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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93073	Adoniram Byfeild of the last edition. Or, An expostulation with him concerning the book by him lately published, entituled, The reasons presented by the dissenting brethren, &c. But chiefly touching his lame and imperfect narrative of the proceedings of the Committe [sic] for Accomodation at Westminster concerning religion.	H. S.	1648 (1648)	Wing S31; Thomason E443_32; ESTC R204740	4,587	8

Adoniram Byfeild Of the last EDITION OR AN EXPOSTULATION with him concerning the Book by him lately published ENTITULED The Reasons presented by the Dissenting Brethren c. But chiefly touching his lame and imperfect Narretive of the proceedings of the Committe for Accommodation at Westminster concerning Religion LONDON Printed in the Yeer 1648. SIR HAving perused the Book by You newly published under this Title The Reasons presented by the Dissenting Brethren against certain Propositions concerning Presbyteriall Government And the Proofs of them voted by the Assembly of Divines sitting by Authority of Parliament at Westminster Together with the Answer of the Assembly of Divines to those Reasons of Dissent I congratulate your happinesse in being Midwife to such a Work Howbeit I am bold to desire satisfaction in some particulars in your Title page as also in that later peece touching Accommodation upon which all mens eyes you know will in this juncture of time be most intent and in which more care and faithfulnesse would well become such an eminent Scribe hoping your candor and ingenuity will be my shelter against all impotent passions that might raise a storm against me in your breast The Title-page seems to hold out the Trophees of the Dissenters over the Assembly not unlike that of Aeneas over Mezentius in his triumphant addresse to Mars in large Capitals THE REASONS presented by the Dissenting BRETHREN against CERTAIN PROPOSITIONS concerning PRESBYTERIALL GOVERNMENT c. Scilicet Mezenti Ducis exitvias tibi magne tropaeum Bellipotens aptat rorantes sanguine cristas c. But the Answer of the Assembly comes after in a lesser Character and lower rank having but two lines allowed it at the bottom where it sits at the foot of that gorgeous Title upon a little tripod not half an inch broad like a petty in the School that needs a Fescue Now verily I should have thought it more honour for the Assembly to have led the round and that the Title-page should have ran thus THE ANSWER of the ASSEMBLY of DIVINES to the REASONS of the DISSENTING BRETHREN c. who being but 7. might better have been thrust into the Trundle-bed of the two last lines then 50. or 60. men This in my poore conceit at which perhaps your Beard will smile to the hazard of a drie exhalation from beneath had better preserved the reputation of the Assembly if that had been your care Men speak it out aloud that Mr. Byfeild is become if not a down-right Independant yet a strenuous Agitator for that Faction and that he had not kept such an Antichristian thing as a Vicaredge thus long after his illumination but for the accession procured for him while he was Probationer by the Grandees of the Time So that I much fear the world will by this Title page which doth so extreamly cast the scale for the Independents be much confirmed in that opinion of you If you say It is meet that their Reasons which were first offered to the ASSEMBLY should be first set down True in the body of the Book but this is no reason why the Assembly should not have the upper side in the Title-page No man publishing an Answer to Another but in the Frontispice he first gives notice of his Answer if he think it hath the better of his Antagonist as I think you once thought of the Answers of the Assembly to those Troublers of it If you tell me The Printer or Stationer had the ordering of that Title I think you dare not adventure to say so in the light lest it should bring up so much blood into your face as would proclaim the falshood of such a poore excuse What Publisher of a book is so long in travail with any page of it as with the Title If you plead the Order of the Lords which directs to that method I say 1. That if your fellow Convert John Brown and you had so pleased the sense of the Lords might have been so drawn up as the honour of the Assembly might have been better consulted or provided for 2. I do not find you in ought else so punctuall in keeping to their order They say The Reasons against the third Proposition c. You say against certain Propositions They say in reference to that third Proposition as you were say some of credit told openly in the Assembly as well those formerly printed for the use of the Houses as any other Reasons and Answers never formerly printed But you say in effect Reasons against other Propositions as well as against that third for you do accordingly publish them And although you have been observed lately to solicite some Lords for an inlargement or at least for an explanation of that their Order wherein you could not prevail yet have you printed all the rest for which I thank you onely this I say that it is not for you to answer me in the point now between us that you so draw up the Title because you would be punctuall in keeping close to the Lords Order for you have transgressed it in a far greater matter Shall I tell you what some conjecture to be the cause of such a transgression They say you cannot forget how much time those 7. men especially that brazen fac'd peece of impudence that Protestant Jesuite that Antilogorum P●●tifex maximus your dear Brother Philip took up in the Assembly and that had it not been for that passionate and inflexible D. B. his endeavours to put a period to those debates t is verily beleeved those 7. Apocryphal Brethren would have held the Assembly till this time in going over and over and a 1000. times over the same things again Therefore you thought fit to give them so much roome in your forebox in regard they took up so much time and would willingly have taken more in your Assembly I hope it may be pardoned if some other man beside T. R. and E. M. shall print some peece thereof better then they have done although not authorized by Mris Harwards Husband who received no power from you to impower T. R. and E. M. to do what they have done herein already And how comes it to passe that you have agreed to wipe the noses of the other two Scribes of the Assembly with one single Book apeece I have been told that they took ten times more pains in writing Copies for the Parliament in entring the Originals into your Books c. then you have done But if they be your Servants as men say they be 't is not unfit the Master should take the benefit of their work till they be out of their time For my part I could not for a while satisfie my self why you should thus deal with your fellow Scribes till I was better informed of the Reasons which if true are of some weight If they be false I pray undeceive me because I had them from such hands as I am apt at present to beleeve them It is said that Mr.

