HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 149

his ministry here and return to Holland. The Classis, in a proper spirit, advised him to pacify and win back the alienated hearts of his flock, and to suffer and forget all in love; and also addressed a letter in the same spirit to the consistory and congregation. The difficulty was thus finally arranged,” although the divisions which arose at the Leislerian era laid the foundation of the political controversies which troubled the colony for more than a generation afterwards.

The great object of Selyns’ labors, during the later years of his life, was the establishment of the liberties of his church by the procuring of a royal charter confirming its rights and privileges. This was at length accomplished, May 11th, 1696, by a charter under the royal seal, for the Reformed Protestant Dutch church in the city of New York, which is still in full force, and was virtually the charter of the Low Dutch Church in America,1 Selyns had now attained his sixtieth year. “He had labored faithfully, zealously, and successfully. Amidst all his trials, no one had ventured to breathe a syllable against the purity of his life and conversation, or his fidelity to the spiritual interests of his congregation, which had increased from 450 to 650 members during his ministry among them.” In 1699, he received an assistant, in the person of Rev. Gualterus du Bois, of Amsterdam; and shortly after, in July, 1701, he died at New York, in his sixty-fifth year. “In his domestic relations he appears to have been fortunate. Of his first wife we have already spoken. Upon her death, in 1686, he married the widow of Cornelius Steenwyck, Margaretta do Riemer, whom he himself describes as ‘rich in temporal goods, but richer in spiritual.’ This lady survived him several years. He had one child, a daughter, by his first wife, born while he was at Breuckelen; but from all omission of her name in his will, we infer she died while he was in Holland.”

“His character, as we are able to view it through the long vista of time, and with an imperfect exhibition of its traits, presents him in a favorable light. He was a faithful and devoted minister, honest,sincere, and capable. He was learned in his profession, pious, and

1 Liber vii. 25, Sec’y State’s office. This charter antedates that of Trinity church, which was granted May 6, 1697.