CHAP. I.

THERE was neuer foūd within the compasse of Morality a more excel­lent Receipt and Secret, then that of Friendship, towardes the softning & sweetning of all the miseryes of this life. Friendship it is which doubleth our com­forts, [Page 2] it diuideth our cares, it locketh vp our secrets, it reuengeth our wrongs, and it maketh a large and liberall contributi­on of succour towardes the reliefe of all our necessityes. I speake not this of the thing which some miscall by the name of Friendship, and which indeed is no more, then a meere acquaintance, or familiari­ty of conuersation; though the world be growne to the conceipt of taking such froath as this, for the quintessence which I heer commend: But I meane that most faythfull and inuiolable Friendship which mingleth or confoundeth fortunes, and vniteth minds, and which accompteth it for one of the greatest hart soares it hath that it cannot euer reach out the gi­uing hand.

And yet euen this truest Friendship (which being all that I haue sayd) is sub­iect both to imperfection & destruction; for sometymes it is changed by ficklenes, sometymes it is vnstitcht by absence, sometims it is torn in sunder by vnfaith­fullnes, at least it is sure to dye when they dye that did professe it; and in fine, it [Page 3] euer carryeth such a testimony, and su­perscription in the forhead of it, as ser­ueth to point men out to somewhat els, assuring them that it cannot possibly be complete, because all the parties to this contract are no better then sinnefull and mortall creatures.

One help there is, whereby we may feed vpon this sweet bitt, without being troubled and tyred with gnawing vpon such bones as these, & it is by translating our affection from these inferiour obiects to those other of Saints and Angells, in whome there liueth a faculty of corres­ponding with vs much more nobly, to­geather with an impossibility of trans­gressing the true lawes of Friendship, which consist in the entire communica­tion of all things, and hath for spurs an extreme ardour of affection, & for bridle an impuissance to offend in the least de­gree.

A patterne or proofe heerof may be taken from those extaticall wishes of the Patriarch Moyses, and the Apostle S. Paul, who did so thirst after the eternall [Page 4] happynes of their brethren, as that they seemed content to lay aside the conside­ration and care of their owne. Now [...]f whilest they were yet encumbred with the heauy cloaths of flesh and bloud, they could soare so high into that spher of fire; how much more eminent are they now in this kind, togeather with all those o­ther celestiall spirits, since now they are freed from all impediments, & stand en­ioying, & feeding face to face, vpon the essence of God, which is the fountayne of Loue it selfe, into which by him they are transformed?

We are also taught by holy Scrip­ture, with what zeale the holy Angels do behould, & protect their seuerall charges heere on earth. Gen. 32. The Angell Guardian of Iacob, was a Champion that defended & drew him out of all inconueniences. The Angel Raphael mentioned in the book of Tobias, Tob. 11. was both a Phisitian in restoring his sight, and a sollicitour, or Maister of requests in preferring his suites, to the throne of Almighty God. Our Sauiour Christ himselfe hath inferred, Matt. 18. that if we [Page 5] scandalize any of his little ones, their se­uerall Angells (who see the face of God) will resent their wrongs. And (which yet may seem more strang) the Angel to whose care the Medes were cōmitted, Dan. 10. did contradict and oppose to that other An­gell of the Persians, in the quarrells and combats which their people had with one another; to shew vs that they do not only watch ouer our soules, but euen o­uer our fortunes and bodyes also, with all which dependeth thereupon, concer­ning our good.

This care and loue of those happy soules and spirits, towards the poore in­habitants of this world, proceedeth from the knowledge they haue of the bounty which his diuine Maiesty hath vsed in bestowing parts of his owne perfection, and in designing that vnspeakable glory which he hath prepared for vs; so that in their louing of vs, and cooperating to our saluatiō by their assistance, they per­forme an act of reuerence, and homage to our common Creatour. And therfore if the Angells and other Saints desire and [Page 6] procure our happines, if they haue com­passion of our affliction, if they interpose for vs the merits of Christs death and passion in the degree of one, there can be no question amongst Christians (if indeed they be so) but that the Queene of Saints and Angels, the sacred and per­petuall Virgin, the immaculate and glo­rious Mother of God, doth performe to vs all these things (with infinite others which through our basenes and blindnes we cannot thinke of:) I say not in the de­gree of one, but in the degree of so many millions of degrees as she exceedeth all the Angells and Saints of Heauen in the perfection and height of the knowledge and loue of God.

One particuler reason of her vn­speakable tendernes towards vs all (to omit many others) may be the conside­ration of Christ our Lords humanity, with he tooke wholy of her, & which he spent wholy vpon vs; besides that vpon the Crosse, he resigned her as it were, to be the Mother of all mankind, whereof heereafter I shall haue occasion to make [Page 7] further mention. Now, as the vnspeak­able loue of God which he inspired her hart withall, and wherewith so admi­rably she cooperated, maketh God vn­speakably to loue and delight in her: so it is reason, that for her loue to vs, we procure to correspond in all such deuoti­on & reuerence to her who is so gracious in the sight of God, and so well deseruing of vs, as may be affoarded to the most incomparably sublime Creature, of a meer creature, that euer was, & the most abundant, & deere benefactour of man­kind that can be thought of vnder God.

There is not in this world so great a Monarch, to whome if we had obliga­tion, and meant to make any retribution we might not impart somewhat which might concerne him in a substantiall and solid manner. For a very wealthy man might make him somewhat the richer, a valiant man might make his dominions the larger, a wise man might make his gouernement the happyer, a skillful man might make his health the firmer, and a confident faythfull man might chance [Page 8] to make his life the safer. But with the Saints of heauen, it is not so; for al they, and especially this Queene of Heauen, hath such a fullnes of all that, whereof they are capable, as excludeth the possibi­lity of mankind from giuing any thing to them, and much lesse to her, which may increase her happynes in any thing that inwardly concerneth her; but whatsoe­uer we can offer, is extrinsecal vnto her, as namely Honour, whereof she is only capable at our hands.

The expression of this Honour may be made by diuers wayes: by praysing her, by praying vnto her, by imitating in some small measure of her admirable ver­tues, & by carrying in our harts a conti­nuall tendernes of deuotiō towards her.

By this tyme, if the Reader be a Cal­uinist, he beginneth to shrincke, he de­sireth to be excused, he reuerenceth (for­sooth) the Mother of God as he ought, if you will beleeue him, but he would faine be thought a zealous preseruer of Gods honour; and holdeth that the termes we vse in professing our deuotion to her, [Page 9] with the custome which we haue in di­recting to her our prayers is to carry our selues idly, if not impiously: and he will needs take vpon him to ground himselfe vpon holy Scripture.

It is strang to see how these yong Prentices will needs be Merchant-ven­turers in the art of vnderstanding that diuin booke; to the deep sea wherof they lanch out in the shallow Cock-boats of their owne conceipts, and thinke they are sailing into some safe port, when in­deed they are splitting vpon rockes. Strāg I say it is, to see how they are blin­ded by the desire they haue to make the Scripturs serue their turnes of their pas­sion, which suffereth them not to discern the euidence wherewith it establisheth often tymes the very point in Contro­uersy which they contradict. For how could they otherwise make themselus be­leeue, as they vsually obiect, that the Scripture authorizeth any lessening of our Ladyes honour, that it excludeth her Inuocation, and abridgeth her Prayse, whilest indeed it doth abundantly testify [Page 10] her excellency, and giue great warrant for all that the Catholike Church doth practise concerning her?

There be holy, & learned men that affirme (& it is full of reason) that if the Scripture had sayd no more of her, but these only words, Maria, de qua natus est Iesus, Matt. 1. Mary of whome Iesus was borne, it had sayd sufficiently of her, or rather that it had sayd so much, as to which no point of dignity could be added. For to affirme, that the Virgin was the Mother of God, is to giue a title which euidently inuolueth supreme excellency; & which is so great in regard of the alliance, and coniunction it hath with God himselfe, as that no power of mind created, no man, no Saint, no Angell, nor they all to­geather are able entierly, and exactly to comprehend what dignity it is to be the Mother of God. If therfore we are so far from being able to conceiue the excellē ­cy of the glorious Virgin; shall we feare to expresse it in such poore fashion, and with such short termes as we are able to vse? Or can we be in any danger of cō ­mitting [Page 11] excesse heerin, so that we swarue not (as we neuer do) from making her a meer creature, and from imputing the first cause of her greatnes to the infinite goodnes of Almighty God?

The Aduersaryes of her glory might consider, that the wordes of holy Scrip­ture are not to be valewed after the rates of number, but of weight: and who hath armes wherwith to weeld the ballance, into which that massy quality of being the Mother of God, is layd? It goeth not, euen in ordinary Audits, by the great number of figures, but if one be placed before a greater number of cyphers, that alone may stand for many others: & so this halfe line alone, wherof I spake, may & doth import a greater eminency, then could haue beene expressed in the whole Bible without it; although both these Te­staments, & all those pens of all the Pro­phets and Apostles had spent themselues in the celebration only of her prayses.

But because all their cunning-men and women, though they should be able to write and read the Scriptures, cannot [Page 12] yet cast accompt, especially after this manner; and that vulgar eyes are neuer satisfyed with the riches of a Iewell, vn­lesse it consist of many stones; I wil ther­fore endeauour to let them see, that in holy Scripture there is no scarcity of that which themselues desire, or rather of that which I feare they desire not, which is, the great aduantages, prerogatiues, and priuiledges of the B. Virgin.

CHAP. II.

IN the first place I conceaue that by the way of expresse prayse, as meant for prayse, there is little sayd in the new Te­stament of our B. Lady, no more then of our B. Sauiour himself. I call that ex­presse prayse, as meant for prayse, when a person is ex professo commended, and extolled for this or that vertue, to this principall end, that he or she may win e­stimation among men: and in this sense I do not find, that either of them are greatly praysed: only they testify some little things of themselues, and that con­cerning [Page 13] the selfe same vertue, which is Humility. Our Sauiour sayd, Learne of me for I am Humble, and Meeke: and our Lady sayd; that God had carryed respect to her Hu­mility. Many other persons are particu­lerly commēded in both the Testaments. Gen. 22. Num. 12. Reg. 1. c. 13. Iob. c. 10. Reg. 3. c. 10. Gen. 6. Luc. 1. Matt. 11. Abraham as the tipe of Fayth; Moyses both of zeale and meeknes; Dauid, as be­ing a man after Gods owne hart; Iob for patience, S [...]lomon for wisedom, Noë, Za­chary, S. Iohn Baptist, and S. Ioseph for being iust: But Christ our Lord, and our B. Lady are not praysed directly for this or that vertue, though the Apostles may secondarily, and vpon occasion be sayd to commēd the life of Christ, when they exhort the people to whome they wrote, towards an imitation of his vertues.

We need not go far to seeke a rea­son that may be subiect to our capacityes why the holy Ghost might thinke good to take this course; for to haue expresly commended them, had beene to imply, after a sort, that words might haue decla­red how much they ought to be commē ­ded; and a Reader might thereby haue [Page 14] imagined, that their excellency had not surpassed all humane thought, if it had beene made subiect therunto by speach; and therfore they are both set out much more to the full, in that their prayses are couered with the sacred veyle of silence, then they would haue beene, if they had beene exposed to sight, by the pen euen of the very Apostles themselues. Wher­as now by saying nothing in the way of praise, but by deliuering so much by way of prerogatiue, there is left a liberty, or rather there is imposed a necessity, for men to conceiue as highly, and nobly as they can; and yet to know, when all is done, that the least part of their excel­lency is not attayned.

Hence it is, that for reuerence the Prophet I say (when he was to describe God himselfe in a vision that he had re­ceaued) represented him al couered with the wings of Cherubims. And this course carryeth so great proportion, euen with the very nature & mind of man, as that the famous Poets, and Painters of the world, haue graced their arts with this [Page 15] point of Rhetorique, whensoeuer they haue had occasion to describe the eminē ­cy of an vnspeakable passion; for in such case they thought they could do it best, by not expressing it: and so in the fu­neralls of such as were deerest to the Suruiuers, they set forth the ordinary mourners by seuerall postures, & counte­nances of lamentation; but as for a hus­band of a deere Spouse, or the Father of an only daughter, they haue no refuge, but to hide the faces of those persons, in the decyphering of whose passion they cannot satisfy themselues.

But though there be no particuler, and expresse prayses mentioned as pray­ses, & not as lights, for imitation giuen in holy Scripture to the seuerall vertues of our B. Lady, any more then (as I sayd before) they are to them of our B. Saui­our; yet as the Apostles, and Euange­lists recompt those high and heroicall a­ctions, and the irrefragable testimonyes from heauen, wherupon we may inferre the supreme vertue and sanctity of our B. Sauiour: in the same manner are their [Page 16] bookes the Chronicles of many passages in both those kindes, aforesayd, from whence the excellency of the B. Virgin may be deduced, which is infinitly infe­riour to that of our B. Sauiour, but in­comparably superiour to that of all the o­ther creatures, and is propounded to vs for the marke of our admiration in some things, and of imitation in the rest.

By the Genealogy of our B. Saui­our which is set out by the Apostles, we vnderstand what also that of our B. La­dyes is; for he hath no Ancestours but hers. By them we therefore know, that her extraction and bloud hath as much prerogatiue in it, as a meere creature can receaue; for she is deriued from the Roy­alty of Kings, from the sanctity of Priests, and from the illumination of Prophets.

The gifts of Nature, and beauty of person which she had, are not so litterally expressed in holy Scripture, otherwise then by the Propheticall speach which is vsed of our Sauiour Christ; Speciosus for­ma prae filijs hominum: Psal. 44. He was beautifull beyond all the Sonnes of men, whereby [Page 17] her beauty also may be knowne, since his holy humanity had no visible naturall beauty at all, but that which it receaued from her. And howsoeuer among persons who are begotten by the course of man­kind, we often see both that vncomly pa­rents haue handsome children, and the contrary: yet in the present case there can be no conceipt of that difference, which proceedeth in others from the ef­fects of originall, & many tymes of other sinnes, wherof without blasphemy there can be no question made in the Incarna­tion of our Sauiour Christ, which was wrought in the pure wombe of the B. Virgin by the operatiō of the holy Ghost. And concerning the vnspeakable digni­ty, and maiesty of her presence to such as beheld it with pure eyes (and euen they who beheld it with other, were altered by a singuler priuiledge of hers, whose beau­ty insteed of kindling, did quench al vn­ruly appetite in such as saw her) I cannot but digresse so far, as it is from the Apo­stles to one of their disciples, to wit, S. Dennis the Areopagite, of whome it is [Page 18] related, Dionys. Carthus. comment in c. 3. l. S. Diony. Areop. de diuin. nom. àrt. 16. that hauing the honour and hap­pynes to see her, and enioy her presence, found something in it so far exalted a­boue the stamp of dignity & authority, which is wont to be imprinted vpon creatures, as that he protested, if he had not knowne by fayth, that Christ was God, he had not beene able to detaine himselfe from adoring her as God. And it is particulerly to be noted, that he through whose mind this passed, and vn­der whose name it is left registred to all posterity, was no Babe, nor old wife, nor ignorant Minister, but one of the prime Doctours of Athens, afterwardes a disciple of S. Paul, and still accounted for a most sublimely learned, wise, and holy Father in the Catholike Church of Christ.

CHAP. III.

THESE external things being so lit­tle esteemed by the seruants of God, and least of all by her (who was so much the more his seruant, as she was more fa­uoured, [Page 19] and honoured by him then all the rest) I may with the more reason passe ouer with breuity, though I could not perswade my self to passe ouer any thing entierely in silence, which concerneth her excellency any way. But the spiritu­all graces which she receaued, and the te­stimonyes of her dignity, which were giuen from heauen, are they which we ought more seriously to ponder & reflect vpon.

