PAGE 146:
CHAPTER IV

That the reader may know what confidence was to be placed in the Communication, from which the facts presented in the foregoing statement have

***********************

"12th. That the usage of the Dutch Churches in Holland respecting elections of Elders and Deacons has long been for the Elders and Deacons, and every Minister present at their election, to elect their officers by the majority of their voices, without the vote of the other members; and not to propose the persons to be elected Elders and Deacons to the members of the Churches respectively before, nor at the time of the election, nor until the Sunday next following such election, when it is the usage to publish their names to the respective congregations, and on the two next succeeding Sundays; — each Sunday calling on the people to object against their being admitted and confirmed, if they have cause; and the usage also is, that if any good objection be made and supported, the Elders and Deacons so objected to, are not admitted to the office; but the Consistory judge of the validity of the objections, and if they conceive them sufficient, proceed to a new election.

"13th. That if no objections be made by the members, by the third Sunday after the elections, the Elders and Deacons so chosen, are confirmed in and admitted to their respective offices, and that they are not Elders and Deacons until such confirmation and admission.

"14th. That the usage and practice with regard to the proposing, confirmation, and admission, objecting against and setting aside of Elders and Deacons respectively, in the said Dutch Church at New-York, has hitherto been conformable to the usage and practice of the Churches of Holland last mentioned, and that

PAGE 147:
CHAPTER IV

been taken, the following brief extract from a letter of Dr. Laidlie to Mr. Livingston, dated November 3d, is inserted for his perusal:

***********************

the Elders and Deacons of the said Church in New-York, agreeable to the regulations of the Churches of Holland above-mentioned, are not admitted to their respective offices until such proposal, made for three successive Sundays after their election, and confirmation thereupon.

"15th. That this province was conquered by the Dutch, and afterwards, in _, was yielded by treaty to the crown of England.

"John Bogert, jun. and others,
Ads. Abel Hardenbrook.

"And the jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do further say, that the province of New-York is part of the country formerly called New Netherlands, and was, before the surrender of the same to the crown of England, subject to the States General of the United Provinces in Europe, and was settled by subjects to the States General.

"2d. That antecedent to the said surrender, there were Churches in the said province, and that all the Churches in the same were supplied with ministers from the United Provinces of the national established Church there, sent out by and subject to the ecclesiastical government of the Classis of Amsterdam.

"3d. That the Churches of the national establishment of the said United Provinces in Europe, and especially those within the district of the said Classis, have always had a succession of Elders