ADVERTISEMENTS TO THE READER. UNDERSTAND, good reader, that, in all these passages following, I have brought in C. Bellarm. speaking in his own words; except in some few plain references, where I mention him in the third person. 2. That the edition of C. Bellarmin which I have followed, and quoted in every page, is that in octavo, (the commonest, I think) set forth at Ingolstadt, from the press of Adam Sartorius, in the year M. D. XCIX. 3. That all those authors, which thou seest named over the head of every section, are Papists of note: whose quarrels C. Bellarmin confesseth. 4. That such great Doctors could not be singular in their judgments; but must needs, in all probability, (which yet is not confessed) be attended with many followers, in every point of variance. Every master hath the favour of his own school. The sides taken by their scholars is not more secret than likely. 5. That one Doctor Pappus, a learned German, hath undertaken the like task; but somewhat unperfectly. For my 303 Contradictions, he hath noted but 237. The edition followed by him was not the same, and therefore his trust could not be so helpful to me. Besides, that two or three of Card. Bellarmin's works are since published. 6. That I have willingly omitted divers small differences, which, if I had regarded number, might have caused the sum to swell yet higher. 7. That thou mayest not look to find all these acknowledged differences main and essential. All religion consists not of so many stones in her foundation. It is enough, that deep and material dissensions are intermingled with the rest; and that scarce any point is free from some. 8. That Card. Bellarmin acknowledges those dissensions only, which fall into the compass of his own Controversies (if all those): omitting all others. For instance: of all those sixty and two differences in the matter of Penance, which I a Contradictiones Doctorum nunc-Romanæ Ecclesia; indice et teste R. Bellarmino. Cum præf. Joh. Pappi. Argent: 1597. 4to.-A. have here gathered out of Navarre and Fr. à Victoria, he hath not confessed above five or six; so that, by the same proportion, whereas three hundred and three Contradictions are acknowledged, there cannot but be many hundreds wittingly by him concealed. Gen. xi. 7. Venite igitur descendamus, et confundamus ibi linguam eorum; ut non audiat unusquisque vocem proximi sui : atque ita divisit eos Dominus, ex illo loco, in universas terras; et cessaverunt ædificare civitatem; et idcirco vocatum est nomen ejus Babel, &c. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER. (Prefixed by the Author to a subsequent Edition.) THE reader may please to take notice, that, in the former edition, there was added unto this Discourse, a just volume of above Three Hundred Contradictions and Dissensions of the Romish Doctors, under the name of "The Peace of Rome;" which, because it was but a collection out of Bellarmin and Navarre, and no otherwise mine, but as a gatherer and translator, I have here thought good to omit. The PEACE OF ROME was omitted, for the same reason, by Mr. Pratt ; and is now for the first time included in any collection of the Works of Bishop Hall. The original edition is exceedingly rare. For the loan of a copy, as well as for several references and corrections, the Editor is indebted to the Rev. T. P. Pantin, Rector of Westcote, Gloucestershire, and author of "The Novelty of Popery." But for the copy from which the present reprint is taken, as well as for a general revision of the whole work, and the addition of many notes marked " A," he feels much pleasure in expressing his obligations to the Rev. Josiah Allport, Minister of St. James's, Birmingham, and Translator of Bishop Davenant's "Exposition of St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians."-H. |