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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01368	The vviddoves mite cast into the treasure-house of the prerogatiues, and prayses of our B. Lady, the immaculate, and most glorious Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. With reasons why we are to haue great confidence in her prayers. Whereunto is annexed, A prayer, for the loue of God, made in contemplation of the passion of Christ our Sauiour.	A. G., fl. 1619.; Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655, attributed name.	1619 (1619)	STC 11490; ESTC S118624	73,100	210

by the Holy Ghost framed an Office of our B. Lady that is to say it hath composed a Seruice out of the Psalmes and other Scriptures togeather with the writings of the Holy Fathers which it commandeth to be recited at such tyme as her festiuall dayes are celebrated and now and then it interposeth certaine affectuous versicles to shew the admiration wherein it hath her supreme dignity through the vouchsafing which God Almighty hath pleased to vse with her in making her a fit Mother for himselfe Sometymes it exclameth thus Faelix namque es sacra virgo Maria omni laude dignissima quia ex te ortus est sol iustitiae Christus Deus noster And againe Sancta immaculata virginitas quibus te laudibus efferam nescio quia quem caelicapere non poterant tuo gremio contulisti Beata es Virgo Maria quae Dominū portasti Creatorem mundi Genuisti qui te fecit in aeternum permanes Virgo Beata mater intacta virgo gloriosa Regina mundi intercede pro nobis ad Dominum Happy art thou O sacred Virgin Mary and most worthy of all prayse for the Sonne of Iustice Christ our Lord is borne of thee O thou holy and immaculate virginity with what prayses shal I extoll thee since thou hast contayned him in thy wombe whom the heauens themselues could not comprehend Blessed art thou O Virgin Mary who hast borne our Lord the Creatour of the world thou hast borne him that made thee and thou eternally remaynest a Virgin O blessed Mother and immaculate Virgin O thou glorious Queene of the world pray for vs vnto our Lord. In this māner doth the Church performe to her all due honour And in other parts of the same office it applyeth many other places of Scripture and especially out of the Canticles the book of VVisedome and the Apocalyps towardes the dignifying celebrating the praises of our B. Lady vesting as it were her person with all those appellations and other termes of honour which are there to be found in full measure and among others these Veni columba mea veni sponsa mea veni electa mea veni coronaberis pulchra vt Luna electa vt Sol terribilis vt castrorum actes ordinata mulier amicta sole Luna sub pedibus eius Astitit Regina à dextris tuis circumdata varietate and a thousand such passages as these are sung by the Holy Church in honour of our B. Lady as being the Doue the Spouse Vide August de symb ad Catec c. 1. Epiphā serm de laudibus Mariae Bernard serm in eundem locum Apoc. 12.1 the eiect of the King of heauen one clad and enuironed with the Sunne supported by the Moone a Queene all clad with variety of riches and standing at the right hand of God Which sentences of Holy Scripture howsoeuer they are also applyed otherwise as sometymes to a Soule in grace sometymes to Heauenly Wisedome sometymes to the celestiall Hierusalem yet this is no impediment why they may not also truly and most properly be applyed to the person of our B. Lady since the same Scripture hath seuerall senses and all of them may be true so that they be not cōtradictory to one another And the Holy spirit of God deliuering them by the pen of the Prophets and Apostles had seuerall regards and aymes at seuerall things to be expressed by the same words which the Holy Fathers and Interpretours as children of the Catholike Church were directed and enabled by the same spirit to declare Which howsoeuer it may seem strang to such as in themselues are strangers to the truth of that which passeth in this particuler yet it must be confessed to be as I say by such as will not generally taxe the Holy Fathers both of folly and falshood since they haue expounded the Holy Scriptures according to foure seuerall senses namely the Litterall the Morall the Anagogicall and the Allegoricall Nay it is certayne how strange soeuer it may seeme that the same Scripture hath sometymes diuers senses euen Litterall and so hath that of Expedit nobis vt vnus homo moriatur pro populo ne tota gens pereat Filius (a) Cyril in psal 2. de humana generat August de aetern meus es tu ego hodie genuite Omnia (b) Psal 8. Aug. de natur human Chrys peculiariter de Christo orat 4. in ep ad Haebr c. 2. August confess l. 12. c. 25. 