Mary, then, is a queen; but let all know for their consolation, that she is a queen who is all sweetness and clemency, and inclined to relieve the miserable. Hence the holy Church wishes that we salute and call her Queen of Mercy.

P. 6. Kings, then, should be employed principally in works of mercy, but not so as to forget to execute justice (when necessary) on the guilty. Not so with Mary, who though a queen, is not a queen of justice, intent on punishing malefactors, but a queen of mercy, who seeks only to obtain mercy and pardon for sinners. Hence the Church wishes that we expressly call her the Queen of Mercy. John Gerson, the great Chancellor of Paris, commenting on the words of David," These two things have I heard, that power belongeth to God, and mercy to thee, O Lord," Ps. Ixi. 12, said that the Lord has divided his kingdom, which consisted in justice and mercy: the kingdom of justice he has reserved to himself, and the kingdom of mercy he has, in a certain manner, given to Mary, ordaining that all the mercies which he dispenses to men should pass through her hands, and be dispensed as she pleases. Behold the words of Gerson: Regnum Dei consistit in potestate et misericordia, potestate Deo remanente: cessit quodammodo misericordiæ pars Matri regnanti. Ps. iii. tr. 4. S. Magn. This is confirmed by St. Thomas in his preface to the Čanonical Epistles where he says, "Quando filium Dei in utero concepit, et postmodum peperit, dimidiam partem regni Dei impetravit, ut ipsa sit regina misericordiæ, ut Christus est rex justitiæ.'

The Eternal Father has constituted Jesus Christ King of Justice, and has, therefore, made him Universal Judge of the world: hence the Prophet has said, "give to the King thy judgment, O God, and to the King's Son thy justice." Ps. Ixi. 2. On this passage a learned interpreter hath said, "O Lord, you have given justice to your Son, because you have given your mercy to the Mother of the King;" hence St. Bonaventure says, "O God, give thy judgment to the King, and thy mercy to his Mother." Ernest, archbishop of Prague, likewise says, "that the Eternal Father has given to the Son the office of judging and of inflicting punishment, and to the Mother the office of compassionating and relieving the miserable." "Pater omne judicium dedit filio,

et omne officium misericordiæ dedit Matri." Hence in the words, "thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness. Ps. xliv. 8. The prophet David foretold that God himself, as it were, crowned Mary the Queen of Mercy, anointing her with the oil of gladness, that all the miserable children of Adam might rejoice in thinking that, as St. Bonaventure says, they have in heaven this great Queen, who is all full of the unction of mercy and compassion for them. "Maria," says the saint, "plena unctione misericordiæ et oleo pietatis: propterea unxit te Deus oleo lætitiæ." In Spec. c. 7.

P. 11. Every prayer of Mary is, as it were, a law established by the Lord, according to which he shews mercy to all for whom she intercedes. St. Bernard asks why the Church calls Mary the Queen of Mercy. He answers, "because we believe that by her prayers she opens the abyss of Divine mercy to whom she wills, when she wills, and as she wills, so that no sinner, however enormous his sins may be, is lost, if Mary protects him by her intercession." Quod divinæ pietatis abyssum cui vult, quando vult, et quomodo vult, creditur aperire, ut nemo tam enormis peccator pereat, cui sancta sanctorum patrocinii suffragia præstat." In salve regina.

P. 20. If Jesus is the father of our souls, Mary is their mother, for by giving us Jesus Christ, she gave us true life; and by offering on Calvary the life of her Son for our salvation, she there begot us to the life of divine grace.

P. 21. This our Lord revealed to St. Gertrude, who, in reading one day the above-mentioned passage of the Gospel, was perplexed because she could not understand how he could be called the first-born of Mary when she was the mother of no one but Jesus. God revealed to the saint that Jesus was the first-born of Mary according to the flesh, and that men were her second-born according to the Spirit.

P. 33. The Virgin herself revealed to sister Mary Crucified (Vita, lib. ii. c. 5.) that so intense was the fire of divine love which burned in her soul, that were all heaven and earth placed in it, they would be consumed in an instant. Hence she said, that compared with her burning love, all the seraphic ardours were but cool refreshing breezes. Hence, as among all the celestial spirits, there is none that loves God

more than Mary, so there is no one, and there can be no one, who after God, loves us more than this our most loving mother. And if the love which all mothers bear to their children were united with the love which all men bear to their spouses, and with the love which all the saints and angels bear to their clients, it would not equal the love which Mary bears to a single soul. Nerembergh says that the love which all mothers have had for their children is but a shadow compared to the love which Mary bears to one of us; he adds, that she alone loves us more than all the angels and saints together love us.

P. 35. Hence, as it is written of the love of the Eternal Father in giving up to death his own Son, "God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son." John iii. 16. So says St. Bonaventure, it may be said of Mary, that she loved us so as to give her only begotten* Son.

