in the Church {297} from very early times, and is still
retained in the Roman Breviary (Hus. Brev. Rom. H. 536.); whereas,
instead of the first[103], we find there unhappily a prayer now
supplicating that those who offer it, "believing Mary to be truly the
Mother of God, might be aided by her intercessions with Him." [V. 496.]

[Footnote 103: This collect also is found in the Roman Missal,
as a Prayer at the Post Communion; though it does not appear in
the Breviarium Romanum.]

In the Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, feasts are observed to
the honour of the Virgin Mary, in which the Anglican Church cannot join;
such as the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, and the immaculate conception
of her by her mother. On the origin and nature of these feasts it is not
my intention to dwell. I can only express my regret, that by appointing
a service and a collect commemorative of the Conception of the
Virgin[104] in her mother's womb, and praying that the observance of
that solemnity may procure the votaries an increase of peace, the Church
of Rome has given countenance to a superstition, against which at its
commencement, so late as the 12th century, St. Bernard strongly
remonstrated, in an epistle to the monks of Lyons; a superstition which
has been supported and explained by discussions in no way profitable to
the head or the heart. [Epist. 174. Paris, 1632, p. 1538.]

[Footnote 104: Ut quibus beatae Virginis partus exstitit salutis
exordium, conceptionis ejus votiva solemnitas pacis tribuat
incrementum. H. 445.]

Of all these institutions however in honour of the Virgin, the Feast of
the ASSUMPTION appears to be as it were the crown and the
consummation[105]. This festival {298} is kept to celebrate the
miraculous taking up (assumptio) of the Virgin Mary into heaven. And its
celebration, in Roman Catholic countries, is observed in a manner worthy
a cause to which our judgment would give deliberately its sanction; in
which our feelings would safely and with satisfaction rest on the
firmness of our faith; from joining in which a truly pious mind would
have no ground for inward misgiving, nor for the aspiration, Would it
were founded in truth!

[Footnote 105: "The Assumption of the Virgin Mary is the
greatest of all the festivals which the Church celebrates in her
honour. It is the consummation of all the other great mysteries
by which her life was rendered most wonderful. It is th