USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > Bergen > Annals of the classis of Bergen, of the Reformed Dutch Church, and of the churches under its care: including, the civil history of the ancient township of Bergen, in New Jersey > Part 17
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All disputes arising in the Reformed Dutch Church respecting the validity of an election, appointment or call of elders and deacons, must be referred to the church judicatory to which the congregation is subordinate ; that is, first to the Classis, next to the Particular Synod, and lastly to the General Synod.
The decision of the Classis upon any such election, appointment, or call, is final, unless appealed from ; and its decision will be respected by the Supreme Court, and full effect given to it.
Though the Consistory may be dissatisfied with the decision of the Classis, they cannot get clear of the decision by changing their allegiance.
To constitute a member of any church, two points, at the least, are essential a profession of its falth and a submission to its government. Per Chief Justice.
After persons withdraw from a church, they do not continue members of it, simply because they hold the same religious faith and tenets with the members of that church. Per Chief Justice.
Whomsoever the judicatory of the Dutch Reformed Church decide to be the spiritual officers, the Supreme Court are bound to respect as such. Per Ch. Justice.
In the year 1827, an action of ejectment was insti- tuted in the name of John Den on the demise of Henry Demott, James Slater, John Vreeland, Valen- tine Sambler, James Gardner, George Wilson, and John De Groot, claiming to constitute the corporation called "The Minister, Elders and Deacons of the Dutch Reformed Church in the English Neighbor- hood in the county of Bergen," against Theophilus Bolton, for the recovery of a farm then held by him as tenant under certain other persons, claiming to constitute the said corporation. Consent rules were exchanged whereby Bolton, the tenant in possession,
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and Peter D. Fræligh, Peter Banta, Abraham Ley- decker, John Edsall, Frederick Devoe, James G. Brinckerhoof, David Westervelt, Jacob Naugle, and John Cole, the persons under whom he held, were made defendants. The cause was noticed for trial at the Circuit Court of Bergen county, in October 1829, when the following state of the case was agreed on by the parties and their respective counsel :
The defendants confessed the lease, entry and ouster set forth in the declaration, insisting upon their rights according to the common rules exchanged in the cause.
It is agreed that Theophilus Bolton was in actual possession of the premises in question at the time of the commencement of this suit.
The Minister, Elders and Deacons of the Reformed Dutch Church in the English Neighborhood, were in- corporated under the act of Assembly, on the 29th of December, A. D., 1809, by the above name of incor- poration, in pursuance of a certificate, under the hands and seals of the then Minister, Elders and Dea- cons of the said Church, which is duly recorded in the Clerk's office of the county of Bergen. The de- fendants, upon notice, produced a deed for the premi- ses in question in this cause, from the Rev. Henry Polhemus and Lucretia his wife, to the Minister, El- ders and Deacons of the Dutch Reformed Church in the English Neighborhood, bearing date the 29th of December, A. D., 1809, recorded in Liber D. of deeds for Bergen County, pages 393, &c .; under which deed, both parties to this cause claim title to the premi- ses in question. The parties produced the first and second editions of the constitution of the Reformed Dutch Church, in the United States of America. The plaintiff produced a book entitled Acts and Proceed- ings of the Classis of Bergen, commencing the 2d of September, A. D., 1800; also another book, called Minutes of the Consistory of the Reformed Dutch
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Church, in the English Neighborhood. The plaintiffs produced their seal, adopted, as appears by the book last mentioned, the 10th day of February, A. D., 1825. It is agreed between the parties that the copies of papers and instruments, entered in the different books, exhibited and marked, shall be considered of the same force and effect, as if the originals were pro- duced; and that the several facts stated in the said books, shall be considered and received in evidence as if proved. The plaintiffs produced the printed minutes of the General Synod of the Dutch Church, held at Albany, in the month of June, 1823.
