Third Edition. Dublin, 1836."]
The first professes to be "composed on the plan of the 'Imitation of
Christ.'" This is, in itself, highly objectionable; its tendency is to
exalt Mary, by association, to the same place in our hearts and minds,
which Thomas a Kempis had laboured, in his "Imitation of Christ," to
secure for the Saviour; and it reminds us of the proceedings of
Bonaventura, who wrote psalms to the honour of the Virgin after the
manner which David used in his hymns to the Lord of Glory. In this work
we read the following prayer to the Virgin, which seems to be stained
with the error, the existence of which elsewhere we have already
noticed, of contrasting the justice and the stern dealings even of the
Saviour, with the mercy, and loving-kindness, and fellow-feeling of
Mary; making God an object of fear, Mary an object of love.
"Mother of my Redeemer, O Mary, in the last moments {385} of my life, I
implore thy assistance with more earnestness than ever. I find myself,
as it were, placed between heaven and hell. Alas! what will become of
me, if thou do not exert, in my behalf, thy powerful influence with
Jesus?... I die with SUBMISSION since JESUS has ORDAINED it; but
notwithstanding the natural horror which I have of death, I die with
PLEASURE, because I die under THY protection." [Chap. xiii. p. 344.]
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.
Pages:
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452