An Answer to John Robinson of Leyden: By a Puritan Friend, Now First Published From a Manuscript of A. D. 1609

Excerpt from An Answer to John Robinson of Leyden: By a Puritan Friend, Now First Published From a Manuscript of A. D. 1609
The manuscript of which the complete text is here published for the first time is catalogued as MS. Jones 30, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, where it has lain for over two hundred years. The book is a neat little volume, perfectly preserved, containing one hundred and fifty-eight written pages, and is bound in limp vellum delicately ornamented with gilt. From the author's "Advertisement" we learn that this is not the original manuscript, but a contemporary copy (containing one additional main section), evidently made for the author before the Answer was sent to John Robinson at Leyden, and not long after the original composition. The transcript is anonymous and undated. The copyist wrote an unusually fine, clear hand for the period, and executed his work with the greatest care. Toward the end the handwriting is much finer than at the beginning. The author's prefatory note, which he styles "An Advertisement of the Answerer servinge for Introduction," is in his own hand. He has also carefully indicated in the margin which sections are quoted from Robinson, and which are his answer, has added one or two references, and corrected the spelling of a few words.
The author gave the transcript no special title - a circumstance which suggests that it was not intended for publication - but on the back of the binding he wrote a few words, now partly illegible. They are probably:
An Ans[er]
To Mr. Robinson MS.
Inside the back cover the author also wrote the following instructions, presumably for the messenger to whom he entrusted the manuscript, "This booke is to bee sent eyther to Readinge immediately [i.e., direct] or by way of London by Mr. Thurlbie meanes who dwells at the Black Boy in Southwark."
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