The defendants produced the following books and papers, viz :
A book of records of the Dutch Church at the English Neighborhood, with a parchment cover, com- mencing in the year 1768; also, a written paper ad- dressed to Peter W. Banta, dated April 20th, 1824. Also a printed pamphlet entitled the Acts and Pro- ceedings of the Classis and General Synod of the True Dutch Reformed Church, in the United States of America, from October, 1822, to June, 1827, inclu- sive, said book contains several pamphlets, bound in boards ; also a copy of a bill filed in Chancery of New Jersey, wherein John Vreeland and others are complainants, and Cornelius T. Demarest and others, defendants. Also a copy of the opinion of the chan- cellor in the cause in which the above bill was filed. Also a paper, being a lease, signed by Theophilus Bolton, one of the defendants, and Peter D. Fræleigh, president, and the elders and deacons. Also, the common consent rules exchanged in this cause. The defendants also produced two books, purporting to contain the Acts and Proceedings of the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church, in North America. The defendants also produced the old seal of incorporation of the Church in the English Neigh- borhood; also a copy of an original paper, served upon
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Mr. John Degroot and others. It is admitted, on the part of the defendants, that the elders and deacons, who were elected on the first of May, 1824, and or- dained by the Rev. Ava Neal, were regularly sworn into office, and it is admitted that the elders and dea- cons on both sides of the question, have from that time onward, been regularly sworn into office. The plaintiff produced a paper signed by James V. C. Romeyn, dated Hackensack, October 28th, 1829. Also, the minutes of the Synod of the True Reformed Dutch Church of 1828 and 1829, in printed pamphlets.
It is further agreed that either party may turn the foregoing case into a special verdict, and bring a writ of error thereon in the same manner as if the fore- going facts had been found by a special verdict.
The documents mentioned in the foregoing state of the case, and by reference made part of it, are very voluminous ; and as the substance of them, so far as is necessary to a full understanding of the points liti- gated and decided, will be found in the opinions of the court, the reporter has not thought himself at liberty to extend the report to an inconvenient and unnecessary length by inserting them in detail.
The argument took place at November term, 1830. Hornblower and Wood, for the plaintiff.
Vanarsdale and Frelinghuysen, for the defendants. At the present term, the following opinions were delivered :
EWING, C. J. In the year 1809, a Dutch Reformed Congregation, in the County of Bergen, became incor- porated, according to the statute of this state, entitled, An act to incorporate trustees of religious societies, by the name of "The Minister, Elders and Deacons of the Dutch Reformed Church in the English Neighbor- hood." On the same day, two tracts of land of about twenty-three acres, were by lawful assurance convey- ed to them in their corporate name. The minister, elders and deacons entered into possession, and they
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and their successors, for the time being, received and appropriated, to their just ends, the rents and profits, peaceably and without question or strife, for a num- ber of years. Divisions have, however, arisen in the congregation ; and at the institution of this action of ejectment there were, and there yet are, two sets of persons, each of whom claim to be the legal incum- bents of office, and as such, entitled to hold the premi- ses, and receive and apply the rents and profits. Both parties admit that the premises belong to the corpora- tion. Both admit that the Minister, Elders and Dea- cons, for the time being, of the Reformed Dutch Church, in the English Neighborhood, are entitled to the possession. The single question in controversy is, which set of persons are the trustees. By those out of possession, the present action of ejectment has been instituted, and it has been so moulded as distinctly and exclusively to present this enquiry. Theophilus Bolton, the tenant in actual possession, holds under a lease made to him by one set or body, who are with him the defendants. John Den, the plaintiff, claims, as appears by his declaration, under the other set or body, who are there named and described. And their respective leases will have validity and ought to prevail, as it shall appear on investigation that the one or the other party is, what both profess to be ; with, however, this difference always in view, that as the one set are in actual possession and defendants, the lessors of the plaintiff are bound, according to the doctrines of this form of action, to show fully and clearly that they are the Minister, Elders and Dea- cons of the Dutch Reformed Church in the English Neighborhood, or rather the elders and deacons, who when there is no minister, constitute the trustees ; for failing to do this, the defendants, however defective may be their pretensions, may hold until those, in whom the right is, shall think proper to disturb them.