Her life being such as seemed ordi­nary, though interiourly it were not so, and her vocation being so extraordinary as that she was to be made the Mother of God himselfe (when once he should be made Man) it was agreable to the wise­dome of the diuine Maiesty, to proclaim and publish to the world, the perfection of this creature, by an irrefragable eui­dence. Luc. 3. Therefore as in the Baptisme of our B. Sauiour, whereby he might seeme to haue contracted sinne, the Holy Ghost himselfe descended vpon him, to witnes the infinite sanctity of his soule: In like manner, when before that tyme, there [Page 20] was question of incarnating and brin­ging forth a Sauiour of the world in hu­mane flesh, one of the highest Angells in heauen was dispatched in Embassage to witnes the eminency, Luc. 1. and fullnes of her holynes; & that the world might know how that her bringing forth a son should not carry with it the least impeachment to the spotlesnes of her purity.

The Arch-angell then did thus salute her; Luc. 1. Hayle Mary full of grace, our Lord is with thee. Our Aduersaryes, the enemies of our B. Ladyes Honour, will needes translate the Greek word [...], ac­cording to that sense (of the three seueral ones which it hath) whereby they may hope to disaduantage her most; & ther­fore they will not allow it to signify Gra­tia plena, Cōment. in cap. 1. Luc. full of grace, but Gratis dilecta, freely beloued. It is plainely shewed by Tollet in his Cōment vpon those words, that S. Ambrose, S. Austine, S. Hierome, S. Athanasius, S. Epiphanius, and in effect the whole Church hath vsed, & receaued the translation of Gratia plena; though yet if it had been otherwise, I see not greatly why [Page 21] they should triumph as after a victory: since if our B. Lady were as they must confesse, Freely beloued, with such an e­minency aboue all other creatures, as to be made the Mother of God; it doth by necessary inference of congruity imply all those perfections, in contemplation wherof the Catholik world doth homag vnto her, with attributes incomparably superiour to them of all other creatures. But she was found full of grace whether they will or no; and if then she were full, through the beauty of her soule (which being first adorned by Almighty God, drew his eyes afterward so downe vpon her, as euen to be enamoured with her when he was yet to make her the Mother of the Eternal Word;) let them conceaue that can, how she ouerflowed therewith afterward. And the example of the good Chananaean who did as it were oblige our Sauiour to bestow of those crummes v­pon her (being a Gentile) which fell from the table of the children of God, (who were the Iewes) may inuite vs to begge, that some drop of those ouer­flowings [Page 22] which cānot through the good­nes of God but descend from the supera­bundance of that grace, wherewith the B. Virgin was so much more then filled, may be applyed to our benefit, and to the making of vs gracious in his sight in som measure, which she was beyond all mea­sure.

It cannot but worke in vs an ex­treme reuerence on the one side, when we heare by the voyce of that Archan­gell Gabriel, that our Lord euen then was with her in a most particuler, and plentifull manner, Luc. 1. saying Dominus tecum, Our Lord is with thee: as if he had sayd, He is indeed with all his creatures, and especially withall his seruants; but yet he is so with thee per excellentiam, as if he were with no body els: and on the other side they are miserable, who be not drawne to affect this Sacred Virgin with vnspeakable dearnesse & tendernes, for the infinite benefite which they receaue by her, since they are capable of saluatiō by the mystery of the Incarnation, which (hauing beene decreed in that high Con­sistory [Page 23] of the Holy Trinity) did receaue effect and execution in the immaculate wombe of the B. Virgin by her free con­sent. And as in the Passion of our B. Sa­uiour (when he came to make a ful point vpon the periode of his life) he did as it were resigne his Mother to mankind in the person of S. Iohn, Ioan. 19. when he sayd to him, Fili ecce Mater tua, Sonne behould thy Mother: so in this Incarnation of his she may be sayd after a sort, to haue trans­ferred the propriety which she had in Almighty God, Luc. 1. who was with her (Do­minus tecum) to the protection, and pre­seruation, and sanctification, & redemp­tion of all mankind; for immediatly af­terward, he grew to be called not, Do­minus tecum, Our Lord is with thee, Matt. 1. but Emanuel, which is, God with vs.

The Angell proceedeth (vpon oc­casion giuen by the sacred Virgin) to ex­presse the manner how the mystery of the Incarnation of the Sonne of God, was to be accomplished in her sacred wombe; & he declareth to her, that she had no cause to feare the least spot in her purity, that [Page 24] she had found grace with God, that in her wombe she should conceaue & bring forth a Sonne, Luc. 1. and should call his name IESVS, that he should be great, and be called the Sonne of the most High, that our Lord God would giue him the seat of his forefather Dauid, that he should raigne in the house of Iacob for euer, that his king­dome should know no end, that the Holy Ghost should descend from aboue into her, and the Vertue or Power of the most High should ouershaddow her, and ther­fore, that he who was to be borne of her should be called the Sonne of God.

Quis surdus sicut populus meus? sayth the Holy Ghost by the Prophet: Isa. 42. Who is so deafe as my people, that wil not heare? And in this case it may be sayd, who is so blind as he that will not see, what a clu­ster of heauenly grapes may heere be ga­thered out of Holy Scripture, distilling in abundance the wine of Grace & Glo­ry vpon the imaculate Virgin, by descri­bing the nature & quality of that Sonne, of which she was to be the so happy Mo­ther? What doubling, and redoubling is [Page 25] there made heere of her felicity, and san­ctity? For notwithstanding that former­ly she was full of grace; we see heere she hath found more grace, her Sonne was to be the Sauiour of the world; he was to haue an Eternall Kingdome; the Holy Ghost was yet more plentifully to des­cend vpon her; and the vertue or power of the most High was to enuirone, and ouershaddow her, whereby she might be enabled to enclose, and as it were againe to ouershaddow the Sonne of God.

The consideration heerof made the ancient & holy Fathers fly vp, as if they had beene in Extasies, when they entred vpon the prayses of this Blessed Virgin (which afterward I shall with better o­portunity relate:) and in the meane tyme they who cannot see the high titles of Honour that are imparted to the B. Vir­gin in Holy Scripture, are in a miserable obscurity of mind, which they haue de­seruedly fallen into, through the paynes they take to beare no tendernes of deuo­tion towards her. I thinke I say well, in affirming, that they take paynes to this [Page 26] purpose; for otherwise it seemeth impos­sible that men who professe themselues Christians, and who take vpon them to vnderstand so well what is recommen­ded in Holy Scripture, should carry such an auersion, as it is certayne they doe (howsoeuer sometymes they professe the contrary for very shame) from the Mo­ther of that Sonne, by whome they say they hope for their saluation, notwith­standing that the Holy Ghost hath taken pleasure, to expresse al the circumstances that belong to her; and that he did not only imploy the Euangelists thereabout when Christ was to be Incarnate, but the Prophets also so many hundreds of yeares before, who fortold what kind of creature she was to be. To which purpose these are the wordes of S. Bernard; The generation of our B. Lady is knowne to haue beene graunted from heauen, Bernar. ser. in c. 12. A­poc. for the singular priuiledge of sanctity which she had. Her birth was forepromised by the auncient Fathers, it was prefigured by mysticall miracles, it was insinuated by propheticall Oracles, the Sacer­dotall Rod which florished without a roote, the [Page 27] Fleece of Gedeon which grew most in the middest of a d [...]y floore, the Orientall gate spo­ken of in the vision of Ezechiel, which was neuer open to the accesse of any, did designe, & prediscouer this Virgin.

CHAP. IIII.

THE next Publication of the admi­rable priuiledges of our B. Lady was in the Visitation which she made of S. E­lizabeth, at which tyme our B. Sauiour (being then incarnate in her sacred wombe) did also visit S. Iohn the Baptist, whome S. Elizabeth had conceaued in hers, some monethes before. The excel­lency of our B. Lady appeareth in liuely colours by the happy change which was wrought in S. Elizabeth by her presence. Luc. 1. For S. Elizabeth had no sooner heard her salutation, then (by the testimony of the sacred Text) the infant in her wombe did euen spring which ioy; S. Elizabeth her self was replenished with the holy Ghost, she cryed out with a loud voyce, & sayd to the Virgin to this effect; Blessed art thou [Page 28] among women, Luc. 1. and blessed is the fruit of thy wombe: and how come I to receaue this honour that the Mother of my Lord should visite me? for behould (sayth she) as soone as euer the voyce of thy salutation did approach mine ears, the Infant in my wombe did spring with ioy; and happy art thou who didst beleeue, for those thinges shallbe performed which were tould thee by our Lord.

What stupendious priuiledges, & prerogatiues are heere expressed by the Holy Ghost, to haue beene imparted to the glorious and immaculate Virgin? V­pon the first approach of her presence, and the least sound of her voyce, an in­fant in the wombe of his Mother did spring with ioy: Luc. 1. which ioy supposeth, & taketh for graunted that he was already then indued with the vse of reason: for such creatures as are not reasonable, are not capable of cōceauing ioy. And how­soeuer the working of this miracle may principally be imputed to the presence of our B. Sauiour, as to the cause, yet who seeth not, that he was not pleased to impart such an vnheard of benefit, but [Page 29] by the condition of his sacred Mothers presence, to which also she did so nobly concurre? and in conformity heerof, it is plaine, that S. Elizabeth her selfe refle­cted vpon her, as a great meanes therof.

Againe, the Mother was for her part, immediatly vpon the hearing of the Virgins salutation, replenished with the Holy Ghost, in the strength whereof, she did with a loud and Propheticall voyce, proclaime the blessednes of that Mother and Sonne, and confound her selfe with the mercy which was vouchsafed her, in that the Mother of our Lord would descend so low, as to visit her.

This heape alone of miracles, which did as it were ouerwhelme S. Elizabeth, and the acknowledgement she made of her own extrem vnworthines to receaue such graces from the mother of our Lord may iustly kindle an vnwonted ardour of deuotion in the hearts of Catholikes towards the Blessed Virgin; and as iustly humble the proudest Caluinists hart in the world with shame inough, to consi­der how straitely at least they conceaue [Page 30] of the glorious Queene of Heauen, who raigneth and shineth with immortal ma­iesty, when they see a S. Elizabeth, a neere kinswoman of Christ himselfe, and con­sequently deriued from the loynes of so many Kinges, a Saint in so eminent de­gree, a Prophetesse, and the Mother of the greatest among the children of Men, who was the very Precursour, and Bap­tist of Christ our Lord, so loose her selfe as it were with admiration, which she discouereth by those interiections of ex­clamation, to see that the Mother of God whilest yet she was but mortall, and the Sauiour of the world not yet borne of her should diminish her selfe so much, as to vouchsafe her a visit. But I shal afterward resume this point, by occasion of the im­piety, and fearefull blasphemy of some Caluinists, when I compare the base mentiō which they tremble not to make of her, with the most honourable memo­ry which the lights, & ornaments of the Catholike Church, the holy Fathers, haue euery where expressed. And in the mean tyme such as loue the Sonne (as no man [Page 31] doth indeed who will not giue all due ho­nour to the Mother) must rise to more then ordinary veneration and deuotion towardes this perpetuall Virgin, to the end, that the visits which she vouchsa­feth to impart, not once, but often by her motions to vs, & her prayers for vs, may make the spirituall fruit of our harts which is our actions, spring vp with ioy, vpon the presence, & approach of Christ in the Holy Sacrament; and that we may keep such accompt of the inspirations, which she procureth for vs, and sendeth so often into the eares of our soule, as may make it proue a fit house for the holy Ghost to inhabite.

Well may we say with S. Augustine; Aug. li 1. Confess. cap. 4. Angusta est domus animae meae, dilata eam; ruinosa est, refice eam. He confesseth to God that the house of his soule is strait, and he beseecheth him to enlarge it; he confesseth that it is ruinous, and he beg­geth of him that he wil repaire it: and by what better meanes can we as it were in­gage Almighty God to bestow those mer­cyes on vs, through Christ our Lord, [Page 32] then when we present, and put him in mind of this Soueraigne Virgin, who was enabled by his omnipotent hand to make roome in her sacred wombe, not only for the reception, but euen for the regaling and delighting of him, whome Heauen cannot containe; according to that salutation which the Church vseth to the B. Virgin; Quem Caeli capere non po­terant, tuo gremio contulisti: So also will she know how to assist vs in the reparati­on of these our spirituall houses, as well as in the enlarging of them; she I say who hath concurred more then all the whole world togeather, vnder God (by the fayth she bare, and consent she gaue) to the Incarnation of the Word, and conse­quently to the reparation, and redempti­on of the World. This may then be our contemplation, who are Catholiks: and before this discourse be at an end, euen some of the Caluinists, I hope, will see, that they haue not wholy such reason to dissent heerein, as hitherto they haue i­magined.

To my vnderstanding there is no [Page 33] one circumstance that more setteth out the vnspeakable excellency of our B. La­dy then that which now I shall expresse. As soone as S. Elizabeth had ended that holy speach of hers, our B. Lady being also the much more plentifully inspired with prophesy, did enter into that diuin Hymne of the Magnificat, whereof the Church doth euery day serue it selfe in offering vp her prayses to God. It is cer­taine that the humblest pure creature, without all exception, that euer was, or will be, was the B. Virgin In so much as that although the perfectiō of al those vertues (which afterward are to be men­tioned) did florish and fructify beyond al humane imagination in her sacred hart, yet in comparison of that height, or ra­ther depth of humility, which reigned in her, she may be accounted to haue scarce excelled in those other vertues: or rather to speake both more safely, and most tru­ly, as in the other vertues she without all comparison excelled all other creatures, so in this she excelled her selfe.

Such as hunt after prayse (and [Page 34] whosoeuer doth not, hath reason to giue God thankes, for he hath beene enriched by him with a great treasure) do know that there is not in the world a greater thirst, then they haue to obtain their end, and that they find no torment more vn­sufferable then if they be vnderualued & contemned. And yet this other truth is as certaine, that the person who is ambi­tious of prayse, doth not more abhorre to be despised, then the soule which is tru­ly humble, doth apprehend and hate to be applauded. And if it indure not to be praysed by others, how well, and how worthily soeuer it may deserue it; how much would men be ashamed to prayse themselues, which not only the perfectiō of vertue, but euen modesty and ciuility so far disswadeth, as that whosoeuer (be­ing of piety and discretion) doth it, we must suppose both some vnquestionable and knowne truth of the thing itselfe, & some most necessary and iust motiue or mystery which vrgeth him to it.

Heereby it may easily be inferred, what auersion our B. Lady must be con­fessed [Page 35] to haue had from making honou­rable mention of her selfe vpon any oc­casion; and so it appeares how that at the instant wherein she grew the Mother of God (and by that meanes became so far superiour to all the creaturs both of earth and heauen) she would know herselfe by no other title, but of a bondslaue. Yet neuertheles the Holy Ghost entring at that tyme into her, in a most particuler, and abundant manner, did so possesse all the powers of her soule and so as it were inebriate, and transport her with the spi­rit of vnspeakable ioy, as that she fell, in this Canticle (as soone as she had first done her homage to Almighty God, in acknowledging, and adoring him as the Authour of all the Graces that had beene powred vpon her) to declare and auow to the world, how humble and abiect she was in her owne eyes: but that yet with­al she was so gracious in the sight of God as she sayd, would not only serue to mak her Blessed, Luc. [...]. but that all generations should professe, and publish her to be such.

Happy were the man, that could [Page 36] but feele the least part of that which pas­sed in her pure soule, whē she spake those words; in heauen we may hope to haue some notice therof, and at the present it may serue vs for an inuincible demon­stration of her being incōparably prayse­worthy, the paradise of whose hart be­ing hedged in with so much humility, was yet content to celebrate her owne praise, or rather which was ouer wrought by the Holy Ghost himselfe, to professe how she was to be honoured, and admi­red for all eternity; to the confusion of al such as repine thereat, and to the entire comfort of deuout Catholiks, since they, and they alone, are the men who dayly striue to accomplish the prophesy of her glory.

CHAP. V.