31. subiecisti sub pedibus eius and the authority of S. Augustine alone may suffice to shew that out of the same words of Scripture may be drawne magna copia verissimarum sententiarum great aboundance or variety of senses which be all true This he sayth by occasion of the seueral interpretatiōs of those only words In principio fecit Deus caelum terram In the beginning God made the heauen and earth And he sheweth afterwards why Moyses may be conceiued to haue forseen al those true seueral senses of those words which should afterwardes be gathered Per quem Deus vnus sacras literas vera diuersa visuris multorum sensibus temperauit God did by the pen of Moyses so temper and dictate those dimme bookes which he wrote as that all the senses might be true and yet differing from one another according to the variety of interpretations which diuers men should make therof CHAP. X. BVT to returne to the aforsaid Office of the Church there are further brought in vpon occasiō diuers passages of many ancient and Holy Fathers for I will not touch vpon them of the later times which may excite the Readers to beare all due deuotion to our B. Lady through the pathetical and tender speach which they deliuer of her And I will accompany them which are taken out of the Breuiary with som others of the same authority tyme. Hearken then a while whosoeuer you be who are so miserable as not to be deuoted to the B. Virgin that you may perceaue how dangerous and differēt a way you take from those lights and ornaments of God Church who are ready if you will to be your guides And note that except S. Iohn Damascen S. Anselme and S. Bernard there is none of this full Iury but aboue a thousand yeares old And to beginne with the most ancient S. Irenaeus in his third book against heresyes 33. Chapter hath these words Sicut Eua inobediens c. As Eue by disobedience was made the cause of death so Mary was made a cause of saluation both to her selfe and to all mankind S. Athanasius in his Epistle to Epictetus Athan. epist ad Epict. sayth thus Idcirco gratia plena c. Therefore is the B. Virgin called by the name of full of grace because she did abound with all graces by the filling of the Holy Ghost and was ouershaddowed by the vertue of the most high Cyrill Alexan. hom cōt Nestor S. Cyrill of Alexadria

Onias Ieremias and other Saints after they had departed out of this life did instanily and incessantly make their prayers for the inhabitants of this world what inconuenience can be imputed by our Aduersaryes to the beliefe we haue that in his face who seeth all things they see also the prayers we make to him by their meanes And since we all professe that the Saints of heauen are completely happy how enuious deserue they to be accompted who would abridge them of all power to help heare miserable creatures who ranke themselues vnder their patronage and recommend themselues earnestly to their assistance Not as they would do to God vpon whome their good originally dependeth and from whome all grace and glory floweth but as to his friends and fauorits who on the one side haue had experimentall knowledg of our miseryes and on the other side haue beene assumed to the reward of eternall happynes and are as so many conueyances and rich conducts of celestiall graces to the soules of men CHAP. XII THERE is no article of our Religion which is more impugned by the enemy of mankind then this of Saints I could name a great Caluinist and a great man that liued not long agoe who could patiently inough be tould that he was not truly called to the place he held who yet when there was speach of the inuocation of the B. Virgin grew abruptly into such a passion or rather fury as that he seemed to be little better then possessed And as all of them are extremely auerse in the generality of praying to Saints so particulerly it hath place when there is no question of honouring or imploring the ayde of our B. Lady But it hath pleased Almighty God in his goodnes that after the rate of their malice who impugne this article so is the euidence whereby they are to be conuinced plaine and testifyed not only by the practise of the Church the expresse inference of Holy Scripture the conformity with nature and reason but with infinite arguments of miracles which God hath set as so many seales vpon this Truth It is strang and would be incredible if we were tould by lesse then experience it selfe that there should be such a deale of infidelity in the world as to make men doubt and of impudence as to make them deny that the power and gift of miracles is still in the Church that they haue beene abundantly wrought by the prouidence and power of God in proofe of inuocation of Saints aboue all of the glorious and immaculate Virgin the Mother the Daughter and the Spouse of God There is no corner of the Christian Catholike world which is not full of them but no tyme or place will be able more redily to rise vp in iudgment against our Caluinists then the mercy of this kind which God hath shewed in honour of the sacred Virgin in these very dayes of ours and euen in the next confines of our Country For they are great numbers of most certaine miracles which haue beene wrought in Brabant neere to Sichem in a Chappell there deuoted to our B. Lady The storyes of the men and women that haue receaued miraculous cure by the prayers of the B. Virgin to whome they recommended themselues after exact and seuere examination of the parties themselues of the persons who knew them both before and after of whole Colledges of Phisitians Surgeons who had been formerly priuy to their infirmityes haue been proued and inrolled in the records of principall Cittyes Yea the prouidence of God hath beene such as to make some one of these miracles fall vpon the most known begging cripple of a whole Country Iohn Clement and of whome for his notorious deformity from his mothers wombe togeather with the importunity of his begging all the states of the Court and Towne from the Archduke and Infanta