The temple A sermon preached at Pauls Cross the fifth of August. 1624. By…The temple A sermon preached at Pauls Crosse the fifth of August. 1624. By…

To say that all the worship done to the Virgin ⟨p. 43⟩mother, redounds to the honour of her Son and God, is a gross falsehood. The Idolatrous Jews might as well have pretended the honour of God, when they worshipped the Queen of heaven. That fanatical vision of theirs, ¹concerning the two ladders that reached up to heaven, while Christ was preparing to judge the world: the one Red, at the top whereof Christ sate: the other white, at the top whereof the Virgin sate and when the Friars could not get up the red ladder of Christ, but evermore tumbled down backward, St. Francis called them up the white ladder of our Lady, and there they were received. Did this make for the honour of Christ, when the red blood of our Saviour is not so able to bring men to heaven, as the white milk of his mother? which must needs be the moral or meaning of it. ²Or the observation of Barrhadius the Jesuit, who made bold to ask Christ, why in his ascension to heaven he did not take his mother along with him; and makes himself this answer: It may be, Lord, for fear lest thy heavenly Court should be in doubt, which of the two they should go first to meet, An tibi Domino suo, an ipsi Dominae suae, whether thee their Lord, or her their Lady: as if it had been well advised of Christ to leave his mother behind him, lest she should share part of his glory. Did this make for the honour of Christ? To choke up the knowledge of God, by preaching that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion, hath ⟨p. 44⟩small colour of honouring God. The ascribing of false miracles to the living or departed Saints, seems to honour God, but sure he will never thank them for it. Saint Augustine being sick, a blind man came to him, expecting that he could miraculously restore his sight: but that good Father sent him away with a check, Doest thou think that if I could cure thee by miracle, that I would not by miracle cure my self?

To say that all the worship done to the Virgin ⟨p. 43⟩mother, redounds to the honour of her Sonne and God, is a grosse falshood. The Idolatrous Iewes might as well haue pretended the honor of God, when they worshipped the Queene of heauen. That fanaticall vision of theirs,