USA > New Jersey > Bergen County > A discourse delivered at the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the Reformed Prot. Dutch Church of Bergen, in New Jersey, on Sabbath morning, December 2nd, A.D. 1860 > Part 1
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GEN J
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 02998 2607
Gc 974.902 B448t
Taylor, Benjamin C. 1801- 1881.
A discourse delivered at the celebration of the
TWO
LEGELC
Dunaresth Anniversary
Reformed Prot. Dutch Church
BERGEN, N. J.
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
GEN
7008
L Taylor
3.5"
.
A DISCOURSE
DELIVERED AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE
TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
Reformed Wrot. Dutch Church of Bergen,
IN NEW JERSEY,
ON SABBATH MORNING, DECEMBER 2nd, A.D. 1860,
BY BENJAMIN C. TAYLOR, D.D., PASTOR.
With manual of the Church.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF CONSISTORY.
1861.
HOSFORD & KETCHAM, STATIONERS AND PRINTERS, 57 and 59 William St., N. Y.
THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
REF. PROT. DUTCH CHURCH AT BERGEN, N. J.
THIS Church, having been extensively repaired and ele- gantly refitted, and for about two months closed, was reopened for public worship on Sabbath, the 2d day of December, A. D., 1860. On this occasion the congregation celebrated their Two HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY. The large edifice, which can comfortably seat eleven hundred persons, was filled with worshipers. The Morning Exercises were opened with a Voluntary on the organ, followed by an appropriate Anthem. The PASTOR of the Church then in- voked the presence of the Master of the house, and the Scriptures were read by the Rev. R. D. VAN KLEECK, of Jersey City. The assembly joined in singing a Hymn specially adapted and prepared for the occasion. The Ser- mon was delivered by the Pastor.
After the singing of a Hymn by the Sabbath school of the Church, numbering over two hundred and sixty chil- dren, the Rev. THOMAS DE WITT, D. D., addressed the large assembly, making most happy allusions to the venerable men who for nearly the whole of the first century of the existence of this Church, supplied her with the ordinances of God's house. He then paid most deserved and beautiful tributes to the memory of the two deceased Pastors of the Church, and pointed the assembly to some of the marked features of her history; after which the Doxology was sung, and the people were dismissed with the Benediction. 36 DE # 3
4
INTRODUCTION.
The exercises were somewhat protracted, but there was no flagging in the attention of the hearers, the interest of the occasion being admirably sustained to the close.
In the Evening the house was again filled with attentive and devout worshipers.
The Invocation of God's presence, by the Pastor, was fol- lowed by the reading of the Scriptures by Rev. R. B. CAMP- FIELD. The Sermon was delivered by Rev. GUSTAVUS ABEEL, D. D., of Newark, founded on Psalm 26 : 8, "Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honor dwelleth." It was a chaste and appro- priate production, doing credit to the head and heart of the preacher.
Then followed a soul-stirring Address from the Rev. PAUL D. VAN CLEEF, of Jersey City, Pastor of the Church of Van Vorst, an off-shoot from this ancient Church. This was a most fitting close to the exercises of the day-a day not soon to be forgotten by the people of Bergen and its vicinity.
There were present on that occasion, and joyfully sharing in the Services, a grand-daughter of the first pastor, and a son and grand-son of the second ; also representatives of the Collegiate Church in New York, Dr. De Witt being one of the successors of the pastors of that Church, who constantly watched over the Church of Bergen for a century ; and also representatives of the many Churches constituted in whole or in part of members from this venerable Christian Church. Some of these delegations were large, and the whole scene presented was that of a loving mother greeting and being greeted by her children and her children's children, while all united in lofty thanksgivings to him who sits forever King upon his holy hill of Zion.
SERMON.
PSALM SO : 8-11.
" THOU HAST BROUGHT A VINE OUT OF EGYPT: THOU HAST CAST OUT THE HEATHEN, AND PLANTED IT. THOU PREPAREDST ROOM BEFORE IT, AND DIDST CAUSE IT TO TAKE DEEP ROOT, AND IT FILLED THE LAND. THE HILLS WERE COVERED WITH THE SHADOW OF IT, AND THE BOUGHS THEREOF WERE LIKE THE GOODLY CEDARS. SHE SENT OUT HER BOUGHS UNTO THE SEA, AND HER BRANCHES UNTO THE RIVER."
