observe the great silence concerning her in sacred history, after the relation of her bringing forth our Saviour, and her presentation of him in the temple, and their exile into Egypt, and return to Nazareth. After this we hear of her but seldom, and that only occasionally. Once she is, mentioned as present, and receiving a check from our Saviour, at the marriage feast of Cana in Galilee, John ii. 1. &c. Another time she is mentioned together with the brethren of our Saviour as inquiring after him, Matt. xii. 47. &c. She is mentioned again, John xix. 25, 26, 27. as standing by the cross of her Son, beholding his passion, and thereby fulfilling the prophecy of good old Simeon, that a sword should pierce through her own soul, Luke ii. 35. And lastly, she is mentioned by St. Luke as present at that assembly of Christians, wherein Matthias was elected to the apostleship in the room of Judas t, Acts i. 14. In all which places the mention of her is such, as may seem purposely designed to have prevented that superstitious and idolatrous worship of her, which was afterward set up in the church of Rome.

In the rest of the writings of the New Testament, the Epistles of the apostles, wherein they fully instruct us in all the essentials of that religion and worship which Christianity requires of us, she is not so much as once named; much less is there any the least intimation of any invocation or religious worship due to her from us.

t

It is a most ridiculous account which the Ro

[It is not actually said that she was present at the election of Matthias compare v. 15. The Romanists say that she was present with the apostles on the day of Pentecost.]

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manists give us of this silence of the holy Scriptures. Lorinus, a very learned and approved writer among them, in his exposition of Acts i. 14. thus resolves the difficulty. "There are few things delivered con"cerning the mother of Christ in the Scriptures, "because those things were sufficient which in her respected Christ; and also because that one title "of the mother of Christ and of God serves instead "of all praises; and farther, because her testimony "might be suspected by the unbelieving world: "and lastly, because as Adam was formed out of "the unformed and thick earth, and then Eve out "of his rib; so Christ was first to be preached, and "the virtue of Christ to be made known in the rude "earth of persecutions and martyrs ". Afterwards "the blessed Virgin was celebrated by many enco"miums of the Fathers, and made illustrious by

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many miracles, temples, festivals," &c. Thus far he. But, 1. the Jesuit yields all that we desire, when he confesseth "that those things were suffi"cient to have been spoken concerning the blessed

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Virgin, which in her respected Christ." Nothing more certain. It was the setting forth Christ, not of his mother, which was the end and design of the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures of the New Testament; and therefore that was sufficient to be spoken of her which served to lead us to the knowledge of, and to faith in, Christ. 2. As for the title of the mother of God, it doth not at all infer any right the blessed Virgin hath to our religious adoration of her. By that relation to the Son of God she cannot challenge any share with him in his divine honour;

"In rudi terra persecutionum et martyrum.

much less any commanding power over him, which yet hath been formerly in the public offices of the church of Rome, and I am certain. is still in some of their private offices, attributed to hery. For though she was the mother of him that was God, yet she contributed nothing to him as God; but he, as such, was and is her God, Lord, Creator, and Saviour; to whom therefore she, together with us, pays all humble adoration and worship. Nay, she was not his mother as man, in so strict a sense as other women are mothers of their children; for she conceived him not naturally, but by the help of the divine Spirit overshadowing her so that her very conception of him as man was immediately due to him as God, and she was eternally bound to praise him for so wonderful an operation wrought in her. And it is to be observed, that the ancient doctors of the church, when they contested with heretics about the title beotókos, mother of God, designed not by that title so much to advance the honour of the blessed Virgin, as to secure the real and inseparable union of the two natures in Christ; and to shew that the human nature, which Christ took of the holy Virgin, never subsisted separately from the divine person of the Son of God. 3. His third reason of this silence is plainly foolish and absurd, "that her testimony "would have been suspected by the unbelieving "world:" for by the same reason the Scriptures must have been silent concerning Christ himself also. Be

X

[Accedit ad illud aureum Divinæ Majestatis tribunal, non rogans, sed imperans, domina non ancilla. Damianus. Maria orat ut filia, jubet ut soror, imperat ut mater.

Bibl. Maria.]

Albertus Magnus,

y [Monstra te esse matrem. Office of the Virgin.]

sides, the question is not of the Virgin Mary's testimony of herself, but of the testimony of the apostles and sacred writers concerning her. Now certainly it highly concerned the world to understand how much the blessed Virgin could do with God and his Son, if" by her all grace be dispensed," as the Papists have affirmed. And the apostles cannot escape the censure of gross negligence or great envy, if they knew of any such conveyance of grace, and yet would not vouchsafe to the world the least point of their finger towards it. 4. His fourth and last reason is an impious speculation. For are Christ and the blessed Virgin joined together in the point of religious worship, as the male and female deity, as Adam and Eve were in their formation, with this only difference, that as Adam was first formed, and after Eve, so the divine power of Christ was first proclaimed in the world, and afterward the blessed Virgin was celebrated and made illustrious? Besides, what a dirty comparison is that, whereby he resembles the primitive age, the age of confessors and martyrs, the best and most glorious age of the church, to the thick and unformed earth and clay, out of which Adam was fashioned; and the after-ages to the more refined substance of Adam, out of which Eve was taken! What a dreadful infatuation must it be, that shall make men, of great sense and learning otherwise, thus to write and speak! Lastly, How `plainly doth the Jesuit here again yield up the cause to us! He confesseth, that the knowledge of Christ alone was at first preached in the days of persecution and martyrdom, and that the celebration of the blessed Virgin (such as is now practised in the church of Rome) sprang up afterwards. A most certain

truth; for there is not one tittle to be found in any genuine writer of the first three hundred years after Christ, (to go no farther,) that may give any the least. countenance to the invocation of the blessed Virgin Mary, or of any other saint; but very many most express testimonies against it in all of them: and therefore we are most certain, that the doctrine of the church of Rome concerning the invocation of the blessed Virgin, and the other saints, was none of the doctrines delivered by the holy apostles to the church. of Christ. And for our part, we are content and fully satisfied with that knowledge of Christ alone, which was preached "in the rude earth of persecu"tions and martyrs';" that is, in the best and most glorious ages of the church: and we willingly leave those after-refined discoveries of the blessed Virgin's honour to the papists, to follow and embrace them, seeing they will not be otherwise persuaded, at their own peril.

Before I conclude, I will mention some few instances of extravagant honour which the papists. give, but we of the church of England utterly refuse to yield, to the blessed Virgin, out of a true zeal to the honour of God..

We will not give her lavish and excessive attributes, beyond what the holy Scriptures allow her, and the holy men of the primitive church afforded her. We will call her blessed, as the mother of our Lord, in the sense above explained. But we dare not call her "queen of heaven," "queen of angels, patri"archs, prophets, and apostles," "source of the foun