WHOEVER is no entire Stranger in our Jerusalem, knows what Animosities, Disputes and Contentions have arisen, and are still subsisting in the same; so that it is almost become a Mesech. May the Love of Truth, constrain me to ascribe them unto their real Cause! that they who have raised, may answer for them. Our intended College is the Bone of Contention, all will grant: But how it comes to be such, and who were the Instruments of changing and perverting, what was by our Assembly intended for a Blessing, into a Curse, about that all do not agree: The Case to me, notwithstanding, is as plain, as any Thing in Nature can be; and will be evident, I believe to all, who open their Eyes to the Light of Truth. Were my Neighbour, with whom heretofore I lived in good Harmony, to come to my House, and in a peremptory and insolent Manner, to demand of me something I esteemed the most valuable of all my Possessions, seizing the same in these Words, ‘Friend, this I must have, whether thou wilt let me or not;’ And I were to return his Compliment; ‘What meanest thou, insolent Man? be gone;’ And so saying, snatch it out of his Hands: And this kind and mannerly Neighbour of mine, thereon to go and alarm the Neighbourhood, complaining of my falling out and breaking with him: Would not the Case be plain, my Neighbour behaved like an odd sort of a Man? Or, that I may set off the Case yet in a clearer Light: There [Page 4] once lived two Sisters near by one another, the Name of the one was Politessa, and the Name of the other Prudentia. Politessa, one Day came to Prudentia, and in a gay Air, accosted her thus; Ah! Lard bless me, Sister Prudentia, I dont know, what thou intendest to do with thy Children, poor Creatures! I am affraid thou wilt make them all as aukward Prudes as thy self; they never will be gay, if they stay with thee; let them come to me, I will put them, in the first Place, to the dancing School; and next, I shall take Care to learn them all my gay and grand Airs; and that they may the better take them, to be sure, let them never come within thy House, for they would be infected with thy low and mean Demureness. Nay, I intend to make them such fine Ladies, that they shall for ever be ashamed to own thee for a Mother: But thou seest Sister, how much thou art obliged to me for my Proposal, that I expect thee to pay for the Education of my Children, as well as for thine: Don't look so grave, for do it thou shalt; I have already agreed with the dncing Master, to take all of them. Sister! Sister! replied Prudentia, is it not enough that thou spoilest thy own Children; wouldest thou also do it to mine? No, Sister, no; that shall never be. Now Politessa began to grumble, and scold, upbraiding Prudentia, with an unsisterly Behaviour: Whereon Prudentia withdrew into another Room, and Politessa went off in a mighty Bustle, complaining grievously to all she met, how ill Prudentia had used her; although, at the same Time, Prudentia had the greatest Reason to complain, I think. Were I not afraid of muliplying too many Similitudes and Comparisons, to illustrate one and the same Thing, which was self-evident before, I should here bring in the Disputes at present subsisting between us and our Neighbours the French. It was in Time of profound Peace, that they began to build Forts on the Lands along the Ohio; we thereon are all in Arms, threatning them War: What if the French should call us bad Neighbours, Promoters of War, Strife and Contention; will not, must not every rational Person, ascribe the Cause of those Commotions to them, on Account of their unjust Encroachments on our Borders, and their Endeavours to take from us what is our Property?

[Page 5]Now, if any Man in his right Senses, who will not be duped, considers what hath happened among us, will he then any longer be at a Loss to ascribe our Strifes, Quarrels and Contentions, to their real Causes? Was there not a Sum of Money raised by our Assembly, in order to erect a College or Seminary of Learning for the Education of Youth? And did not a certain Party petition for, and obtain a Charter, in which the President is appointed for ever to be a Member in Communion with the Church of England, and for Morning and Evening Worship, to be used the Liturgy of the Common Prayer Book, or a Collection taken out of the same, and by far the Majority of Trustees strenuous Propugnators for the Church of England, as by Act of Parliament established in South Britain, but not here? And will not our Youth, by this Constitution, be under the sole Government of that Party (as yet not numerous in this Province) and thereby be imbued with their Principles, so that High Church be brought in a likely way to triumph over us? Were a Heathen Emperor, the Subjects of whose Empire were half Heathens and half Christians, resolved to make the whole, or by far the major Part embrace Heathenism, I think he could not fall upon a better Scheme to accomplish his Design, than to entrust the Education of Youth to Heathens. Should a popish King, whose Subjects were partly Papists, partly Protestants, take a Resolution to make Popery prevail, what better could he do, than appoint popish Presidents and Tutors in the Seminaries of Learning? And is there a Country or Province, in which there are several Denominations of Protestants, whose religious Liberties hang in Equilibrio, no one by Law established above the rest; and were a certain Party a mind to saddle and ride the rest; what could they contrive better, or what Stratagem invent more adapted to promote their domineering Sway, than by grasping to themselves the Ascendency, or Superheminence in the College or Seminary of Learning, erected for the General Education of Youth? Will not the Youth be tinctured with the Principles of those who teach them? And will this not soon model Church and State?

