Catholique divinity: or, The most solid and sententious expressions of the primitive doctors of the Church. With other ecclesiastical, and civil authors: dilated upon, and fitted to the explication of the most doctrinal texts of Scripture, in a choice way both for the matter, and the language; and very useful for the pulpit, and these times. / By Dr. Stuart, dean of St. Pauls, afterwards dean of Westminster, and clerk of the closet to the late K. Charles.

Sicut invisibilibus est Sol, in intelligi∣bilibus est Deus.

Nazian.

VVHen wee consider the libe∣rality of our King, the bounty of our God to man in Christ, it is species ingratitudinis, it is a degree of ingratitude; nay, it is a degree of forgetfulness, to pretend to remember his benefits so, as to reckon them, for they are innumerable.

Bonitas Dei ad extra, liberalit as est, it is the expressing of the School, and of much use, that God is essential goodness, within doors, in himself, but ad extra, when hee comes abroad, when this interior goodness is pro∣duced into action, then all Gods goodness is liberality. Deus est vo∣luntas omnipotens, is excellently said by St. Bernard, God is all Almighti∣ness, all Power, but hee might bee so, and wee never the better. Therefore hee is voluntas omnipotens, a power digested into a will, as willing as able to do us all, all good. What good?

Receive some drops of it in St. Ber∣nards own Manna, his own Honey, Creans mentes ad se participandum, so good, as that hee hath first given us souls capable of him, and made us so, partakers of the Divine Nature; Vivificans ad sentiendum, so good, as that hee hath quickned those souls, and made them sensible of having received him; for grace is not grace to mee, till it make mee know that I have it, aliciens ad appetendum, so good, as that hee hath given th••t soul an appetite, and an holy hunger, and thirst to take in more of him; for I have no grace, till I would have more; and then, Dilatans ad capiendum, so good, as that hee hath dilated, and inlarged that soule to take in as much of God as hee will.

And lest the soul should lose any of this by unthankfulness, God is kinde even to the unthankful, sayes God himself which is a degree of goodness, in which God seldome is; nay, in which God scarce looks to bee imitated, to bee kinde to the un∣thankfull. But if the whole space to the Firmament were filled with

sand, and wee had before us Clavius his number, how many thousands would bee; if all that space were filled with water, and so joyned the waters above, with the waters be∣low the Firmament, and wee had the number of all those drops of wa∣ter; and then had every single sand, and every single drop multiplied by the whole number of both, wee were still short of numbring the benefits of God, as God; but then, of God in Christ, infinitely, super-infinitely short.

To have been once nothing, and to bee now co-heire with the Son of God, is such a circle, such a com∣pass, as that no revolutions in this world, to rise from the lowest to the highest, or to fall from the highest to the lowest, can bee called or thought any segment, any arch, any point, in respect of this circle; To have once been nothing, and now to bee co-heires with the Son of God, that Son of God, who if there had been but one soule to have been sa∣ved, would have dyed for that; nay,

if all souls had been to bee saved, but one, and that that only had sinned, he would not have been contented with all the rest, but would have dyed for that. And there is the goodness, the liberality of our King, our God, our Christ, our Jesus.