dishonour Him Blessed Saint Is this the Respect and Honour which Thou requirest of Us to build Thee Shrines and Temples and then to pay to Thee in Them a Religious Worship To offer up at Thy Altars our Devotions and Prayers to run over our Rosaries to say Ten Ave Maries for One Pater Noster i. e. to make Ten Addresses to Thee for One Prayer directed to Almighty God and this is the proportion observed in the Romish Devotions In a word to transfer upon Thee the Religious Reverence due to God as his own Peculiar Prerogative Surely no. This is a sort of Complaisance or Humility as the Apostle speaks in the case of Angel Worship which cannot possibly be grateful to Thee We cannot imagine that Thou canst at all delight in receiving if yet Thou art capable of receiving from Us those Religious Services which we cannot pay Thee without Injuring and Affronting Thy MAKER We dare not present to Thee our Petitions and Prayers because they are due to God only We dare not implore Thy Favour in Interceding for Us to Thy Son because we have an Immediate Advocate with the Father IESVS CHRIST the Righteous But This we will do We will give Thee all the Honour that possibly we can on this side Religious Worship We will Extol Thy Graces magnifie that Infinite Mercy which raised Thee to the Dignity of being the Mother of God And last of all Imitate as far as we can Thy Admirable Goodness and Piety And this is the true way of declaring the Veneration we have for the Blessed Virgin Our Esteem of Her is to be expressed not in a Religious Worship But 2. Positively In the Celebration and Imitation of her Vertues and Graces If we affectionately Celebrate her Memory Praise and Admire her Graces and endeavour to transcribe them in our Lives and Actions we do her as much Honour as is possible We have hitherto consider'd her manifold Graces pray let us forthwith fall to Imitation and Practice Let Us follow her even in her Virginal Chastity remembring that the God of Purity would be born of none but a Virgin That they were Virgins who had the Honour to sing a new and peculiar Song before the Throne and to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth Rev. 14. 3 4. Or however let us be Conjugally Chaste and not by Lust and Folly defile and prophane our Bodies which ought to be the Temples of the Holy Ghost nor make the Members of Christ for such these of ours are by Mystical Union the Members of an Harlot Let us Imitate her Humility the very Crown of all Christian Graces that wherein our Lord chiefly delights Learn of me says he for I am meek and lowly in heart Matth 11. 29. The Lord chose a meek and humble Woman for his Mother A Lesson to those in particular whom St. Peter in one of his Epistles makes it his business to accomplish But how Let their Adorning says he not be that Adorning of Plaiting the Hair and of Wearing of Costly Apparel but let it be the hidden Man of the Heart in that which is not corruptible even the Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price What shall I say more In everything wherein we find her excellent let us tread her Steps and this will be indeed to Celebrate This Festival We may Imitate her even in this Mysterious Conception of our Saviour We are capable of the Honour of having Christ formed in us Gal. 4. 19. Of being Partakers of the Divine Life and Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 Of having Christ dwell in our Hearts Ephes. 3. 17. Of being the Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. In fine we are capable in our Saviours account of greater Blessedness than that which accrew'd to the Holy Virgin upon the score of her being the Lords Mother Blessed is the Womb that bare Him and the Paps which He sucked But rather blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it He that doth the Will of my Father the same says Christ is my Brother and Sister and MOTHER GOD Grant that We may all of Us so perfectly express our Love and Relation to CHRIST by a Sincere Constant Uniform Observance of His Commands that together with the Holy Mother of our Lord and all the Company of Saints and Angels We may enjoy a Blessed Immortality in the Highest Heavens for Ever and Ever AMEN FINIS April 1. 1676. 1 Tim. 3.16 Wisd. 19.16 1 Pet. 1.12 1 Cor. 2.11 Vers. 10. Rom. 16.26 Gen. 3.15 Vers. 30. Dan. 7.9 Quae vel Angelica puritas Illi audeat comparari quae digna fuit Spiritus Sacrarium fieri habitaculum filii Dei S. Bern. de Assump Serm. 4. Heb. 2.16 Exod. 33. 11,18,20 1 Joh. 3.1 Wisd. 1.4 1 Cor. 1.24 Conc. Trid. Sess. 5 Art 5. ad finem Rom. 5.12 Quod turbata est Verecundiae fuit S. Bernard Serm. 3. super Missus est 1 Pet. 5.5 Rom. 4.20 21. Joh. 5.26 3. Part. Disp. 18. Sect. 4. Conc. Trid. Sess. 25. Art 2. Matth. 4.10 Psal. 65.2 Epiphan contr Haeres lib. 3. Haer. 79. 1 Tim. 4. 1. Conc. Trid. Sess. 25. Art 2. Anno 431. Bonavent Col. 2.18 1 Joh. 2.1 1 Pet. 3.3,4