[Page 6]When these Things are duly considered (which surely are very obvious to every thinking Person) I hope they who belong to the Reformed Church, as constituted by the Synod of Dordrecht, will no longer suffer themselves to be so much imposed upon, as they have been for some Time of late: For my Part, I am not more amazed, though I am much so, at the astonishing Imposition of the incroaching Party, that would monopolize our intended College, than I am at our own Infatuation, Stupidity and Lethargy, in doing so little as hath been hitherto done, in order to assert and secure the inestimable Blessing of Blessings, by Treaties secured unto us, and now in Danger of being snatched from us all at one fatal Grasp; I mean the Enjoyment of Liberty of Conscience in public Worship, and in Church Discipline.

How in the Name of Wonder, comes it then to pass, that a pretended Friend of the Dutch Church, should write, as I find he hath done, in the Supplement to the New-York Mercury in N ^o 140, subscribed, J. V. D. This Letter writer may stile himself as much a Well-wisher to his Country, and our Dutch Establishment, as he pleases; I fear that in his Friendship there lies a lurking Serpent, and if the Mask was thrown off, he would only be an Instrument of that incroaching Party, endeavouring by Inchantment and Artifice, to lull us asleep, while they despoil us of our Churches.

He exclaims, in the first Place, bitterly against the Independent Reflector and the Watch-Tower, as Pests of the Peace of Society; and then signifies his Surprise at many of his pretended Brethren of the Dutch Church, who countenance those Writings, charging them with disturbing the Peace and Tranquility of this Colony; a Charge so just, as that wherewith in the Fable, a ravenous Wolf doth accuse an innocent Sheep, that stands below him in the Stream, of having troubled the Waters; which, I think, may be more fully collected from the Similitudes and Comparisons I have drawn above.

With Regard to the Independent Reflector, and Watch-Tower, (though I am not of his Sect as to Principles in Religion) I believe the Lord in his wise and gracious Providence, hath [Page 7] been pleased to use him as a Means to bafle and frustrate an incroaching Party, in their unjust Demands: Had the Independent Reflector and Watch-Tower, prostituted his Pen, in encouraging the unreasonable Pretences of those, who now declare him the Bane and Pest of Society, he had been by them extolled to the very Skies; he had been proclaimed a Wonder, a Prodigy of the World! the happiest Phenomenon of the Age! no lucrative Job, no gratifying Boon in the Province, had been too great for him: But now, while he pleads and vindicates the Cause of persecuted Liberty and Rights, they seem to envy him the vital Air he breathes in: May the Lord reward him for it! and I hope, there will yet come a Time, when his Country shall see, how much they are obliged to him.

In the next Place, our pretended Friend and Well-wisher (I fear such a one as Sanballet the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonitesh Servant, and Gashem the Arabian, were to Jerusalem) throws a gloomy Glance on our Dutch Priests educated in America. And why must they be the Butt of his Indignation? The Case is clear; it is because, as they understand a little of the English Language, and see what Ruin was meditated their Churches, they endeavour to avoid the fatal Stroke, by forming themselves into a Reformed Classis, according to the Canons of the Synod held at Dordrecht, in the Years of our Lord, 1618 and 1619, that they may be capable of acting in a joint Body; which is likely to be of better Consequence, than what is done by single Kerkenraet. The Necessity of this, for our Preservation, I could easily evince by many valid Reasons; but our Friend, the Letter-Writer, spares me that Labour at present, by his Endeavours to prejudice our Church against it, being either so ignorant, or so malicious, as to suggest, that when we set up a Classis of our own here, we have done with Holland: As he stiles the Classis of Holland, it seems as if he knew not that there are many Classis in Holland, and two Synods of the Reformed Church, either of which, no doubt, will be willing to form, constitute and acknowledge us a Classis: But he seems to be under a terrible Apprehension, when this is effected, the Jersey College will be [Page 8] encouraged, and ours at the same Time neglected: I hope we will wish the Jersey College well, because their Aim at grasping after all our Churches, hath not hitherto been so glaring, as that of the High Church College in this Province; and I believe the religious Principles inculcated in the former, agree better with Holy Scripture, and with the Confession of our Church, nay, even with the doctrinal Part of the Articles of the Church of England, than I expect will be taught in the latter: Moreover, they who erected it, have not as yet endeavoured to impose the Charge of keeping it upon us: But if our Friend had not been hasty, and had waited but a little while longer, he would perhaps have been informed, that we don't chuse to have too near a Connexion with either; but intend, please God, an Academy of our own, for the free Education of our Youth (for which their Parents, their Godfathers and Godmothers, even in their Baptism, did promise and vow before God and his Saints, they should be instructed in the Doctrine of our Reformed Church) And although this our Resolution be but just and equitable in itself, and no more than what is manifestly our indispensible Duty, we may notwithstanding, in a great Measure, thank our kind Sister Churches for it, who by the whole of their late Conduct towards us, even by their Dreams and Prophecies, have shewn us the Necessity thereof, unless we resolve ignominiously, to surrender and give up our Churches to them, and thus in order to aggrandize our Sisters, suffer Annihilation ourselves, and perhaps be the Means of putting our Sisters in a fair Way to ruin one another, and to work out the Destruction of this whole Land.

