Q. What is the meaning of the Beads?A. It is a devotion, consisting of a certain number of our fathers and hail Maries, directed for the obtaining of blessings from God, through the prayers and intercession of our Lady.

Q. But is it not highly absurd, that, according to the common way of saying the beads, there are repeated ten hail Maries for one our father? -A. It would be absurd indeed, and blasphemous too, if the meaning of this were to signify that the blessed Virgin is either more powerful or more merciful than her son, or that we have a greater confidence in her than in him; but we are far from any such notions.

Q. Why then is the hail Mary repeated so much oftener in the beads than the Lord's prayer?-A. Because the beads being a devotion particularly instituted to commemorate the incarnation of Christ, and to honour him in his blessed mother, it was thought proper to repeat so much the oftener that prayer, which is particularly adapted to these ends. In the mean time, it may be proper to take notice, 1. That if in the beads there be ten hail Maries said for one our father, in the mass and office of the Church, almost all the prayers are directed to God alone. 2. That every hail Mary, both by the nature of the prayer, and the intention of the Church, is directed more to the honour of the son than of the mother, as well because the Church, in ho

nouring the mother, has principally in view the honour of the son, as also because this prayer particularly relates to the incarnation of Christ; and if withal it begs her prayers, then she is only desired to pray for us.

Q. What is the meaning of the Rosary?-A. The rosary is a method of saying the beads, so as to meditate upon the incarnation, passion and resurrection of Christ; and it is divided inte three parts, each part consisting of five mysteries, to be contemplated during the repeating of five decads or tens upon the beads. The first five are called the five joyful mysteries, viz. the Annunciation, when our Lord was conceived in his mother's womb; the visitation, when the blessed Virgin visited her kinswoman St. Elizabeth, and by her was declared blessed among women, &c.; the nativity of our Lord, his presentment in the temple, together with the purification of the blessed Virgin, and his being found in the temple in the midst of the doctors, &c. The five next are called the dolorous and sorrowful mysteries, as having relation to the passion of Christ, and are, his prayer and agony in the garden, his being scourged at the pillar, his crowning with thorns, his carriage of his cross, and his crucifixion and death. The five last are called the five glorious mysteries, viz. the resurrection of our Lord, his ascension into heaven, the coming of the Holy Ghost, the assumption of the blessed Virgin, and her coagmenation, to,

gether with the eternal glory of the saints in the kingdom of heaven.*

Of the Invocation of Angels and Saints.-Q. What is the doctrine and practice of the Catholic Church, with regard to the invocation of angels and saints?-A. We hold it to be pious and profitable to apply ourselves to them in the way of desiring them to pray to God for us; but not so as to address ourselves to them as if they were the authors or disposers of pardon, grace, or salvation, or as if they had any power to help us independently of God's good will and pleasure.

Q. But, in some of the addresses made to the saints and angels, I find petitions for mercy, aid, or defence; what say you?-A. The meaning of those addresses, as far as they are authorized by the Church, is no other than to beg mercy of the saints in this sense, that they would pity and compassionate our misery, and would pray for us. In like manner, when we beg their aid and defence, we mean to beg the aid and defence of their prayers; and that the angels to whom God has given a charge over us, would assist us and defend us against the angels of darkness; and this is no more

* Catholic Christian instructed, page 234, et seq.

than what the Protestant Church asks in the collect for Michaelmas day, praying that as the holy angels always serve God in heaven, so by his appointment they may succour and defend us upon earth.*

Of the Use and Veneration of Relicks in the Catholic Church.-Q. What do you mean by relicks?-A. The dead bodies or bones of the saints we call relicks; as also whatever other things have belonged to them in their mortal life.

Q. And what is the doctrine and practice of the Church with regard to these things?-A. We keep such things as these with a religious respect and veneration, for the sake of those to whom they have belonged, but principally for the sake of him to whom the saints themselves belonged; that is, for the greater glory of God, who is glorious in his saints, and to whom is referred all the honour that is given to his saints.

Q. What reason has the Church for shewing this respect to the dead bodies or bones of the saints?-A. 1. Because they have been the victims, and the living temples of God, in which His Divine Majesty has, in a particular manner, inhabited, and which he has sanctified by his presence and grace; and, therefore, if God

* Catholic Christian, page 224.

required of Moses, Exod. iii. 5. and of Joshua, Josh. v. 15. to loose their shoes from off their feet, in respect to the ground on which they stood, as being rendered holy by his presence, or that of his angels, we must think that it is agreeable to His Divine Majesty, that we should testify the like honour to that venerable earth of the bodies of his saints, which he in such an extraordinary manner has sanctified, by abiding in them as in his temples. 2. We know the bodies of the saints are pre-ordained to a happy resurrection and eternal glory, and upon this account also deserve our respect. 3. The bodies and other relicks of the saints have been and are daily the instruments of the power of God for the working of iunumerable miracles; which God, who is truth and sanctity itself, would never have effected, if it had not been agreeable to him that we should honour and respect these precious remnants of his servants. 4. The relicks and shrines of the martyrs and other saints serve very much to encourage the faithful to an imitation of their virtues, and to help to raise their souls from the love of things present and temporal to the love of things eternal."*

The following account of the offices of Cardinals, Deacons, &c. is extracted from a very old work, bearing every mark of authenticity and correctness. It will afford considerable inform

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* Catholic Christian, &c.