182 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

Contrary to the order of April 18th, 1710, and the subsequent confirmatory orders, Mr. Freeman once more intruded his ministrations upon the congregation at Flatbush, in September, 1713;1 but this is the last recorded belligerent act of the controversy which had now agitated the churches of Kings County for upwards of thirteen years, and vexed the souls of four royal governors and their councils. Near the close of the year 1714 the long contest was happily terminated by a convention of delegates from the several congregations, who mutually agreed to lay aside their ancient differences, and acknowledge Messrs. Freeman and Antonides as their ministers.2 Breuckelen, Bushwick, Flatbush, Flatlands, Now Utrecht, and even Jamaica, were all included within the charge, and both the domines resided at Flatbush, in the pleasant and harmonious discharge of their duties. They were esteemed as men of respectable talents and acquirements.

During their ministry the Reformed Dutch Churches of New Netherlands were sadly agitated by the question concerning the organization of a Coetus, or assembly of ministers and elders, in this country, subordinate to the Classis of Amsterdam.3

1 Strong’s Hist. Flatbush, p. 46.

2 This Convention agreed upon the proportion of Wary to be raised by the different churches for the support of the ministers, and the times and places of preaching and of communion. It was arranged that one minister should preach on one Sabbath in Bushwick, and the other in New Utrecht; the next Sabbath, one in Brooklyn, and the other in Flatlands ; on the third Sabbath, one in Flatbush, the other in Jamaica; and so on, in regular rotation. As to communions, Bushwick, Brooklyn, and Flatbush were to commune together; Flatlands, Gravesend, and Now Utrecht, together; and the congregations of Queens County should form another communion.

3 The movement towards tile formation of a Coetus was initiated in 1737, by a convention of ministers at New York, at which Domine Freeman attended on behalf of the Dutch churches of Long Island. A plan was formed, and having been generally adopted by the churches, was ratified by a second convention, held in April, 1738P at which Freeman again appeared as delegate. The approval of the Classis of Amsterdam did not, however, reach this country until 1746, being brought over by Rev. Mr. Van Sinderen and the first meeting of the new Coetus was held in September, 1747, at the city of New York, being the first judicial organization, higher than a Consistory, established in the American Dutch Church. The Coetus plan, however, met with opposition from several churches and ministers, and gave rise to differences which seriously agitated the Reformed Dutch denomination for many years thereafter. The contest related principally to the question of the right of ordination, and the exercise of church authority: the “Coetus party“ claiming that, in view of the increase of churches in this country, and the inconvenience of importing all their ministers from Holland, it would be better to have a regular organization into classes and synods. similar in all respects