BVT how much soeuer we shall en­deauour heerein, it will neuer come to that height which it deserueth; especi­ally if we consider what succeeded in the person of our B. Lady, to whome the [Page 37] Scripture sayth, the Sonne of God and her, was subiect. This testimony was gi­uen vpon the returne he made with her from disputing in the Temple amongst the Doctors. And as it is euident inough that in all his life till that time (which were twelue years) he had beene subiect, and obedient to her; so it is yet more eui­dent, that in the residue thereof, (which continued for the space of eighteen years till he came to preach & publish himself) he continued to be so. The Scripture sayth, Et erat subditus illis, Luc. 2. and he was sub­iect vnto them: That is, both to the B. Virgin, and S. Ioseph, and if to S. Ioseph, who was but his supposed Father, how much more to the B. Virgin, who was (for as much as concerned his sacred Humanity,) all the parents of flesh and bloud that he had. To S. Ioseph, euen for that former reason he liued in so plaine subiection, as that when afterward the Iewes (making reflection vpon his ad­mirable doctrine) sayd, though it were with scorne; Nonne hic est faber, & fili­us fabri? Is not this a Carpenter, and the [Page 38] sonne of a Carpenter? Whereby diuers things are insinuated, both that in the eyes of all that knew him he appeared as S. Iosephs sonne, who was a Carpenter (& cōsequently that they noted in him such a carriage as became the obedience of a Sonne to his Father:) and secondly, it is cleare, that the VVisedome of God becom­ming flesh for our sake, did abase it selfe so farre, as to performe the actions, and office of a Carpenter. And from thence it might come, that he tooke the manner of speach which he often vsed afterward for expressing his mind, & declaring his doctrine by Parables and Similitudes (as the ordinary custome of the Iewes did beare) taken from the Plow, Matt. 13. & Husband­men, and Tilling, and Sowing, and the like, in which actions the instruments that are made by Carpenters be imployed. This last I say, is most probable, & con­ceaued generally to be true: but in the o­ther point of being subiect euen to this supposed Father of his, there is no place of doubt, without impiety, and heresy, since the Holy Ghost himself affirmeth it.

[Page 39]By the way I cannot but heere aske leaue of the Reader, to extoll and magni­fy the height of dignity, to which this holy Patriarch S. Ioseph was aduanced, who as the B. Virgin was chosen from out of all mankind, to be the Mother of our Sauiour Christ, so was he designed from all eternity, as the fittest and wor­thyest in the whole world, to be the Guardian both of him, & her. He it was that assisted in the Natiuity, Adoration, Circumcision, and Presentation; He that se­cured the honour of the spotles Virgin from suspition; He that defended both him, and her, by his incessant labours, and endles cares (though accompanyed with vnspeakable comforts) from dan­gers in that peregrination of Aegypt; He that had so familiar commerce with Angells, and was as it were the inter­preter of Gods ordinances to them both; He of whome it may be litterally, and in the highest degree of truth affirmed, that he was indeed, Fidelis seruus & prudens, quem constituit Dominus super familiam suā. Mat. 24. A faythfull seruant and wise, whom God [Page 40] did place ouer his family. O blessed fa­mily! or rather O Empire of Heauen v­pon Earth, which consisted of the Sonne of God, who was, and is God, and of the Mother of God, who was and is an ima­culate Virgin.

But it is no disparagement to S. Io­seph, yea it is honour to him, that the B. Virgin be infinitly preferred before him, both in dignity otherwise, and in the o­bligation as it were of duty, wherby our Sauiour Christ was more tyed to her, thē to him. So as since our externall actions are qualifyed, and ought to be denomi­nated by our intentions; how much more was our Sauiour Christ to be accounted subiect to our B. Lady, then to S. Ioseph, and consequently how much greater was the superiority which she had ouer him, then S. Ioseph had?

Let vs consider then, what a sea, or rather what a world of excellency is heereby inferred, to haue been in the per­son of our B Lady, of whome the Sonne of God was not only borne for our sal­uation, but to whome he continued (du­ring [Page 41] very many years) so truely subiect for her exaltation, and for our instructi­on. Let vs consider what prudence, and power to gouerne, had beene infused in­to that soule of hers, which the VVisedome of God, the Word Incarnate was appointed to obey? And now if you will looke a little vpon the mislike which is taken, that we accompt her for the Queene of Angells, and Saints; consider both how impiously, and how childishly withal she is denyed to be so, they being but seruāts and sonnes adopted; whereas she can­not without blasphemy be denyed to haue beene so many yeares Superiour to the true, only, & begotten Sonne of God, who is the Lord both of Saints and An­gells. Let others who haue not the light of fayth play the Hyprocrits in saying they feare to exceed in honour to our La­dy, least thereby they should derogate from that which they owe to our B. Sa­uiour: but let vs haue scruples of offend God, and let vs continue to know that he receaueth a most acceptable honour at our hands by our professing deuotion, [Page 42] and profound subiection to this sacred Virgin, to whome the Lord of life was not only subiect, but the notice of it is left to vs vpon record, that we might learne therby how to carry our selues to­wards his Mother by this example, and that so much the more, because after­wards she was to become also ours.

And indeed though Christ had not beene subiect to her, but that only she had receaued the happynes to cohabite with him so long, vnder the same roofe; euen from thence a great reason might be drawn for the proofe of her vnspeak­able sanctity. Therefore was the Prophet Dauid so carefull, to keep wicked persons out of his house, because he knew that, Cum Sancto sanctus eris, Reg. 1.22. & cum peruerso per­uerteris. The company of wicked persons will peruert thee, but the society of Saints will sanctify thee. What then must be our B. Ladyes case, through her continuall conuersation with this Saint of Saints, but that her Vnderstanding should be inestimably illuminated by the presence of that Sunne of Iustice, which to her ne­uer [Page 43] set, & her Will be inflamed with the neighbourhood which she had to those excessiue ardours of that sphere of Fire, whose very countenance hath serued to heate frozen hearts, though it found in the B. Virgin no such matter, as that to worke vpon. And (to conclude) that from the sea of perfection, vpon the top whereof she was so long sayling with a full & prosperous gale of the holy Ghost, she must needs be adorned and enriched with inualuable treasures, which by mo­ments is cast vp into her lappe.

The Scripture is not therefore so barren in description of the excellency of our B Lady, as they who enuy her ho­nour would fayne make themselues be­leeue, but in diuers parts thereof it poin­teth out sundry thinges with their circū ­stances, whereby we may, (and must if we will not be as bad as beasts) acknow­ledge her to be of so incomparable an ex­cellency, as whereof the least part cannot be arriued to, by our highest thoughts. Nor were the flowers which grew in that delicious garden of her heart without a­bundance [Page 44] of fruit, nor were those causes, I meane the priuiledges, & great prero­gatiues which she had, without the effect of most Heroicall vertuous actions, which may partly appeare by the obser­uation of her proceeding in al things, but through the depth and massines therof, cannot by any created vnderstanding be penetrated, and admired as they deser­ue.

There is nothing which serueth more to humble men, then to imploy themselues in reading and pondering well the liues of Saints; for thereby we are taught to thinke our selues to be those poore creatures that indeed we are. But whosoeuer shall meditate vpon the acti­ons of our B. Lady, will find that in comparison of her, euen eminent Saints do fal much more short, then we of them. And indeed they deserue to be thought of in the way of meditation, which a kind of Constructio loci, as they call it, which may represent to our imagination, as well the circumstances as the substance thereof. They are innumerable amongst [Page 45] our writers, who haue at large discour­sed heerupon: as for me I am so mindful both of my disability and of breuity, that I will but touch and go, like those dogs vpon the bankes of Nilus, one of which might yet more easily drinke that deep Riuer drye, then any man can with the studdy of his whole life, expresse the least perfection of her least Vertue.

For by way of Parenthesis, or ra­ther by way of a short Preface, two pon­derations are to be made. First that our B Lady did whatsoeuer she did with perfect liberty of will, though preuented and assisted by the rich grace of God, to the very last point whereof, she did most eminently cooperate as a most eleuated, actiue, and liuely instrument; and was not of no more vse vnto her selfe then a very stocke, or stone could be, according to that Manichaean, or Mahometan Princi­ple, to which I would to God the Secta­ries of our age did not approach so neer. But as she was Blessed who beleeued and consented to the message of the Angell, by the testimony of S. Elizabeth; so could [Page 46] she not haue been so in beleeuing and con­senting, if she could not haue chosen but beleeue & consent, and with the selfe same eleuated & entire liberty she performed all the rest of her incomprehensible acti­ons. The second point to be pondered, and well imprinted in our minds, is the intense perfection, with al her actions re­ceaued from the great degree of hergrace and the sublime quality of her person she being the Mother of God, who perfor­med them; and the eminency wherwith she did them, being answerable to the dig­nity of a most worthy Mother.

CHAP. VI.

FIRST then let it be weighed with how great humility and charity (im­mediatly after that she was made the Mo­ther of God) she went vp with hast, to­wardes the mountaynous part of that Countrey, to visit and salute S. Elizabeth, It was no walke of recreation, but a long and laborious iourney of fourescore and fifteene miles after the English account, [Page 47] from Nazareth to Hebron.

It is already shewed by the excla­mation of S. Elizabeth, how far it is from the power of proud flesh and bloud, to fall into a due consideration of such hu­mility, as this was for the Mother of God, and the bearer of him then in her sacred wombe, to honour thus her ould kins­woman, with a visite that cost her so much paynes. But as S. Paul sayd after­ward, Charitas Christi vrget nos, we are vrged to these thinges by the loue which Christ hath borne vs: Cor. 2. so did she find her selfe more deeply wounded with the loue of God, for the Incarnation of his Sonne (the Mystery wherof was then wrought) nor could she find any rest, till she had made others happy by knowing of it, & especially such as would be well disposed for the receauing of such glorious newes. And it may serue vs both for an endles cause of consolation, and for an inuinci­ble reason of encouragement to hope for great blessings at the hands of God by her meanes, since the first action that we find her to haue performed (after her being [Page 48] made the Mother of God) was to com­municate her self to his creatures, before whome, vpon that occasion, so many wonders were instantly wrought in that house of S. Elizabeth.

For my part I can hardly meet with any thing in the life of our B. Lady which I find more admirably strang, then the contempt she shewed of reputation, in not discharging the suspition of S. Ioseph by some little protestation of her inno­cency, when he reflected vpon her be­ing so great with child. She could not but know that he must needs obserue in what state she was, and it can hardly be imagined, but that the little countenance which peraduēture he cast towards her, might giue her assurance of how ill he tooke it; wherein he went so far, as that the scripture speaketh of a designe in him to dismisse her secretly. Matt. 1. Yet do we not find, that she did euer so much as open her mouth towards her owne iustificati­on. She knew that Tyme would be his Teacher of Truth; she knew that she had already giuen her selfe away wholy to [Page 49] God; she knew it was a defect to seeke or care for comfort at the hand of creaturs; and chose rather to be ill vnderstood, and mistakē, then she would discouer a mat­ter which might so far make to her ho­nour and aduantage, as to haue declared her selfe to haue beene made the Mother of Christ, by the ouershaddowing of the Holy Ghost.

When the tyme was come, wher­in she was to bring forth the Blessed In­fant that she had borne, who is able to comprehend the merit that she (being then the Mother of God, as much as she is now) should vouchsafe to go in the mid­dest of winter as far as Bethleem from Na­zareth, that being the space of fourscore and sixteen miles, to haue her name en­rolled, and her head taxed by the Officers of a prophane Emperour; and at that iourneyes end to content her selfe with a Stable for want of better commodity, and with clouts insteed of robes, wherin to lodge, and wherewith to cloath the King of Glory. Which though it do infi­nitly more weigh in the person of Christ [Page 50] then of hers, he being God, and she being but a pure creature; yet so far is that from diminishing her excellency, as that ther­by is it sublimed. For without him that patience & pouerty had not been exerci­sed by a Mother of God, but only by her as she was otherwise, though euen other­wise she was the most excellent creature in the whole world, the most perfectly, and highly vertuous, the most beautifull and the most nobly borne.

Our Sauiour Christ was not only her Sonne, but her Sauiour, her God, her Father, and her Maister, and there was neuer any disciple who followed on so neere in imitation as she did of him. And therfore, because afterward he was plea­sed to be circumcised, wherby he stiched a badge of sinne vpon his sleeue (not that he was bound therto, but that he might leaue an example of Obedience to vs) she thought it would become her also to be purified according to the ordinary custome of women, whereby it was sup­posed that she was vncleane, and had rea­son to seeke such remedyes as were resor­ted [Page 51] vnto by others; whereas indeed she had no more need of Purification, then Christ had of Circumcision: for as he was without sinne, so had she euer been with­out the commerce of any other spouse then the Holy Ghost: but the imitation of our Sauiour, & the holy zeale she had to giue high examples of vertue, made her glory in nothing, but that which might serue to make her inglorious.

Her flight to Aegypt gaue her not only shame, but paine, which yet she en­tred into, and accepted with that proofe of vnspeakable humility, which gaue most bright lustre to all her actions. Ac­cording to the discourse of flesh & bloud she might haue made answere to S. Ioseph when he declared the Angells message, that in all liklyhood he was mistaken: That it became not the Sonne of God, & God himselfe to flye from the face of an angry Tyrant: That if any such thing had beene ordayned, it was rather for her to haue receaued the Order then for him: That the warning was to short, the pro­uisiō too strait, the iourney too long, the [Page 52] way too dangerous, the countrey too I­dolatrous, and Barbarous, themselues without attendance, and without lan­guage, and such other cogitations of hu­mane prudence, or pride might easily haue occurred to any creature, her selfe only excepted. But she who had dedica­ted her selfe already to the seruice of Al­mighty God, by the name of Ancilla, that is a Bondslaue, or Handmayd, meant nothing lesse then to resume her graunt; but did that which King Dauid descri­beth in the Psalme; Psal. 12 2. Sicut oculi ancillae in manibus dominae suae &c. As the eyes of the handmayd are vpon the hands of her Mi­stresse, so were her eyes vpon the handes of her Lord, and Maister. She expected not that he should reueale any thing to her (as he had done to S. Ioseph) by his owne, or by an Angells voyce, but she contented her selfe with Beckes or Signes, that is, with the least signification of his diuine pleasure. In conformity whereof, this being at midnight, she instantly put herselfe vpon the departure, and conse­quently vpon the sustayning (for the [Page 53] space of tyme to which there was no li­mit put) of more incommodityes then we are able to imagine; not feeling or rather not weighing (for that delicate constitution could not chose but feele to the extreme offence of flesh and bloud) the ardour of that intemperate Climate, through the much more excessiue inward heate of loue, to the sacred humanity of our B. Sauiour, which did both consume, and yet withall incredibly comfort her deare and tender hart.

They had not beene long returned from thence into Palestine, but that euery yeare at Easter, they began to performe a pilgrimage from their poore Home (which was then in Galilie) to Ierusalem being fourescore and ten miles forward, and as much backeward, that so they might assist at the Ceremonyes & Sacri­fices of that holy tyme and place. In this she continued till the very death & Pas­sion of our B. Sauiour. Two other feasts there were besides that of Easter, one cal­led Hebdomadarum of the VVeekes, or of Pentecost; the other Tabernaculorum, of the [Page 54] Tabernacles, wherupon men were tyed to go to Hierusalem by obligation, though women were not obliged otherwise then by voluntary deuotion. But our B. Lady, whose busines was to fill the world with the odour of a most excellent example, did in all likelihood put her selfe to the payn of both these other iourneys, as well as we are certainly tould by Scripture, that she performed this of Easter. And as a man had need be a great Saint, who would enable himself fully to conceaue & cōprehēd the least degree of that sanctity wherwith our B. Lady (hauing euer the Sonne of God in her eye, and the will of God in her heart) made so many millions of most holy pases: so he is no Christian, yea and not so much as a reasonable crea­ture, that shall not carry a kind of com­passion, to a person euery way so condi­tioned as she was, who measured so ma­ny thousand miles with her sacred, but weary feet, although there had beene no­thing in it, but the very labour, which yet in her case was the least.