themselues to the meanest Tradesman in Bruxells haue taken precise and perfect knowledge There was I say a most impotent lame creature who came deformed out of his mothers womb and by occasion thereof he was her death whose knees by continuall cleauing to his breast had made deep holes therein whose leggs hung downe like a couple of drum-stickes and who in his life had neuer made one pase but on his hands and hipps this man if he was not rather a monster they all saw when he was thus and within a fortnight after when he had beene miraculously and in an instant cured by the prayers of the most gracious and glorious Queene of heauen in that Chappell deuoted to her selfe they saw him againe of a good stature of good proportion of good health and strength And not only he was seen by them but many of those noble English Gentlemen who accompanyed the Earle of Hartford in his Embassage to that Court did also see him and speake with him and so may yet as many more as wil in Bruxells where he continueth to this day and his name is Iohn Clement They are wont to tell vs I know not what of counterfaited miracles and I doubt not but diuers may haue beene counterfaited and that euen in the Apostles dayes as well as ours but so far off is that from prouing that ther are no true miracles as this would be a ridiculous inference The Kings hand is counterfeited therfore the King knoweth not how to write his name It would rather hould on the otherside That because sometims either for pride or profit some men are so wicked as to counterfeite miracles it is an euident signe that true miracles are wrought sometymes which no man would els be so sottish as to counter faite as no man would counterfeite the Kings hand if the King could not write But howsoeuer I assure the Reader in the word of a Christian and as in the presence of God who needeth not that any man should tell a lye in his behalfe and who will grieuously punish such impostures wheresoeuer he findeth them That the Church our Mother detesteth all such impotent impure proceeding and excommunicateth such as concurre to the countenancing therof And as by occasion of the frequēt miracles wrought lately in diuers parts of Brabant there haue beene some found so wicked as to the vttermost of their power to make some very few false miracles passe for true ones so the prouidence of God working by the prudence of such as haue the office of looking into those matters they haue beene detected and grieuously punished with whipping hauing their tongues bored through and being banished out their Countrey as appeareth vpon record in Bruxells And in those parts where miracles haue beene so frequently seen in these later tymes the examination of the truth of them doth not as God would haue it lye there in the handes of Ecclesiasticall persons whome the rage of heresy is wont to charge with at least conniuency in this point if not collusion but the custome hath beene of many yeares for the secular

cannot liue with comfort That wine was good and for such it was praysed in the Ghospell Cant. 1. but meliora sunt vbera tua vino thy brests o Blessed Lady are better then the best wine that is the dearnesse of affection and fauour wherwith thou dost obtayne helpes for vs is no lesse estimable and honourable often tymes then are the very helps themselues Out of these degrees of Humility Purity Patience and Charity grew that height of Fortitude which she expressed at the Passion of our B. Sauiour at which tyme in effect there was nothing els amongst the creatures to content the eyes of Almighty God The Synagogue was corrupt the Apostls were fled all but one who was there to receaue as it were by letter of Atturney from al mankind the rich legacy of the B. Virgin for his Mother and in his person for ours Ambros lib. 10. c. 13. in Lucam as S. Ambrose doth teach vs. One of his Apostles had out of frailty denyed him another with prodigious malice auarice and hypocrisy betrayed him the rest forsooke him but the B. Virgin fayled not there to present her selfe to receaue the fullfilling of that Prophesy which ould Simeon made at the tyme of her Purification concerning the sword of sorrow to pierce passe through her hart wherof I haue already spoken This sword did she receaue into her not so as to be defeated of her senses by it as some bould or silly Painters haue represented but she did it standing fast by the Crosse Ioan. 19. to shew that still she was full Mistresse of her selfe that her sorrow though it were without limits vpon the sight of such affliction layd vpon that sacred Humanity of her Sonne was yet ouerwrought by a perfect resignation of all into the hands of God and an entiere approbation of al that Passion for the redemption of the world howsoeuer the Action on the Crucifiers part did highly offend her though our Sauiour felt not the least offence in his body which did not slice as it were her very soule in sunder There was nothing in our B. Lady which deserueth not to be esteemed as lōgè superioris ordinis therfore when after the Passion the Resurrection of our Sauiour was by some in some sort expected among whom the mirrour of Pennance the holy enamoured Saint Mary Magdalen was one who with incredible affection rather then fayth because it was compounded of hope and feare ran to the sepulcher to see what there had happened it is not