As to our fictious Friend's Invention, of a Protesterian Synod; I leave the Gentlemen he has in View, to answer for themselves; they are of Age, and every Way a Match for him. What a Happiness, that a Man blest with so lively an Invention, is so sincere a Friend to us, in this our oppressed State, in which sharp-ey'd Eagles hover over and about us on every Side! Who knows what admirable Schemes, what un-thought of Projects, he may invent, and bring about for our Good! I wonder so great a [Page 9] Friend, and so surprising a Genius, advises us still to stick to our old, negligent, obsolete, exploded Plan; by which our Church in New-York, is got so much on the declining Hand, that the Grandeur of the High Church consists in Proselytes, gained from her Sister Low Dutch Church. It is possible this our Friend may be one of those, who plume themselves on having prejudiced our Church in New-York, against calling a Reformed Minister to preach in English, because we were in Danger of one of the Protesterian Sect. But what of that? It left us just where we were, all in the Dumps! and still the Necessity appears, that a Minister of our own Order, should preach in English in our Churches, to prevent the falling off from us, such as do not understand Dutch (which if not prevented, must inevitably, in a little while, prove our Ruin) and why doth our Friend not shew us the Way, how we may do this safely? I pretend not to such Inventions as he; and yet I can easily do it. Our Junior Minister is a known Orator, and as he has the Latin, may soon learn English sufficient to begin with to preach; he will, when once begun, improve very fast, or may not young Dordracensis, be called thereunto? Why don't our Kerkenraet desire him to do it? We have already our Catechism and Liturgy translated in English amongst us; and as I am informed, may have from Rotterdam, even the Psalms of David translated in that Language, adapted to the Metre and Music of Petrus Dathenus, which we use. This Scheme, I fear, will be proposed and approved of, last of all by our Friend and his Party; they will sooner advise a Church of England Minister, to go on as he doth, to preach Low Dutch in the Mohawk's Country, pressing on after the laborious Steps of his Predecessor, who did the same in the City of Albany.