How good cheap do our Gossips [Page 55] speake impiously, by speaking meanely of this sacred Virgin? But their muddy souls are far from considering, that not­withstanding hers was full, not only of innocency, but absolute perfection, yet her body was neuer free from being im­ployed vpon penall actions of fasting, watching, praying, passing through the heates, and colds of most tedious and la­borious iourneys, with that obiect for her eyes to look continually vpon, which ould Simeon had set before her; Luc. [...]2. Et tuam ipsius animam doloris gladius pertransibit. And the sword of sorrow shall euen passe and pierce thy very soule. Our Sauiour Christ had the chalice of his bitter Passiō alwayes in his sight, and the B. Virgin had the sword of sorrow in hers, which was spiritually indeed, but most truly, and really to strike her through.

CHAP. VII.

THE height and perfection of her owne condition, made her not con­descend the lesse towards the feeble, and [Page 56] frayle state of others, as the manner often is with the men & women of this world to do. A proofe heerof may be taken from her gracious proceeding at the marriage of Cana of Galiley, where she found her selfe, & that for the present, without her Sonne. For the Text affirmeth, That he was inuited afterward, togeather with his disciples; and it is most probable that she was the cause thereof, as she is now incomparably more the occasion of the comming of our B. Sauiour, I say not, to the marriage of others but to espouse himselfe to the soules of such as desire it by her meanes.

It was much for our B. Lady to let her selfe fal so low, as to be present at the celebrating of a marriage: Which how­soeuer it be an honourable, and lawfull state, yet is it far from the purity & per­fection of Virginity; as al Virginity of o­thers is incomparably inferiour to that of our B. Lady; and the obiects thereof are such as yield no pleasure to a soule that meaneth inuiolably to be chast. It see­meth to haue beene made amongst the [Page 57] poorer sort of people, whose conuersati­on she chiefly, and only loued, when she saw the King of heauen so impouerished for our sakes, that he wanted a cradle af­ter he was borne, a house wherin to liue, and a bed wheron to dye.

Her eyes gaue her to vnderstand, that at the wedding dinner the wine had fayled, & she who had those very bowels of compassion about her, wherein Mercy it selfe had taken the nature of man, could not chose but declare their necessity to him who was best able to relieue it. Ioan. 2. Vinum non habent, They haue no wine. And howsoeuer the late Aduersaries of our B. Ladyes Honour, taxe her of presumption in so doing, vnder the colour of I know not what Pedanticall, or Grammaticall interpretation of some words in the text (which afterward I shall haue occasion to mention) yet the effect which instant­ly followed (namely the working of the miracle, and that as she desired, & which our Sauiour did rather shew that he had no inclination of his owne to worke at that tyme, if his B. Mother had not, as a [Page 58] man may say, euen induced him a little to breake his pase) giueth sufficient assuran­ce that her memoriall, which he subscri­bed so easily, was gratefull to him, and that it was to be no ill way for vs to ob­tayne any thing at the hands of Christ, if we should make his B. Mother our inter­cessour.

If she had found that they had been in want of bread, which is the most ne­cessary sustenāce of mans life, it seemeth that in charity she had euen been obliged to begge, and procure reliefe for them, but since she had so much compassion for their only want of wine, which is a crea­ture that serueth rather for recreatiō then for necessary refection; we are taught heereby how deare a Mother she is to­wards her children; & that her piety ex­tendeth not only to the obtayning of such thinges without which we cannot liue at all, but of such others also as with­out which we 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, [Page 59] 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 & [Page 60] 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 lō ­gè 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 [Page 61] 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. [Page 62] 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, [Page 63] 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 shalbe 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 [Page 64] 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, [Page 65] 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 [Page 66] 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 Bern. hom. 2. super missusest. woman whose seed was promised in Paradise; She was Bern. serm. de B. Virg. the true Rebecca; The true Hier. ad Salui­anum. Iudith; The true Lyra supra Esther. Esther; The true Ru­pert. in Cantic. temple and Sanctu­ary of God prophesied by Ezechiel, and the very way of Saints; She was aboundantly ce­lebrated in spirit by Bern. hom. 2. super m [...]ssusest. Salomon; She was that which Moyses saw in the Ibid. bush and fire; That which Aaron Bern. ser. signū magnum saw in the rod and flower; The Orientall gate of Ibid. Eze­chiel; The fleece and dew forshewed to Bern. hom. 1. super missusest. Gedeon; The starre which rose out of Amb. serm. 80. Ia­cob, and from whence that beame proceeded which did illustrate the whole world; She was the mysticall Arke of the 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 Bern. ibidem. Salomon; The Prin­ces [Page 67] Court; The 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.

[Page 68]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 [Page 69] 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 [Page 70] 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 [Page 71] 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 in see­king him) answered thus; Luc. [...]. Quid est quod me quaerebatis, an nesciebatis quia in his quae Pa­tris mei sunt oportet me esse? Why did you seek me, knew you not that I was to im­ploy my self in those things which cōcer­ne the seruice of my Father? But as in the former case, so in this also it is cleare, that when he had taught the world by those wordes, that men were to preferre their [Page 72] obligations to God before any tendernes towards their flesh and bloud, to be sure that they should haue no colour to per­swade themselues, vpon this occasion, that he would disparage, or discontent his holy Mother, the text immediatly ad­ioyns, that he went away with them who sought & found him, and that he came to Nazareth, Et erat subditus illis, and he there liued vnder them in subiection: whereby if men were not wholy blinde, they would both be content to acknow­ledge this truth, That it is infinitly a greater dignity to haue God for her Son, and her subiect, then to be the Superiour and Empresse of all things created; and consider also heere, as soon as he had per­formed the office of a Doctour, he made hast to restore the B. Virgin to her pos­session of him againe as his Mother.

Another offer there is made to im­peach the excellency of our B. Lady v­pon this occasion. Mar. 3. Our B. Sauiour ha­uing wrought a miracle in the Syna­gogue, was sought by the Pharisyes to be destroyed, he retyred himselfe to the sea [Page 73] side, and on shipbord he preached to the people in huge multitudes, he wrought there innumerable miracles, he retyred himselfe but was yet so pressed by the people, as that they gaue him not so much as tyme to eate. Out of the tender­nes of loue, both in regard of his hunger, and of his danger, his B. Mother, and some of their kinred were sollicitous, & they of the people who were next, inter­rupted his speach with saying, thus; Ecce Mater tua, & fratres tui foris quaerunt te. Mar. 3. Behould thy Mother, and thy Brethren (that is thy kinsfolks) stand without & seeke thee; and he answearing sayd, Quae est mater mea, & fratres mei? Who is my Mother, and my brethren? and behoulding them that sate about him he sayd, Behould my Mother, and my brethren; for he that doth the will of God he is my brother, my sister, and my Mother. This place is much in the dis­course of some, as if it were indiminution of our B. Ladyes eminency, which yet yieldeth so little ground for an obiection, as that, euen for this very reason, it is hardly capable of an answere. The occa­sion [Page 74] of that speach was this. Our B. Sa­uiour was most wickedly and foolishly slaundred by the Scribes that came down thither from Hierusalem, that he was him­selfe possessed with Beelsebub, and that in the strength of that maister-diuell, he did cast out others of inferiour rancke. Our Sauiour did not only demonstrate the falshood, and the extreme absurdity of that allegation, but he did withal insinu­ate, that euen they knew as much; and that of meere & perfect malice they had layd that imputatiō vpon him against the dictamen of their own conscience. With all he denounced against them the finall danger that they were in, by saying that all other sinnes should be forgiuen to the sonnes of men, only that the sinnes and blasphemyes against the Holy Ghost (wherby the sinnes of desperate & confirmed malice which impugneth a knowne truth, are vnder­stood) should neuer be forgiuen, but punished with eternity of hell fire. The representatiō of which verity being made by our B. Sa­uiour, with so great liberty, in the very teeth of them whom it concerned as par­tyes, [Page 75] and who did so viperously desire to bite him to death, might reasonably moue his friendes, to retyre him out of those dangers, wherein they vnderstood him to be, and to aske for audience. But our Sauiour desyring not to secure him­selfe, but to saue those people, seemed to lay aside that petition, and still to attend to their instruction. So as this exception taken by the Caluinists can proceed frō no other cause, then a great ingratitude to God, a great opposition to our B. La­dy, and a great contrariety to common sense, that the speaches which our Saui­our vsed to make it apparant to the world how infinitely, dearly and tenderly he would loue both all them and vs, who would performe the will of God his Fa­ther, by saying that he would reckon of them no worse then if they were his own flesh and bloud, should serue to no other end with thē, but only to derogate from that same flesh and bloud, yea from his B. Mother her selfe, who was the only pre­cious creature from whome he fetched al his sacred humanity.

[Page 76]Another like this last is, the excep­tion which is taken from a like speach of our B. Sauiours, which he vttered vpon a like occasion. He was instructing his disciples both in what manner, and in what wordes, they were to make their prayers to God; and at the end therof, he was also conuincing some of the Iewes, by prouing, that he did not cast out one diuell by another, but by the power of God. The multitude admired, though some few calumniated him; and whilest he was deliuering most profitable do­ctrines, a woman in the company (being as it were rapt into an Extasy of admi­ration, to see both his diuine presence, & his supernaturall workes, and to heare withall those wordes of Eternall Life, which were deliuered by his heauenly mouth) could not containe her selfe from exclayming thus; Beatus venter quite por­tauit, Luc. 11. & vbera quae suxisti: Blessed is the wombe that bare thee, and the breasts that gaue thee sucke. Wherupon he sayd; Quinimo beati, qui audiunt verbum Dei, & custodiunt illud. Yea, blessed are they who [Page 77] heare the word of God, and keep it. These men (who are so wisely zealous of the Sonnes honour, as that they cannot forbeare to be carping at his Mother v­pon all occasions) would inferre also by this passage, as if our Lady were no better then one of vs, if we shall procure to be the seruants of God; drawing (as I sayd before) a reason of honouring her lesse from that which ministreth none at all, but giueth vs only cause thereby to con­sider the dignity of our owne vocati­on.

But indeed, it is not our B. Lady, who is immediatly and principally com­mēded by the good woman of this Ghos­pell, but it is our B. Sauiour; and she is praysed there, but vpon the reason of ha­uing brought him into the world, and for being the choyce cabinet of such a preci­ous Iewell as she esteemed him; and ther­fore it is so much the more absurdly done, to inferre by the declining which our B. Sauiour made from his own prayses, that he meant any way to diminish the digni­ty of his Mother. And yet abstracting [Page 78] this consideration for the answere of our Sauiour, it is it selfe so pregnant in the proofe of what I say, as that it needeth not to be much inforced.

For first it may be considered, that he was in a great multitude of people, That he was treating about the state of their soules, That he was in the act of working a miracle, at the end whereof the people were already drawne into ad­miration, and whilest he might expect to reap the fruit of their conuersion (which was to be ripened by driuing away out of their minds those clouds of ignorance and obscurity, and those stormes of ma­lice and enuy; this passionatly affection at & deuout woman with more feruour of louing zeale, then exact consideration of all due circumstances, brake off by her exclamation that profitable discourse of our B. Sauiour, to which he with diuine wisedome made the aforesayd answere: Wherby they might vnderstand how true it was, that as his Mother was incompa­rably happy, so should they also be, ac­cording to their measure, if they would [Page 79] make their benefite of those instructions, that from tyme to tyme he gaue them; & about which he was in a particuler en­deauour at that instant, and therfore it it is no meruaile if he did not cherish the distraction which speach had caused in the hearers.

But least of all other places doth this decrease the extent of our B. Ladyes fe­licity, for by it we learne that she was doubly happy. Happy she was, because her wombe had borne the Sauiour of the world, and because her breasts had giuen him sucke; for our Sauiour Christ did not reuerse this sentence of the holy wo­man pronoūced vpon her which though it were not then so seasonable, was yet in it self most highly true. Nor could he who was Truth it selfe say that to be vntrue, which the holy Ghost by the B. Virgins owne sacred mouth, had formerly pro­nounced concerning her being Blessed, in that diuine Canticle of the Magnificat. And happy againe we find that she was, since by the testimony of our B Sauiour they all are happy, who heare the word [Page 80] the word of God and keep it; for what creature did euer come so close to the kee­ping of the word of God, as she who had in her sacred wombe kept God himselfe, who was, and is the VVord, to which she communicated all the Humanity that it had, whose presence afterward she con­tinually enioyed, during the whole tyme of his aboad on earth? whose perfections she imitated, whose Church whilest she suruiued she instructed, and whose king­dome, now that she is assumed into hea­uen, she hath beautifyed. And al this be­cause Almighty God who made her the Mother of God, made her in all respect to be as worthy of that incomprehensible vocation, as the state of a creature could be capable, and with which also she did concurre after an vnconceuable māner. Now to be a Mother, and a Mother wor­thy of God himselfe implyeth such moū ­taynes of perfection, as euen fill, and ex­ceed the world, and from which the least graine cannot be taken in any discourse of reason vnder the pretence either of ho­ly Scripture, or common sense.

[Page 69]But it were well (since it is so ill) that it were no worse, Melanc. ad c. 2. Ioan. Constāt. Copron. apud Theo. o­rat. in S. Nicetā. Melchior Hoffmā ­nus asse­rens Chri­stum non suscepisse carnem ex Maria Virgine apud Bulling. aduers. Anabap. l. 2. c. 13. in euang. Domin. 2. Epi­phan. Caluin. harm. in Luc. 2.35. edit. Gal. Caluin. harm. in Matt. 12.48. but that our Ad­uersaryes would only diminish the Ho­nour of our Blessed Lady by seeking to proue, that she was lesse excellent, and not expresly to affirme thinges of her, which make her to haue beene an vnworthy and sinnefull creature. In the strength of which spirit of giddines, ma­ny say, That she was but like to other wo­mē in vertue; others, That she was but as a saffron bagge, wherby they inferre that hauing lost the spice, she was no more to be esteemed; others, That she was but as a Channell, or Conduct of water, insinua­ting thereby, as if Christ had scarce taken flesh of her, or els that at the best hand he infused not any vertue into her. Luther is often disgracing her, and ranking her with the rest of creatures in generall, & Caluin doth as good as deduce that proposition into particulers, and draw Con­clusions out of those principles: now saying, That the Virgin was at least inconsi­derate, That she was importune, and did pre­posterously endeauour to breake off the course [Page 82] of her Sonnes doctrine; Caluin. harm. in Ioan. c. 2. That she sinned by exceeding her boundes, and by intruding her selfe so far, as that she might chance to haue obscured the glory of Christ thereby; and, that our Sauiour made in a manner no accompt of that which the woman in the Ghospell did on­ly extoll, which was her being his owne Mo­ther, as also when the Angel announceth the Incarnation of the Sonne of God, he findeth, Caluin. harm. in Luc. 1.34. edit. Latin. That she had want of fayth, he sayth, That she did not with lesse malignity restraine the power of God, then Zacharias had done before vpon another occasion, and when he hath done, the blasphemous He­retike concludeth, Quod non sit magnoperè laborandum &c. That there is no cause why he should take much paines in ex­cusing the Virgin from not hauing com­mitted some fault. Iouin. a­pud Au­gust. haer. 82. Petr. Martyr. ad c. 4. epist. ad Rom. Apud Can. l. 2. c. 8. ma­rial.

