n 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, suggest it to every tongue,
and make all celebrate it with me. Mary! sacred name, under which no one
{387} should despair. Mary! sacred name, often assaulted, but always
victorious. Mary! it shall be my life, my strength, my comfort! Every
day shall I envoke IT AND THE DIVINE NAME OF JESUS. The Son will awake
the recollection of the mother, and the mother that of the Son. JESUS
AND MARY! this is what my heart shall say at the last hour, if my tongue
cannot; I shall hear them on my death bed,--they shall be wafted on my
expiring breath, and I with them, to see THEM, know THEM, bless and love
THEM for eternity. Amen."

There may, perhaps, be a reasonable ground for our hoping that these are
not the sentiments entertained by the enlightened