1706 New York, New Jersey and the Territories depending thereon in The Petition of Vincentius Antonides, Minister of the Holy Humbly sheweth, Gospel, That your Excellency's petitioner, in pursuance of the customs of the Dutch Reformed Church, was called from the Province of Vriesland, where he had a prominent charge, to be the minister of the three villages on the Island of Nassau in this Province under the government of your Excellency. Your petitioner would not have accepted of this charge had he not been assured that the call to him had been issued with your Excellency's knowledge and permission, and which is dated the 23rd of October 1702. He and his wife and children since that date, have been on the voyage for nine months. He has found since their arrival here, that the people of the aforesaid villages are ready to receive him, without decreasing the salary of another minister, and to engage him according to promise: Therefore he humbly requests, that he may be allowed, to enter upon his ministerial duties, for the honor of God, for the service of her Majesty and of your Excellency, and for the edification of many souls. And your petitioner shall ever pray, etc. New York, the 14th of January, 1705/6. V. Antonides. New York, the 16th of May 1706. Translated from the original. Abraham Gouverneur, Interpreter and Translator. The above copy agrees with its original; which we, the under signed, testify. Gualtherus du Bois, Eccl. at New York. V. Antonides, Eccl. at Midwout, etc. [This is a retranslation from the Dutch translation into English.] 1706 CHURCHES OF KINGS COUNTY, LONG ISLAND. 1706, Jan. 28. Written Offer of Peace by the Consistories of Long Island etc. To the members of the Dutch Reformed Congregation at Our Very Dear Brethren and Sisters in Jesus Christ: We, the Consistories of the three villages named above, Breukelen, Vlakbosch and New Amersfort, met at Breukelen on the 28th of January 1706. We invoked the Lord's name, to prove our unfeigned love, and our desire for mutual peace and harmony among all of you. Whereas several are inclined, to have the Rev. Bernardus Freerman, minister at New Utrecht, recognized also as our preacher here, together with the Rev. Antonides; therefore we, and each of us, declare, that if these parties can devise sufficient means to support a second minister, and give us satisfactory security for the same, then we are fully prepared to call Domine Freerman according to regulations and in a decent manner. We request that this, our sincere intention, be communicated to everybody, as proof of our peaceableness, and that they who are in favor of the demands of Domine Freerman give us a written answer in addition to the verbal one. Done at Breukelen, the 28th of January 1706. In the name of all of us, Signed: Daniel Rapalje, Elder. Christoffel Probasco, Elder. Gerrit Agrees with the original; Gualtherus du Bois, Eccl. at New York. CHURCH OF FLATBUSH vs. Do. FREEMAN. 1706, Feb. 14. Protest by the members of Flatbush against Domine Freerman: To the Rev. Domine Bernardus Freerman, Minister of God's Word in the Christian congregation of New Uitrecht, and to the Brethren legally convened in the church, to consider matters, concerning the welfare of the congregation of Christ: Grace and Peace be multiplied to you: We, the undersigned members of Christ's congregation, convened at Flatbush, have learned of the election and publication of the names of the new members of the Consistory made by you. Having duly reflected upon and considered this matter, we find ourselves aggrieved by it, and desire a time and a lawful place of meeting to be arranged. We truly desire the welfare of the Church of Christ, and its good order, according to our rights, our liberty of conscience and the free exercise of our religious services as they have always been here enjoyed, through God's kindness, under our Christian authorities, and which are still granted to us. We therefore, as members of the Reformed Church of Christ, take the liberty, most humbly and submissively, to suggest certain things for that meeting: What we have to suggest, in no ways concerns the persons nominated, who are our very dear and esteemed brethren and fellow members in this church; but only the method of selection employed by Domine Freerman, Minister of New Uitrecht. 1. The election was not held according to Church-Order and the Resolutions made and established, conformably to God's Word, in the National Synods, to which our churches have, without interruption, held since the time of the Reformation: to wit, that the election of Elders and Deacons in an established congregation must be made by the then officiating Consistory, and not through excluding them, as was then and there done by Domine Freerman. 1706 1706 2. This new election, which was held illegally on account of the exclusion of our present lawful Consistory who remain in office until they have been discharged with thanks from their services, or dismissed from it because of some bad behavior, tends to nothing else than to schisms in our Church, and the destruction of our ecclesiastical liberty. 3. We assert herewith that the license, under which Domine Freerman assumes the right, to preach in our churches, also binds him to our established ecclesiastical laws; and even though it was given in violation of such laws, yet that it was given with a good and Christian intention for preserving peace and harmony. Therefore we, as members of this church, moved by a sincere desire for its welfare, and by love for the liberty, order, peace and harmony of the Lord's Church, and for which we always most earnestly strive, enter our ecclesiastical protest, as we herewith do, against the election as well as against the confirmation of the parties nominated. This 13th of February, 1706. Signed: Rinier Arents, Johannes Willems Cornel, Abraham Hegeman, Therefore the protesting parties made the following declaration about their proceedings and Domine Freerman's answer: We requested information of Domine Freerman the day before, according to announcement, about the time and place when we could properly and in due form, present our grievance against the election of a new Consistory which had been made by his Reverence. He appointed his own house and we went there at the time agreed on. But we found nobody there except Domine Freerman. In the first place we then declared, that we expected to find those there who had been legally and ecclesiastically invited to convene, that they might act with us on a matter of such importance, to the peace of our own minds, and for the welfare of Christ's Church and congregation. We then handed our grievance and ecclesiastical protest to his Reverence alone, who assumed to himself the right and authority to hear us in this matter. After several disputations, which were largely irrelevant, we received from his Reverence the following answer concerning the important and essential point of our complaint. He said: There was no Consistory here, and since I have been appointed Minister here by order of my Lord (Cornbury) and not finding a Consistory here, I had to appoint one, according to my own judgment and pleasure. Signed: Rinier Arents. Johannes Willems. Abraham Hegeman. This 14th of February, 1706. Agrees with the original. Gualtherus du Bois, Eccl. at New York. Henricus Beys, V. D. M., at Kingstowne. V. Antonides, Eccl. at Midwout. 1706, Feb. 15. Ecclesiastical Protest by Antonides and Consistory of the three united congregations at Vlakbosch, Breukelen and New Amersfort, against an illegal election of a new Consistory by Domine Bernardus Freerman, and delivered to his Reverence at New Uitrecht. Sir:- Where there is a Church there must certainly also be Order. The Lord desires that in his Church all things should be done decently and in order. We now profess the Reformed Religion. In this we do not recognize a Papal Head, but we are all brethren, of equal authority and worth, in the spiritual affairs of the Church of Christ. The individual congregations are governed by servants of the Gospel, called Elders and Deacons. These constitute a Consistory to transact business, and to serve in all respects, for the peace and well being of the spiritual house of God. But this is done in this way: The Synods and other 1706 |