To this let it be added, that they thinke, & often say, That she was deliuered of our Sauiour after the same laborious, vul­gar, and vncomly manner to which other wo­men are subiect by their descendēce from Eue. Some againe, That she liued afterward with Ioseph, to all purposes as women vse to do with [Page 83] their husbands: With a thousand such o­ther beastly blasphemyes, and heresies as these. For Heluidius by the testimony of S. Hierome was condemned as an Here­tike within foure ages after Christ, for only houlding that our B. Lady did not continue in virginity after the birth of our B. Sauiour vntill the end of her mor­tall life: and I would to Christ that our poore Countrey did not swarme with these vile, and far worse opinions. But as the soule is infinitly to be more estee­med then the body, so may she be conclu­ded to haue receaued more offence by Caluins tongue who wounded her in her soule, by his charging her thus with sin, then by these others who haue subiected her sacred body to so much shame: & yet euen in that kind, In the Preface to the Christiā Directo­ry. Caluin himselfe hath hardly gone so far as our Countrey­man Bunny, who imputeth to her, with a most blasphemous mouth, the hauing committed no lesse then foure mortall sinnes, in the short tyme of our Sauiours Passion.

And those famous, or rather infamous [Page 84] Magdeburgians, who are called Centuria­tours, being certaine Lutheran Doctours, who in corps and by publique Authority pretended to draw downe an historicall narration of the Church from age to age speaking in the first booke of the first Century, of the life of our B. Sauiour, tooke occasion therby to taxe most bold­ly & blasphemously the immaculate Mo­ther of God, & to say, that when she lost her Sonne in the Temple, she committed so great a sinne, as that they tremble not to compare it with that first most grie­uous sinne of Eue, and so doubt which of the two sinnes were the worse.

CHAP. IX.

THE beliefe and practise of the Ho­ly Catholike, Apostolike, Roman Church is very different from that of these men, and hath beene most expresse in this point; for it hath, throughout the whole course of so many ages, decerned, and applyed the highest honours, vnder God, to our B. Lady, by giuing her most [Page 85] glorious titles by erecting in memory of her most sumptuous Temples, by enioy­ning Christians to keep in contemplati­on of her most solemne festiuityes; and by powring out before her continuall supplications and prayers, that by her in­tercession of meditation, the intercession of Redemption which was performed by Christ our Lord, and could only be per­formed by him, may be applyed to the sauing of mans soule.

When I name the Catholike, Apo­stolike, Roman Church, I meane not, by Roman, that Congregation of Christi­ans only, which is comprehended with­in the walls or diocesse of the Citty, or Sea of Rome (as some would fayne im­pose vpon vs, and thereby inferre an ab­surdity vpon that proposition, as if the same Church whereof we speake, were both vniuersall in being Catholike, and particuler in being but of the Citty of Rome:) but when I say the Catholike, Roman Church, I meane the Church of Christ which is spread into all the cor­ners of the earth, but yet communicating [Page 86] euery where in the same fayth, and Sa­craments, doth acknowledge the Bishop of Rome for the visible & supreme Head therof vnder Christ. The dignity and e­minency whereof if it be considered, & be weighed withall, how deuout it hath euer beene in tenderly honouring, & re­ligiously praying to our B. Lady. I think there is no man of modesty, and euen common sense, who will not be induced not only to an excuse, but euen to an imitation thereof.

August. confess. l. 6. cap. 11. Non vacat, non estinane, quod tam e­minens culmen authoritatis Christianae fidei toto orbe diffunditur. It is no trifle, it is no matter of smal importance that the Chri­stian fayth hath obtayned ouer the whole world such a sublime top of authority. These are the wordes of S. Augustine, which he spake being yet no Christian; and the same weight which that kind of discourse had against Paganisme, or Ma­nicheisme in his tyme, the same hath it, at the least in fauour of Catholike Religiō, concerning the honour and inuocation of our B. Lady, amongst and aboue all [Page 87] the other Saints of God, against Calui­nisme, or whatsouer other such Innoua­tion. Non vacat, non est inane, it is no toy, it is no contemptible thing, which the whole Body of Catholikes, hath so long, and so deuoutly practised, concerning the honour of our B. Lady, and the need which it findeth mankind to haue of her helping hand. Yea, and a Protestant, that is either morally wise, or discreetly modest, as S. Augustin was before he was a Catholike Christian, will thinke and speake reuerently of this Church, though he shall abstract from this beliefe, That it is the only true Church of Christ, and do but confesse (which no body in his wits will deny) that it is a congregatiō of great Order, Wisedome, Vertue, Lear­ning, Extent, and Continuance.

Though indeed (whatsoeuer may be pretended by our opposits) it is both more true, and more euident then the Sunne is bright, That either Christ hath no Church at all, That the prophesyes of the old Testament were false, and, That the promises of the new Testament were [Page 88] feigned, or els that this church is the true and only true Church of Christ, since all those markes, and plaine tokens, which were deliuered as belonging thereunto, do clearly apply thēselues to this Church and to no other. For what other but this can (without the impudent face of an harlot) pretend, Tertull. l depraes. haer. Vita B. Bern. l. 2. c. 7. Beda in 6. Cant. Ambr. epist. 13. Ose. 2. 1. Tim. 3. To haue conuerted Nations, To haue beene fostered and nursed by a longe series of Kinges and Queenes, To haue im­braced euen the very ends of the world, To haue beene espoused to the Messias with an indissoluble bound of Matrimony, as was fortould by those men of God in the old Testament? Or what other then this, can with any colour affirme, That it is the piller, and ground of Truth, as S. Paul did witnes, That it is but one, That it is, and hath euer beene, and is to be euer Visible, That it hath beene, and euer must be In­fallible, as is clearely to be conuinced by that one direction which our B. Sauiour gaue, Dic Ecclesiae, Tell the Church: And Si Ecclesiam non audierit, sit tibi tamquam Ethnicus & Publicanus, let him be to thee as a Pagan, and Publican, if he obey not [Page 89] the orders of this Church. For vnles this Church were euer to be indued with V­nity, with Visibility, and with Infallibility, impossible it were either for that coun­saile of our Sauiours to be followed (and this were to impute folly to him) or els though it were followed, it would be im­possible for men to be saued by meanes therof, and that were to lay a worse note if worse may be, vpon the fountaine of all Wisedome, and goodnes? Or what o­ther Church then this, Ephes. 4. can apply to it selfe, that Legacy, which S. Paul to the Ephesians affirmed to haue beene giuen to mankind by our Sauiour Christ, when he ascended vp to heauen, namely Do­ctours, and Pastours to continue from that tyme till the end of the world, that so the body of Christ might be built vp, and Christian soules be kept by the anc­ker of true fayth, from floating (after the fashion of Heretikes) by the windes, or waues of phantasticall and foolish do­ctrines.

No other congregation then the Ca­tholik, will so much as pretend to ma­ny [Page 90] of these true marks of the Church; at least none but she can proue that they a­ny way belong to theirs or thē, who ther­fore by a miserable necessity are constrai­ned to hide themselues in certaine castles of the aire whilst they talke of Scripture, wherby they meane nothing els but that interpretation or conceipt of their own which the interest either of their profits or passion doth suggest. By al which I in­fer, that since we make so faire a claime to be the true, & neuer erring Church of Christ, which euen our moderate Aduer­saryes will confesse to be of great appea­rance; that doctrine which it teacheth, & from whence the honour & inuocation of our B. Lady proceedeth, ought not in any reason to be so blasphemed, euen by them who will not yet imbrace it.

This Church hath also further (being inspired and guided 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 [Page 91] 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 nam (que) 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 [Page 92] 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. [Page 93] 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 cō ­tradictory 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 [Page 94] 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 Cyril. in psal. 2. de huma­na gene­rat. August. de aetern. meus es tu, ego hodie genuite. Om­nia 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 [Page 95] 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 [Page 96] 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 being assem­bled with other Bishops vpon a tyme of solemnity, spake thus in a sermon made [Page 97] against the Heretike Nestorius; Hilarem video coetum fidelium omnium &c. I see this Congregation of all the faythfull to be full of alacrity, who are come togeather with cheerefull mindes, being called by the holy Mother of God, & yet euer Vir­gin Mary. Prayse & glory be to thee, O Holy Trinity, who hast conducted vs all to this solemnity. Praise also to thee, O thou Holy Mother of God. For thou art that precious pearle of the whole world; Thou art a lampe neuer to be ex­tinguished; The crowne of virginity; The scepter of true fayth; A temple not to be dissolued, conteyning him who could within no place be contayned; A Mother and a Virgin. Blessed art thou amongst women, being the parent of him, who being blessed came in the name of our Lord. By thee the Trinity is glorifyed; By thee the precious Crosse is celebrated, & adored throughout the whole world. By thee heauen triumpheth, Angells and Archangells reioyce, Diuells are driuen away, and man himselfe is recalled to heauen. By thee all creatures (once de­teyned [Page 98] in the errour of Idolatry) are con­uerted to the knowledg of the truth. The faythfull are come to Holy Baptisme, & Temples are built throughout the whole world. By thee do the Nations come to pennance. What shal I say more? By thee the only begotten Sonne of God, that true light did shine to such as sate in dar­knes; By thee the Prophets did foreshew saluation to the Gentils; And by thee did the Apostles preach it. Who can vnfold the eminency of thy prayse, O thou Mo­ther and virgin Mary? Let vs celebrate her, most beloued Brethren, adoring her Sonne the immaculate spouse of the Church, to whome be honour and glory for all Eternityes. Amen.

S. Ephrem in an Oration of the prayses of the most Holy Mother of God, Ephr. o­rat. de laudibus SS. Dei Matris. Intemerata prorsus (que) pura &c. The vn­toucht and entierely pure virgin the Mo­ther of God; The Queen of all men; The hope of such as despaire; My most glo­rious and best Queene; More sublime then the celestiall spirits; More pure then the Sunne beames and splendours; More [Page 99] honourable then the Cherubim, & more holy then the Seraphim.

Heare what the holy and learned S. Ambrose sayth in his booke of the Insti­tution of Virgins. Christi lilia &c. Ambr. de Instit. Virgin. cap. 15. The lillyes of Christ are especially virgines, whose virginity is bright & immaculate; for that Virginall wombe was the begin­ning, and roote, and perpetually sprin­ging fountaine, from whence by that most powerfull example of the Mother of God, all the Quires of Virgins did pro­ceed.

A Maria &c. (sayth S. Epiphanius) of the Virgin Mary, Epiph. l. 3. hares. 73. post med. life was borne vnto the world so that she gaue life to him that liueth and Mary was made the Mother of such as liue.

S. Hierome vpon the eleuenth Chap­ter of Isay, Virgam de radice &c. Let vs vn­derstand the holy Virgin Mary, to be the Rod that springes out of the roote of Iesse.

S. Theodoret vpon the Canticles, Inter tot animas omnium hominum &c. A­mongst the soules of all the men and wo­men [Page 100] that shallbe saued, that only one is as the elected doue, who brought forth Christ, a virgin, a Mother, a mayd, who doubtles did excell in purity both the Cherubim and the Seraphim.

Aug. l. de natur. & grat.S. Augustine in his booke of Nature & Grace: Cum de peccatis agitur &c. When there is any speach of sinne, I will make no question of the Blessed Virgin, for we know that more grace was giuen to her for the totall ouercōming of sinne, who deserued to conceaue, and to bring him forth, of whome it is euident that he had no sinne.

August. tract. de symb. ad Cach. l. 3. c. 4. tom. 9.The same holy Father in a Treatise of the Creed vnto Catholikes, the third booke, and 4. Chapter, in few but massy words speaketh thus of the B. Virgin, Per feminam &c. death came by a woman, and life also by a woman. By Eue came destruction, and saluation by Mary.

Greg. in 1. lib. 1. c. Reg. S. Gregory the great vpon the first booke and Chapter of Kinges Potest hu­ius montis nomine &c. The euer most B. Virgin Mary Mother of God, may be de­signed by the name of this mountaine. [Page 101] For she was a mountaine who by the dig­nity of her election did transcend the al­titudes of elected creaturs. Was not Mary a high mountaine, who that she might arriue to the conception of the Eeternall Word, did raise the top of her merits aboue all the Quires of Angells, till she came vnto the throne of the Deity: for of the most excellent dignity of this mountaine the Prophet I say doth say; Isa. 2. In the last dayes there shallbe a mountaine of our Lord prepa­red in the top of the mountaines. For she was a mountaine in the top of mountaines, because the height of Mary doth shine a­boue all Saints. And she is aptly called both a mountaine, and house, who being illustrated with incomparable merits, did prepare her sacred wombe wherein the only Sonne of God might repose.

S. Iohn Damascen in his booke of Catholike fayth, affirmeth of our B. Lady, that reuera Domina facta est &c. Damasc. de fide or­thoxa. She was indeed made the Lady with dominion o­uer all creatures when she was made the Mother of the Creatour. And in his se­cond oration of the death of the Mother [Page 102] of God: Clamemus cum Gabriele &c. Let vs crye out with the Angell Gabriell, All hayle, O thou full of grace, All hayle O thou inexhausted sea of ioy, Al hayle, o thou especial lightner of our burthens; All hayle, O thou medicine of all the af­flictions of our harts, All hayle, O thou holy Virgin, by whome death was bani­shed and life introduced.

Anselm. de cōcep. Virg. & peccat. o­rig. c. 18. S. Anselme in his Treatise of origi­nall sinne Chapter 18. Decebat vt illius &c. It was fit that the Conception of that man (he speaketh there of Christ our Sa­uiour) should be made of the most pure Virgin, and therefore it was fit, that this virgin should most sweetly shine with so great purity then which a greater cannot be imagined vnder God, to whome God the Father resolued to giue his only Son.

S. Bernard in his sermon vpon the corporall Assumption of the B. Virgin into heauen sayth thus; Quis cogitare suf­ficiat &c. Who is able to conceaue how gloriously the Queene of the world went forward as vpon this day, and with how great entiernes of tender deuotion the [Page 103] whole multitude of those celestiall legiōs came forth to meete her? With what canticles she was cōducted to the throne of glory? With how serene a face, with how deare a countenance, with how di­uine imbracements she was receaued by her Sonne, & with that glory which be­came such a Sonne.

In his fourth Sermon vpon the As­sumption, after he had with this protesta­tion, Non est quod me magis delectet &c. There is nothing wherein I take more ioy, & so yet there is also nothing which putteth me into a greater trembling of feare, then to discourse vpon the glory of the Virgin Mary &c. he proceedeth short­ly after to say this; Quae enim vel Angelica puritas &c. What purity though Ange­licall will presume to compare it selfe to this virginity, which was made worthy to become the sacred repose of the Holy Ghost? But how great and how precious was the vertue of thy humility with so great purity, with so great innocency, with a conscience wholy free from sin, yea with the fullnes of so much grace? [Page 104] Whence hadst thou humility, & so great humility, O thou blessed Creature? In­deed thou wert worthy whom our Lord should regard, whose beauty the King should desire, by whose fragrant odour he might be drawne from that eternall resting place of his Fathers bosome. Be­hould, O B. Virgin, we accompany thee a far off, as we may, with these acclama­tions, whilest thou art ascending to thy throne. Let it be an effect of thy piety to make knowne vnto the world that grace which thou foundst with God, by ob­teyning through thy holy prayers pardō for such as are faulty, cure for the sicke, strength of mind for the weake, comfort for the afflicted, and help and liberty for such as are in danger. And now in this day of thy solemnity & ioy, by thee, O gracious Queen, let thy Sonne Christ Iesus our Lord (who is God for euer bles­sed aboue all thinges) bestow the giftes of his grace vpon vs his poore seruants, who with prayse are calling vpon the sweet name of Maria.

