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.

Nullâ ••o Deus perinde atque corporis aerumna conciliatur.

Nazian.

A Mo••••ning spirit, and an af∣flicted body, are great instru∣ments of reconciling God to a sinner, and they alwayes dwell at the gates of Atonement, & restitution and Bo∣naventure in the life of Christ reports, that the holy Virgin mother said to E∣lizabeth, that grace doth not descend into the soul of a man but by prayer and affliction. Besides a delicate and prosperous life is hugely contrary to the hopes of a blessed eternity. And certainly hee that sadly considers the portion of Dives, and remembers that the account which Abraham gave him for the unavoidableness of his torment was, because hee had his good things in this life, must in all reason with trembling, run from a course of banquets, and faring deli∣ciously every day, as being a dange∣rous estate, and a consignation to an evil greater than all danger, the pains and torment of unhappy souls. So then hee that desires to dye well, and

happily, above all things must bee carefull that hee do not live a soft delicate, and voluptuous life; but a life severe, holy, and under the Dis∣cipline of the Gross. No man wants cause of tears, and daily sorrow. Let every man consider what hee feels, and acknowledge his misery; let him confess his sin, and chastise it; let him long and sigh for the joyes of hea∣ven; let him tremble and fear be∣cause hee hath deserved the pains of hell; let him commute his eternal fear, with a temporal suffering, pre∣venting Gods judgement by passing one of his own; let him groan for the labours of his pilgrimage, and the dangers of his warfare, and by that time, hee hath summed up all these labours, and duties, and contingen∣cies, all the proper causes, instru∣ments, and acts of sorrow, hee will finde, that for a secular joy and wan∣tonness of spirit, there are not left many void spaces of his life.