The pious Asaph penned this Psalm on some occa- son of the distress of the Israel of God. In it he seeks Divine favor, craving God's presence, while he complains of the rebukes they were receiving, and institutes a comparison between the Church of God and a vine, and a vineyard which had flour- ished and had seen and felt times of calamity.
The root of this vine is Christ. The branches are God's believing people, and when gathered into a Church state are appropriately represented by the vine and its branches.
6
SERMON.
This figure as happily sets forth an individual Church as the whole body of the visible Church of God on earth.
Our illustration of the subject shall be drawn from this Christian Church, whose Two Hundredth Anni- versary we now celebrate.
She bears the name of "The Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Bergen, in New Jersey." They who constituted it were descended from those who fearlessly entered their Protest, in the sixteenth cen- tury, against Papal rule and the unscriptural tenets and practices of the Church of Rome; and the Re- formed Protestant Dutch, because we are of those who differed from some early Protestants, and from Luther, on some points especially regarding the bodily presence of Christ in the Holy Supper. We are the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, being in the lineal descent from that branch of the Church of the Reformation organized in Holland.
The symbols of her doctrinal faith and polity are primarily from the action of those who met at Ant- werp, in 1563, and adopted a system of principles and rules which laid the foundation, and in a great measure formed the full texture of church govern- ment and order adopted by subsequent Synods.
After the early settlement of New York, by Hol- -anders, we find that in 1618 a settlement was made on this western shore of the Hudson or North river. It was, however, a mere trading place with the In- dians, and a few plantations were cultivated.
These were abandoned about the close of 1651, and not re-peopled until the latter part of 1660 and
7
SERMON.
early in 1661. Preparatory to this reoccupancy a purchase was made, in 1658, of a tract of land long known as " Bergen," conveyed by the Indians to the Lord Director General and Council of New Netherlands ; and in 1661 it was by the same Direc- tor General and Council, deeded to the then inhabi- tants of the village of Bergen; thus showing that in 1660 and 1661 the re-peopling of the place occurred. Subsequent documents show that "from the early settlement of the country" this Church existed. It was coëval with the reoccupation of the soil ; and one of the certificates of character and church mem- bership bears the date of Nov. 27th, 1660.
A distinguished civil historian mentions the exist- ence of a log church in this place in 1661, the very year in which the inhabitants secured their title to the lands on which they had located.
Two centuries having rolled away since the or- ganization of this Church, we shall take a very suc- cinct retrospect, and hope to derive instruction of large import from some prominent facts in her his- tory. She is "a vine which God brought here, and cast out the heathen and planted it. He prepared room before it and did cause it to take deep root."
It is not intended on this occasion to detail the events of her history, as this has been more fully done in another form,* but to endeavor to derive profit from certain principles which she has main- tained, and which are developed in her church life.
* See Annals of Classis of Bergen.
8
SERMON.
We shall call attention to some instructions de- rived from her history.
By it we are taught to love and maintain the doc- trines of grace revealed in the Scriptures.
These we recognise in our Confession of Faith, the Canons of the Synod of Dordrecht, the Heidel- berg Catechism, and the Liturgy of the Church. They embrace that system of faith which the Re- formers valued, and the ablest divines of the centu- ries subsequent to the Reformation accounted the very best inheritance they could transmit to their children's children, because they believed it to be " the truth as it is in Jesus."
The pious ancestors of this congregation brought with them from Holland their Bibles, the articles of their holy faith, and the evidences of their moral and religious position. In the cultivation of piety they sought instruction only from those who were competent, able ministers of the New Testament. In their settlement here, in a strange land, and using only the language of their mother country, stated pulpit ministrations could not be had. But their covenant God must be worshiped, and we, at this remote period, looking back, see them felling the forest and clearing a beautiful knoll on which to rear a rude structure for the service of God. Think of the first Sabbath's worship on the soil of this goodly State : the congregation small, and probably on that occasion without even an ambassador for Christ to speak unto them the words of life. There they approached the mercy seat in the use of the Liturgy of the Church, as their Clerk, known as
9
SERMON.
