The next part of our work will be given exclusively to the worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. {269}

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PART III.

CHAPTER I.

SECTION I.—­THE VIRGIN MARY.

The worship of the blessed Virgin Mary is so highly exalted in the Church of Rome, as to require the formation of a new name to express its high character.  Neither could the Latin language provide a word which would give an adequate idea of its excellence, nor could any word previously employed by the writers in Greek, meet the case satisfactorily.  The newly invented term Hyperdulia, meaning “a service above others,” seems to place the service of the Virgin on a footing peculiarly its own, as raised above the worship of the saints departed, and of the angels of God, cherubim and seraphim, with all the hosts of principalities and powers in heavenly places.  The service of the Virgin Mary thus appears not only to justify, but even to require a separate and distinct examination in this volume.  The general principles, however, which we have already endeavoured to establish and illustrate with regard as well to the study of the Holy Scriptures as to the evidence of primitive antiquity, are equally applicable here; and with those principles present to our minds, {270} we will endeavour now to ascertain the truth with regard to the worship of the Virgin as now witnessed in the Roman Catholic Church.

Of the Virgin Mary, think not, brethren of the Church of Rome, that a true member of the Anglican branch of the Catholic Church will speak disparagingly or irreverently.  Were such an one found among us, we should say of him, he knows not what spirit he is of.  Our church, in her Liturgy, her homilies, her articles, in the works too of the best and most approved among her divines and teachers, ever speaks of Saint Mary, the blessed Virgin, in the language of reverence, affection, and gratitude.

She was a holy virgin and a holy mother.  She was highly favoured, blessed among women.  The Lord was with her, and she was the mother of our only Saviour.  She was herself blessed, and blessed was the fruit of her womb.  We delight in the language of our ancestors, in which they were used to call her “Mary, the Blissful Maid.”  Should any one of those who profess and call themselves Christians and Catholics, entertain a wish to interrupt the testimony of every succeeding age, and to interpose a check to the fulfilment of her own recorded prophecy, “All generations shall call me blessed,” certainly the Anglican Catholic Church will never acknowledge that wish to be the genuine desire of one of her own sons.  The Lord hath blessed her; yea, and she shall be blessed.