the former, one from New England and the other sustained and encouraged by the London ministers, can we feel that either they or their "associates" were in danger of error on the side of excessive strictness. Their moderation, indeed, was such that they were drawing towards them, as they were recommending the policy that would do it, the Congregationalists of Long Island.

With Drs. Miller and Hodge, against all the arguments of Dr. Green, we must hold to the strong improbability that the lost leaf of the records contained any specific standard for the adoption of members.

CHAPTER III.

THE SYNOD, A.D. 1717-1729.

UPON the division of the original Presbytery and the formation of the Synod, the Long Island Presbytery commenced its existence. It met and was constituted at Southampton, April 17, 1717, and its first work was the examination and ordination of Samuel Gelston, whose call to the Southampton church had been approved by the Presbytery of Philadelphia in the preceding year. The ministers who took part in the ordination undoubtedly composed the entire Presbytery.1 They were George Macnish, who had removed to Jamaica in 1710, Samuel Pumroy, who was settled at Newtown, and George Phillips, who for twenty years had been laboring at Setauket. The churches under the care of the Presbytery had, most of them, been long in existence. Their membership was largely from New

1 Prime's Long Island.

England, and their forms of worship and government were Congregational or Independent. The church at Southampton was gathered as early as 1640, when Abraham Pierson, afterwards the founder of the church at Newark, was its pastor. The church at Setauket enjoyed, as early as 1655, the labors of Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, a grandson of Elder Brewster of Mayflower memory. Newtown was settled by English emigrants in 1652, and in 1671 a house of worship was erected. It was not till 1724, seven years after the erection of the Presbytery, that the church was provided with ruling elders and became distinctly Presbyterian.' The first settlement of Jamaica was in 1656, and in 1663, by vote of the town, a meeting-house was erected. It was replaced by a stone edifice in 1690; but in 1702 the arbitrary authority of Lord Cornbury wrested it from the Presbyterians and placed it in the hands of the Episcopal rector.

But beside these churches under the care of the Presbytery, there was quite a number of others, composed largely of New England settlers in other parts of the island. Some of these, at a later period, became Presbyterian. The one at Southold was gathered in 1641. Emigrants from Lynn found their way to East Hampton in 1648, and were prompt in securing for themselves the privileges of public worship. Huntington was settled from New England in 1658, and soon after a church-edifice was erected. Hempstead enjoyed the labors of Rev. Richard Denton at the earliest period of its history, in 1644. A church was gathered at Bridgehampton in 1695, and at Mattituck in 1715.

Thus, at the period of the formation of the Presbytery there were at least ten or twelve churches, called indifferently Presbyterian or Independent, on

1 Riker's Annals of Newtown.

the island.

Several of them in the course of a few

years became connected with that body, which embraced at first but the four churches of Jamaica, Newtown, Setauket, and Southampton. The church at Mattituck came into connection with the Presbytery in 1719, and some of the others invited at least its counsel and assistance. Only their own records, in the loss of others, can show the precise date at which they became distinctively Presbyterian.

Of the three other Presbyteries, the first to be noticed is that of Philadelphia. It numbered at its formation six ministers:-Andrews, at Philadelphia; Jones, at Abington; Powell, at Cohansey; Orr, at Maidenhead and Hopewell; Bradner, at Cape May; and Morgan, at Freehold. Of these, Bradner is said to have been from Scotland, and Orr from Ireland. Jones and Powell were Welshmen; Andrews and Morgan were from New England. The missionary field of this Presbytery was quite extended, and there were several congregations destitute of pastors.

The Presbytery of New Castle likewise numbered. six ministers:-Anderson, at New Castle, Delaware; McGill, at Patuxent; Gillespie, at White Clay Creek; Evans, on the Welsh Tract; Witherspoon, at Appoquinimy; and Conn, in Baltimore county, Maryland. Here, with a single exception, all the members were from Scotland or Ireland.

The Presbytery of Snow Hill, which became absorbed in that of New Castle, numbered as members only Davis, Hampton, and Henry. The first still remained among the people with whom he had so long been connected without pastoral settlement, yet no longer serviceable in the pulpit. Hampton was settled at Snow Hill, and Henry was Makemie's successor at Rehoboth. Here, at the commencement of the existence of Synod, were the nineteen ministers of whom it was

composed, scattered at wide distances along the coast from Virginia to the eastern part of Long Island. The demand for new laborers in the field was greater than ever before, and new congregations were in process of formation at various points. In New York and its vicinity, the intolerance of Lord Cornbury and the intrusion of Episcopacy had discouraged the efforts of those who were now known as Dissenters. The treatment of Makemie was a warning to any from abroad who might propose to follow his example. Consequently, several years passed before measures were taken to form a Presbyterian congregation.

Meanwhile, however, discord had begun to spread in the ranks of what its friends were pleased to call, most unwarrantably, the Established Church. In 1693, the Assembly of the colony, at the instance of the Governor, and by what that devoted friend of Episcopacy, Colonel Lewis Morris, denominated his "artifice," made provision, by an act, for the maintenance of "one good sufficient Protestant minister" within the bounds of each town in the province where the people should desire it. The "one good and sufficient Protestant minister," according to the interpretation of Lord Cornbury and his zealous friends, could be no other than a clergyman of the Church of England. The congregations, however, were still entitled to the choice of vestrymen and churchwardens. The denial of this right would at once have opened the eyes and excited the indignation of the Assembly, who were almost to a man "Dissenters."

And now the door was opened for Episcopal aggression. It began at Jamaica, and continued there for more than thirty years. Indirectly the whole Episcopal Church in this country became a party. Poyer, the Jamaica incumbent, after the death of Urquart, who had succeeded Hubbell, was disposed, with the

encouragement of the Governor, to prosecute his suit. against the vestry, who had called Macnish, and put him in possession of the parsonage. But there was apprehension lest the case should go against the prosecutor. The judges, for the most part, were "dissenters,” and would be disposed to do justice against Episcopal aggression. The decision would furnish a precedent, and every Episcopal incumbent would be left at the mercy of his vestry and churchwardens. Vesey of New York perceived the danger. He was a graduate of Harvard, and had been sent by Increase Mather' to "confirm the minds of those who had removed for their convenience from New England" to New York. His express mission, according to Episcopal accounts, was to counteract the influence of the chaplain of the forces sent out from England, and till 1697 he was “a dissenting preacher on Long Island." But he was bought over by Governor Fletcher by the offer of the Rectory of New York and a promised increase of stipend. From this time he was a zealous Churchman; and, in defence of his own views of the interest of the Church, he succeeded in bringing nearly all the Episcopal clergymen in New York and the neighboring provinces to join with him in dissuading Poyer from prosecuting his suit, and in sending to England representations prejudicial to the character and standing of Governor Hunter, who had succeeded Lord Cornbury.

Hence ensued a breach between the clergy and the Governor. Nor was this all. To promote more effectually his designs, Vesey converted his vestry into a close corporation, and adopted measures which divided the congregation into two hostile and embittered parties. He did not hesitate to designate his opponents as "schismatics," and by other opprobrious

1 New York Hist. Col. iii. 438.