venerated and invocated; and that they offer up prayers to God for us; and that their reliques are to be had in veneration.

*

The praying to faints, that they may pray for us, is directly conftituting them mediators between God and us. And the practice of praying to them with this view is fo far from being denied by the Romish church, that it is made a part of their publick devotions. Thus a great part of their litany confifts of immediate addreffes to the virgin Mary, to St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and all the holy angels and archangels, and all the holy orders of bleffed fpirits; to St. John the baptift, and all the holy patriarchs and prophets; to St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Andrew, and all the holy apostles and evangelists by name; and then again to all of them together, without their names; to all the holy difciples of our Lord, and all the holy innocents; to St. Stephen, St. Laurence, St. Vincent, St. Fabian and Sebaftian, St. Anthony, St. Benedict, St. Francis, St. Dominic, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Agnes, St. Catharine, and a vaft number of other faints, both male and female, by name; befides a general application to all the holy martyrs, to all the holy popes and confeffors, all the holy doctors, all the holy monks and hermits, all the holy priests and Levites, all the holy virgins and widows; with the addition of these words to every name, or every article, pray for us; and after all this, that no

one

Ritual. Roman. Antuerp. ap. Plantin. 1635. pag. 107, 108, 109, 110.

one mediator may be neglected, this general prayer is added; O all ye holy men, and holy women of God, intercede for us.

*

But befides these general applications, it is almost endless to enumerate the particular prayers addreffed to particular faints, especially to the virgin Mary; fome of them afking the interceffion of these faints with Chrift and with God the Father; and others directly afking of the faints themselves a deliverance from all evils, in this life, and in that which is to come. To this purpose the song ascribed to St. Ambrose and St. Auftin, commonly called Te Deum, is turned into a hymn of praise to the virgin Mary: and after profeffing to her, that all angels and archangels and principalities humbly ferve her; that all the high powers and celeftial dominations obey her that every angelical creature with a delightful voice proclaims her holy, holy, holy Mary, the virgin mother of God; that the glorious choir of apoftles praifes her; that the affembly of bleffed martyrs glorifies her; that the whole celeftial court honours her as the queen of heaven; and after calling her the vein of mercy, and the refuge of a finner; the

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* Tibi omnes angeli & archangeli; tibi omnes principatus humiliati ferviunt: tibi omnes poteftates & fupernæ virtutes; tibi omnes cœlorum dominationes obediunt: te cuncta angelica creatura delectabili voce proclamat, fancta, fancta, fancta Maria, mater Dei & virgo: te gloriofus apoftolorum chorus creatoris matrem collaudat: te martyrum cœtus beatorum Chrifti genitricem glorificat: te tota cœleftis curia cœlorum reginam honorat ::-tu vena es mifericordiæ, tu refugium peccatoris.-Salva nos, populum fervorum tuorum; ut fimus participes hæreditatis tuæ: dignare, dulcis Maria, nunc & femper fine delicto nos cuftodire: miferere noftri, domina; miferere noftri: fiat mifericordia tua magna nobifcum, quia, Maria, in te confidimus: in te, dulcis Maria, fperavimus, ut nos defendas in æternum. Amen. Hortulus animæ, ad ufum Romanum ; Antuerp. ap. Plantin. 1566. pag. 227, 228, 229.

addrefs ends with thefe petitions: fave us, the people of thy fervants; that we may be partakers of thy inheritance; vouchsafe, o fweet Mary, now and always to keep us without fin; have mercy upon us, Lady, have mercy upon us; let thy mercy be great towards us, becaufe, o Mary, we put our truft in thee; in thee, o fweet Mary, we have hoped, that thou maift defend us for ever. Amen.

To the fame purpcfe are numerous other prayers to the blessed virgin. One of which has these words: * I beseech thee ---- that in the holy, tremendous, and terrible judgment, in the fight of thy only begotten Son, to whom the Father gave all judgment, thou wouldeft rescue and protect me from the punishments of hell, and make me partaker of celestial joys. Another has the following. Comfort the finner; and give not thy honour to another, or to a cruel one, I beseech thee, o queen of heaven. Have me excufed before Chrift thy fon; whofe anger I fear, and of whofe fury I am afraid. For against thee only, o virgin Mary, have I finned: be not thou a ftranger from me, o full of heavenly grace. Be thou the keeper of my heart: fign me with the fear of God. Give me foundness of life, and decency of manners. Grant me to avoid fins, and to love that which is juft. Another, which is call'd a recommendation

to

* Te deprecor-ut in fancto, tremendo, ac terribili judicio, in confpectu unigeniti filii tui, cui Pater dedit omne judicium, me liberes & protegas à pœnis inferni; & participem me facias cœleftium gaudiorum. Hortul. anim. pag. 227.

