USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > First church in Newark : historical discourses, relating to the First Presbyterian church in Newark; originally delivered to the congregation of that church during the month of January, 1851 > Part 14
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* Manuscript History.
10
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146
MR. WEBB'S DISMISSION.
salary with this proviso, that "if any person or per- sons should find fault, and not consenting to pay the same, then Mr. Webb is to deduct one sixth part of their rate, and allow the same out of it."
Mr. Webb is said to have been a diligent attend- ant on the judicatories of the Church .* In the Synod he belonged to the party most jealous for religious liberty, and once or twice, as we have seen, joined with Dickinson and others in protesting against measures which were supposed to have the opposite tendency.+ He was regarded as a man of prudence, and was not unfrequently employed in adjusting difficulties in the Churches. In his private character he was meek, peaceable, inoffensive and benevolent. " All acknowl- edged," says Dr. Macwhorter "that his abilities were not of the strongest kind, but he was a plain, faithful and painstaking minister. His dismission gave great offence to the ministers and Churches of the neighbor- hood," and the worst thing that any could say of him in a time of party spirit and tumult, was "that he was too peaceable and too good."
* Manuscript History. Mr. Webb's "Here lyes interred an honest, pious soul, name first appeared among those minis- Who all that knew his virtues did verole ; Who must lye here until the judgment day, ters connected with the Synod in the year 1725. At the same meeting, this Church was represented by Caleb Ward, as its And will with me have nothing then to say." elder, who is probably the first elder from this Church who ever appeared in the Synod. He was admitted as a planter in Memento Mori. The meaning of the word " verole," or what was intended by it, passes my ability to conjecture. the town of Newark, in 1693. Mr. Con- gar informs me that he was the son of John Ward, turner, and died at the age The elders in attendance on the Synod at this period were not numerous. I recog- nize but two other names of elders from this church during Mr. Webb's ministry, viz: John and Samuel Allen or Alling. of sixty-six, Feb. 9th, 1735-6. His chil- dren were Caleb, Timothy, Theophilus, Thomas, John, Stephen, Mary Smith, Sarah Sealy, Hannah Woodruff, and Eliz- abeth Ward. On his tombstone we find the following tribute to his worth :
t See Minutes of the Synod of Philadel- phia, pp. 66, 86, 120.
147
DEATH OF MR. WEBB.
Mr. Webb remained in this vicinity, after his dismis- sion, preaching in the neighborhood, and discharging his duties as a member of Presbytery and Synod about four years. His last appearance in the Synod was in May, 1740; and it is said, that on a visit to New Eng- land, he and his son were drowned together, in at- tempting to cross Saybrook ferry, on Connecticut river, probably during the year 1741 .*
I have now brought the history of this Church down to the year 1736, very near to the period of those great revivals under the preaching of Whitefield, Edwards, Tennent and others, which must be regarded as one of the most memorable eras in the history of the Ameri- can churches. Hitherto the narrative has been confined chiefly to the external affairs of the congregation. All the early records of the Church having been lost, our dependence for information has been chiefly upon the Records of the Town of Newark, the published Minutes
* Century Sermon by Dr. Macwhorter, p. 8 During the ministry of Mr. Webb, several aged and influential members of the Church were removed by death. The tombstone of Deacon Azariah Crane, which is still standing in the old burying ground, bears the following inscription : " Here lies interred the body of Deacon Azariah Crane, who departed this life, 5th Novbr., 1730, in the 83d year of his age." Near him lies his wife, Mary, daughter of Robert Treat, who died Nov. 12, 1704, in the 55th year of her age. Anthony Olive, who died March 16th, 1723, aged 87, and Nathaniel Wheeler, who died Oct. 4th, 1726, aged 87, were both buried at Orange. Robert Young died Nov. 7th, 1726, in his 63d year. Mrs. Joanna Crane, wife of Jas- per Crane, junior, and daughter of Samuel Swaine, finished her course Sept. 16th, 1720, in her 69th year. "Deacon Joseph Camfield departed this life, December the
14th, 1733, in the 52d year of his age." The tombstone of Joseph Browne, grand- son of John Browne, senior, tells us that he died January 30, 1733-4, aged 58, and thus describes his character :
"My life was hid with Christ in God, Triumphant over death ;
My soul with angels makes abode, Till Christ restore my breath."
