A pleasant purge for a Roman Catholike to evacuate his evill humours consisting of a century of polemicall epigrams, wherein divers grosse errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome are discovered, censured, refuted, in a facetious yet serious manner / by William Prynne ...

On, and against, Popish Pictures of the Vir∣gin Mary as a Queene, sitting on a Throne with a Triple Crowne on her head, and holding Christ, painted like a sucking Infant, in her Armes; and on the Reliques of her milke, which they keepe and shew.

FIe, Mary, fie; what give sucke to a Baby? It is not decent, fit for Queene, nor Lady: With them it's out of fashion; thou wilt shame Thy selfe with these, they will thee taxe and blame: Wer't thou no Lady, Queene, as heretofore, Thou migh'st doe this; but now not doe it more Since Queene and Lady too: Thy childe growes great Or old enough to be wean'd from the Teat. He hath suckt sixeteene hundred yeares and more, Thirty mens ages, shall he ne're give o're?

Shall he be still a suckling, or a foole To sucke so long? tis time he were at Schoole. Others give sucke but for one yeare, or two; Thou, sixteene hundred yeares, what doest thou doe Thus to turmoyle thy selfe? and all in vaine, He doth a little Infant yet remaine, Where some not halfe so old as he, have knowne Ten Generations unto old men growne. Sure thy milke, I doubt, is very bad, Thy Babe ere this might else have beene a Lad; Out of his coates, at least; No age hath knowne One sucke so long, and yet so little growne. No doubt, if noted, tis a Miracle Whose strangenesse doth all Wonders else excell. But (blessed Virgin) can thy milke be ill, Sith nought buts Goodnesse all thy members fill? This cannot be the reason, milke is scant More likely, with thee; and thy Babe doth want Milke, that hee thrives not; and hee'le sucke no o∣ther Nurse thou wouldst put him to, but thee his Mo∣ther. Yet, since I finde, thou hast much Milke to spare, As Hogges-heads of its Reliques now declare t Kept fresh and sweete, by sundry Priests and Fryers (And tis thine own true milke, else they are lyers;) The want of milke is not the cause why he Growes not, there must some other reason be: How these thy milke have got it is not knowne, Belike they stole it, and thy Babe's not growne, Because these cheates each day commit High-Trea∣son In stealing of his milke: Loe here's the reason: No milke they shew, but i'ts fresh, sweete, not sowre; No doubt they steale thy milke from thee each houre

Else it would wast, grow stale, soure, putrifie As other milke; such Theeves deserve to dye At least, for stealing thy Babes milke so long, Else he ere this had growne more great and strong; Why Rome hath so much Virgins milke to shew, And Christ is yet a Babe in part you know. But can such theft be without her consent? No sure; I feare his Mother is content To keepe him still an Infant, that she may The better rule, and make him her obey: Were he but growne once unto mans estate, Her Regency would be quite out of date: Men would no longer to her pray, and say, v Command thy Sonne, make him thee to obey, Now shew thy selfe a Mother, would no more Be heard, few would her ayde, or grace implore, But his alone, whom Papists now passe by Because a Babe, and worship, honour, Eye His Mother more than him; when as the Wise Men from the East, thex Babe did onely prise; They ran in Pilgrimage to him; they fall Downe and odore him, not her; present all Their gifts to him alone, but ne're once bent Their knees her to salute in Complement, Much lesse her to adore, for ought we read: Rome will not here the Wisemens footesteps tread. Nor suffer Christ to mans estate to grow, Sith this her Church, Monkes, faith would over∣throw. Romes Ladies Prayers, her Primers, Offices, Houres, Masse-bookes, Psalters, and such Blasphe∣mies, Must be casheer'd then, and her New faith too; Most Monkes, Nunnes, Fryers it would quite undo; To hinder Christ from doing all this ill He must be kept a little sucking still.

Meane time his mother rules al, weares the Crown, And he (poove Infant) is depos'd, kept down; Least this should be forgot, or men it doubt Rome though it fit to Paint, Print, set it out, In all her Churches, Psalters, Bookes we find•• By Statues, Pictures, all of this to minde; Where Mary sits as Lady, yea, as Queene Of Heav'n upon a Royall Throne, betweene Two Angels, wearing a great Triple Crowne, Vpon her head, to adde to her renowne; With Christ a little Babe, held in her Armes Or Lap, which she so over-rules and charmes With threates, or flatt'ries, that he there still lyes. For sundry ages, and yet never cryes, Though thus abus'd, kept from his Crowne and right So long; perchance his Mother doth affright Him with the Rod, and should he but once cry For justice, she would whip him instantly. But Mary thou art full of innocence, Not guilty of these crimes; its Romes offence Thus to abuse thee, and thy Sonne, and make Him still a Babe; thou from him thus to take His rule, Crowne, Kingdome: O Sweete Jesus thou Art very patient, and to anger slow; Else thou couldst never suffer Rome so long, Thee and thy blessed Mother thus to wong With these Blasphemous Pictures, Images, False Reliques, Legends, and Idolatries: No doubt thou wilt avenge these in due time; Meane while let me her censure, in this Rime. Its not thy person, nor thy Mothers, I Here lash, taxe, censure, but Romes Blasphemie; I onely jeare, discover to her Eyes Her damned follies, and Idolatries In these her Pictures, Reliques, that she may

Discerne, renounce, and cast them cleane away. Lord cleare her eyes by this, that she may see Her cursed follies, and them henceforth flee. Beholding thee, not as a small suckling, But as her onely crowned Lord and King: Not as thou once waste, but as thou art now; Then all their knees to thee alone shall bow, Not unto Mary, who is grieved sore, To see Rome thee neglect, and her adore.

Notes

• s

  Luk. 1. 28.
• t

  See Tho. Beacons Re∣liques of Rome, Vol. 3. fol. 181. b. 184. a. 186. a 193. a. Declaration du Pere Basil. p. 85. There is a Chapple na∣med S. Laict in Reimes where the Ladies Milke is kept.
• If the conse∣crated Bread and wine, which Rome holds, to be the very glori∣fied Body and Blood of Christ, will putrifie, mould and corrupt if over-long re∣served, as ex∣perience wit∣nesseth, and all Romish D•••• grant: then much more the Virgins milke: unlesse they make it better than Christs very body and blood.
• v

  Impera Fi∣lio tuo Monstra Te esse Ma∣trem. Yet re∣maining in all their Houres of our Lady and Masse-bookes and sundry Manuals of their Devoti∣on, intimating Christ now in state of Glory to be still un∣der his Mo∣thers Cōmand. See B. Vsh. Ans. to the Iesuits Chal. p. 478. to 496.
• x

  Mat. 2 ••. 2. 9. 11.
• Thus is She pictured not onely among Papist; abroad, but at home to, and such a Statue of her hath beene lately set up over the Porch of S. Maries Church in Ox∣ford to the great scandall of Protestants, and obdurati∣on of Papists.