HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 147

changed. British rule, while it allowed the Dutch to enjoy liberty of conscience in divine worship and church discipline, gave no legal sanction to the special authority of the Classis of Amsterdam over the churches of the Reformed Dutch faith. Still, the ecclesiastical authority of the Classis continued to be exercised and acknowledged among the Dutch themselves, as before the conquest. Ministers still received their appointment and ordination from that body, and rendered an account of their stewardship thereto. In the correspondence which was thus maintained between the colonial ministers and their Classis, the letters of Selyns hold no inferior position, not only for the historic light which they throw upon the public and religious affairs of the day, but for the catholic spirit which they exhibit towards other denominations and ministers. “In his confldential intercourse with his superiors, he might be expected to have exhibited some sectarian spirit in regard to their progress or merits; yet we find nothing of the kind in them, but, on the contrary, expressions of satisfaction at their success; and where he does condemn, it is easy to be seen that he does so on no narrow or selfish grounds. A character so liberal and amiable could not help endearing him to those around him, and inviting their confidence. We find him, accordingly, not only beloved by his own congregation, but on terms of friendship with the heads of the government and his colleagues in the other churches in New York, and in correspondence with distinguished men in the neighboring colonies. He was probably known to the ministers at Boston, at the time of his first residence in New Netherland, as we find among his poems one in Latin, upon some verses addressed by the Rev. John Wilson, the first minister of Boston, to Governor Stuyvesant. But his correspondence with them after his return to New York was frequent.”

Troublous days, however, came to Dominie Selyns with the revolutionary outbreak which placed Jacob Leisler at the head of the government. It was natural that Selyns, as well as the other ministers, should look upon Leisler as a usurper, and that they should throw all the weight of their influence against him and his party. But they committed the error of continuing their opposition to him after his power had been fully established; thus themselves becoming traitors to his government, whom he felt justified in putting