Joseph Johnson, "the drummer," who was only 15 years old when the settlement began, lived to the advanced age of 83, and died in the year 1734. and his tomb- stone, which still remains, bears the fol- lowing inscription : " Here lyeth interred the body of Joseph Johnson, son of Thom- as and Eleanor Johnson, deceased, he died March 11th, 1738-4, in the 83d year of his age." (See Monumental Inscriptions by Dr. John S. Condit.) Benjamin Baldwin died in 1726, Daniel Tichenor 1727-8 .--- S. H. Congar.
148
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
of the Synod of Philadelphia, and a few other original documents, chiefly of a secular character. In the por- tions which follow, we shall be able to enter far more fully into the spiritual history of the congregation, and bring forth the proofs of God's power in giving success to the ministry of the Word.
Let us not suppose however, that during all this while the congregation had no spiritual history worthy to be told on earth, and remembered in the scenes of eternity. The agonies of the convicted sinner, the struggles between conscience and a sinful heart-the joy of the new born soul, crying to its fellows, "O taste and see that the Lord is good"-the conflicts and the victories, the prayers and the thanksgivings of God's people-the mourner's sorrows cast at the feet of Jesus-and the parent's agonies when a wicked child went to the grave in his wickedness-all are buried now in the deep silence of the forgotten past. And yet they are the matters chiefly remembered in the world of spirits. There each sermon which those good old servants of God preached from those long since demolished pulpits-every entreaty they made to the impenitent to accept mercy through the Saviour -every impressive providence which brought eternity to mind-every outpouring of the Divine spirit are now held in vivid recollection. The good remember with unceasing songs how they were plucked as brands out of the burning by the power of grace; and the im- penitent; with what bitterness of soul do they call to mind their lost opportunities, the means and influences of grace which they neglected and despised ! We shall
149
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
hear the whole doubtless, in the Great Day, when God shall bring every work into judgment.
Let me entreat you, my friends, while I am dwelling for a season on these outward and temporary transac- tions of the men of other days, not to neglect your own spiritual and eternal interests. The history which we are enacting is, after all, of far more moment to us than that which we recite. Every hour is pregnant with eternal consequences, and ever bringing us nearer and nearer to their realization. Oh, let the history which our actions now engrave upon the tablets of eternity, be such as we may review with joy !
ENGRAVED BY J. SARTAIN.
DISCOURSE NUMBER III.
ECCLESIASTES I: 4. One generation passeth away and another generation cometh.
WE have passed over a period of nearly seventy . years, and noticed the accession, services and removal of six successive pastors of this church. We come now to the sixth in order, viz., the Rev. Aaron Burr.
This eminent man was born in Fairfield, Connecti- cut, January 4th, 1716. His father's name was Daniel, and his paternal grandfather's and great-grandfather's, Jehu, all of whom were residents of Fairfield ; the first Jehu Burr having come to that place from Spring- field, Mass. It is asserted in the biography of Colonel Aaron Burr, that his grandfather was a German, who emigrated to this country, and purchased a large tract of land in Connecticut. But this assertion is unques- tionably fabulous. "Daniel Burr, of upper meadow," as the baptismal register designates him, was no Ger- man, but the descendant of a race intensely puritan in all its instincts and sympathies." Of six sons, Aaron was the youngest. From his childhood he had a strong inclination to learning, and early discovered
* For these facts I am indebted to the
who gives them as the result of his own Rev. Lyman H. Atwater, D. D., of Fairfield, investigation.
152
REV. AARON BURR.
tokens of that extraordinary quickness of intellect which afterwards distinguished him. He was gradu- ated at Yale College in the year 1735, under the ad- ministration of Rector Williams, in the same class with that eminent divine, the Rev. Joseph Bellamy, D. D .*
On receiving his first degree, Mr. Burr offered him- self as a candidate for the privileges of a resident grad- uate on the Berkley foundation. Dr. George Berkley, Dean of Derry, and afterwards Bishop of Cloyne, had founded in the year 1732, three scholarships in Yale College, on condition that the income of certain prop- erty which he gave for the purpose, should be appro- priated to the maintenance of the three best scholars in Greek and Latin, who should reside at college at least nine months in a year, in each of the years be- tween the first and second degree. The fact that Mr. Burr sought and obtained the privileges of this bene- faction, shows at once his fondness for classical studies, and his position as one of the three highest scholars in that department in his class.+
It was during the year following his first degree, while he was still pursuing his studies as a scholar on this foundation, that Mr. Burr is supposed to have first experienced the power of regenerating grace. "There was," says President Edwards, under date of Novem- ber, 1736, " a considerable revival of religion last sum- mer, at New Haven, old town, as I was once and again informed by the Rev. Mr. Noyes, the minister there,
* See Yale College Catalogue.