From this statement it may be seen that the case
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does not require us to consider or decide what is the effect, upon the joint property of a religious society, of the withdrawing of the whole or a portion of its members, either with or without a change of doctrine, and their union with some other religious denomina- tion, or their formation of some new sect or some new ecclesiastical arrangement; nor whether those who thus change or withdraw, carry with them any por- tion of the common funds. We have too, most happily, no occasion to encounter controversial or doctrinal points, or to enquire which party is sound in doctrine or most faithfully adheres to the tenets of their church. The public acts of the parties and the avowal of their counsel on the argument at the bar, render the truth and propriety of these remarks more manifest. Both parties claim to be, of the Dutch Reformed Church. The one of them, to give the more full assurance, lest circumstances might lead to any doubt, aver themselves to be, and challenge the name of, the True Reformed Dutch Church. Both point to the same catechism and the same ancient synodical declaration as their rule of faith and prac- tice. Both claim the Constitution of the Reformed Dutch Church, in the United States of America, pro- mulgated by their highest ecclesiastical judicatory in the year 1815, as their form of church government. by which they acknowledge they are bound, and ac- cording to which they are willing and seek to be judged. We have then no theological controversies to investigate, no doctrinal points to discuss, no modes of faith to compare or estimate. We are simply to enquire, and, upon legal principles, who are, or speak- ing more exactly, whether the lessors of the plaintiff are, the Elders and Deacons of the Dutch Reformed Church in the English Neighborhood ; for if they are, it is then sure, even from the lips of their adversaries, that they are entitled to judgment in this action and to the occupation of the property in dispute.
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Among the early settlers of New Jersey and New York were many emigrants from the United Provinces. They did not, like the settlers of New England, seek an asylum from the religious persecutions of their native land; but like them, they brought here their industry, their virtues, and especially their ardent at- tachment and stedfast adherence to the religious faith of their forefathers. As early as 1622, congregations were formed. In process of time these became numerous, spreading over a large portion of the then inhabited parts of New Jersey and New York; each enjoying its religious worship and privileges; all guided by the doctrines of Heidelbergh and Dor- drecht; and most of them holding that competent and safe spiritual guides and teachers were to be found only in the mother country, where all their early clergymen were either born or educated. Until the year 1771, no general system of church government was organized. In that year, the numerous flocks somewhat distracted and divided, more especially on the question whether adequate ministers could be raised here or must be sought abroad, were brought together into a common fold. A general system of church organization, similar in outline to the Re- formed Dutch in Holland, and substantially the same as now exists, was then unanimously, and as we may infer from their public records, cordially adopted.
In the year 1799, when the statute of this state for the incorporation of religious societies was enacted, all those who professed the faith, and claimed to be members of the Reformed Dutch Church, were divided among numerous congregations, but united in a gener- al ecclesiastical frame of government, comprehending a Consistory of each Congregation, a Classis having jurisdiction over a few neighboring congregations, a Particular Synod embracing a few Classes, and a Gener- al Synod having jurisdiction over the whole. Their affairs were regulated according to the ancient Con-
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stitution of their Church ; an authentic copy of which was published in 1793, and another, under the au- thority of their highest judicatory, in the year 1815.
The congregation of the English Neighborhood was early formed. It belonged for many years, as it did in the year 1799, to the Classis of Hackensack. On a a division of that Classis in the year 1800, it was plac- ed under the jurisdiction, and its representatives formed a part, of the Classis of Bergen. In 1809, the congregation availed themselves of the benefit intend- ed by the legislature, and, as already mentioned, be- came incorporated. A kind deference to the usages and customs of this Church, induced the legislature to direct, in the statute for incorporation that they should not be required to choose trustees to manage their temporal concerns like other religious associations, but that the persons whom they chose, according to the constitution of their Church, to govern in spiritual things, should also manage their temporal affairs. Hence, without any formal election of trustees, the minister, elders and deacons for the time being, taking the prescribed oaths of office, were the trustees or corporators, and as such entitled to take and hold the property and direct and control the business of the corporate body .*
On the 29th day of January, 1824, a part of the congregation of the English Neighborhood, resolved to withdraw and separate themselves from the Classis of Bergen and the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church. The meeting held on that day in the church, according to public notice given on the pre- ceding Sabbath, consisted as appears by the entry on the book of records of the Consistory, of the elders and deacons and about twenty-five heads of families.
