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despise not my praise, and vouchsafe to accept this psalter which is dedicated unto thee. The1 Lord said unto our Lady: sit thou, my mother, at my right hand. Theym that trust in thee, O mother of God, shall not fear from the face of the enemy. Except" our Lady build the house of our heart: the building thereof will not continue. Blessed are all they who fear our Lady: and blessed are all they who know to do thy will, and thy good pleasure. Out of the deep have I cried unto thee, O Lady: Lady hear my voice. Lady, remember David, and all that call upon thy name. Or give thanks unto the Lord, because he is good because by his most sweet mother the virgin Mary is his mercy given. Blessed be thou, O Lady, which teachest thy servants to war, and strengthenest them against the enemy;" and so the last psalm is begun with, "Praise our Lady in her saints; praise her in her virtues and miracles:" and ended accordingly with, "Omnis spiritus laudet Dominam nostram. Let every spirit (or, every thing that hath breath) praise our Lady."

To this we may adjoin the psalter" of the salutations of the virgin, framed by John Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury, which is not yet printed. His preface he beginneth thus:

1 Dixit Dominus Dominæ nostræ: sede mater mea a dextris meis. Psal. 109. m Qui confidunt in te, mater Dei, non timebunt a facie inimici. Psal. 124. n Nisi Domina ædificaverit domum cordis nostri: non permanebit ædificium ejus. Psal. 126.

• Beati omnes qui timent Dominam nostram : et beati omnes qui sciunt facere voluntatem tuam, et beneplacitum tuum. Psal. 127.

P De profundis clamavi ad te, Domina: Domina, exaudi vocem meam. Psal. 129.

9 Memento, Domina, David; et omnium invocantium nomen tuum. Psal. 131. r Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus est: quoniam per suam dulcissimam matrem virginem Mariam datur misericordia ejus. Psal. 135.

* Benedicta sis, Domina, quæ instruis servos tuos ad prælium: et eos roboras contra inimicum. Psal. 143.

Laudate Dominam in sanctis ejus: laudate eam in virtutibus et miraculis ejus. Psal. 150.

" Psalterium meditationum B. Mariæ, vocatur a Jo. Pitsio, de illustr. Angl. scriptorib. pag. 380.

Mente concipio laudes perscribere
Sanctæ virginis; quæ nos a carcere
Solvit per filium, genus in genere
Miri vivificans effectus opere.

and endeth with a prayer to the blessed virgin, that she "would release the sins of all those for whom he prayed, and cause both his own name and theirs to be written in the book of life."

Nec non et omnibus relaxes crimina,
Pro quibus supplicans fundo precamina:
Nostrumque pariter et horum nomina
Conscribi facias in vitæ pagina.

Then followeth his first psalm, wherein he prayeth, that she would "make us to meditate often God's law," and afterwards" to be made blessed in the glory of God's kingdom;"

Ave virgo virginum parens absque pari,
Sine viri semine digna foecundari :

Fac nos legem Domini crebro meditari,
Et in regni gloria beatificari.

His other 149 psalms, which are fraught with the same kind of stuff, I pass over. But Bernardinus de Senis his boldness may not be forgotten: who thinketh that Godw will give him leave to maintain, that "the virgin Mary did more unto him, or at least as much, as he himself did unto all mankind, and that we may say for our comfort, forsooth, that in respect of the blessed virgin (whom GOD himself did make notwithstanding) GoD after a sort is more bound unto us, than we are unto him." With

w Sola benedicta virgo Maria plus fecit Deo vel tantum (ut sic dicam) quam fecit Deus toti generi humano. Credo etenim certe quod mihi indulgebit Deus, si nunc pro virgine loquar. Congregemus in unum quæ Deus homini fecit: et consideremus quæ Maria virgo Domino satisfecit, &c. Reddendo ergo singula singulis, sc. quæ fecit Deus homini, et quæ fecit Deo beata virgo; videbis quod plus fecit Maria Deo, quam homini Deus: ut sic pro solatio dicere liceat, quod propter beatam virginem, quam tamen ipse fecit, Deus quodammodo plus obligetur nobis, quam nos sibi. Bernardin. Senens. serm. 61. artic. 1. cap. 11.

