The Book that is here presented ye, is a Translation from the Italian Copy, Printed at Venice in 1685. The first Man that got it, with difficulty, out of the Authour's hands, and then had it Printed at Rome in 1675, with all the solemnity of approbations, was Fryer John of St. Mary, who styles himself Provincial; and he speaks very fine things of it, and he had so heartily read it over, that the impression which it made in his Mind, gave him the exact cue and knack of that sort of Language which the Author uses, when he throws himself headlong into darkness and obscurity: And when this Man had recommended the Book to the sincere Reader, after his way; the next that appears to give a Grace to it, is no less a Man, than the Most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord, the Archbishop of Rhegium, who tells us how many great Offices in the Church he had pass'd through; he says in his Approbation of the Book, that tis a hard matter to make a judgement of it, without some experience of the things contained in it: And that how high soever the secret of it be above all humane Discourse, yet they are not only not contrary to the right dictates of Reason, but altogether conformable to it: Which is as fitting a Preface to some things in the Book, as any man in the World could have made with the Study of Seven Years: First, to say that these sovereign Secrets, which the Book treats of, are above all human Discourse; and then in the very next words, to say they are conformable altogether to the dictates of Reason: as if the dictates of Reason and human Discourse had entered into a Combination never to come to a right understanding of one another.

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