"a help" in the sanctuary, conducted their devo- tional exercises ; reading God's commandments, the scripture lesson for the day, and some choice dis- course from the pen of some faithful herald of the Cross.
Thus beginning, they continued from Sabbath to Sabbath, receiving only occasional ministrations from the living teacher, and the administration of God's ordinances but seldom; yet cheering, and comforting, and establishing them in their most holy faith.
Then a small advance is made, as stated dispen- sations of the Word and ordinances were covenanted for-but only for thrice in a year. In the long lapse of ninety years or more, we find them still adhering to this precious faith once delivered to the saints, and waiting for far more of its power and joy.
In the Lord's own time the herald of the Gospel greets them, and the oral testimony of Christ's am- bassadors is, almost in unbroken service, sustained down to this sacred hour in which we celebrate their abiding, unfaltering faith as a Church for two hun- dred years.
They who watched over them for nearly a century were a noble band. Henry Selyns, John and Samuel Megapolensis, (father and son), Wilhelmus Van Nieuwenhuysen, Casparns Van Zeuren, and Gual- therus Du Bois, the last of whom thus ministered to them for fifty years, and received his death stroke while in the act of preparation for one more service here. No one of them failed in their pastoral charges to contend earnestly for the faith, holding fast the form of sound words.
10
SERMON.
However amazing the fact of a Church living and thriving without a pastor for nearly a century, our first thoughts of it are chastened and turned from incredulity to admiration and gratitude for the sove- reign grace of God in perpetuating and so blessing this Church, that during that period, when popula- tion was sparse, three hundred and eighty indi- viduals were admitted to holy communion.
Think of the untiring watchfulness maintained for the transmission of the faith of God's elect to their posterity, as they provided for themselves and their successors, in a few years after their first rude struc- ture was reared, their substantial stone church in 1680.
This done, they laid by in store for a future minis- try, and though many of them died without the sight, they knew the God of Zion lived and would give them a minister for the house of their God.
What though a first attempt proved vain, by a shameful imposture of one who had but a pretender's claim to the gospel ministry ? The deception taught them caution, and again they move in the work. They choose a godly youth. He must yet be taught the sound system of theological truth. They send him away across the ocean to be fitted for his work. Four years and more roll round, and William Jack- son is greeted as an ordained, well instructed ser- vant of God.
They heard his words with gladness. God's am- bassador proved an able and acceptable defender of the faith for thirty-two years; when, having led them in ways of righteousness, disease preys upon
11
SERMON.
him, and he is bowed down and broken in body and mind, and can no more give utterance to the truths of the Gospel.
Then followed the earnest, faithful instructions, for thirty-five years, of John Cornelison, well in- structed and qualified for his work. Ever watchful for the truth and its influence, and ready, when as- sailed by infidelity or error, to urge it with whole- some, well established argument, so that Christ's Gospel should be held forth in its purity. He sealed his testimony with his latest breath, in the words, " Here, Lord, am I, a poor, helpless sinner, waiting for thee; in full faith founded on thee as the eternal God."
And may not I, who have pleaded here for Jesus for nearly thirty-three years, be permitted at least to say, I have taught you in the fear of God, and en- deavored to preach to you Jesus Christ and him cru- cified? Blessed Master! forgive the imperfection of these ministrations.
Two hundred years of gospel worship! One hun- dred years of gospel ministrations by only three successive pastors; and the Church holding on to the wholesome doctrines of our Calvinistic faith, un- wavering, and we trust with holy profit. Let us stand fast herein evermore. Be firm and contend earnestly, not with friends only, but against foes within or without, seen or unseen.
The history of this Church teaches us to regard the order and government of God's house, both as to worship and discipline.
Call to mind again, her long continued depend-
12
SERMON.
ence on mere casual and infrequent pulpit services ; the lack of the kind attentions of the minister of Christ at the bed of sickness and death; the mul- titude of those whose closing scenes of life were cheered by no such consolations ; yet, guided by the truth of God's Word, cherishing ever the worship and order of his house.
