able to God, and for which our whole lives ought to be one perpetual facrifice of gratitude and praife, In a transport of lively faith and thankgiving, the devout Jewefs in the gofpel, pronounced "the womb bleffed which had borne him, and the breafts which had given him fuck." The "Hail Mary" is repeated ten times in the Rofary, that the mind by dwelling longer on the fame great mystery, may be enlightened the better to understand it, and the heart more enflamed with love in praifing God for it. If the bleffed Virgin is pronounced Bleffed, it is through her divine Son, and he is praifed as infinitely bleffed, and worthy all homages, as the heavenly choirs fing in the Revelations of St. John. In honour of this mystery was the triple angelical Salutation, called, the Angelus (i), inftituted to be faid morning, noon, and evening, by Pope John XXII. in 1316, introduced into France under Lewis XI. in 1472 (75). A plenary indulgence is granted to all, who having been at confeffion and communion on any day in the month, at their choice, fhall fay on their knees the Angelus at morning, noon, and evening, when the bell rings, and 100 days indulgence every time a perfon recites it on his knees in other days, as Benedict XIII. declares in his Indult, dated 14th September, 1724. The fame Pope by a brief, dated the 5th December 1727, extended thefe indulgences to thofe religious perfons, who being hindered at that hour, fhall recite it afterwards when at liberty. Benedict XIV. confirmed thefe indulgences on the 20th of April 1742, adding, that during the whole Pafchal time, the anthem with its verfes and prayer, Regina cæli, is to be said standing, in place of the Angelus. Yet the indulgences are equally gained by thofe who not knowing the Regina cæli, fhall fay the Angelus, but this is to be faid standing all the Pafchal time, and on all Sundays (76). The Church expreffed her devotion to the holy name of Jefus,

(i) Those who take offence at the "Hail Mary," or its frequent repetition, certainly do not reflect that it is a doxology in honour of the incarnation, the most adorable and incomprehenfible of all the divine myfteries and benefits, for which we can never return fufficient homages of thanksgiving and praife, though we devote to it all our powers and faculties, and all our moments. Thefe forms of words ought to be most unexceptionable, being dictated by the Holy Ghost, and recorded in Scripture by his fpecial infpiration, for the comfort, edification and ingruction of the Faithful, through all ages, to the end of the world, and to ferve to nourish their piety and devotion.

(75) Mezeray's Hift. de France-Amort, &c.

(76) See Bullarium Benedicti XIV. et Amort. Hift. Indulgent.

fus, on the feast of the Circumcifion, which is most remarkable in the old English Liturgy, both that in ufe before the Conqueror, and that of Sarum. St. Bernardin of Sienna, preaching penance in the chief cities of Italy, to exhort the Faithful to the love and fervice of our divine Redeemer, ufed at the end of his Sermons, to fhew the holy name of Jefus furrounded with rays of glory, painted on a board. Some found fault with this practice, as a novelty; and by the Pope's ordering, the caufe was difcuffed in a folemn conference, or difputation in the Vatican church, in 1427. St. John Capistran zealously defended the practice of his collegue, as proper to excite the devotion of the Faithful, with precautions, to prevent all danger of fuperftition, fo that it was approved by the holy fee (77). A particular office in honour of Chrift, in memory of his facred name, was compofed by F. Bernardin de Buftis, a friar minor, and fome time after allowed by Clement VIII. to the Franciscan order in 1530, to be faid on the 14th of January (78). It was extended to the Carthufians in 1643, on the second Sunday after Epiphany, as appears from their breviary printed that year at Lyons; afterward to the Spanish dominions; and lastly, by Innocent XIII. in 1721, to the whole church on the fecond Sunday after the Epiphany. Sigonius in his Hiftory of the Archbishops of Bologna, in his Life of Nicholas Albergati (79), relates, that when St. Bernardin, by a zealous fermon against cards and dice, had perfuaded the citizens to abolish those tables among them, and bring all their dice and cards to the preacher, who threw them into the fire; a man came to him in great diftrefs, complaining, that he had fupported his family in opulence by his trade of printing, and by this his fermon, had been reduced to beggary. The Saint bad him print images of the name of Jefus, and that he would foon recover his fortune. He gave him the model, by forming a circle round a fun, and in the middle the name of Jefus, expreffed by three new forms of letters: the poor man did fo, and in a fhort time raised a for

(77) See S. Antoninus, 3 part. tit. xxii. c. 7. Bzovius in Annal. T. xv. ad An. 1425. Raynaldus ad An. 1432. n. xxiv. Spondan ad An. 1438. n. xxvii. Wading in Annal. minor. ad An. 1427. Bolland. in S. Bernardino ad xx May p. 308. Damianus Corneius, T. 1. iv. c. 10, 12. Ayala Pictor Chriftianus, 1. 3. Append. c. ii. Molunus de Picturis et Imaginibus nov. edit. &c.

(78) See Wading, 1. de Scriptoribus Ord. minor. V. Bernardinus de Buftis, alfo in Annal. min. ad an. 1530. n. x.

(79) Sigonius de Archiep. Bonon. 1. iv. n. Nicholas Albergati, 1.

&c. 18.

fortune. From this fact, we see the representation of this figure, together with that of the Saint, ftill under the gallery of the good Jefus (k). On the inftitution of the office of the feftival of the holy name of Jefus. See Benedict XIV, de Canoniz. San&tcrum, 1. iv. par. 2. c. 30. p. 301-303: alfo, 1. de Feftis, D. N. Jefu Chrifti. part. i. p. 36-39.