These are some of those passages, [Page 105] which I find recorded amongst many o­thers of some few Fathers, who partely speake, though but compendiously, in the Roman Office or Breuiary, and some other few which I take out of their own vndoubted workes, whereby the Reader may see not only the iudgement of the Church, but how expresse, and earnest the most excellent members thereof haue beene, and how deuoutly they haue not only celebrated the praises, but recom­mended thēselues to our B. Ladyes pray­ers And there would neuer be an end if I should striue to deliuer the almost in­finite attributes of excellēcy which they haue giuen to her, which some of her de­uout seruants, hauing gathered out of their works, they grow euen to fil whole bookes. Among others the Margarita, & Hebdomada Mariana may be considered, where the Reader shall find S. Irenaeus, S. Cyprian, S. Athanasius, S. Ephrem, S. Epi­phanius, S. Ambrose, S. Chrysostome, S. Augustine, S. Gregory, S. Iohn Damascen, S. Anselme, S. Bernard with the rest of these later ages, who haue al striued to expresse [Page 106] themselues, as there you may find parti­culerly cyted, in calling her; The win­dow of heauen; The treasure of the Di­uinity; The solace of the world; The woman which transfused grace into vs; The ensigne of fayth; A cause of saluatiō to mankind; The throne of the Diuinity; The Captaine Generall; The fountaine of all Consolation; The ioy of Saints; The Queene of Angells; The Mother of Mercy; The mother of the liuing; The succour of such as are in dāger; A Queen assisting, and raigning at the right hand of her Sonne; The vnlocker of Heauen gates; The scepter which commandeth all; The roote of glory; The rose which hath perfumed all thinges with heauenly odours; A temple beautifyed by the holy Ghost; She who confoundeth all hereti­call prauity; The scepter of orthodoxall Fayth; A mountaine of our Lord prepa­red in the top of the mountaines.

Innumerable I say are the Attributes of honour which the Holy Fathers haue giuen to this sacred Virgin, and many of them haue beene deliuered, though with [Page 107] great profit, and piety, yet in such affe­ctuous tearmes, as the Catholikes at this day dare scarcely vse, through the ex­treme malignity of our Aduersaryes and hers: because as there is no word which may not haue diuers significations; so they will be sure to interprete them euer in the worst sense: whereas Charity re­quireth iust the contrary. And if they proceeded according to the rule thereof, they would neuer charge, either the ho­ly Fathers, or vs their children with de­rogating any thing from Almighty God, by the honour we do to our B. Lady. But whensoeuer they find vs to ascribe any quality or title to her, which to a weake, or wrong iudgment may seeme only to belong to him; they may know once for all, that we impute such thinges to God as to the Tree, from which she tooke her growth; he is the fountaine, she is the streame; he is the great Artificer and pri­mary cause, and she a most eleuated In­strument; he is the Sunne, and she the Beame, whereby he hath communicated his light, and heat to this darke & frozen [Page 108] world of ours.

So that they need not thus peruers­ly continue to aske vs what it is, that we can say more in honour of Christ, then we say in honour of our B. Lady? For we can say, and we do say according to these most true professions, and prote­stations following, which may for euer serue to the iustification of our whole practis [...] heerein, and for the discouery of their either folly, or malice that oppose it.

We professe this difference between the excellency of Christ our Lord, and that of the B. Virgin, That the B. Virgin is no more but a pure creature, but that Christ is God, and so there is no compa­rison at all betweene the excellency of God, and her; That in respect of God she is infinitely lesse then the least graine of dust is lesse then the whole world; That it was the only goodnes of God, that chose her first out of all mankind to be his Mother; That all her greatnes, and perfection dependeth vpon the first grace that God gaue her. This I say, is that we [Page 109] all professe, and this being supposed and kept inuiolable, it is euident that what­soeuer honour or excellency we ascribe to her, so far we are from robbing God Almighty of his honour by it, as that on the contrary side we highly honour him, in acknowledging his vnspeakable beni­gnity and bounty towardes mankind, a part whereof he hath so much enobled, as to make it the Mother, and the so wor­thy Mother of Christ our Lord, who is also God.

Now, since the honour we do to the most sacred Virgin, proceedeth only from this roote, & the dependance ther­vpon: let it be considered what a ri­diculous proposition this is? That we dishonour Christ by the excesse of ho­nour which we do to the Mother of God, whome yet we chiefly honour, because she was his Mother, and whome we ho­nour not at all beyond the capacity of a pure creature. These propositions being then supposed, it wll be leudly done heer­after, by such as shall take exceptions at the termes wherewith the Catholike [Page 110] Church, or her children, haue thought fit to celebrate our B. Ladyes memory. For if they be not rather schoole boyes, then schoole men, if they be not such as had rather find a knot in a rush, then vn­tye it, they will follow the counsaile of S. Augustine in his booke de vtilitate credendi cap. 7. That whensoeuer any phrase, or speach is vsed by Catholikes which may sound lesse plausible, men are to trauaile vp and downe ouer a whole world, if need be, for the finding of an excusable interpretation therof, rather then to in­ferre therby that the doctrine or practise of the Catholike Church is impure.

And so much the rather are they bound to do it, because there is no word which hath not in this respect, the nature of a Medall, that is, it hath a right side, and a wrong; and so hath euery garment which they weare. And as he were a foo­lish seruant that would apparell his Mai­ster with the wrong side outward, be­cause there are two sides: so they are to be contemned, and cast out as wranglers who wil needs take the words of another [Page 111] man in the ill sense, especially when he protesteth to meane them in the good; & most certaine it is that by the same mea­sure whereby they would take honour from our B. Lady, vnder the pretence which they make of our vsing termes that are subiect to the misconstruction of malice, a man may as well take credit from the holy Scripture it selfe which sayth; That God Almighty hath armes, and leggs, and passions of the mind like mortall and sinnefull creatures.

For if those wordes be not vnder­stood by a Religious discretion, that mā ­ner of speach will proue as vnsafe at least as any other that we vse, when there is question of doing honour to our B. Lady. But as our case standeth, we need not, that our Aduersaryes should put them­selues to ouer much paynes, since by the professions that are already made it is e­uident, how all titles of honour vnder God may agree to the B. Virgin, and not only that they may be giuen without sin, but that it is both piety in them that do it, and impiety in them that oppose to it.

[Page 112]What dishonour is it to an earthly King, if his Mother be called the Queen of his Countrey: the kingdom is known to belong in right of propriety to the King and she leaueth not to be a subiect though she haue the honour to be called, & to be the Queen? Or what dishonour were it to a King, if that Queene were called the Queen of his subiects, of whose persons howsoeuer the King alone can dispose in rigour, yet who among them (being indeed a loyall, & louing subiect to the King) would not hould himselfe for happy, in being able to execute any iust commandment of his Mothers?

Thus thinges do passe euen heere on earth, and it is well that they passe so; for these are not apish customes, nor hu­morous inuentions, nor effects of seruile flattery, but they flow from reason, and nature, and they are warrantable by all lawes, both diuine and humane. And when any thing is so warrantable, a man may well inferre, that in the spirituall Kingdome of Christ such thinges are practised with much more eminency, & [Page 113] perfectiō. Nor doth it by infinite degrees so well become an earthly Monarch, that his Mother be acknowledged for the Queene of his Countrey, and of his sub­iects, as it becometh the Humanity of Christ our Lord, that the sacred Virgin (from whome he tooke all the humanity that he had, vniting it hypostatically to the God-head) should haue the honour to be the Queene of heauen which is his Contrey, and the Queene of Angells & Saints who are his subiects; and who are glorious, and immortall by the merits of that bloud which he tooke from her a­lone, and vnited it to himselfe.

CHAP. XI.

THvs standeth the case concerning the Attributes of honour, which Catholikes are glad they haue the grace to giue our B. Lady: and touching the other point of her inuocation, which is also both auowed, & deuoutly practised by the Fathers, whome I haue alleadged, and with whom, and in whose company [Page 114] I might cyte the rest, Concil. Calced. act. 1. Dionys. Areop. 2. Eccles. hierarch. Ambr. l. de viduis vltra me­dium. August. serm. 84. in Ioan. Athan. serm. de annunt. Deiparae circa finē Basil. o­rat. in 40. Mar. &c. I will leaue for the present to presse our Aduersaryes with their authority, remitting the more pa­tient Reader to whome he will of an hundred Catholike Writers, who haue clearely euicted this point of controuer­sy: & for my part (who could not passe it ouer wholy in silence) I will in very few words debate how the case standeth with them in reason, according to the grounds of their Religion.

If inuocation of the Saints in gene­rall, and in particuler of the glorious Virgin be reiected, our Aduersaryes must doe it first (if they will be true to their own grounds) for reasons drawne from Holy Scripture. When they presse vs to proue it by testimony therof, they are iu­stly tould, that they proceed impertinēt­ly. For they are the men who should proue it to be forbidden by Scripture, & not we that it is expresly enioyned. For vnles it be forbidden, they cannot vpon that reason disclaime from the vse there­of, who doe themselues practise diuers things, whereof there is no expresse com­mandment [Page 115] in Holy Scripture, as namely they baptize Infants, and they obserue the Sabbaoth vpon the Sunday &c. Exod. 20 The later of which points is so far from being cō ­manded, that it rather seemeth to be for­bidden, Act. 15. when the Saturday is clearely as­signed for that purpose. Nay the eating of bloud, and strangled meats, was prohibited to the Christiās of the Primitiue Church which yet the Caluinists make no scru­ple to eate as well as we, which in vs is no offence, who obey the Church, which telleth vs that the tyme of keeping the Sab­baoth was ceremoniall, and consequently abrogated by the comming of Christ, & that the Precept about abstaining from those meats was but temporary, and that now the date therof is expired. But our Aduersaryes, who say they are only gui­ded by that which is deliuered to them in Scripture, are conuinced by their owne practise to be Hypocrits; and may iustly, be doubly accompted so, if whilest they practise those thinges which are expresly against the Commandment of Holy Scripture, they do yet reiect the Inuoca­tion [Page 116] of Saints, only because we do not shew as they say, that it is expresly inioy­ned by Scripture.

Two reasons they vse to bring a­gainst it, the former whereof pretendeth to shew, that it is not lawfull, the latter that it is not conuenient. But whosoeuer marketh their proceeding well, shall find the weaknes of their cause by this, that howsoeuer these reasons be of very diffe­rent nature, and independent of one an­other; yet if they be well encountred, they neuer sticke to either of these pre­tences a part, but are euer hopping, or ra­ther halting from one to the other. The former of them is, That (forsooth) inuo­cation of Saints is both derogatory to the honour of God, and iniurious to the me­diation of Christ; and then they display their colours (for they are but colours) Gloriam meam alteri non dabo: Vnus est me­diator Christus Iesus; Isa. 42. 1. Tim. 2. Matt. 1. Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis &c. I will not giue my glory to any other: There is one mediatour Christ Iesus: Come vnto me all you that labour, and the like. But what of all this? [Page 117] Therefore Christians may not pray to Saints? Who seeth not the childishnes of this consequence? And when once we conuince them, that it is of not dishonour to God, they haue nothing to say, but that the Saints cannot heare vs; and when a­gaine we proue that the Saints do heare vs, they returne to their impertinency of telling vs, that we dishonour God.

But howsoeuer to the first place of Scripture it is truly answered, that the Glory which there is spoken of, is the Glo­ry incommunicable, and only due, and proper vnto God himselfe; but that the Glory giuen by vs to Saints in beseeching them to pray for vs, is both so far of an inferiour nature, as that we impart it to sinnefull men and women, as often as we recommend our selues to their prayers; and we also giue by them, a particuler in­crease of honour to God, in acknowled­ging the mercy he sheweth to his creaturs whilest he enableth his better seruants to assist vs.

To the second, no more occurreth to be sayd, but that Christ our Lord is the [Page 118] only mediatour of Redemption, whereof the Apostle speaketh in that place; but if he were also the only mediatour of Inter­cession betweene God and man, not on­ly should all the Children in England be ill brought vp, when they are appointed to aske their Parents blessing, but the ho­ly Apostle himselfe when he commended the necessity of his soule to the prayers of the Romans, Rom. 15. had committed a most iniu­rious act against the Sauiour of the world whose fayth he preached.

The third place breedeth so little dif­ficulty, as that it scarce deserueth an an­swere. For our B. Sauiour therein ex­horteth all men who were either ouer­burthned with the obligations of the old Law, or frighted with the horrour of their ould consciences, that they would resort to him, as to one that would deli­uer them from both. But he was far from diuerting the members of his body from participating with the rest of their owne communion, and from approaching to his mercy, by the meanes of his deerest seruants, whether they liued still in this [Page 119] earthly pilgrimage, or were transplanted into that Garden of Eternall glory. And if the meaning of these passages of Holy Scripture had been such as the Caluinists pretend, it were strang that no one Fa­ther of the Church in any age should in­terprete them towards the impugnation of the inuocation of Saints.

Nay euen by the Scripture it selfe which cannot be contrary to Scripture, we are taught that this place doth contri­bute nothing to the Caluinists opinion; since we find diuers instances of men, that came to God by meanes of the pray­ers of other men, who yet were so farre from derogating therby, either from the glory of God, or their owne good other­wise, as that therby they obtayned their iust desires. There was a tyme when Al­mighty God made the children of Israë know, that he would not pardon them, Exod. 32. but by the meanes of such prayers as his seruant Moyses should make in their be­halfe And the irreuerend friends of Iob were instructed by God himselfe, Iob. 42. that if they would obtaine remission of their [Page 120] sinnes, they should make intercession to Iob that he might pray for them, expres­sing plainly that for his sake, and at his suite, they should find such fauour as would haue beene denyed them for their owne. Nor hath any reason beene euer yet alleadged, why it should be of disho­nour to Almighty God, that men should recommend themselues to the prayers of Angells and Saints, & that it should not be more dishonourable to him, that we should inuocate and pray sinnefull men to intercede for vs.

The second reason which they bring against the inuocation of Saints, is be­cause they say, they cannot heare vs. Let this therfore be considered of, and let thē talke no more of the former, since these depend not vpon one another. It is eui­dent in the history of Tobias, by the rela­tion of the Archangell Raphael, Tob. 12. that he offred vp the ould mans deuotions of prayers and almes to the acceptance of Almighty God: But this Booke forsooth must be Apocriphall. If they meane not also to cast Christ out of the Canon, [Page 121] what answere can be made to that amo­rous speach of his, which telleth vs, that the Angells of heauen do so reioyce at the conuersion of sinners? Luc. 15. Or what to the testi­mony of the beloued disciple, to whome this amongst other thinges was reuealed, Apoc. 9. That the Angells were still offering vp their prayers which were made vpon earth? We are taught also by Truth it selfe, Matt. 22. that the Saints are as the Angells of heauen: and to conuince the Caluinists in one, is to do it in both. But can either of them offer vp our prayers, vnlesse they know them to be such? Or can they reioyce at my conuersion vnles they see the acts of my contrition, and of the fayth wherby I be­leeue the promises of Christ in generall; and of hope whereby I apprehend, and apply them in particuler; and of the cha­rity whereby I am grafted as a liuing branch into that true vine, and in a most particuler manner of the desires I haue of their prayers for me? It is the part of a mad man to call these thinges in que­stion.

Againe, Gen. 49. the Patriarch Iacob when [Page 122] he was vpon the point to leaue this world bequeathed his children to the protectiō of his good Angell, beseeching him that as he had preserued him, so he would also blesse them. S. Iohn the Euangelist in the very entrance of th Apocalyps in these words, Apoc. c. 1. Gratia vobis & pax ab eo quiest, & qui erat, & qui venturus est, & à septem spi­ritibus, beseecheth God and the seauen spirits reigning with him to be gracious to them. Luc. 15. And though Diues in the Ghos­pell were a damned soule, yet he was not condemned for praying to Abraham after he was dead; and much lesse can it be af­firmed, but that Abraham heard his prayer though it were not graunted. The An­gells therefore and the Saints may euen out of Scripture be proued to heare our prayers, since we find thereby that men prayed to Saints without any note of that folly, which would haue beene done to them, if the Saints had not heard their prayers.

2. Mach. 15.Moreouer since the Scripture tea­cheth vs otherwise, that Onias, Ieremias, and other Saints, after they had departed [Page 123] 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 [Page 125] 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 [Page 126] 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 [Page 127] 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 [Page 128] 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 [Page 129] 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 Magistrates to take knowledge thereof, who will not be pretended euen by our Aduersaryes to be so partiall as those others.