+ Confolare peccatorem : & ne tuum des honorem alieno aut crudeli; precor te, regina cœli. Me habeto excufatum, apud Chriftum, tuum natum: cujus iram expavefco, & furorem pertimefco. Nam peccavi tibi foli: o Maria virgo, noli effe mihi aliena, gratia cœlefti plena. Efto cuftos cordis mei: figna me timore Dei: confer vitæ fanitatem ; & da morum honeftatem. Da peccata me vitare, & quod juftum eft amare. pag. 289.

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to the bleffed virgin, is as follows. O‡virgin Mary, the hope of my foul, next to God: beseech thee to keep me from fins, from fcandals, from all human confufion, from the wrath of the tremendous judgment, from unclean thoughts, from all mortal fin, from fudden and unexpected death, from all dangers of foul and body, of my reputation, and my fubftance: nor do thou ever fuffer me fo to fin, as to lofe thy favour. Give me amendment of what is past, fecurity of what is prefent, and cautioufnefs about what is to come. Give me in this life a ready affiftance: and do thou in the tremendous judgment speak for me to thy fon, our Lord Jefus Chrift. Amen.

A great part of these prayers, 'tis evident, confifts of direct petitions to the virgin, for fuch things as both scripture and reafon teach us to ask' of God only: tho' other parts go no further than to declare a confidence in her mediation for obtaining benefits. And to fuch a monstrous height were things carried in this respect, about the time when this creed of Pius IVth was framed; that whereas these prayers had been much used, and for that purpose published in books of devotion, particularly in the Hortulus animæ, printed by Plantin at Antwerp, 1566, from which I have

here

precor te,

Spes animæ meæ poft Deum, virgo Maria: ut ferves me à peccatis, à scandalis, ab omni confufione humana, ab ira judicii tremendi, ab immundis cogitationibus, ab omni mortali peccato, à fubitanea & improvisa morte, ab omnibus periculis animæ, & corporis, honoris, & rerum mearum: nec unquam me tale permittas facere peccatum, quo gratiam tuam amittam. mihi de præteritis emendationem, de præfentibus cuftodiam, de futuris cautelam. Da mihi in hac vita promptum adjutorium efto mihi in tremendo judicio prælocutrix apud filium tuum, Dominum noftrum, Jefum Chriftum. Amen. pag. 266.

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here transcribed them; his fucceffor, Pius V. thought fit to reform the Office of the blessed virgin, and, for the fake of uniformity, as he himfelf declares in his conftitution, published in the year 1571, and prefix'd to fome editions of that Office, to forbid the use of any other than that which he himself fet forth. Yet even in this reformed Office the following prayers remain upon record, not very different from thofe already recited.

God,

*I beseech thee, o holy Lady Mary, mother of confolation of the defolate, way of the wanderers, falvation of all that hope in thee,fountain of mercy, fountain of falvation and of grace, fountain of piety and of joy, fountain of life and of pardon; that with all the faints and elect of God thou would't come and baften to my help in all my prayers and petitions, in all my ftraits and neceffities, and in all thofe affairs,wherein I am to act or speak or think any thing, all the days and nights and hours and moments of my life.

O my boly Lady Mary: to thee, and to thy bleed protection, and fingular cuftody, and into the

* Obfecro te, domina fancta Maria, mater Dei -- confolatio defolatorum, via errantium, falus omnium in te fperantium fons mifericordiæ; fons falutis, & gratiæ; fons pietatis, & lætitiæ ; fons vitæ, & veniæ : ut cum omnibus fanctis & electis Dei venias, & feftines, in auxilium & confilium meum ; in omnibus orationibus & petitionibus meis; in omnibus anguftiis & neceffitatibus meis; & omnibus illis rebus, in quibus ego fum aliquid facturus, & locuturus, aut cogitaturus, omnibus diebus, ac noctibus, horis atque momentis vitæ meæ. Offic. B. Maria Virg. Venet. 1657. 8vo. pag. 473,

&c.

O domina mea fancta Maria: me in tuam benedictam fidem ac fingularem cuftodiam, & in finum mifericordiæ tuæ, hodie, & quotidie, & in hora exitus mei, animam meam & corpus meum tibi commendo:

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