Of the Devotion of Catholics to the Virgin Mary. 1. It is, they fay, grounded upon her great dignity as mother of God, and the clofe relation which the has thereby to Jefus Chrift her fon; for how is it poffible to love and honour Chrift with our whole heart, and not value and love his mother? 2. It is grounded upon that fupereminent grace, which was bestowed upon her, to prepare her for that dignity; upon account of which he was faluted by the angel Gabriel, St. Luke, i. 28. full of grace, and by St. Elizabeth fhe is ftiled bleffed among women, Luke i. 42. 3. It is grounded upon her extraordinary sanctity; for if he was full of grace before fhe conceived in the womb the fountain of all grace, to what a degree of fanctity and grace muft fhe have arrived, during fo many years as he lived afterwards? efpecially fince the bore nine months in her womb the author of all fanctity, and had him thirty years under her roof, ever contemplating him and his heavenly myfteries, St. Luke ii. 19 and 51. and on her part never making any refiftance to the affluence of his grace ever flowing in upon her happy foul. 4. It is grounded upon that fupereminent degree of heavenly glory with which God has now honoured her, in proportion to her grace and fanctity here upon earth, and the great intereft fhe has with her bleffed Son, and through him with his heavenly Father *. Of the Ufe of BEADS, the ROSARY, &c. 2. Why do Catholics fo often repeat the Hail, Mary? A. To commemorate the incarnation of the Son of God; to honour his bleffed mother, and to defire her prayers. • Catholic Inftructed, p. 235. Q. What 1 2. What is the meaning of the Beads? A. It is a devotion, confifting of a certain number of our father and hail Maries, directed for the obtaining of bieffings from God, through the prayers and interceffion of our Lady. 2. But is it not highly abfurd, that, according to the common way of laying the beads, there are repeated ten bail Maries for one our father? A. It would be abfurd indeed, and blafphemous too, if the meaning of this were to fignify that the bleffed Virgin is either more powerful or more merciful than her son, or that we have a greater confidence in her than in him; but we are far from any fuch notions. 2. Why then is the bail Mary repeated fo much oftener in the beads than the Lord's prayer? A. Because the beads being a devotion particularly inflituted to commemorate the incarnation of Chrift, and to honour him in his bleffed mother, it was thought proper to repeat so much the oftener that prayer, which is particularly adapted to thefe ends. In the mean time, it may be proper fo take notice, 1. That if in the beads there be ten hail Maries faid for one our father, in the mafs and office of the church, almost all the prayers are directed to God alone. 2. That every bail Mary, both by the nature of the prayer, and the intention of the church, is directed more to the honour of the fon than of the mother, as well because the church, in honouring the mother, has principally in view the honour of the fon, as also because this prayer particularly relates to the incarnation of Chrift; and if withal it begs her prayers, then he is only defired to pray for us. To which if we add, that her prayers are ten times better and more acceptable to God than ours, it will appear no ways abfurd that we fhould fo frequently defire her prayers; for as to the repetition of the fame prayer, it is what is recommended to us by the VOL. I. Num. VI. example example of our Lord, St. Matt. xxvii. 42, 44, &c. and has nothing of abfurdity in it. 2 What is the meaning of the Rofary? A. The rofary is a method of faying the beads, fo as to meditate upon the incarnation, paffion and refurrection of Chrift; and it is divided into three parts, each part confifting of five myfteries, to be contemplated during the repeating of five decads or tens upon the heads. The firtt five are called the five joyful myfteries, viz. the Anunciation, when our Lord was conceived in his mother's womb the Vifitation, when the bleffed Virgin vifited her kinfwoman St. Elizabeth, and by her was declared blessed among women, &c. the Nativity of our Lord, his prefentment in the temple, together with the purification of the blessed Virgin, and his being found in the temple in the midst of the doctors, &c. The five next are called the dolorous and forrowful mysteries, as having relation to the paffion of Chrift, and are, his prayer and agony in the garden, his being fcourged at the pillar, his crowning with thorns, his carriage of his crofs, and his crucifixion and death. The five laft are called the five glorious myfteries, viz. the refurrection of our Lord, his afcenfion into heaven, the coming of the Holy Ghoft, the affumption of the bleffed Virgin, and her coagmenation, together with the eternal glory of the faints in the kingdom of heaven *. Of the Invocation of ANGELS and SAINTS. 2. What is the doctrine and practice of the Catholic church, with regard to the invocation of angels and faints? A. We hold it to be pious and profitable to apply ourfelves to them in the way of defiring them to pray to God for us; but not so as to address ourselves to them * Catholic Chriftian inftructed, pag. 234. as as if they were the authors or difpofers of pardon, grace, or falvation, or as if they had any power to help us independently of God's good will and pleasure. But, in fome of the addreffes made to the faints and angels, I find petitions for mercy, aid or defence; what say you? A. The meaning of thofe addreffes, as far as they are authorised by the church, is no other than to beg mercy of the faints in this fenfe, that they would pity and compaffionate our mifery, and would pray for us. In like manner, when we beg their aid and defence, we mean to beg the aid and defence of their prayers; and that the angels to whom God has given a charge over us, would affift us and defend us against the angels of darknefs; and this is no more than what the Proteftant church afks in the collect for Michaelmas day, praying that as the holy angels always ferve God in heaven, fo by his appointment they may fuccour and defend us upon earth *. Of the Ufe and Veneration of RELICKS in the Catholic Church. 2. What do you mean by relicks? A. The dead bodies or bones of the faints we call relicks; as alfo whatever other things have belonged to them in their mortal life. 2. And what is the doctrine and practice of the church with regard to these things? A. We keep fuch things as these with a religious refpect and veneration, for the fake of those to whom they have belonged, but principally for the fake of him to whom the faints themfelves belonged; that is, for the greater glory of God, who is glorious in his faints, and to whom is referred all the honour that is given to his faints. * Catholic Chriftian, page 224. 2. What 2. What reafon has the church for fhewing this refpect to the dead bodies or bones of the faints? A. 1. Because they have been the victims, and the living temples of God, in which his divine Majefty has, in a particular manner, inhabited, and which he has fanctified by his prefence and grace; and therefore, if God required of Mofes, Exod. iii. 5. and of Joshua, Jofh. v. 15. to loose their fhoes from off their feet, in respect to the ground on which they ftood, as being rendered holy by his prefence, or that of his angels, we must think that it is agreeable to his divine Majefty, that we should teftify the like honour to that venerable earth of the bodies of his faints, which he in fuch an extraordinary manner has fanctified, by abiding in them as in his temples. 2. We know the bodies of the faints are preordained to a happy refurrection and eternal glory, and upon this account alfo deferve our refpect. 3. The bodies and other relicks of the faints have been, and are daily the inftruments of the power of God for the working of innumerable miracles; which God, who is truth and fanctity itfelf, would never have effected, if it had not been agreeable to him that we fhould honour and refpect thefe precious remnants of his fervants. 4. The relicks and fhrines of the martyrs and other faints ferve very much to encourage the faithful to an imitation of their virtues, and to help to raife their fouls from the love of things prefent and temporal to the love of things eternal. Of MIRACLES performed by or before the Images of the Virgin Mary and other Saints. Aringhus, touching upon this fubject, fays, that the images of the bleffed Virgin fhine out continually by new and daily miracles, to the comfort of their votaries, and the confufion of all gainfayers. Within thefe few years, fays he, under every Pope fucceffively fome or other of our facred images, especially of the more antient, have made themfelves illuftrious, and |