[Page 130]Now, for asmuch as concerneth the truth, or falshood of our miracles, al­though it should be true that the most part of them are wholy false (which yet is no more possible then that the whole world except our Aduersaryes, should be all growne fooles or knaues) yet if all that were graunted, and that yet either they shall confesse, or it may be iustifyed that any one miracle was euer wrought by God vpon the prayers made to our B. Lady, with the inuocation of her ayde, (which truth the Diuell himselfe is not so dogged, or so damned as to deny) one of these two thinges will follow, that ei­ther Almighty God hath cooperated so far to a false doctrine, as to credit it by supernaturall meanes (which cannot be conceiued without blasphemy) or els that the inuocation of Saints, and in par­ticuler of the immaculate and most glo­rious Virgin, cannot be impugned, or denyed without hereticall impiety.

And if the inferēce of one true miracle be so pregnant, what will that be which may be made from so many hundreds, [Page 131] which howsoeuer they be most euidently true, and most easily knowne to be so, we are the lesse to wonder at the incre­dulity of our Aduersaryes, through the doctrine which is deliuered in the person of Abraham, and recorded by the Euangelist S. Luke, Luc. 16. where he sayth that the friends of Diues, who then suruiued, had Moyses among them and the Prophets, and if they refused to heare them, neither would they beleeue though one should rise to them from the dead. By changing only the termes it falleth out to be the Caluinists case, who hauing the Church of Christ in such a visible, and vndoubted manner before their eyes, do yet contest, yea and detest the authority thereof; for the pu­nishment of which peruersnes, the most vndoubted miracles which are wrought by God, in confirmation of the doctrine which she teacheth, Luc. 8. are denyed to be true by them who haue eyes, and see not, who haue harts, and vnderstand not, but are vncapable of all instruction; and which dayly ripen towardes damnation if they free them not from sinning thus against [Page 132] their conscience, as the Iewes did not­withstanding the infinite miracles of our Sauiour Christ, which yet they would neuer be drawn to acknowledge but did impute those arguments of his Omnipo­tency either to collusion with the parties who were cured, or to the vse of Sorcery in casting out some Diuels by the help of others.

The corporall miracles wrought by God at the intercession of our B Lady are in a manner innumerable; yet are they few in comparison of the spirituall miracles, which are dayly seene by the conuersion of soules to Gods seruice, through the prayers of the Mother of God and vs. It is most certainely true and knowne to be so, that innumera­ble sinners haue beene reduced to pen­nance before their death, to which grace they were neuer knowne to haue had any other disposition, but by some tendernes of deuotion, though imperfect, which in their harts they euer carryed to our B. Lady. Innumerable they are who only comming into those Sanctuaryes, where [Page 133] God hath been most honoured in the de­uotion borne to his B Mother (as par­ticulerly in that holy house of Loretto) and there hauing recommended them­selues (though vnworthily inough) to our B Lady, they haue yet found them­selues, sometymes strocken downe with the horrible feare of Gods iudgmentes, sometymes raised vp with an extraordi­nary hope of mercy sometymes strocken through with reflecting vpon the vglines and basenes of sinne as that in the same very instant they haue resolued vpon a whole change of their liues, without ta­king any longer tyme then of so many minutes as might conduct them, and cast them at the feet of a Ghostly Father, for the making of entire Restitutions, the quitting of sensuall conuersations, the deposing of mortall or rather immortall emnityes, and the performing of such o­ther heroicall, and high acts of mind; which as they cannot be purchased but by the infinite merit of Christs passion, so that is neuer more comfortable, and effectually applyed, then by the meanes [Page 134] of our B. Ladyes sacred protection, and deare prayers. And although the acts & records of these spirituall miracles be not so well kept in parchment as are the corporall; yet I appeale to the conscience of obseruing and curious Catholikes, which cannot faile to beare witnes with me of this truth, that the bowels of our B. Ladyes compassion do by the proui­dence of God extend themselues as much more frequently to the strang cure of soules then of bodyes, as the body is lesse considerable then the soule: in so much as a whole Citty in Italy hath been found vpon some deuotion which it hath taken to our B. Lady, Luca. to make within the space of a few years such a totall change from vice to vertue and piety, as there is dif­ference betweene a disorderly Tauerne, and a deuout Church.

In the same manner if the State of Brabant, and the Prouinces adioyning (for as much as concerneth Morality or Religion) be considered, and the diffe­rence well weighed concerning the great example of vertue, and manners, and [Page 135] the integrity of Fayth, to the contrary in both these respects, whereby those coun­tryes were indangered vntill the miracles (wrought by the intercession of our B. Lady, neere Sichem, and other places) made them cast a quicker eye of humble deuotion towardes her: If it be conside­red I say, how all the states of people are admirably improued since that tyme, all such, as togeather with common sense haue not the poyson of preiudicate passiō in their harts, and heades, will acknow­ledge the powerfull and gracious hand of our B. Lady in this heauenly worke, and will not faile to esteeme it for a spirituall miracle.

It is tyme that I grow to a conclu­sion, and I will procure to tye it vp in as straite a compasse as I can. I haue endea­uoured to shew, how highly our B. La­dy is honoured by the testimony of holy Scripture, and to remoue such obiections as her Aduersaryes take from thence, whereby to do her disparagement. I haue shewed her Genealogy, her Beauty, her perfection of vertue which filled the [Page 136] whole world with heroicall actions. I haue accompanyed that discourse, with shewing how the whole Church hath imployed it selfe in her deuotion, & how the ancient, most holy, and most learned Fathers haue endeauoured to excell one another in piety towardes her, wherein the Sectaryes of our tyme are as wholly vnlike them as in other thinges. I haue offered to the Readers consideration the authority both of corporall, and spiritual miracles, wherby Almighty God hath as it were laboriously concurred, in this age of ours, towardes the planting of a Tro­phey to our B. Lady in the harts of all men. Happy are they who meane to take occasion heereby, either to begin, or to increase in a most reuerend, and filiall affection towardes her: and most happy should I accompt my selfe, if the little which I haue beene able to say, or doe, might cause some few mites, after the ex­ample of this of myne, to be cast into the rich Treasury of her Prayses.

CHAP. XIII.

BVT it is to be considered (for now I chiefly speake to my fellow-Catho­likes) that the knowledge of our B. La­dyes greatnes, and goodnes must not go for a speculatiue, but for a practical kind of knowledge, because it doth excitare animum ad amorem, excite the mind of man to loue, as also it must be remem­bred that true loue is not idle, but opera­tiue, and doth shew it selfe by a confor­mity of the will towardes that of the par­tie beloued. And therfore as in the begin­ning of this discourse, I moued my Rea­der to cōtract friendship with the Queen of Angells (for as her Humility holp to make her so, so her greatnes maketh her not yet the lesse humble, or depriueth her of vouchsafing to contract an indisso­luble league of amity with the meanest of those soules, for which the Son of God and her was pleased to dye) so now in the end of it, I can aduise nothing more to purpose, then that the law of true friend­ship [Page 138] towardes her may be performed, which is idem velle, and idem nolle, to will, and not will the same thinge. We haue already seene how she stood affected in this life, al which was spent with extrem ioy of hart in Pouerty, Chastity, Recol­lection, Mortification, Humility, Pati­ence, and Charity. The thinges that she cared not for, were the contrary of all those vertues, & now that she is assumed both in body and soule, into that height of glory which exceedeth the capacity of all the rest of Creatures put togeather, what other thing can she will, in respect of her selfe, but the good Will of God; and what other thing can she wil concer­ning vs, but that euery one in his seueral calling should adore with her the same Will of God, & procure to ariue at that iourneys end, by those wayes which she hath traced out for our wandring steps-

It will not become me to deliuer any opinion, or to giue any aduise of the particuler deuotions, which men should do wel to nourish in themselues, towards this B. Lady. The natures, & affections, [Page 139] and spirits of men are different, and it would be hard for a wiser man then my selfe to chance faire, in the giuing of a­ny such addresse. The most generally imbraced deuotiōs which are performed to her be two. The former whereof is the reciting of the Rosary, which was cast into that method by that great Patri­arch S. Dominicke, the Founder of a most florishing Order. It is a most excellent kind of prayer, compounded both of mentall & vocall. The Vocall consisting all of Pater Nosters, and Aue Maria's (which are also of that kind the most ex­cellent prayers) and the Mentall part, hauing no lesse matter for the subiect, then all the principall Mysteryes of our B. Sauiours incomprehensible Incarna­tion, his most admirable life, his most do­lorous Passion, and most glorious Resur­rection, and Ascension.

The other is of the Sodality of our B. Lady, so called by the society which men haue one with another, in doing her ho­nour and seruice, and consequently in be­ing happy by her assistance. It was prin­cipally [Page 140] instituted in remembrance of her most glorious Assumption. The practise thereof consisteth in mens resoluing at their first entrance, vpon a renouation of their life, by making then a generall confession, and by growing afterwardes in spirit through the frequenting of Sa­craments at certaine tymes, vnder the happy conduct and direction of the Fa­thers of the Society of Iesus. And in par­ticuler, besides the fasting vpon the eues of all our B. Ladyes feasts, and the recy­ting of those Psalmes, and Prayers euery day whereof her Office is composed, it doth recommend a carefull and dayly ex­amination of the conscience, especially for the getting and keeping of that puri­ty, which maketh the soule so gratefull in the sight of God. They meet togeather at least once a weeke, and then they re­ceaue light and help towards the perfor­ming both of that which hath beene sayd already, as also for the exercising of such workes of charity, whether they be cor­porall or spirituall, as in their seuerall callinges they can reach vnto, namely [Page 141] visiting the sicke, burying of the dead, re­leasing of prisoners, reconciling of ene­mies, and the like. And both to this So­dality, and to that other company of the Rosary, great Indulgences are applyed by the Sea Apostolike, and the particu­lers aswell of priuiledge as obligation, may easily be learnt, by such as will, of their Ghostly Father.

As for priuate deuotions some exer­cise themselues in saying their Beades, in contemplation of the most holy actions of our B. Lady: Others say the holy Offi­ce before mentioned, which the Church hath composed in her prayse of Psalmes, and Lessons taken out of Holy Scripture for that purpose: Others recite her Leta­nyes, wherby she is both highly praysed, and by her principall attributes prayed vnto: Some fast vpon the Saturday, be­cause that day is particulerly dedicated to her seruice: Some take a discipline or weare a haircloth in vnion of the spiri­tual Martyrdome that she suffered: Some make a vow of Chastity in conformity with her more then Angelicall puri y: [Page 142] And some there be who giue often almes for her sake with as good a will as if it were for the reliefe of her wonted pouer­ty.

These deuotions with many others are performed by good Christians in the Catholike Church, wherwith to honour the Mother of God. Let euery man con­tinue in that, wherin he findeth himselfe most to profit; for there is none of them which procureth not, to the reuerend v­sers thereof, extraordinary comforts in this life, and which layeth not vp incom­parable rewards for the next. I only de­sire leaue, that I may expresse a poore thought of myne. It is, that for as much as our B. Lady hath the office of assisting our soules when they are to depart out of this life (as doth euidently appeare by the practise of the Church which comman­deth her children to call dayly & hourely vpon her for that purpose) I thinke it would be profitable, and nothing paine­full (for such as haue the means) to giue dayly (by way of addition to their other deuotions) some little almes, though it [Page 143] were but a penny (or euen lesse rather then nothing, where lesse coyne is to be found) in honour of the immaculate Cō ­ception of our B. Lady, to which misery English Catholiks haue reason to be par­ticulerly deuoted (because in England it grew soonest to be most declared) & this to be offered to the end that she may be pleased in particuler manner to assist, & comfort their soules in that fearefull pas­sage.

Such as will not charge their me­moryes to call this to mind, or will not trouble their handes in disposing of so miserable an almes, shall do wel (though yet lesse well) in commanding some very honest seruant to do that duty; but with this further caution, that if by negligence the almes of one day should be forgotten, the next day it must not faile to be doubled; and they who are so poore as to want this meanes, whether they be Religious persons or secular may insteed of that litle almes make some litle prayer in honour of our B Lady, in con­templation of the same Mystery, and in [Page 144] expectation of the same benefite: I haue not heard of a shorter, or a sweeter prayer then this which was vsed by that holy Archbishop of Canterbury S. Ans [...]lme, and may in this case be thrice repeated, P [...]e Domine Iesu, parce seruo Matris tuae. Amen. O deare Lord Iesus, forgiue the seruant of thy Mother. Amen. And I haue also knowne this other, vsed by some great seruants of God, and with admirable successe in their necessityes, Maria Iesu, sponsa Ioseph, per immaculatā Conceptionem tuam, & purissimam Virginitatem tuam ad­iuua me. O Mary the Mother of Iesu, & the spouse of Ioseph, by thy immaculate conception: and thy pure virginity I be­seech thee to assist me. For as we cannot better expresse our loue to Christ our Lord, then by giuing honour to our B. Lady; so neither can we more obligingly honour her, then by reuerently remem­bring her only Sonne, and her deare Spouse S. Ioseph, as heere is done.

But to make either of these pray­ers with good hope of grace, a man must indeed be her Seruant, as is expressed in [Page 145] the former of them; and though I do but point out the other particuler deuotion, without daring to aduise in the election, I must needes aduenture to recommend two generall considerations, wherof the one will facilitate the other. The first of them may be, to accustome ones selfe af­ter an easy, and liberall manner, and without ouer paineful reflection, to con­serue in the eyes of his mind, the conti­nuall presence of our B. Lady, & to con­sider the Nobility, and Solidity, togeather with the extreme Facility wherewith she performed all her actions: and the second to breed, and cherish a kind of tender, & sweet affection to her name, to her prayse to her festiuityes, to her deuoted seruants, and to be frequent in giuing God entiere thankes for the infinite graces which he imparted to her, and wherewith she did so diuinely cooperate.

This practise of this deuotion, need not distract any man from others, it need not displace his temporal busines, the vse of it rather may be to fill vp vacant tyms; and I know no cause, why a man may [Page 146] not hope from hence to find such helpes, as may serue to make him runne with pleasure through the cariere of this dis­ordered, and distastfull life. For whoso­euer be the authour of this conceipt, to me it seemeth no ill one: That as the strength of a spiritual mans life must pro­ceed to him from the bloud and conside­ration of the Passion of our B. Sauiour: so his comfort, and delight in God is the vsuall effect of the sacred milke, and the contemplation of the life of our B. Lady. Of whose goodnes to mankind let vs heare and ponder what S. Bernard sayth, Sileat misericordiam tuam Virgo beata &c. Let him, Bernard. hom. 4. super missus est O blessed Virgin, conceale the prayses of thy mercy (if any such there be) who can remember that thou didst euer fayle him, when he inuoked thyne ayde in his necessity; but as for vs thy poore seruants, when we consider the rest of thy vertues, we reioyce rather in respect of thee; but in this of thy mercy we are glad in regard of our selues. We prayse thy Virginity, we admire thy Humility, but yet thy Mercy is to vs of a sweet tast. [Page 147] We imbrace thy Mercy more dearely, we remember it more frequently, and we inuoke it more feruently. Thus he. And whosoeuer shall consider the life of Saint Bernard, one of the most deuout seruants of our B. Lady that she euer had, and see how full it was on the one side of extrem austerity, & sicknes, & yet on the other how his soule did euen regorge againe with the excesse, and satiety of spirituall comfort, will easily find in the passages of it, that our B. Lady is a Mistresse well worth the seruing, and that she did cast some such ingredient into the bundle of myrrh, that S. Bernard would needs lay next his heart, as made him euen languish and halfe dye with loue.

CHAP. XIIII.

