the promise of God through unbelief to apply to her St. Pauls words concerning Abraham upon a much-like Argument but is strong in Faith giving Glory to God and being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform The Consideration of Omnipotency removes all Doubts and Difficulties To be a Mother without knowing