[Ave Man’s Stella, Dei Mater alma, Atque semper Virgo!  Felix coeli porta, Sumens illud Ave Gabrielis ore, Funda nos in pace, Mutans Evae nomen.  Solve vincla reis, Profer lumen caecis, Mala nostra pelle, Bona cuncta posce.  MONSTRA TE ESSE MATREM; Sumat per te preces, Qui pro nobis natus Tulit esse tuus.  Virgo singularis, Inter omnes mitis, Nos culpa solutos, Mites fac et castos, Vitam praesta puram, Iter para tutum, Ut videntes Jesum Semper collaetemur.

  Sit laus Deo Patri, summo Christo decus,
  Spiritui Sancto, tribus honor unus.  Amen.—­AEst. 597.
  ]

In the body of this hymn, there is undoubtedly reference to an application to be made to the Son, &c.; but can it be fitting that such language as is here suggested to the Virgin, for her to use, should be addressed by a {340} mortal to God? can such a call upon her to show her power and influence over the eternal Son of the eternal Father be fitting—­“Show that thou art a mother?” I confess that against what is here implied, my understanding and my heart entirely revolt.[127]

[Footnote 127:  At the present day some versions, contrary to the whole drift and plain sense and meaning of the passage, have translated it, as though the prayer was, that Mary would, by her maternal good offices in our behalf, prove to us that she was our mother.  An instance of what I mean occurs in a work called “Nouveau Recueil de Cantiques,” p. 353.

“Monstra te esse Matrem:  Faites voir que vous etes veritablement notre mere.”  In an English manual, first printed in 1688, and then called “The Prince of Wales’s Manual,” the lines are thus rendered—­

      Shew us a Mother’s care,
      To Him convey our prayer,
      Who for our sake put on
      The title of thy Son.

I rejoice to see an indication of a feeling of impropriety in the sentiment in its plain, obvious meaning; still the change is inadmissible.  She is addressed above, in the second line, as the mother of God; Jesus is immediately mentioned, in the very next line, and through the entire stanza, as her Son; and the prayer is, that through her that Being who endured to be her Son would hear the prayers of the worshippers.

Since I first prepared this note for the press, I have found a proof, that the obvious grammatical and logical meaning, “show thyself to be His mother,” is the sense in which it was received and interpreted before the Reformation.  In a work dedicated to the “Youth of England studious of good morals,” and entitled “Expositio Sequentiarum,” the only interpretation given to this passage is thus expressed:  “Show thyself to be a MOTHER, namely BY APPEASING THY SON, and let thy Son take our prayers through thee, who (namely, the Son born of the Virgin Mary,) for us miserable sinners endured to be thy Son.”  “Monstra te esse MATREM (sc.) placando TILIUM TUUM, et filius tuus sumat precem, id est, deprecationes