Mother of God !' Oh, how many victories have not the faithful gained over hell by having recourse to Mary with this short but most po\verful prayer ! Thus it was that that great servant of God, sister Mary, the cruci- fied, of tlie Order of S. Benedict, always overcame the devils" (p. 2(J). " ' Since the very tigers,' says our most loving Mother Mary, 'cannot forget their young, how can I forget to love you, my children ?' " (p. 30). " Our Blessed Lady herself revealed to sister Mary, the cruci- fied, that the fire of love with wliich she was inflamed towards God was such that, if the heavens and earth ■were placed in it, they would be instantly consumed ; so that the ardors of the Seraphim, in comparison with it, were but as fresh breezes" (p. 31). "Let us love her like a S. Francis Solano, who, maddened as it were (but ■with holy madness) with love for Mary, would sing be- fore her picture, and accompany himself on a musical in- strument, saying that, like worldly lovers, he serenaded his most sweet Queen" (p. 38). " Let us love her as so many of her servants have loved her, and who never could do enough to show their love. Father Jerome of Texo, of the Society of Jesus, rejoiced in the name of slave of Mary ; and, as a mark of servitude, went often to visit her in some church dedicated in her honor. On reaching the church, he ])oured out abundant tears of tenderness and love for Mary ; then prostrating, he lick- ed and rubbed the pavement with his tongue and face, kissing it a thousand times, because it was the house of his beloved Lady" (p. 38). " Mary is the Mother of re- pentant sinners" (p. 42). " When Mary sees a sinner at her feet im])loring her mercy, she does not consider the crimes with which he is loaded, but the intention with which he comes ; and if this is good, even should he have committed all possible sins, the most loving Moth- er embraces him, and does not disdain to heal the wounds of his soul" (p. 45). '"Mj" God,' she says, 'I had two sons — Jesus and man ; man took the life of my Jesus on the cross, and now thy justice would condemn the guilty one. O Lord ! my Jesus is already dead ; have pity on me ; and if I have lost the one, do not make me lose the other also !' And most certainly God will not condemn those sinners who have recourse to Mary, and for whom she prays, since he himself com- mended them to her as her children" (p. 47). These passages are taken almost at rantlom from Liguori's Glories of ifarij, chapter i, which is a paraphrase of the words Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy ! Yet these claims are moderate compared with those set up in the fifth chapter, entitled, Of the Necessity of the Interces- sion of Mary for our Salvation. " S. Lawrence Jus- tinian asks, ' How can she be otherwise than full of grace ivho has been made the Ladder to paradise, the Gate of heaven, the most true Jfediatrix between God and man T " (p. 121). " That which we intend to prove here is that the intercession of Mary is now necessary to salvation ; we saj' necessary — not absolutely, but moral- ly. Tliis necessity proceeds from the will itself of God that all graces that he dispenses should pass by the hands of Jlary, according to the opinion of S.Bernard, and which we may now with safety call the general oi)ini()n of theologians and learned men. The author of The Reiyn of Mary positively asserts that such is the case. It is maintained by Vega, jVIcndoza, Pacciuchelli, Segnori, Poire, Crasset, and by innumerable other learn- ed authors" (p. 122).
Now what have we in hoh' Scriptiu-e to warrant such a position as is here taken by Liguori? Comparison, as distinct from contrast, requires the existence of some similitude, but take any passage in which Mary is men- tioned, from the salutation down to the period after the ascension, and there is nothing in any way similar. It only remains, therefore, to contrast instead of comparing. But our readers are so well acquainted with holy Writ that we remit the task to them, only begging them to remember four things : 1. That Mary is represented as she is, and not otherwise in the Gospels ; 2. That she is not mentioned at all in the Acts after the first chap-
ter, or in the Epistles, although St. Paul has entered so minutely into the economy of the Christian scheme of salvation ; 3. That all that prophet and apostle has said of our Lord is by Romanists transferred to ^lary ; 4. That all those passages which speak of one Mediator between God and man not only ignore, but exclude the modern doctrine, pronounced by Dr. SchafF •' one of the principal points of separation between Grasco-Roman Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism" {Ch. Hist, ii, 411).