A LETTER CONCERNING SEPARATION, Written formerly by a Reverend Author; And recommended to All (especially the truly Christian and Honest-minded) Members of the Separation within this Distracted and Divided Kingdom.  Rom. 16. v. 17. 
Now I beseech you, Brethren, Mark them which cause Divisions, etc.  Judas. 19 
These be they who Separate themselves, Sensual, having not the Spirit.  2. Cor. 13. v. 11. 
— Be of one Mind, live in Peace; and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you.  
London, Printed for W. D. 1681.   

The Publisher to the well-minded Reader.  
THe Demeanour and Language of the Conceited Zealot says, Stand by thyself, come not near to Me, I am Holier than Thou: That of the Pharisee, God I thank thee, that I am not as other men are. The sentiments and expressions of both combined, make one Modern Separatist. Saint Paul's Dialect on the other hand is, We beseech you, Brethren, mark them which cause Divisions, and avoid them. And his motive is founded on this Reason, That he who Loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen (and can hebe said to love his Brother who separates and divides from him?) how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Our Blessed Saviour has therefore (who best might) umpired the business, and assured you, That by this shall all men know you to be his Disciples, if you love one another. In the name, and for the sake of our Common Saviour, I call upon you my Brethren of the Separation (unless you value them who abuse the Holy name of Jesus more than Jesus himself) That you weigh and duly ponder our Blessed Saviour's words, and study the Advice of his Apostle St. Paul. And you will then upon mature calm thoughts not be so ready to inveigh against the MISCHIEF of IMPOSITIONS, as to abhor the UNREASONABLENESS of SEPARATION. In a word, since Charity is the most extensive, and Humility the foundation of all Christian Graces; whether it be more equal, That the Established Laws Ecclesiastical should veil to private humour, or you our brethren of the Separation, kindly and modestly submit yourselves to these Laws, let your own private Consciences be the Sole Judges.   

To Mr. Smith and Mr. Rob. Ringleaders of the late Separation at Amsterdam.  
Ep. 1. Setting forth their injury done to the Church, the Injustice of your Cause, and Fearfulness of their Offence: Censuring and Advising them.  
WE hear of your SEPARATION, and Mourn; yet not so much for You, as for your Wrong: You could not do a greater Injury to your Mother than to fly from Her. Say she were Poor, Ragged, Weak; say she were Deformed; yet she is not Infectious: Or if she were, yet she is yours. This were Cause enough for you to Lament her, to Pray for her, to labour for her Redress; not to Avoid Her: This unnaturalness is shameful, and more heinous in you, who are reported, not Parties in this Evil, but Authors: Your Flight is not so much as your Misguidance. Plead not: This fault is past excuse. If we should All follow You, this were the way, of a Church (as you plead) imperfect, to make no Church; and of a Remedy to make a Disease. Still the fruit of our Charity to you is, besides our Grief, Pity. Your Zeal of Truth has misled you, and you others; a Zeal, if Honest, yet Blindfolded, and led by Self-will.  
Oh that you loved Peace but half so well as Truth! then this Breach had never been; and you that are yet Brethren had been still Companions. Go out of Babylon, you say; the Voice not of Schism, but of Holiness. Know you where you are? Look about you, I beseech you, look behind you; and see if we have not left it upon our Backs. She herself feels, and sees that she is Abandoned; and complains to all the World, that we have not only forsaken, but spoiled Her; and yet you say, COME OUT OF BABYLON.  
And except you will be willingly Blind, you may see the Heaps of her Altars, the Ashes of her Idols, the Ruins of her Monuments, the Condemnation of her Errors, the Revenge of her Abominations. And are we Yet in Babylon? Is Babylon Yet among us?  
Where are the main Buildings of that ACCURSED CITY? Those high and proud Towers of that Universal Hierarchy, Infallible Judgement, Dispensations with the Laws of God, and sins of Men: Disposition of Kingdoms and Deposion of Princes, parting stakes with God in our Conversion, through Freedom of Will; in our Salvation, through the Merit of our Works? Where are those Rotten heaps (rotten, not through Age, but Corruption of Transubstantiating of Bread, Adoring of Images, multitude of Sacraments, power of Indulgencies, necessity of Confession, profit of Pilgrimages, constrained and approved Ignorance, unknown Devotions? Where are those deep Vaults (if not Mines) of Pennances and Purgatories, and whatsoever else hath been devised by those Popelings, whether profitable or glorious, against the Lord and his Christ? Are they not all razed, and buried in the Dust? Hath not the Majesty of her Gods, like as was done to Mithra and Serapis, been long agone offered to the public laughter of the Vulgar? What is this but to go, yea, to run (if not to fly) out of Babylon? But as every man is an hearty Patron of his own Actions, and it is a desperate Cause that hath no Plea) you allege our comorting in Ceremonies, and say, still we tarry in the Suburbs. Grant that these were as ill as an Enemy can make them, or can pretend them: You are deceived, if you think the Walls of Babylon stand upon Ceremonies.  
Substantial Errors are both her Foundation and Frame.  
These Ritual observations are not so much as Tile and Reed, rather like to some Fan upon the Roof; for Ornament, more than use: not parts of the Building but necessary Appendances. If you take them otherwise, you wrong the Church; if thus, and yet depart, you wrong it and yourself: As if you would have persuaded Righteous Lot not to stay in Zoar, because it was so near Sodom. I fear, if you had seen the Money-changers in the Temple, however you would have prayed or taught there: Christ did it, not forsaking the place but scourging the Offenders: And this is the Valour of Christian Teachers: To oppose Abuses, not to run away from them: Where shall you not thus find Babylon? Would you have run from Geneva because of her Wafers? Or from Corinth, for her disordered Love Feasts? Either run out of the World, or your flight is Vain. If experience of Change teach you not, that you shall find your Babylon every where, return not. Compare the place you have left, with that you have chosen: Let not fear of seeming to repent over-soon, make you partial. Lo, there a common harbour of all Opinions, of all Heresies; if not a mixture. Here you drew in the free and clear Air of the Gospel, without that odious composition of Judaisme, Arrianism, Anabaptism: There you live in the stench of these and more. You are unworthy of pity, if you will approve your misery. Say, if you can, That the Church of England (if she were not yours) is not an Heaven to Amsterdam. How is it then, that our Gnats are harder to swallow, than their Camels? And that whilst all Christendom magnifies our happiness and applauds it; your handful alone, so detests our Enormities, that you despise our Graces? See whether in this you make not God a loser.  
The thanks of all his favours is lost, because you want more: and in the mean time, who gains by this Sequestration, but Rome and Hell? How do they insult in this Advantage, that our Mother's own Children condemn her for Unclean, that we are daily weakened by our Divisions, that the rude multitude hath so palpable a mortive to distrust us? Sure, you intended it not: but if you had been their hired Agent you could not have done our Enemies greater service.  
The God of Heaven open your Eyes, that you may see the unjustice of that Zeal which hath transported you: and turn your heart to an endeavour of all Christian satisfaction: otherwise, your Souls shall find too late, that it had been a Thousand times better to swallow a Ceremony, than to rend a Church: yea, That even Whoredoms and Murders shall abide an easier Answer than SEPARATION. I have done if only I have advised you of that fearful threatening of the Wise man. The Eye that mocketh his FATHER, and despiseth the Government of his MOTHER, The Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out, and the young Eagles eat it.  
FINIS.