THE WORKS OF GEORGE BULL, D. D. LORD BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S, COLLECTED AND REVISED BY THE REV. EDWARD BURTON, М. А. LATE STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH. TO WHICH IS PREFIXED THE LIFE OF BISHOP BULL, BY ROBERT NELSON, ESQ. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. PREFACE. PREVIOUS to stating the plan and the contents of the present edition of the Works of bishop Bull, some account may be given of the former editions of his works, whether printed separately or collectively. In 1670 he published at London the Harmonia Apostolica in a small 4to. volume. It was reprinted at Basle in 1740. in 8vo. In 1676 he published at London the Examen Censure and Apologia in one volume 4to. In 1685 he published at Oxford the Defensio Fidei Nicænæ in one volume 4to. It has been reprinted at Amsterdam 2. In 1694 he published at Oxford the Judicium Ecclesiæ Catholicæ, in one volume 8vo. In 1703 the four preceding works were published at London by John Ernest Grabe, in one volume folio, together with a new tract, Primitiva et Apostolica Traditio, &c. * The 9th chapter of the second section is printed at the end of the fourth volume of the Benedictine edition of Origen. b The bishop of Salisbury (in the preface to a work published in the present year) speaks of the university of Oxford having republished Bull's Harmonia Apostolica with his whole works. The bishop probably alluded to Grabe's edition, forgetting that it was printed, not in Oxford, but in London. The Harmonia Apostolica was never printed at Oxford till now; and the university never published any edition of Bull's works before the present In 1705 Dr. George Hickes published a work in two volumes, entitled, Several Letters which passed between Dr. G. H. and a popish Priest, &c. In the first volume, p. 225, &c. he inserted a work which was written by Dr. Bull, entitled, The Corruptions of the Church of Rome, &c. an account of which may be seen in Nelson's Life of Bull, p. 329. Dr. Hickes observes in his preface, that an imperfect abstract of this work had stolen into print, but that he now published it with the author's consent. I have not been able to meet with this imperfect abstract; but in the History of the Works of the Learned, 1703, p. 610. I find notice of a book with the following title, The Wonders of the Bishop of Meaux upon the perusal of Dr. Bull's Book considered and answered; and it is not improbable, that this is the work alluded to by Dr. Hickes . The Corruptions of the Church of Rome had apparently a rapid sale; for I have seen a second edition of it printed in 1707 in 12mo, a third in 1708, and a fourth in 1714 in 8vo. In all these later edi one. c I have seen notice in a London Catalogue of the Corruptions of the Church of Rome bearing date 1697. But this must certainly be a mistake, since Bossuet's letter, which called forth this reply, was not written till 1700. |