Now as this Instrument, according to the Copy wliich it hath been thought fit to give me of it, containeth the Reasons and Motives wliich have engaged the present Consistory to undertake to turn me out of my office, and to take all tlie Steps which those Gentlemen have taken in pursuance thereof j it would have been right to have produced this Instrument, such as it is, genuin or not, before his Excellency and the honourable Council, that they might the better judge of the bottom of the Dispute, and not sutler themselves to be amused by the subtle Evasions of the Answerers, wlio will often attempt to impose upon them, if they are not upon their guard, as it may be expected from persons of their Wisdom and Justice.
As this hath not yet been done, and is necessary to explain tliro'ly, I desire earnestly, & before anytliing else, that this Instrument may be produced, with the Answers that I have already prepared, aud put into the hands of M"" Alexander my Attorney.
2. My second observation is on what they alledge, p. 2, in order to declare the Jurisdiction of his Excellency and the Council, in this Affair, or to divert them from taking the trouWe of inter-
FRENCH PROTESTANT CHURCH, NEW-YORK. 1161
posing & intermeddling in our Differences, That " they acknow- " ledge no Jurisdiction in any Civil Court within this Province, " over the private Affairs of their Church, merely Consistorial, "and amongst themselves, &c." Indeed! this is astonishing, and what could not have been expected. Here are, if I am not mistaken, the true Principles of the Independents^ (fe) so expressly condemned in our Discipline of France (See among the Observations upon the 6th Chap, the Regulation^ made at the Synod of Clarenton, in 1644, against those Sectaries, pag. 199 and 200, of tlie Editio in duocim. & p. 118. in 4to) and Tom. 2. in folio, p. 467.