+ Baldwin's History of Yale College,
pp. 46-52. Obituary notice of President Burr.
153
MR. BURR'S CONVERSION.
and by others. Mr. Noyes writes, that many this sum- mer have been added to the Church, and particularly mentions several young persons that belong to the principal families of the town."* Who these young persons were we are not told, but it is very likely that young Burr was among the number that the pastor Noyes had in his mind.
The following account of his religious exercises is said to have been extracted from his private papers. " This year God saw fit to open my eyes, and show me what a miserable creature I was. Till then I had spent my life in a dream, and as to the great design of my being had lived in vain. Though before, I had been under frequent convictions, and was driven to a form of religion, yet I knew nothing as I ought to know. But then I was brought to the footstool of sovereign grace, saw myself polluted by nature and practice, had affecting views of the Divine wrath I deserved, was made to despair of help in myself, and almost con- cluded that my day of grace was past. It pleased God at length to reveal His Son to me in the Gospel, as an all-sufficient Saviour, and I hope inclined me to receive Him on the terms of the Gospel."+ Before this period
* Thoughts on the Revival, p. 36.
t See funeral sermon by Rev. Caleb Smith, entitled " A Sermon occasioned by the much lamented death of the Reverend Mr. Aaron Burr, A. M., President of the College of New Jersey, who died Sep- tember 24th, 1759, in the 43d year of his age. Delivered in Nassau Hall, at a meeting of the Trustees of the College, December 15th, 1759, and published by their desire. By Caleb Smith, A. M." John ix: 4. "I must work the work of Him that sent me while it is day; the
night cometh when no man can work." A copy of this sermon is to be found in the New York Historical Society's Library- Mr. Smith was the minister of Orange, then called Newark Mountain; born on Long Island, Dec. 29, 1723, O. S .; entered at Yale College, 1739 ; licensed April, 1747, by the Presbytery of New York; ordained Nov. 30, 1748; married Martha, daughter of Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, Sept. 7, 1749, and after her decease, which occurred Aug. 28, 1757, was again married to Rebecca Foot, daughter of Major Foot,
154
MR. BURR'S LICENSURE AND CALL
he was a strong Armenian in his religious opinions, as were great numbers, not only of the young students, but of the leading ministers and Churches of that day. But in his case, as in many others, a change of heart brought with it a change of creed, and to use his own words, he "he seemingly felt the truth of the Calvin- ian doctrine."
Mr. Burr was licensed as a candidate for the minis- try in September, 1736; preached his first sermon at Greenfield, Mass,, and then came to New Jersey, and labored a short time at Hanover .* The first notice of him at Newark, bears date November 1736, when a committee was appointed to treat with him on the subject of his becoming a candidate. " Dur- ing the month following, viz., on the 21st of De- cember, 1736, it was put to vote," says the Town Record, "whether the town desired. Mr. Aaron Burr should have a call for further improvement in the work of the ministry among us, as a candidate for further trial, which was carried in the affirmative, nemine con- tradicente."+ He was accordingly employed to preach
-
of Branford, Conn., Oct. 17, 1759. Mr, Smith died of dysentery, Oct. 22, 1762. Æt. 38 years and 10 months. He is said to have been very useful in Presbytery, and for many years was stated clerk; and many of its most important writings were drafted by him. His sermon on the death of Burr was the only one which he published, and was composed at a time when he was much affected with nervous disorder, and written with great difficulty. Generally he wrote with great ease. About the time he took his second degree, (i. e. in 1746,) Mr. Burr of Newark, afterwards President of New Jersey College, having a large Latin school, and wanting a master to
teach the languages, being sensible of the worth of Mr. Caleb Smith, wrote to him, and endeavored to obtain him for that purpose. Mr. Smith's affairs would not allow him to come till Mr. Burr was oth- erwise supplied. However, he at length came to Elizabethtown, where he instruct- ed a number of young gentlemen in the learned languages, and studied divinity under the direction of that eminently great divine, Mr. Jonathan Dickinson."- See " a brief account" of his life, published at Woodbridge, in 1763, now in the Libra- ry of the New York Historical Society.
* Memoirs of Col. A. Burr, p. 17.
