In the fourteenth chapter the following passage occurs:  “It is giving to the blessed Virgin a testimony of love particularly dear and precious to her, to make her holy spouse Joseph the first object of our devotion, next to that which consecrates us to her service....  The name of Joseph is invoked with singular devotion by all the true faithful.  They frequently join it with the sacred names of Jesus and Mary.  Whilst Jesus and Mary lived at Nazareth, if we had wished to obtain some favour from them, could we have employed a more powerful protector than St. Joseph?  Will he now have less power and credit?  GO THEREFORE TO JOSEPH, (Gen. xli. 55.) that he may intercede for you.  Whatever favour you ask, God will grant it you at his request....  Go to Joseph in all your necessities; but especially to obtain the grace of a happy death.  The general opinion that he died in the arms of Jesus and Mary has inspired the faithful with great confidence, that, through his intercession, they will have an end as happy and consoling as his.  In effect, it has been remarked, that it is particularly at the hour of death that those who have been during their life careful to honour this great saint, reap the fruit of their devotion.” [P. 347.]

In this passage the unworthy idea, itself formed on a groundless tradition, is introduced of paying reverence {386} to one saint, in order to gratify and conciliate another.  Joseph must be especially honoured in order to do what is most acceptable to Mary.  Surely this tends to withdraw the mind from that habitual reference of all our actions immediately to God, which the primitive teachers were so anxious to cultivate in all Christians.

In the “Little Testament of the Holy Virgin,” the following (p. 46) is called, “A Prayer to the blessed Virgin.”  Can any words place more on an entire level with each other, the eternal Son of God and the Virgin?  “Jesus and Mary?!”

“O Mary! what would be our poverty and misery if the Father of Mercies had not drawn you from his treasury to give you to earth!  Oh! my Life and Consolation, I trust and confide in your holy name.  My heart wishes to love you; my mouth to praise you; my mind to contemplate you; my soul sighs to be yours.  Receive me, defend me, preserve me; I cannot perish in your hands.  Let the demons tremble when I pronounce your holy name, since you have ruined their empire; but we shall say with Saint Anselm, that he does not know God, who has not an idea sufficiently high of your greatness and glory.  We shall esteem it the greatest honour to be of the number of your servants.  Let your glory, blessed Mother, be equal to the extent of your name; reign, after God, over all that is beneath God; but, above all, reign in my heart; you will be my consolation in suffering, my strength in weakness, my counsel in doubt.  At the name of Mary my hope shall be enlightened, my love inflamed.  Oh! that I could deeply engrave the dear name on every heart,