WARNING

To the

Members of the United Flemish, German, and Frisian Congregation in AMSTERDAM.

Worthy and beloved in CHRISTO Christ, since we the undersigned have learned to our regret that yesterday, being the 13th of this month, it was proposed by some of our fellow ministers, both before and after noon, in their separate meeting place, that they had decided shortly to Baptize some persons, to observe the Lord’s Supper separately, and consequently to proceed with the election of Ministers; and that to this end they have already begun, and further intend, to record the names of the members of our Congregation whom they have specifically approached and invited for this purpose: And since these are matters of very grave consequence, whereby the Body of the Congregation would notoriously be divided, and the rift, which has already been indicated by them, is—to our sorrow and the offense of many peace-loving persons, both within and outside this City—being completely confirmed and established: (if, however, rending and separating is a work that is highly displeasing to God the Lord, full of evil fruits and sad consequences, as this was very well noted, heartily bewailed, mourned, and lamented by our Forefathers in the past)

Therefore, we have deemed it necessary out of duty to faithfully warn Your Excellencies by means of this letter, so that you do not inadvertently commit a transgression before God the Lord and against your neighbor; and by ignorance and imprudence (without having properly understood and examined everything on both sides beforehand) involve yourselves in such difficulties, over which you would complain too late thereafter.

Unchristian rending and separating is often driven by immoderate zeal and factionalism by some, and followed by others, who are simpler and do not correctly perceive the evil that underlies it, through lack of reflection: But when seen for what it is, it is an open work of the flesh, and highly displeasing in the eyes of the Lord.

Olive-branch. Year 1636, p. 62. Year 1539, pp. 64, 65, 66. Year 1661, p. 55.

Insofar as it not only tends toward the desecration of the name of God, slander and disgrace over the Congregations, and to great offense and scandal to the world in general, as has been lamented by our Forefathers with these words long ago; but also, through strife and factionalism against one another, imprints an irreconcilable hatred and aversion in the mind: which even penetrates into the bones of children and grandchildren, of which contemporary experience, with regard to the divided Doopgesinde Mennonites/Anabaptists, provides sufficient proof. Among whom one sees that the descendants persist in division and aversion, because many of their Forefathers foolishly quarreled among themselves.

Once the schism is established, it generally goes from bad to worse: where previously peaceful and good-natured people were nurtured within the Congregations, the mind of one is then set against the other through partiality. And in place of the joy formerly taken in the growth of the number of pious members and the increase of a holy life, one is consumed and devoured by the other through mutual envy and jealousy.

Besides the fact that one generally sins not a little before God by rending and separating through rash judgment, separating oneself from those who have not separated from God and Christ. Upon which the makers of the Olive-branch A reference to a collection of Mennonite peace declarations., looking well and according to Scripture, have said: It must first be explicitly condemned in the Lord’s Word, that which the Congregation is to judge; without that, no members are able to cut off a single member (even if it did not suit them well), nor is the Congregation able to divide itself from one, or one Congregation to separate from another of its like; unless it is proven to them beforehand, certainly and infallibly, that those from whom they would separate have first separated from God and Christ (by abandoning the Saving Faith or through open lapse into carnal works): For Divine and natural love, besides the Lord's Word, teaches otherwise.

All of which, having been well weighed by Your Excellencies, we wish to hope and trust that everyone who seeks to walk carefully before the Lord will, along with us, be able to understand that instead of judging, separating, and rending apart, it will be most Christian and safest for our own souls' salvation to look for means that might tend toward mutual reconciliation and pacification. As we are, on our part, entirely prepared, and have on several occasions proposed and offered, that we are inclined to replace and settle the arisen disputes in love through heartfelt forgiveness of all that has happened before, and through Christian forbearance. To which end we have also now once again earnestly requested our fellow ministers to appear, along with us, at the ministers' chamber. So that we might speak about this in a friendly manner with one another: in the hope that some means might still be found for satisfaction, by which these and similar difficulties could be stopped, and further estrangement prevented. In Amsterdam, July 14, 1664.

Jeye Jeyesz.
Govert van den Wijngaert.
Galenus Abrahamsz.
David Spruyt.
Gerrit Koeck.
Pieter van Loker.

David Rutgers.
Frans Beuns.
Willem Spruyt.
Jan Arentsz.
Lenard van Beeck.
Galtie Grates.

Amsterdam, By Pieter Arentsz. Bookseller in the Beurstraat / at the sign of the three turnips. 1664. Received on Tuesday, July 15 ...?