+ Newark Town Records, p. 161.
155
SETTLEMENT OF MR. BURR.
for the term of one year, commencing the 10th of Jan- uary, 1736-7, and immediately after the expiration of that term, viz., on the 25th of January, 1737-8,* was ordained after the usual trials by the Presbytery of East Jersey, with which the Church was then con- nected. Mr. Dickinson presided, and gave the charge, and Mr. Pierson preached. The settlement of Mr. Burr was a most auspicious event. "It was then a day of temptation and darkness in that Church," says a reliable authority, " but his coming soon dispersed the cloud which hung over them, and they in a short time gave him a unanimous call to the pastoral office."+ The early part of Mr. Burr's ministry was remarka-
* In an extract from his Journal in the universally acceptable among them, and Memoir of Col. Burr, the date given is they manifested such great regard and love for me, that I consented to accept of the charge of their souls. 1738-9, but the Minutes of the Synod con- cur with the Newark Town Records, in assigning it to Jan. 1, 1737-8.
t Rev. Caleb Smith's funeral sermon. That there was no precipitation in Mr. Burr's settlement, as Dr. Macwhorter sup- poses, (see Century Sermon, p. 19,) is evi- dent from the length of his probation as above stated. His own account of the whole matter is contained in the following extract from his private journal (See Memoir Col. Burr, p. 19, vol. i.) "In September, 1736, with many fears and doubts about my qualifications, (being un- der clouds with respect to my spiritual state,) I offered myself to trial, and was approved as a candidate for the ministry. My first sermon was preached at Green- field, and immediately after I came to the Jerseys. I can hardly give any account why I came here. After I had preached some time at Hanover, I had a call by the people of Newark, but there was scarcely any probability that I should suit their circumstances, being young in standing and trials. I accepted their invitation with a reserve, that I did not come with any views of settling. My labors were
"A. D. 1738-39. January the 25th. I was set apart to the work of the ministry by fasting, prayer and imposition of hands. God grant that I may ever keep fresh in my mind the solemn charge that was then given me, and never indulge trifling thoughts of what then appeared to me of such awful importance. The ministers who joined in this solemn transaction were Mr. Dickinson, who gave the charge, and Mr. Pierson who preached. Mr. Dickinson, who presided at this work, has been of great service to me by his advice and instruction, both before and since my ordination."
The Records of the Synod contain the following notice, under date of May 24th, 1738: "It is reported that Mr. Charles Tennent, in the Presbytery of Newcastle, Mr. Aaron Burr and Mr. Walter Wilmot, in the Presbytery of New York, were after the usual trial, ordained since the last Synod, and that they did all of them adopt the Westminster Confession, &c., accord- ing to order of this Synod."-Minutes, p. 135.
156
THE GREAT AWAKENING.
ble for that wonderful religious impulse which, extend- ing over almost the whole of our country, and consid- erable portions of Great Britain, has justly been de- nominated "the great awakening." The mighty work began at Northampton and other places, as early as the year 1734, when Burr was yet a youth in college, and he had felt as we have seen, the power of God in it in the awakening and conversion of his own soul. Having entered on his work here, under a deep sense of his own weakness, and the most solemn impressions of the responsibility of his charge,* God was pleased to honor him as an eminent instrument in carrying forward his work of grace, not only among the people of Newark, but in other parts of the land. In a letter from a gentleman in New York to a friend in Glas- gow,t in the year 1741, he is mentioned with Gilbert and William Tennent, Ebenezer Pemberton and three others, as one of seven ministers whom "the good Lord hath stirred up and spirited," to water the seed sown by Whitefield in this region.
Nor was it only as an Apollos watering and tending the plants which other men had sown, that God was pleased to employ him. About a year and a half after his ordination, in the month of August, 1739, before Whitefield made his first visit to this part of the coun- try, a remarkable revival of religion took place in this congregation. It began among the youth, and increas- ing steadily from month to month, seemed by mid-
* Memoir Col. Burr, p. 18.
t Letter from Dr. John Nichols, physi- cian in New York, to Nicholas Spence,
agent for the Church in Scotland. (See Gillies's Hist. Col., vol viii, p. 133.