HOvv fit then it were, that since the Caluinists will not follow the in­stinct of this most holy Father, in giuing high honour to our B. Lady, they should at least heare the voyce of the very Ma­hometans themselues, who notwithstan­ding, [Page 148] that they beleeue not our B. Saui­our to haue been the Sonne of God, but only that he was an holy man, and an ex­traordinary Prophet, yet after the rate of the Mother of such a Prophet, they fran­kely yield so high honour to our B Lady, and they mention her purity and excel­lency vpon al occasions with such tender and entiere respect, as no Caluinist in the whole world hath beene euer knowne to do. For howsoeuer when a Catholike shall ioyne issue with a Caluinist in the hearing of moderate men of his own Re­ligion, concerning the excellencyes of our Lady, he wil be drawn to say (though duly inough) that she was a most happy creature, a blessed Virgin, and in fine our Sauiours Mother: yet as it is euident that they do not penetrate and ponder the vn­speakable dignity which the being of his Mother doth inuolue; so they are neuer carryed to do her honour with any wil­lingnes and cheerefullnes, but only as it were by constraint, and violence. Some of them wil prayse her faintly, when they see that they must dispraise themselues if [Page 149] they do it not; but otherwise if a man leaue them to the worke of Nature, and of the principles which indeed they hold concerning her, a man may liue amongst them so many yeares as to make euen Matthusalem seeme yong, before he find them once enter voluntarily into any af­fectuous speach in honour of her, expro­fesso.

For the proofe heere of I might ap­peale to euery mans particuler experien­ce, and to the conscience of my Reader at large. But to shew it yet better, as vpon Record, let it be considered, that since Caluinisme was set on foot, there hath not beene (for ought that euer I could learne) any one discourse or book writen by any one of that profession in honour, and admiration of this B. Virgin, either to publish her prerogatiues, or to reflect vpon her vertues, or to make contem­plations vpon her most holy and happy actions; and much lesse to exhort the world to imitate that most excellent O­riginall of piety, which she did set before vs by her life and conuersation. Nay in [Page 150] all my dayes I haue not beene able to vn­derstand that euer they bestowed so much as one expresse sermon in honour of her, wherein howsoeuer they might (accor­ding to their erroneous beliefe) haue dis­credited the doctrine of her inuocation, yet withall they might at least haue larg­ly described, & praised her vertues, they might haue magnifyed her prerogatiues, they might haue perswaded men to the imitation of her examples, if in their harts they had prosecuted her with true affection and admiration.

For could this omission peraduen­ture come from want of matter worthy to be obserued in the B. Virgin? Or be these thinges but fables which haue been brought out of Scripture, and layd heere before your eyes? No. But the true rea­son is, that there is something in the spi­rit of etrour, which is not compatible with a true, and tender, and filiall reue­rence of affection to the sacred Virgin, which maketh them all carry a kind of tooth towardes her: some grinne, and shew it, others beare it with more ap­pearance [Page 151] of modesty, but with no lesse malice, and generally all of them haue some kind of antipathy (whereof some of themselues do scarse know the roote) against her. By whome although their soules may be assisted and fauoured as soone, and sometymes before they haue the grace to desire so great a blessing; yet their opinions are hated by her who brought him forth, that hath beene the destruction of all former, and will be so of all future heresyes. And it should seem that the enemy of mankind finding the wound to be so deadly which he hath re­ceaued in great part by her meanes, pro­cureth to reuenge himself in a particuler manner, by arming such as he hath drawn into errour, towardes an auersion from her.

For whereas Catholikes are taught to know that they do not honour her too much in giuing her whatsoeuer a pure creature is capable of, and in beleeuing her to haue been preserued by the speciall prerogatiue of Almighty God, from those shames, and sinnes to which all the [Page 152] rest of mankind is subiect; and euen the Mahometans though they do not so much as beleeue in the diuinity of our Sauiour Christ, yet do they admire, and magni­fy her out of the very historicall relation that they haue of her life: These other ad­uersaryes of Gods Truth, and Church (whereof they once were, though now they are departed from thence) such as are only Iewes, and Heretikes be the on­ly two races of men, that can be found vnder the cope of heauen (for the Pagans know little of her) to haue lift vp their hands, and opened their mouths to the reproach and blasphemy of this sacred, and immaculate Virgin.

But I would beseech them euen by the bowells of Christ Iesus our Lord (if they care indeed for those bowells of his, who carry no more reuerence to these bowels of hers which brought him forth) that if they will not be as pious towardes her as they ought, they will at least not be so dangerously imprudent as they are to themselues. Let them take heed how they continue to arme thēselues towards [Page 153] the assault of this Tower of strength: Hier. in Ierem. 31. & Zach. 14. Christ himselfe is the corner stone, and our B. Lady is the Quarry, or rather the Mine of spotles marble, out of which he would be taken, without the help of any other handes thē those of the Holy Ghost. Our Sauiour hath sayd of himselfe, in the similitude of this stone, Luc. 2 [...]. He that stumbleth vpon it shall fall, and he vpon whom the stone falleth, shallbe driuen to powder: which howsoeuer it be principally, & litterally true of him, in regard of them who of­fend him first, and afterward prouoke him to take vengeance of them for their other sinnes; yet experience telleth vs, that it carryeth some proportion towards such others as oppose themselues, and of­fend the honour of our B. Lady, who haue come, after liues led in extreme ob­scurity of mind and misery, to end wret­chedly in despayre.

I remit my selfe to good obseruers, whether some such as hauing beene Ca­tholikes, and comming after to loose (to­geather with their Religion) the very re­putation both of Christianity, and com­mon [Page 154] honesty, haue not beene formerly knowne to carry a secret, and subtile spite to the honour of our Lady: and on the other side, I could for a need name some Caluinists, who being in a faire way to obtaine both temporall, and eter­nall felicity by finding themselues to be moued internally to grow into some ten­dernes of deuotion towards our B. Lady, vpon an expresse resistance of those good motions, and a fortifying themselues in the contrary purpose, haue fallen into such pouerty, and misery, and disreputa­tion, and confusion, as that, at the in­stant wherein now I speake, they are growne to be the very By-wordes, and Prouerbs of the places wherein they liue.

And as for such as are, and by the grace of God are to continue of our cō ­munion, whether they be of England, or any other Countrey (as there is a lati­tude in the natures, and inclinations of men) and some euen amongst vs are much more deuoted to our B. Lady then some others (yet so that none of vs doe [Page 155] not take ioy in giuing her gladly all her rights, none of vs that do not extoll her, none of vs that do not desire her prayers, that God Almighty may be mercifull vn­to vs through Christ our Lord:) so I can protest, as in the diuine presence, that whosoeuer they be amongst vs, that are, and appeare to be the most tenderly affe­cted towards the honouring, and louing of this sacred Virgin, are also found to be the men who in other respects deserue to be acknowledged as most eminent in all kind of Angelicall vertue. So that de­uotion to her, is not only a distinct signe between good and bad, that is, between Catholikes and no Catholikes, but it is in like manner a signe of difference be­tweene good, and better, that is between ordinary Catholikes and such others, as are the best amongst vs. And though some may haue their mouths and pens ful of her prayses, whilest their harts are voyde of her vertues (and I beseech Iesus from my very soule that my selfe may not be found the foremost of that ranke) yet in the generality, that proportiō which I [Page 156] first deliuered is most certainely true.

Towards the further building vp of her greatnes, in the iudgment of any reasonable man, I will desire him yet to let one only other stone be added, by remembring that Parable of the Penny, which was giuen for the dayes worke in the Ghospell, and by considering that speach of our Sauiour which he vsed a­gainst those enuious old labourers: Is it not lawfull for me to do what I will with my owne? Matt. 22. and, Is your eye therfore euill because I am good? For heereby he may vnder­stand, that Almighty God is not any bodyes Ward, that he disposeth of his treasures according to the latitude of his owne heart; and that he would haue the world rather enlarge it selfe towards the admiration of his vnspeakable bounty, powred forth vpon his creatures, then be accustomed, through certaine mechani­call, and enuious little thoughts, to paint him out, as if he were some miserable a­ged Prince, that were in feare of being deposed, if he should raise his fauorits to any extraordinary degree of greatnes.

[Page 157]But the case standeth far otherwise; for as God is infinite in all thinges, so is [...]e most eminently infinite in the com­munication, and effusion of himselfe v­pon all such soules as do nobly serue him, and especially such as do it with greatest perfection, and are enabled by him to vn­dertake, and discharge the highest fun­ctions. The Patriarkes were made won­derfully fit for their offices, the Apostles for theirs, the Precursour of Christ for [...]his, his supposed Father S. Ioseph (who really was his conductour, guide, & go­uernour) for his. And so the immacula­te, pure, most gracious, and most glori­ous mother of God, was aboue all made most fit for hers. But we may first des­cend a great deale lower, & yet not loose the sight of her greatnes. For there is not the meanest of vs all who shall not at the day of iudgment, if he dye in the state of Grace, haue a body which shall then be knit to the Soule, more glorious then the Sunne, as impassible as the Angells, in­comparably more subtile then lightning; and we cannot now so easily translate a [Page 158] thought from one end of the world to another, as then we shallbe able to trans­port our selues, as it were in an instant. We shall be immortall, we shallbe Heires of the kingdome of heauen, we shallbe Coheirs with Christ, and if he be a King, we shall all be also kings of heauen. Fel­lowship in possessing of that kingdome doth not weaken, or lessen the excellen­cy of dominion, as it would do heere on earth: but it doth highly beautify and in­crease it through the vnion of will, which reigneth in those happy soules.

Our Sauiour speaking to his Apo­stles and disciples, and in their persons to such as would keep his commandments, entreth so far by words of tendernes as to despoyle them of seruitude, and to cloath them with the precious robes of friend­ship; Ioan. 15. Vos amici mei estis &c. as if he had sayd, No longer will I accompt you now my seruants, but I will aduance you to the ranke of being my friendes. Luc. 13. He had formerly auowed to the Apostles, that he disposed of his kingdome to their vse as his Father had disposed thereof to his, [Page 159] Againe he assumeth them, Matt. 19. that they who had left all, and followed him, should sit vpon twelue seats, and iudge the twelue Tribes of Israell, whereby the whole world is signifyed. 1. Cor. 6. And S. Paul taketh vpon him to warrant, that Christians shall iudge euen very Angells at the last day. Now this Iudicature is an act, and exercise of a Kings royalty, and the rea­son why earthly Kings do it not in their own person, is because, either they want knowledge, or industry, or for that they cannot be in so many places in so short a tyme as were conuenient: but none of these thinges can be sayd of Christ, and therefore when he maketh his Apostles iudges, it is not to excuse himselfe, but to impart to them a kind of supreme ho­nour and authority ouer the rest his crea­tures.

We see then the vnspeakable bounty of Almighty God towards all such as are to prayse and serue him in the Court of heauen for all eternity; we see that some of vs shall iudge the world; That we shal iudge Angells; That we shall be Kings of [Page 160] heauen, heires to God, and coheirs with Christ; yea and, That euen in this life such as keep his Commandements are already intituled by the name of Friends, or Fauorits of Christ Iesus. And is it pos­sible for any Christian to haue so little, and so poore a soule, as to thinke that the Mother of God is not to be honoured in a manner much superiour to all this? Is it possible that since God doth not make Officers as earthly Kings make thē (who take such as they find, whether they be good or bad, & so they continue) but he first maketh men fit for the places to which he calleth them? Is it possible, since the dignity of the Mother of God, doth vnspeakably exceed the dignity of Patriarchs, Prophets, Precursours, Apo­stles, and whatsoeuer imployment wher­of a pure creature is capable, that any man should be so voyd of natural Logick as not to draw an argument from the lesse to the greater: That if the lesse hath much excellency, the greater hath much more? Or rather that he should haue so little wit, or common sense, as not to see, [Page 161] That as in numbers the more do exceed the fewer, so our B. Lady doth outstrip all the other creatures of God in greatnes in grace, in authority, and in Maiesty.

Let not therefore our Aduersaryes, (for so in respect of their opiniōs they wil needs deserue to be called) deceaue them­selues. Conclu­sion. They may thinke it is zeale which they haue in abasing the honour of our B, Lady, whereas indeed it is but igno­rance in the most innocent of them, and in others either hypocrisy, or enuy. Mat. 2 [...]. Ma­ny of them who saw how Caiphas did in that solemne assembly of Priests, & Do­ctours of Hierusalem, cast vp his eyes to Heauen, and rend his Pontificall gar­ments, & exclaime with horrour against Christ himselfe, affirming that he had blasphemed, did doubtles iudge by the appearance of it, that the High Priest had some reason. And some couetous, or malicious Iew, who had beene pre­sent, when Iudas censured the matchles enamoured Penitent of our Lord S. Mary Magdalen (as wasting that precious oyntment vpon his head, and crying [Page 162] out that it should rather haue beene im­ployed vpon the poore) would as wil­lingly, & perhaps with as much reason, haue giuen his voyce with Iudas against Christ, as these men do eagerly maligne and of whome I haue seene some grow pale, and euen sicke through the rage of enuy, when they obserue how curious, and costly we are content to be in our desire, not only to anoynt as it were, and adorne the head of this sacred Virgin with our prayses, but to cast our selues at her pure feet by our Inuocations. Therefore heere the Prouerbe may well come in, All is not gould that glistereth; and that twinckling Brother, who in the zeale he pretendeth to carry to Gods ho­nour, doth secretly repine and snarle at that of our Blessed Lady, insteed of ma­king for himselfe a Crowne in heauen, may then be hammering out eternall chaynes for his soule in Hell. This may serue to them for a word of aduice, that at least they may vse modesty in this mat­ter, if they will not be drawne to vse pie­ty.

[Page 163]But we Catholikes are farre from needing such aduice as this, who know our dutyes towardes the blessed Mother of Almighty God, and who are not, in this respect, to be drawn from lesse wan­dring, but to be incouraged towardes a faster going. I doe therefore presume to cast my selfe, with most entiere venera­tion, at thy pure feet, O thou most gracious, and most triumphantly glori­ous Queene of Heauen, the Mother of my Sauiour, & my God, the summe and top of all excellency, and perfection vn­der him. I beseech thee by those thy im­maculate bowells of mercy which im­braced, and inclosed the Lord of life by those sacred brests which gaue him sucke and fed him towardes the accomplish­ment of our Redemption, looke downe vpon vs with those eyes, which since they be thyne, cannot choose but be of extreme compassion. Looke not only v­pon vs but vpon those others also whom before I mentioned who howsoeuer they be our Brethren according to the flesh, yet they will needes make themselues [Page 164] strangers from the Couenant of thy Sonne, rightly vnderstood, and parti­culerly from doing thee the honour that belongs to his most worthy, and most sacred Mother, ‘Tros, Tyrius (que) tibi nullo discrimine —’ Intercede for vs who are now begging thy assistance; intercede for them, who do not so, to the end that they may haue the grace to do it. Tota pulchra es amica mea, & macula non est in te: Thou art all faire, and sweet, thou wast as entierely immaculate in thy Conception, as in thy Assumption. There was neuer any sinne in thee, or any sad aspect towardes vs. Then let me resort to that notion of Friendship, wherewith I began this discourse, which I yet am making in thy honour.

We Catholiks are thy humble, & ob­sequious seruants, and Serui are humiles amici; a kind of humble friendes we are in being thy seruants: nor wilt thou disdaine to know vs by the name of Friends since Christ himselfe thy Sonne our Sauiour vouchsafed to call, and ac­compt [Page 165] them his friends, that follow his directions, as hath beene sayd. Per­forme to vs therefore, all those parts of Friendship, and protection, which thy State of Glory may affoard, and our State of misery doth need; and obtaine Grace for vs, that we may neuer fayle of Fayth, and loyalty towardes thee. Thou art the Woman who wert not only cloathed by the Sunne, but thou didst also cloath the Sunne of Iustice, whilest thy immaculate flesh, and bloud was imparted to the Sonne of thy womb. By him we beg of thee, that thou wilt in­tercede for vs to him, that we may liue in his feare, and dye in his fauour: and that as heere we haue the comfort to en­ioy thee, as our chiefe Mediatrix of In­tercession towards him; so with thee & at thy feet, we may prayse, and glorify him in al eternity, as our only Mediatour of Redemption.