Read it in their faithful abiding by the law of that house. How orderly their arrangements for stated worship and for communion service, (always on Monday, because the servant of the Lord could not be spared from his own pulpit on the Sabbath). What though the Sabbath passed? A service of holy communion could, and did, command their presence from far and near. What though, when long and many years had rolled away under a scanty dispensation of God's word, their first attempt was rendered null and void by fearful imposture ? How orderly their demeanor ! No covenant could be enforced until the ecclesiastical body to which the Church belonged had given her approval; and when the imposition was attested, how quiet was their submission, and how firmly they bade the man depart out of their coasts !
See the same in patient waiting for the holy ordi- nation, by the Classis of Amsterdam, of the youthful Jackson, and the commission for his installation. Then their joy abounded by Christ.
This vine dresser cultivated the vineyard of which he was made the keeper. It had lived and borne some fruit; but it was comparatively as the fruit of an uncultivated vine. He watched it, and pruned
13
SERMON.
it, and watered it, as one sent of God. In his early ministry he saw the clusters of fruit, and in 1759, just when closing the first hundred years of its exist- ence, a beautiful vintage is gathered. Twenty souls, at one time, tell of the hope that maketh not ashamed. The heathen had been cast out, the vine had taken deep root, God had prepared room for it, and beauty covered it.
Let us change the figure. You may have heard it said of the century plant, "that day unto day it uttereth speech, night unto night it showeth know- ledge."
For years, consecutively, its awkward forms ex- cite curiosity, and when fathers, and children, and children's children, have patiently waited, it fulfills the continued dark prophecies concerning it, and develops the beauties so long concealed within it, proclaiming the grace and power of him " who maketh every thing beautiful in its season."
When, moreover, the stirring scenes of the Revo- Intion in this land, struggling for liberty, were pass- ing, and trials often and varied were experienced, the inhabitants compelled to flee for safety, and the flock scattered, even then the officers of this and other Churches of the Classis of Hackensack made vigorous efforts to ascertain the wants, spiritual and temporal, of the dispersed families ; and their reports of these afflictions were transmitted to the higher judicatures for counsel, prayers and relief.
When emerging from the fierce conflicts in the Churches, respecting their ecclesiastical government, as separation from the mother Church in Holland
14
SERMON.
was urged for convenience and profit, this Church was found by her representatives in the Convention, in 1772, which framed the Constitution of the Church which was to govern them in this land.
Then form and consistency were given them, in the proper establishment of the judicatures which, in happy order, are maintaining the peace and urging the prosperity of our Reformed Zion.
Note the order and appropriate action of this Church when her first pastor experienced the stroke from the hand of the all wise God, and was pros- trated by disease. With calm composure they await the hour when his retirement should be effected and a reasonable provision be made for his comfort. On this sacred spot, where now we worship, he lived, and loved, and prayed, for his people; and here, twenty-four years after his inability to officiate at God's altar, he yielded up the ghost and went to his reward, gathered to his fathers in a good old age, having passed his four score years. Now, within these walls his memorial tablet is placed by the. hands of children and children's children, of those to whom he spake the words of eternal life.
Nor do we find any thing but increasing illustra- tion of the maintenance of order and conformity to well digested rules of government under the blessed pastorate of the successor of Mr. Jackson, (the Rev. John Cornelison), who rigidly sought ever to main- tain the law of God's house. For eight years he was in the double charge of this congregation and- that of English Neighborhood, and subsequently only here until his death. The whole record of his
15
SERMON.
ministry is that of the law of the house, of perseve- rance in duty, of the upholding a pastor's hands and encouraging his heart, while endeavoring to mete out righteousness always, yet tenderly but firmly when discipline was demanded.
We humbly trust the enlarged calls to duty under the present pastorate, of nearly thirty-three years' duration, will show that with the same hallowed purpose, steadfastness has been maintained and Zion strengthened. Though some diversities of sentiment have from time to time arisen, and now and then a few have withdrawn, yet never has this Church known an open schism. How replete with instruc- tion to us all to maintain, with love and firmness, the order of God's house.
With what beauty does this rise to view when we look to the obligations of the Church of God to en- large the place of her tent, to stretch forth the cur- tain of her habitation, to break forth on the right hand and on the left, and to rejoice in her seed in- heriting the Gentiles; to arise, shine, because her light is come and the glory of the Lord has risen uopn her ?