Our Saviour... looking from the cross at his mother and disciple who stood beside him, first said to Mary, "Behold, thy son," John xix. 26, as if he said, Behold the man, who by the oblation you make of my life is born to grace. Then turning to the disciple, he said, "Behold, thy mother." By these words, says St. Bernardine of Sienna, Mary was made the mother, not only of St. John, but of all men, by reason of the love she bore them. "In Joanne intelligimus omnes, quorum per dilectionem facta est mater." Tom. i. Serm. lv.

P. 38. O how easy, says the same Albertus Magnus, is it for them who love her to find Mary, and to find her full of compassion and love.

P. 39. In the Chronicles of the Dominican order, it is related that Leonard, a member of that order, was accustomed to recommend himself two hundred times a day to this mother of mercy. At death a most beautiful queen appeared to him and said, "Leonard, do you wish to die and come to my Son and to me." Who are you? replied the religious. "I am," said the Virgin, "the mother of mercy; you have so often invoked me, I am now come to take you; let us go to Paradise." Leonard died the same day; we hope that he entered the kingdom of bliss.

It should seem as if the Roman Saints and Doctors, ran a race in idolatry and blasphemy, each trying to go beyond his fellow in profaneness.

Love her as much as St. Stanislaus, who loved this dear mother so tenderly, that in speaking of her, he inspired all who heard him with a desire of loving her. He used to form new words and new titles with which to honour her name; and never commenced any action without first turning to an image of the Virgin and asking her benediction. Children of Mary, love her as much as B. Ermann, who called her his spouse of love, and was even honoured by Mary with the name of spouse; as much as a St. Philip Neri, who was filled with consolation by the bare thought of Mary, and therefore, called her his delight as tenderly as a St. Bonaventure, who not only called her his lady and his mother, but to shew the tenderness of his affection for her, went so far as to call her his heart, and his soul. "Hail, my lady, my mother, nay, my heart and my soul." Children of Mary, love her as that great lover of Mary, St. Bernard, who loved this sweet mother so tenderly that he called her the ravisher of heart, " raptrix cordium." Hence this saint, in order to express the ardent love which he bore her, used to say to her: "hast thou not ravished my heart."* Children of Mary, call her the enamourer of your souls, with St. Bernardine of Sienna, who used to visit every day a sacred image of Mary, in order to shew his love by tender colloquies with his queen. Hence to those who asked where he was accustomed to go every day, he would answer, that he went to visit the enamourer of his soul. Love her as ardently as St. Lewis Gonzaga, whose soul was continually on fire with the love of Mary, whose heart, whenever he heard the most sweet name of his dear mother, was so inflamed that a sudden glow appeared on his countenance to all who beheld him. Love her as much as St. Francis Solanes, who became, as it were, foolish, but with a holy folly, through the love of Mary, and would sometimes begin to entone on a musical instrument a canticle of love before her image, saying, that like earthly lovers, he would sing to his beloved queen.

Father Jerome de Trexo, of the Society of Jesus, exulted with joy and jubilation in calling himself the slave of Mary, and in token of his servitude, he would frequently visit a church dedicated to her honour, and what did he do in that

The idolatrous saints of the Church of Rome shew how falsely she lays claim to the mark of holiness.

church? On entering it he first bathed it with tears through tenderness of love for Mary; he then swept it with his tongue and cheeks, kissing the floor a thousand times, thinking that that church was the house of his beloved queen. Father Diego Martinez, of the Society of Jesus, who in return for his devotion to the Virgin on the festivals of Mary, was carried to heaven by angels to see the honours with which her feasts were celebrated, used to say, "I would wish to have all the hearts of all the angels and of all the saints to love Mary as they love her: I would wish to have the lives of all men to spend them for the love of Mary."

(A reference is subsequently made to the love of Charles, the son of St. Bridget, Alphonsus Rodriguez, Francis Binanzio, and Radagunda, the Spouse of King Clotaire, Baptist Archinto and Augustine Espinosa, of the Society of Jesus, (who impelled by the love of Mary, printed on their flesh with a red hot iron her beloved name), St. Damian and St. Anselm.

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Specimens of the perversion of Scripture from the same work. P. 155. In the Old Testament, we read that the Lord conducted his people from Egypt to the land of promise, by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire." Exod. xiii. 21. According to Richard St. Lawrence, this stupendous pillar, at one time of cloud, and at another, of fire, was a figure of Mary, and of the two offices which she performs in our behalf. "As a cloud she protects us from the heat of the Sun of Justice; and as fire she defends us against the devils."

P. 228. The rainbow which St. John saw surrounding the throne of God, was also a figure of Mary. "And there was

"The

a rainbow round about the throne," Apoc. iv. 3. rainbow surrounding the throne," says Cardinal Vitalis, " is Mary, who mitigates the judgment and sentence of God against sinners." In Spec. S. Scrip. Mary assists always at the tribunal of God, to mitigate the sentence and vengeance due to sinners. It was the rainbow, says St. Bernardine of Sienna, that the Lord spoke, when he said to Noah that he would place the bow of peace in the clouds.. Mary, says St. Bernardine, is the bow of everlasting peace. "Ipsa est arcus fœderis sempiterni." Sermo 1. de Nom. Art. i.

c. iii.