(k) Chrift as man, in quality of our High Prieft, intercedes, prefents the prints of his facred wounds, his fufferings and death, and the adorable facrifice of his body and blood for us, as we are taught by the Prophets, Gospels, St. Paul, the Revelations of St. John, and the conftant Tradition of the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XIV. obferves, that the dignity of the divine perfon requires, that with the church we fhould never addrefs him in a ftyle to intreat him to pray for us, but to have mercy on us; for he himself bestows the graces, which can only be obtained through his merits and prayer. The blessed Angels and Saints cannot give any grace, but they only pray to God to give us his grace. The Angels, indeed, are our guardians and protectors, by fuccouring us many other ways within the reach of their faculties and power, and according to the difpenfation and will of Divine Providence. They fometimes drive away the devil, preferve us from certain dangers, and by the manner in which fpirits communicate conceptions, raise good thoughts, which, nevertheless, must be produced by an immediate concurrence of the Holy Ghoft, whenever they are made properly conducive to fupernatural virtue and to eternal life. But it is by prefenting our prayers, and by praying for us, that they affift in moving God to be ftow grace upon us. Nor does facred authority any where infinuate that the fouls of bleffed Saints affift us ordinarily any other way than by praying for us, &c. I fay ordinarily, for we cannot deny extraordinary warnings to have been fometimes received by that fpecial order of Providence, in vifions of juft departed fouls; nor does it feem impoffible, but fome holy fouls may, by a like extraordinary appointment of God, communicate thoughts to living minds on earth, but fuch effects fall not under the ordinary courfe of Providence, and depend not on the mere will of any fouls.

THE

THE FOURTH TREATISE.

ON THE

SUNDAYS between the EPIPHANY and LENT.

THE

CHAP. I.

HE incomprehenfible mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, the fource of all our hope and fpiritual joy, is the centre of all our devotions, and the object of our perpetual adoration, thanksgiving and praife: through it alone can our facrifices be acceptable to God, and our fupplications propitiatory. In Chrift, and through him only, we offer all our homages to the divine majefty in all feasons. From Christmas to the feftival of the purification of the Blessed Virgin, mother of God, the Church continues in fome degree the feast or commemoration of his nativity (a). On this account the white ornaments of her altars and minifters, express her holy jubilation, and canticles of praise, make up the chiefeft part of her public prayer. She commemorates his facred birth in the anthem of the Bleffed Virgin, at the conclufion of every part of her canonical hours,

in

(a) The number of Sundays reckoned after the Epiphany depends on Eafter falling high or low, that is late or early; thefe never can be more than fix. If there is only one, which can very feldom happen, the mass of the fecond Sunday, which would otherwise be omitted, is read on the Saturday before Septuagefima. To have fix Sundays after Epiphany is also a cafe fo rare, that formerly no proper mass was affigned for a fixth, but when it happened, that of the fifth was repeated on it, as may be seen in the miffals before St. Pius V. who ordered a proper mafs to be inferted for the fixth Sunday. The Introit, Gradual, and Communion are, on the 4th, 5th and 6th Sundays, the fame as on the third, as we find them in the Antiphonary of St. Gregory the Great; for when they do not find place in this feafon, they are neceflary to complete the Sundays which are then added after Pentecoft, when the Introit, Gradual, and Communion are repeated from the 23d Sunday after Pentecoft. The Epiftle, Gradual and Collect are proper on each Sunday. The Collects of the third and fourth Sundays after Epiphany are found in the Sacramentary of St. Gregory the Great, who took them from that of St. Ambrofe, and others more ancient. See Pamelius and Menard, Not. in Sacram. S. Gregorii.

in the first fuffrage at Laudes and Vefpers, and in the second collect, on all days on which the office is not double. The third is for the church or its chief paftor with his fpiritual kingdom or church, and its progrefs in grace and fanctity, being the principal fruit of Christ's incarnation.

CHA P. II.

On the Sundays of SEPTUAGESIMA, SEXAGESIMA and QUINQUAGESIMA.

IN

'N the laft holy festivals we were entertained with the good things of great joy proclaimed to us by an angel, attended with the carols of the heavenly fpirits; we joined and accompanied them with repeated Hofannas and Alleluias, by which we adored the divine mercy accomplished in our favour and welcomed our King and our God, our all-powerful and infinitely gracious Redeemer, born in the midst of us to be our Saviour, Sanctifier, and eternal Spouse. Can we be ever drawn from this moft fweet devotion; from these moft glorious, most amiable myfteries, on which we defire to entertain ourselves in fweet compunction, thanksgiving, praife and love, without interruption to an endless eternity? But in the next feftivals we are called by the church from Bethlehem to Mount Calvary, to contemplate the fame adòrable Captain of our falvation, under the agonies of a cruel death, to complete the great work of our redemption, expiate by his precious blood and fufferings the debt of our iniquities, and invite and encourage us to take up our cross by penance, humility, patience, and refignation to his will under all pains and fufferings, and joyfully follow him in this path, that we may arrive at the happiness of partaking in the glory of his Refurrection. Penance is the employment of the whole life of a Christian: even whilst we celebrate the divine mercies with praise and thanksgiving, our fpiritual joy is mingled with fighs of holy compunction at the fight of our distance from heaven, our fpiritual miferies and dangers, and thofe of others; and above all, at the confideration of the infcrutable judgments of God, our numberlefs fins, and our continual infidelities and floth in the divine fervice.

In Lent we abandon ourselves entirely to the tears of compunction, in a fevere course of penance, and in devout meditations on the fufferings of our dying Redeemer. This penitential course we enter upon by an humble confeffion of

our