* NOTE. Rev. Laws 478, sec. 12. " The minister or ministers, elders and dea- cons for the time being, or if there be no minister or ministers, the elders and dea- cons for the time being, of every Reformed Dutch congregation, shall be trustees of the same and a body politic and corporate in law by such name as the said trustees shall assume in the manner hereinafter directed."
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The chairman, one of the elders, stated to them that as the Classis of Bergen had at their late and previous meetings tolerated false doctrines, which the General Synod had also done, and passed illegal or unconsti- tutional orders, the Consistory asked whether the meeting advised a dissolution of the connection with the Classis of Bergen ; and the question being put, four only voted against a dissolution. On the same day the Consistory met and resolved, 1st, that their connection with the Classis of Bergen and the General Synod was dissolved. 2d, that they were and de- signed to remain, what they always had been, a true Reformed Dutch Church, adhering steadfastly to the constitution of the Reformed Dutch Church and to the word of God, upon which they believed the said con- stitution to be grounded. 3d, that they acknowledged themselves to be subordinate to none other than the Classis and Synod of the true Reformed Dutch Church, whose reasons for separating from the General Synod as contained in their printed pamphlet, they approved and adopted.
On the 20th February, 1824, after certain proceed- ings of the Classis of Bergen on the 17th and 18th of that month, which will be hereafter more fully ad- verted to, a document was drawn up and signed by a number of the members in full communion, whereby they avow their beliet of the pure doctrines of the Reformed Dutch Church as contained in her standards; and protest against the proceedings of the Classis of Bergen ; and declare themselves not subject to that body. And on the same day, the Consistory drew up and signed a protest against all the proceedings that might be attempted against them in the congregation, by any one acting under the authority of the Classis of Bergen, "because, say they, we do not acknowledge the authority of the Classis of Bergen nor of the General Synod, inasmuch as those bodies have de- parted from the doctrine and standards of the Reform-
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ed Dutch Church, and because this Consistory and Church of the English Neighborhood, are, and in fact were, before the late meeting of the Classis of Bergen, as will appear by our acts, subject to none other than to the Classis and Synod of the True Reformed Dutch Church."
I have said a part of the congregation withdrew and separated. The number of subscribers to this document is forty-nine, nineteen males and thirty females. These were, of the members in full com- munion. I do not find, from the evidence before us, whether any others of the congregation, of those who were not in communion, joined with them: It seems reasonable to suppose that others did so, but I have overlooked the direct evidence of it, if there be any. Nor am I able to gain, from the evidence, with pre- cision, a comparative view of the number of those who seceded and those who remained. The memorial or complaint against the Consistory, presented to the Classis, purported to have been signed by sixty-two " members of the Church and congregation." In the minutes of the General Synod, statistical reports are published. In the year 1824, there is none from the English Neighborhood, for an obvious reason. In 1819, the congregation consisted of one hundred and forty-two families and eight hundred and twenty per- sons ; of these eighty were in communion. Until 1826, there is no enumeration. In that year the minutes state one hundred and forty families, six hundred and fifty persons in the congregation, and fifty-three in communion. And herein, I presume, is included those only who remained, and not those who had with- drawn. Among the latter were all the elders and all the deacons then in office in this congregation. The minister, elders and deacons, for the time being, the persons who filled these spiritual offices, and who therefore according to the statute were the corporators or trustees for the time being, had declared themselves no longer to belong to the Classis or the Synod.