read of the glorious Virgin the rocke of whose sayth was not only not to be battered but euen not so much as touched with the lightest waue of infidelity or doubt that she so much as once stirred from those contemplations wherin she was imploying her high thoughts but she attended the accomplishment of that whereof she was already more certaine without seeing then her eyes could make her Though we doubt not but that both our B. Sauiour appeared instantly to her after the Resurrection and that the cause why she forbare to record her appearance at the Sepulcher was not for want of thirst to enioy the first moment of our B. Sauiours presence but to shew both what her fayth was and what kind of thing ours ought to be The Holy Scripture indeed sayth that first our Sauiour appeared to S. Mary Magdalen and of the truth thereof no Christian doubteth but so yet withall we vnderstand those wordes to be meant of ordinary persons who were need to haue their fayth confirmed and euer with exception to our B. Lady of whome S. Ambrose who wel had weighed the afornamed place of Scripture doth yet affirme that she was testis prima Resurrectionis Dominicae our Blessed Lady was the first witnes of the Resurrection of our Lord. These are the most expresse Attributs Excellencies and actions of our B. Lady whereof the Holy Ghost in the Ghospell maketh mention in few but infinitely massy words for there is not one of them which concerneth her that contayneth not Mysteries beyond mans capacity And as in humane knowledge it is the fashion for Professours to hid● their ignorance when they cannot gi●● a reason of hard thinges by turning it ouer to certayne sympathies and secret propertyes so in the vnderstanding of Scripture it is as ordinary on the other side with mē that would be thought to know all to make a poore Paraphrase vpon a Text and to say bouldly that no other thing is meant by it then the little which they haue beene able to expresse Wheras yet in truth there is no doubt but that the passages of holy Scripture and especially when they speake of our Sauiour Christ and that which concerned him so neere as doth his holy Mother do containe infinite misteryes They looke both vpward and downeward forward and backward and on all sides as I shall shew afterward are not to be comprehended by any one till we may see as we shal be seene in the next life And as for many other prerogatiues and excellencyes of our B. Lady which appeare to such as peruse the Ecclesiasticall Historyes both concerning her most deuout educatiō cōtinually in the Temple from three years of age till immediatly before the Annunciation of her diuine life after the Passion in the society of the beloued disciple of Christ then her Sonne S. Iohn and of her miraculous Assumption into heauen which is recorded to omit others by S. Iohn Damascen that great Saint and great Scholler great Chapplaine of our B. Ladyes to haue beene at that tyme which is almost nine hundred yeares ago beleeued and receaued in the Church by a Tradition which then he sayd was Ancient These things I say with many others I passe ouer partly because with Catholikes they would be needles as being already so notoriously knowne and by them so piously imbraced and partly because for the instruction of Caluinists they will not be of much weight because forsooth they are not registred in Holy Scripture I proceed further and will shew in few wordes how little reason they haue who laying aside so many and expresse passages of holy Scripture as I haue mentioned which do highly honour our B. Lady both in the Attributes it giueth by the actions which it describeth do catch greedily at three or foure others which when they haue construed like Schoole-maisters rather then Deuines they hope the excellency of our B. Lady which in their harts they cānot endure may be obscured thereby wheras if either grace or reason did preuaile it wold teach them rather to rule doubtfull and obscure passages by plaine ones then on the contrary side such as are expresse by others that are obscure and in true accompt conclude nothing but by way of inference made without booke CHAP. VIII I Will therefore in this place by way of conclusion for as much as concerneth Scripture in relation to our B. Lady extract a few periodes which I

haue found in effect togeather in that holy man Canisius writing of this admirable subiect where he setteth downe in a cluster that which is found in Scripture but in seueral passages as so many distinct grapes of the old Testament being so interpreted by the Fathers and Doctours of the Catholike Church and those others also of the new being expressed plainly without figure as my selfe haue heere already related them but in a more scattered māner and now to make a faire full point I thought good to see if by drawing all these seuerall beames into one burning glasse I might inflame the Reader to more deuotion He sheweth then in his first booke of the B. Virgin and 2. Chapter how she was the (a) Bern. hom 2. super missusest woman whose seed was promised in Paradise She was (b) Bern. serm de B. Virg. the true Rebecca The true (c) Hier. ad Saluianum Iudith The true (d) Lyra supra Esther Esther The true (e) Rupert in Cantic temple and Sanctuary of God prophesied by Ezechiel and the very way of Saints She was aboundantly celebrated in spirit by (f) Bern. hom 