In regard to the true Specimen among our People, of one of our Dutch Ministers, late of Long-Island, but now of Bergen, in the Jerseys, I must remark, that Jehu's Words to Joram, are very applicable; What Peace so long as the Whoredoms of thy Mother Jezebel, and her Witchcrafts are so many? As also are the Words of our blessed Lord to his Disciples; Think not that I came to send Peace on Earth: I came not to send Peace, but a Sword. [Page 10] For I come to set a Man at Variance against his Father, and the Daughter against her Mother, and the Daughter-in-Law against the Mother-in-Law. And a Man's Foes shall be they of his own Houshold. It is well known this Clergyman waged War against the Kingdom of Darkness. The Diabolians, in their Turn, attacked him fiercely, and called into their Aid and Succour, some of his carnal Brethren, who plotted his Ruin, and were in a likely Way to effect it, had not the Eyes of the Classis of Amsterdam been opened, by a fair and candid Representation of the Case. And this true Specimen shews us the Necessity of our being formed into a Classis here, that the Enemies of experimental Religion, may not have it in their Power, by their false and malicious Glosses and Misrepresentations, before the Classis of Amsterdam, to hurt the Promoters of real Piety and Godliness.—Whence came those Quarrels of a different Nature on Long-Island, in former Times? Whence those of another Nature, which broke out after his Removal, and are as yet not come to an End? And what must we at last think of our sham Friend's Advice, strictly to adhere to our Establishment, and not suffer the least Change, or Alteration, by Priests or People? Is our Friend really of Opinion, our Church is established here, or the Church of England either; why doth he then not prove it? Or would he have us, for the Sake of Establishments, prepatriate to Holland, or to South Britain, from whence many emigrated to avoid them? Oh! this mock Establishment is a Darling of theirs to enchant and delude the Ignorant and Unweary! The Net is already thrown out round about us; it hath already encircled us; if we remain but quietly and tamely where we are, no doubt, the High Church Party will make the greatest Draught; as our real and honest Friend Phileleutheros hath shewn.—But our Ulyssean Friend, it seems, is not contented even with this; we must, like senseless and dumb Fishes, run into the Net, of our own Accord, to facilitate the Labour and Toil of our Fishermen, in drawing our own Ruin and Destruction upon us. We must, at the same Time, unite with the Members of the Church of England, in promoting their High Church College, in order to get our Youth so freely educated, [Page 11] that they forever renounce their own Church, and when they get into the Assembly, make us pay for it, and feel the Smart of it. Is this a Foundation to build a College upon? Is this a Basis whereon to fix a Seminary of Learning, in a free Land, designed for a Place of Refuge, for an Asylum to persecuted Souls, in which the incroaching Party is perhaps scarcely a twentieth Man at present? Gracious God! Was there ever before such a Demand made on thy rational Creatures! Merciful Heaven! Thou who didst forbid the Children of Israel, thy favourite People, of old, To seethe a Kid in his Mother's Milk; let us rather suffer Martyrdom, than pollute our Souls with so great an Abomination in thy Sight!

Come on then, my dear Brethren, of the Reformed Church, be aroused out of your Lethargy; Start! O! start from your Enchantment. Consider, I beseech you, what our pious and venerable Ancestors, have done and suffered for their Religion: Shall we suffer ourselves ignominiously to be dispoiled of the same, by little cunning low Craft, and hallow Artifice? Heaven forbid we should!—His most gracious Majesty, King GEORGE, whose liege and loyal, whose dutiful and peaceable Subjects we are, in whose Cause we will chearfully at all Times venture our Lives and Fortunes, who allows us the Liberty of our Consciences in public Worship, and in Church Discipline; will be graciously pleased, no doubt, if we need and humbly pray it, to grant us a Charter too, for the Education of our Youth, as well as any other religious Denomination whatsoever, tolerated in his Dominions; whereas his most gracious Majesty, in this, as much as in any Thing, the Resemblance of the Supreme Being, delights in the Happiness of his loyal and loving Subjects, though of various religious Sentiments; among which I believe, there is not one single individual disaffected, either to his sacred Person, Family or Government. Let us Men, and Brethren, put our Trust in God, and be unanimous among ourselves, and not hearken to domineering Parties, who endeavour to divide us; we have no Business with their Colleges; they may erect as many as they please, and must expect to maintain them too themselves. Let [Page 12] every one provide for his own House; and such as are weak and poor, if they ask an Alms of us, in a suitable Manner, let us not with-hold our Hand; but to demand our Property, as their just Due, for ruining of us, we must, for the future, treat with a silent Contempt. And let them say what they will, one Thing we know, which is this, that we cannot be spoiled but by the Concurrence of our own Assembly; and therefore we ought, for the future, to be more cautious, and on our Guard, what Representatives we elect. I hope what has happened, has opened our Eyes a little in this Particular, at least our sham Friend seems to be affraid of it. Were I to give my Opinion, how we ought at present to conduct ourselves, it should be this Maxim; whatever any incroaching Party advises us to do, let us say Nothing, but not do it: Whatever they advise us not to do, let us say Nothing, but do it: If we take the Contrary of their Advice, I dare say, in the Main, we will do well by it. I know they will set up a hedious Cry, a Huen-Cry, when they perceive this; but we must not mind that neither. As it is now a Time in which we exert ourselves, to oppose, resist, and repell our unjustly incroaching Neighbours, the French and their Indians, let us consider, our God requires of us also, to make a Stand for our most holy Religion, the Truth, as it is in Jesus, the Lord our Righteousness: And for the Peace of Jerusalem, for Sion's Pros­perity, and for the Safety of our Land, we ought to watch and pray, to labour and suffer, and remain steadfast in the Faith once delivered unto the Saints. And this is the Exhortation of your true Friend.