which absurd and wretched speculation Bernardinus de Busti after him was so well pleased, that he dareth to revive again this most odious comparison, and propose it afresh in this saucy manner: "But O most grateful virgin, didst not thou something to God? Didst not thou make him any recompence? Truly (if it be lawful to speak it) thou in some respect didst greater things to God, than God himself did to thee and to all mankind. I will therefore speak that, which thou out of thy humility hast passed in silence. For thou only didst sing: He that is mighty hath done to me great things; but I do sing and say that thou hast done greater things to him that is mighty." Neither is that vision much better, which the same author reciteth as shewed to St. Francis, or, as others would have it, to his companion friar Lion, touching the two ladders that reached from earth unto heaven. The one red, upon which Christ leaned from whence many fell backward, and could not ascend. The other white, upon which the holy virgin leaned the help whereof such as used, were by her received with a cheerful countenance, and so with facility ascended into heaven." Neither yet that sentence, which came first from Anselm, and was after him used by Ludolphus Saxo, the Carthusian, and Chrysostomus a Visitatione, the Cistercian monk: that "more" present relief is sometimes found by commemorating the name of Mary, than by calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus her only Son."

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* Sed, O virgo gratissima, nunquid tu aliquid fecisti Deo? Nunquid vicem ei reddidisti? Profecto (si fas est dicere) tu secundum quid majora fecisti Deo, quam ipse Deus tibi et universo generi humano. Volo ergo ego dicere, quod tu ex humilitate reticuisti. Tu enim solum cecinisti; Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est: ego vero cano et dico; Quia tu fecisti majora ei qui potens est. Ber. nardin. de Bust. Marial. part. 6. serm. 2. membr. 3.

y Id. part. 9. serm. 2. assimilat. 2.

2 Speculum vitæ Francisci et sociorum ejus part. 2. cap. 45. edit. Gulielmi Spoelberch. Item, Speculum exemplorum, dist. 7. exempl. 41.

a Velocior est nonnunquam salus memorato nomine Mariæ, quam invocato nomine Domini Jesu unici filii sui. Anselm. de excellentia B. virginis, cap. 6. Ludolph. Carthusian. de vita Christi, part. 2. cap. 68. et Chrysostom. a Visitatione, de verbis Dominæ, tom. 2. lib. 2. cap. 2.

Which one of our Jesuits is so far from being ashamed to defend, that he dareth to extend it further to the mediation of other saints also: telling us very peremptorily, that as our Lord Jesus worketh greater miracles by his saints than by himselfe, so often he sheweth the force of their intercession more than of his own."

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All which I do lay down thus largely, not because I take any delight in rehearsing those things, which deserve rather to be buried in everlasting oblivion: but first, that the world may take notice, what kind of monster is nourished in the papacy under that strange name of Hyperdulia: the bare discovery whereof, I am persuaded, will prevail as much with a mind that is touched with any zeal of God's honour, as all other arguments and authorities whatsoever. Secondly, that such unstable souls as look back unto Sodom, and have a lust to return unto Egypt again, may be advised to look a little into this sink, and consider with themselves whether the steam that ariseth from thence be not so noisome, that it is not to be endured by one that hath any sense left in him of piety. And thirdly, that such as be established in the present truth, may be thankful to God for this great mercy vouchsafed unto them, and make this still one part of their prayers: From all Romish Dulia and Hyperdulia, good Lord deliver us.

b Henr. Fitz-Simon, of the Mass. lib. 2. part 2. chap. 3.

John, chap. 14. ver. 12.

OF IMAGES.

WITH prayer to saints, our challenger joineth the use of holy images: which what it hath been and still is in the Church of Rome, seeing he hath not been pleased to declare unto us in particular, I hope he will give us leave to learn from others. "It is the doctrine then of the Roman Church, that the images of Christ and the saints should with pious religion be worshipped by Christians:" saith Zacharias Boverius the Spanish friar, in his late consultation directed to our most noble prince Charles, "the" hope of the Church of England," and "the future felicity of the world," as even this Balaam himself doth style him. The representations of God, and of Christ, and of angels, and of saints, "ared not only painted that they may be shewed as the cherubims were of old in the temple, but that they may be adored, as the frequent use of the Church doth testify:" saith cardinal Cajetan. So Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, in his provincial council held at Oxford in the year MCCCCVIII.

a Doctrina est Romanæ Ecclesiæ, Christi et sanctorum imagines pia religione a Christianis colendas esse. Zach. Boverius, in orthodoxa consultat. de ratione veræ fidei et religionis amplectanda. part. 2. regul. 1. pag. 189. edit. Matrit. ann. 1623.

b Serenissime Carole, spes Anglicanæ ecclesiæ. Id. part. 1. regul. 4. pag. 58. c Princeps futura orbis fœlicitas. Id. part. 2. regul. 2. pag. 196.

d Non solum pinguntur, ut ostendantur, sicut Cherubim olim in templo, sed ut adorentur: ut frequens usus Ecclesiæ testatur. Cajetan. in 3. part. Thomæ, quæst. 25. artic. 3.

VOL. III.

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