2. super m●ssusest Salomon She was that which Moyses saw in the (g) Ibid. bush and fire That which Aaron (h) Bern. ser signū magnum saw in the rod and flower The Orientall gate of (i) Ibid. Ezechiel The fleece and dew forshewed to (k) Bern. hom 1. super missusest Gedeon The starre which rose out of (l) Amb. serm 80. Iacob and from whence that beame proceeded which did illustrate the whole world She was the mysticall Arke of the (m) Ber. de assum B. Virg. Testament which conteyned the bread both of men and Angells She was the golden propitiatory The throne of that true (n) Bern. ibidem Salomon The Princes Court The (o) Bern. ibidem bed of honour wherein the Lord and King of heauen did most delightfully repose Now in the new Testament behold that vnited which before you saw scattered and consider the weight of those wordes of the Ghospell spoken either to her or by her or of her All hayle O thou full of grace Our Lord is with thee Canis l. 1. de B. Virgin ● cap. 2. Thou hast found fauour or grace with God He hath done great thinges to me who is powerfull All generations shall call me Blessed Blessed is the wombe which bare thee Blessed are the brests that gaue thee suck How commeth it to passe that the mother of my Lord should visite me Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruite of thy wombe She alone it is of whome the world doth ioyfully professe that it is of the holy Ghost which is borne in her She alone vnto whom the Angell did promise that the Holy which was to be borne of her should be called the Sonne of God She alone to whome the Archangell who was sent from heauen and S. Elizabeth vpon earth did celebrate with such sublime prayses Thus sayth Canisius and this he sheweth In fine I do much desire that Catholikes for their comfort Caluinists for the conuersion of their soules to deuotion tendernes towards this sacred Virgin may resort to this excellēt work of Canisius where they shall see besides the euidence of these things whatsoeuer they can expect from any man concerning the greatnes of our B. Lady most excellently deliuered clearely proued not only by the Scripturs of both Testaments but by the authority of the Fathers of the Church in al ages of these Fathers I will in due place vse a few testimonyes before I end this discourse by those few the spirit of the rest may be cōceaued Therfore it is great peruersnes and a sinne euen against common sense that since there are so many places of Scripture which testify our B. Ladyes perfections those few others which they imagine to be in her preiudice must yet be rather opposed vnto those former by these men then any way reconciled or ranged vnder them Yet indeed what can they argue out of those very places They say that the words of our Sauiour Quid mihi tibi mulier which he vsed at the marriage of Cana in answere of her suite concerning their want of wine do shew that she was worthy of reprehension and that he rebuked her They translate those wordes Woman what haue I to do with thee and they inferre thereby that our B. Sauiour gaue therein a great checke to his sacred Mother whereas it is plaine that they were only spoken for the instruction of them that heard of vs that read them to shew that he was not to manifest himself as God by working of Miracles till the tyme appointed by his Father therfore it is that he sayd also further Nondum venit hora mea My houre is not yet com as also to make the world know that we are more to respect the immediate and knowne ordinance of God then the suite of friends though neuer so pious and meritorious I omit to shew that those wordes do more naturally signify to this effect Quid mihi tibi What haue thou Ioan. 2. I to do with their want of wine As if he had sayd This is not such necessity as ought to vrge me toward the working of miracles so soone But whatsoeuer the words crudely taken may seeme in some construction to say certayne it is that when our Sauiour had made vs know by them that which he intended we should learne he not only disposed himself inwardly to shew that mercy by meanes of our B. Ladyes prayers euen as it were before his own tyme appointed but by the manner he held in speaking the words and by the gracious countenance which he vsed he gaue her puidently to vnderstand that he would graunt her suite For otherwise it would not haue become her discretion to haue so instantly required them that serued at the dinner to be punctuall in performing of whatsoeuer her Sonne should require of them Yea and by the circumstances of the Text which describe the action succeeding after a most particuler manner in such sort as if they had not beene forwarned it is morally certaine that they would haue made some fault it is most probable that our B. Sauiour did not only let her know that he would do the thing but in what manner also he would do it And this at least is cōfessed that the miracle was wrought immediatly after our Ladyes suite was presented which is a reall proofe of her greatnes and the acceptablenes of her prayers in the sight of God and this truth deserueth to put to eternall silence whatsoeuer conceipt is framed out of those wordes te her disaduantage In like manner do they vrge how our Sauiour Christ being sought by our B. Lady and S. Ioseph and found at last in the Temple made acquainted with the much care which they had vsed