Byfeild hath a lean Vicaredge the very house whereof cost him more then the whole is worth and he was to make use of such friends to procure an Augmentation as were likely to carry it Hereupon he had the wit to apply himself to Mr. Solicitor who by good hap had a Maydservant to put off to a young Stationer who had as little to begin with as the Mayd perhaps lesse The Sollicitor was willing to gratifie Mr. Byfeild in his suit if Mr. Byfeild could finde out any thing in the Assembly that might be beneficiall to Harward Mr. Byfeild told him there was nothing in the Assembly unlesse those Reasons and Answers and Papers since by him published Hereupon the Solicitor seconded Mr. Byfeilds Petition which was preferred in the House of Commons by the new German Bishop of Foolham whereby an 100 li per annum was setled on Mr. Byfeld and the other businesse was so discreetly managed that the Lords made an Order for printing of these things now made publick And there went the Hare away from the other two Scribes Howbeit Mr. Byfeild can plead that he received not one penny from the Stationer And Mr. Harward they say can make it out that he received somewhat else with his wife beside this Copy and so I see not why all parties should not be well pleased for they must be But truly truly Sir your faith is much questioned in the businesse of the Accommodation Papers For my part this satisfies me that you do not attest them as you do the rest with a Concordat cum Originali nor indeed could you do otherwise you being no Scribe to that Committee nor alwayes present at the Debates and Orders made therein nor Honest Jeremy neither who had little skill what was rightly reported and what not he being no Member of that Committee if your enumeration of the Divines at pag. the 13th be full Nor could you get any authentick originall but were fain to run up and down among your new friends to get here a paper and there a paper to patch up something as it please the friends to the Dissenters Cause to furnish you by means whereof divers things are wholly omitted and others mangled which makes the whole very imperfect and unsatisfactory to such as have had the happinesse to be acquainted with all the passages of that transaction That I may give you a taste turn to page 17. of those Papers where you shall find these two grosse slips viz. 1. Your Copy runs thus This Paper being read and the day you would have said a good part of the night spent in explaining of it And so you passe on to the Order made in the close of that meeting passing over all those explanations about which so much time was spent But Sir the Dissenters did themselves at last explain sundrie ambiguous termes of their Paper then given in which explanations were taken sillabice in writing at that time and after they had been read to them and owned by them were to be kept by the Chairman and are still extant But the Independents had no reason to desire the publishing of those explanations * therefore herein you had reason to suppresse them in case you had them by you But we hope one day to see them 2. You set down that Order of the Committee Decemb 4 1945. thus It was Ordered that the rest of the Divines Members of the Committee be made a Sub-committee to consider of the Paper of the Dissenting Brethren given in and to meet first between themselves then with the Dissenting Brethren and to prepare somewhat against the next meeting of this Committee c. But here you grosly mutulate For in the originall after those words then with the Dissenting Brethren this clause is added if there shall be cause which you omit for what cause your self best know Sure I am there was a noise all over the Town at that time that when the Sub-Committee of Divines that were to draw an Answer to that Paper presented their thoughts of it to the Committee at their next sitting Dec 15. as you quote the time the Dissenters fell a cavilling at the Sub-Committee for bringing in an Answer before they had met with them according to the Order as you are please to give it us but it was answered out of the Originall Order that the Sub-Committee were not necessarily to give them a meeting because the Order saith it was onely thus if there shall be cause of which the Sub-Committee were best able to judge in reference to themselves This was thought by the Committee to be a good defence of the Sub-Committee And the Dissenters were thereupon ordered to give a R●ply thereunto by the Tuesday senight following Sir these are no small slips in a man so deeply trusted and pretending to so much integrity I could tell you of many more in that last peece which had you faithfully and fully related would have discovered much more to the world of those proceedings then your Dissenting Brethren would be willing that all men should know But if I should here adde any more I should exceed the bounds of a private Letter I am assured that not onely the Scots Commissioners but some of your Assembly were very exact and diligent in taking the whole proceed of that Committee which since as I am informed is faithfully printed in Scotland May I have the happinesse to get any perfect Copy I hope it shall be no Felony nor Treason unlesse such as may be made so by Independent-club law to disabuse the world by making the whole truth to appear to all So wishing you as much faithfulnesse as you need my next wishes shall be that you may be again the same man you were when old Alexander of Scotland was alive and then that you may have as much happinesse as you can desire while you continue in the truth This Sir is the prayer of May 15. 1648. Your very loving Friend H. S. FINIS * They exclude all but their own gang which would if known make them a lean company