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The residue of the members of this congregation, who did not subscribe the above mentioned document or then or afterwards unite in the secession, remained, as must be and is conceded by all, members of the congregation of the English Neighborhood, of the Classis of Bergen, of the Particular Synod ; of the General Synod, and of the Reformed Dutch Church ; deprived it may be, for the time, of their spiritual congregational leaders, of incumbents in their Consis- tory, but not in the faintest degree deprived of their standing in the Church or having their rights taken away, impaired or diminished.
In the act of withdrawing, they who sign it declare, that they retain and adhere to the faith and doctrines of the Reformed Dutch Church as contained in its standards. We are to take this declaration to be true. Did they therefore remain members of the Reformed Dutch Church ? Simply holding the same faith, with- ont submitting to the government and discipline of a church, cannot make or keep a man a member of that church. If a person without religious faith, or having the faith of one sect, becomes a convert to the spiritu- al views of another denomination, he does not thereby become, ipso facto, a member of the latter. The members of the Reformed Dutch Church in the United States are not members of the Presbyterian Church, nor the Presbyterians, members of the Re- formed Dutch Church, although their faith is the same, the difference between them consisting in the form and mode of church government. To constitute a member of any church, two points at least are essen- tial, without meaning to say that others are not so, a profession of its faith and a submission to its govern- ment. The native of Canada, however pure may be his republican doctrines, however sincerely he may believe our constitutional and legal principles to be sound, and our political faith, the only true faith, does not thereby become a citizen of the United States.
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These persons then, after they withdrew, did not continue members of the Reformed Dutch Church simply because they held the same religious faith and tenets with the members of that ecclesiastical body.
Upon the argument, the counsel of the defendants, holding in their hands the constitution of the Reform- ed Dutch Church, and avowing it to be their guide and obligatory on them, admitted that to remain members of that Church and to retain their stations there, they must belong to a Classis and Synod, and therefore they alleged that after they withdrew from the Classis of Bergen, they offered themselves to and were accepted by, the True Reformed Dutch Church. There is only then, it was said, a change from one church judicatory to another, and the standing of the defendants as members of the Reformed Dutch Church is not thereby affected. This argument renders some knowledge of the history of the True Reformed Dutch Church desirable.
In October, 1822, ten persons, five ministers and elders and deacons, met and organized themselves in- to an ecclesiastical body, which they called the Classis of the True Reformed Dutch Church in the United States of America. They published to the world the reasons and grounds of their organization. They complained with a minuteness of detail unnecessary to be here repeated, that the Church once noted for its soundness in the faith had become corrupt in its principles and practice. They alleged a prevailing laxness of discipline and prostitution of the sacred ordinances of the Gospel, and declared as follows, " We the undersigned, ministers, elders and deacons have unanimously agreed to restore the Church to its original purity, and together with the congregations under our care, do unite in declaring ourselves the True Reformed Dutch Church in the United States of America, and as a rule of our faith and practice do abide by all the standards ratified and established
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in the national Synod held at Dordrecht, in the years 1618 and 1619, without the least alteration, by which act we do not separate from, but remain the identical Reformed Dutch Church."
At the same meeting, they resolved that until their numbers were sufficiently increased to be divided into Classes and Synods, the judicatories in the Church should consist of only two descriptions, Consistories and a Classis; and the Classis should be known and distinguished by the name of the True Reformed Dutch Church in the United States of America.
Having referred to the number of those who orga- nized this body, it may not be unprofitable to stop a moment to learn the number of the ancient body call- ed the Reformed Dutch Church. The source of information afforded us by the evidence is the statisti- cal tables contained in the minutes of the General
Synod. The minutes of 1821 and 1822, contain no tables. By the minutes of 1823, there were one hun- dred and twenty-three congregations and seventy-four pastors, exclusive of the Classes of Paramus and Long Island, Albany and Washington, from which no re- ports were that year made. They in 1824 contained forty-eight congregations and twenty-five pastors. Together, one hundred and seventy-one congregations and ninety-nine pastors. From which we may safely conclude the number did not much vary in 1822.
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