157
REVIVAL OF RELIGION.
winter to have changed the entire face of society. The vices and follies which before prevailed, were univer- sally abandoned; religious conversation took the place of social merriment, devout attention appeared in all their public assemblies, and a deep anxiety about their eternal welfare became manifest in the countenances of many. Early in the spring, the adult portion of the congregation, who had hitherto, with a few exceptions, remained apparently unaffected, began to feel the power of the same sacred influences, and "the whole town were brought under an uncommon concern about their eternal interests."*
All this time the heavenly gift seemed confined wholly to Newark. In the neighboring congregation of Elizabethtown there was great religious insensibility. Whitefield had visited and preached among them dur- ing the autumn, and not a single known conversion followed his ministrations. The excellent pastor of the Church redoubled his efforts, but apparently to no purpose. "Though we had," he writes, " continual accounts from Newark of the growing distress among their people, their young people especially, our con- gregation remained secure and careless, and could not
* At this juncture, Mr. Dickinson, of in New Jersey. Gal. iv: 6. And because Elizabethtown, preached a sermon here, ye are sons, God hath sent His Son into entitled :
" The Witness of the SPIRIT. A SERMON preached at Newark, in NEW JERSEY, May 7th, 1740, wherein is distinctly shown in what way and manner the Spirit himself beareth witness to the adoption of the chil- dren of GOD, on occasion of the wonderful progress of converting grace in those parts. By Jonathan Dickinson, M. A., minister of the Gospel at Elizabethtown,
your hears, crying Abba Father. Boston, N. E. Printed and sold by S. Kneeland & T. Green, in Queen street over against the prison. 1740."
This sermon, a copy of which is now in possession of the writer of these dis- courses, is eminently faithful and discrim- inating, and was doubtless in the truest sense, a Tract for the Times. The text is from Romans, iii: 16.
158
REVIVAL OF RELIGION.
be awakened out of their sleep." In such a man as Dickinson, whose joy was doubtless unfeigned in view of the success with which God was crowning the efforts of his young brother, for whom he seems to have en- tertained the warmest affection, such apparent deser- tion of his own flock could not but have been the source of keen affliction. "You will easily conceive," he says, "that this must be an afflicting and discour- aging consideration to me, that when from other places we had the joyful news of so many flying to Christ, I had yet cause to complain that I labored in vain, and spent my strength for nought." But just as the reli- gious feeling in Newark began to show signs of abate- ment, the Divine Spirit seemed to manifest His power among the people of Elizabethtown. A numerous con- gregation of the youth of the town being assembled, "I preached to them," says the pastor, "a plain, prac- tical sermon without any special liveliness or vigor, for I was then in a remarkably dead and dull frame;" but so deep and sudden was the impression made, that "the inward distress and concern of the audience dis- covered itself by their tears, and by an audible sob- bing and sighing in all parts of the assembly." About sixty persons gave evidence by their subsequent lives, of a radical change of character during this revival.
Meanwhile the congregation at Newark had not been wholly deserted. Catching the sacred flame, from the fire which had been kindled on a neighboring altar, this Church experienced during the following winter, the winter of 1740-1, a more general and ef- fectual manifestation of divine influence than in the
159
WHITEFIELD'S FIRST VISIT.
previous instance. Professors of religion were induced to examine closely the foundation of their hopes, and many of them became convinced that they had hith- erto only a name that they lived. Many converts were added to the number of Christ's followers, espe- cially among the elder class, and there seemed to be very few in the whole congregation who were not more or less sensibly affected. "There is good reason to conclude," says an eye-witness, "that there were a greater number now brought home to Christ than in the former gracious visitation."* This is the first among a long series of similar Divine visitations which the wastes of time have preserved to us.
In the month of November, 1740, Whitefield made his first visit to Newark. At his arrival in Newport, Rhode Island, Mr. Burr was in that region, on a visit for the benefit of his health, and probably accompanied him to Boston. It is certain that he was in Boston during the visit of the famous preacher, and heard him preach, both in the churches and on the common, to thronging thousands.+ About a month after Mr.
* Gillies's Historical Collections, vol. ii, the 23d went to hear him preach in Mr. p. 142 etc.
+ Mem. of Col. Burr, p. 18. "In Novem- ber, 1839, I was on a visit to my friends in New England, and again in March 1740. In the following August I was in a de- clining state of health, and by the advice of my physicians visited Rhode Island. From thence I proceeded to Boston on the 19th of September. I heard Mr. White- field preach in Dr. Colman's church. I am more and more and more pleased with the man. On the 21st heard him preach in the Commons to about ten thousand people. On Monday visited him, and had some conversation to my satisfaction. On
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