Bearing witness unto this are the Churches which are the branches, and the offshoots again from the branches. Such are Bergen Neck, Bergen Point, Jersey City, and Van Voorst, Hoboken, and the First Presbyterian Church in this place, and, in part, Keyport, in Monmouth county, and Rocky Hill, in Somerset county. And yet the original vine is vigorous, and, we trust, in decorous manner holding on her way, strengthened and strengthening others,
16
SERMON.
and to-day celebrating her two hundredth anniver- sary, with her sons and daughters joyous, as they enter this house of God, repaired, and appropriately and tastefully decorated, saying: "How amiable are thy tabernacles, oh Lord of Hosts," and, in the re- membrance of the past, "Our fathers, where are they ? and the prophets, do they live forever .? "
The history of this Church teaches us the value of the institutions of learning and religion connected with this reformed branch of the Church of Christ. Ever prizing an able ministry, she has recognized her obligations to see that it is maintained. Her demand of the youth of her choice as her future pastor, to go far hence and obtain and use the best facilities furnished in the mother country, for ac- quiring mental and holy furniture for his usefulness in the service of Christ's Church, to which he looked forward ; her honorable provision for aiding him therein ; her patient waiting for him (as written in his call), "Praying God to take his heart into His fear, and as far as the Lord please, to take him safely over the wild element and return him safely;" and this, "their deed in true faith," tells loudly of their lofty estimate of an able ministry in Christ's Gospel. When they saw, in after years, his influ- ence, no regrets could be expressed for what they had done, When in 1771-72 he, with an honored elder, sat in the Convention to which we have re- ferred, and by their votes confirmed the Articles of Union and subscribed them with their own hands, one of which covenanted for the establishment of a Theological Professorship; when we trace the efforts,
17
SERMON.
at first tardy and very limited, but onward, until the Reformed Dutch Church appoints the First Theolo- gical Professor in these United States, and subse- quently preparing to give her Theological Seminary a local habitation, the offer of the Academy in Ber- gen, for the Theological Hall, is made, and though declined, yet in that Academy provision for the elementary preparation of young men for the ser- vices of the sanctuary was made, and her own Theological Seminary shared her benefactions, as on a single Sabbath in 1822, she plighted her faith for one thousand dollars, and redeemed the pledge; as one of her sons subsequently bequeathed it two thousand dollars, and even recently some of you now present have strengthened her College with your tuition scholarships and other valuable gifts ; as for years her missions have shared your bounty in the domestic and foreign fields, and we have wit- nessed the progress of our Churches at home and abroad, springing up, and budding, and blossoming, as the rose, we are glad and praise God, that of her it may be said : "She sent out her boughs unto the sea and her branches unto the river." Thus we learn to prize the institutions founded by her fathers, and charge the present generation to teach these things to their children, that they again may rehearse them to the generations following, ever holding fast that which is good.
We are taught the value of Pastoral Ministrations. How infinite the wisdom and love of God, "in that he hath given to some apostles, to some prophets, to some evangelists, and to some pastors and teachers," for the edifying of the body of Christ.
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SERMON.
While this Church owes love and gratitude to those holy men, who, in succession, for nearly a cen- tury took the oversight of her and counseled her, and guided her ecclesiastical affairs, so that in peril- ous times she lived and made progress, what does she owe to those who, as their pastors, have spoken unto her sons and daughters, authoritatively, yet lovingly, the counsels of God's word, in Christ's name? Her church life is identified, for a century just closed, with the lives of her pastors.
Full one hundred years of pastoral labor, bestowed by only three of the servants of Christ in the minis- try of reconciliation ; all of whom were instructed in the Theological institutions of the Church. Under each ministration, the truth as it is in Jesus has been owned of God, to the salvation of sinners, the edifi- cation of saints and the prosperity of Zion.
What a company it would be, if all who under the teachings of your pastors have confessed Christ before men in solemn covenant, could come together in one place and be seen by us! How would they recount God's mercies, even the sure mercies of David and his seed for a perpetual generation ! What a shout of thanksgiving would go up to heaven from pastors and people, from parents and children, and children's children ! What joy would be evinced as they would hail Christ's ambassadors as instruments in God's hands of their conversion, their consolation in sorrow and their prospect of glory ! How many also have at these pastors' hands received the consecrated waters of holy baptism, the seal of the Abrahamic and Christian covenant!
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