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 22
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A few years after the completion of this edifice, viz.,. in the year 1794, the change was made to which I have already alluded, in the mode of electing the Trustees under the charter. The Session to whom the whole power was intrusted by that instrument, en- gaged to call together the congregation on the first
* Dr. Macwhorter himself, with an air of exultation by no means to be cen- sured, thus describes it : "Its dimensions are one hundred feet in length, including the steeple, which projects eight feet. The steeple two hundred and four feet high ; two tiers of windows, five in a tier on each side; an elegant large Venetian window in the rear behind the pulpit, and the whole finished in the inside in the most handsome manner in the Doric order." "From the best estimate I can obtain," he adds, "it cost about £9000 York cur rency."
+ Funeral Sermon, p. 25.
# A tablet inserted in the front wall of the tower bears the following inscription, said to have been written by Hon. Wm. Peartree Smith.
Ædem hanc amplissimam cultui DIVINO dicatam, ex animo religioso et munificen- tia valde præclara, Nov ARCE habitantes, cura sub pastorali rev. Alexandri Mac. whorter, S. T. D. primum qui posuit saxum, construxerunt, anno salutis, 1787 ;. Amer. Reipub. Foderatæ 12. AUSPICANTE DEO, LONGUM PERDURET IN ÆVUM.
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CHURCH IN BLOOMFIELD FORMED.
day of January annually, for the purpose of choosing such men as a majority of its members should prefer, and agreed to confirm their appointment. And the practice has conformed to this arrangement to the present time. .
. In the year 1794, the first preliminary steps were taken for forming another Presbyterian Church within the boundaries of Newark, viz., in what is now the town of Bloomfield, then distinguished by the name of Wardsesson .* Application for this purpose was made to the Presbytery by "a number of the members of the congregations of Newark and Orange, and some other people in that vicinity;" and the reason alleged was "that many, by reason of their distance from any place of public worship and other difficulties, were unable to attend statedly upon the administration of the word." A committee appointed to confer with the applicants, and also with members of the two pa- rent societies, reported that "the committees from New- ark and Orange being fully heard, made no objection to the measure, but in a very christian manner ex- pressed their concurrence." Whereupon the Presbytery proceeded to erect the petitioners "into a distinct con- gregation of the Presbyterian Church, by the name of the "Third Presbyterian Church of the township of Newark." The petition was signed by ninety-eight heads of families ; but how large a portion of them went out from this congregation I have not the means of determining.
* See Minutes of the Presbytery of New York.
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HIGH STANDING OF DR. MACWHORTER.
I have already spoken of Dr. Macwhorter's useful- ness to the Church generally, and the high place which he occupied in the esteem and confidence of his breth- ren during the earlier period of his ministry in this Church. The same is true, in a still more eminent de- gree, during the later period. In the prosperity of the College of New Jersey, of whose Board of Trus- tees he was a member from his first election in 1772, till his death, and whose friends had at one time fixed their eyes upon him as a candidate for the office of President, he took a warm and active interest. In the Spring of 1802, at the advanced age of 68 years, he undertook a mission to New England, to solicit bene- factions on its account-the College edifice having then recently been destroyed by fire-and was successful in procuring more than $7000 for the repairing of the loss .* For many years he was a member of the Synod's committee for the distribution of the sums ap- propriated for the education of "poor and pious youth" in that institution. Indeed, almost all the principal committees appointed at this period, are found to con- tain his name. He is said to have been a skillful peace- maker, and therefore was often commissioned with others to adjust difficulties as they arose in different parts of the Presbyterian body. Of the committees which arranged a Plan of Union, or an agreement to hold an annual convention by delegates, with the Con- sociated Churches of Connecticut in 1767, and a fra- ternal connection with the Dutch and Associate Re-
* Dr. Griffin's Funeral Discourse, pp. 19, 25.
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GENERAL ASSEMBLY CONSTITUTED.
formed Churches in 1785, he was a member, and was often appointed by the Synod to conduct its corres- pondence with foreign bodies .*
"He never appeared in his might," says Dr. Griffin, " so perfectly as in a deliberative assembly, especially when his cautious and penetrating mind had leisure to examine well the bearings of the subject. Thor- oughly versed in all the forms of Presbyterial busi- ness, with a skill at management rarely surpassed, he filled a great space in the judicatories of our Church. His voice was listened to with profound respect, and the counsels suggested by his superior wisdom enlight- ened and swayed our public bodies."
In the year 1788, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, held its first annual meeting. The purpose of forming it began to be entertained in the Synod as early as the year 1785. After long deliberation and revision, the plan was adopted; and the Presbyteries having been rearranged and the whole body divided into four Synods, the Assembly was appointed to meet at the time above specified, in the city of Philadelphia, and the Synod of New York and Philadelphia was dis- solved. In the arrangements for the formation of this body, Dr. Macwhorter had a principal agency.t
* See Minutes of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, pp. 373, 505, 508. + While the plan was under considera- tion in the Presbytery of New York, in the month of May, 1788, a committee of that body, of which Dr. M. was chairman, brought in the draught of a chapter on the reciprocal duties of ministers and peo- ple, "to be laid before the Synod at their
next meeting to be inserted in our direc- tory." I find no traces of its introduction on the Minutes of the Synod, but it is re- corded at length in those of the Presby- tery, and is curious as indicating the views entertained at that time on a very important point of Christian duty. Among the duties of the minister we find the fol- lowing: he "shall ordinarily preach to his
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GENERAL ASSEMBLY CONSTITUTED.
His name stands second on a committee, of which Dr. Witherspoon was chairman, to whom was committed " the Book of Discipline and Government," " with pow- ers to digest such a system as they shall think to be accommodated to the state of the Presbyterian Church in America;" he was also appointed on the committee to revise the Westminster Directory of Worship; and he exerted a prominent influence in allaying the dissatisfaction which in some cases arose out of the proposed measures." He was early chosen as one of the Trustees of the Assembly, and continued to hold a place in that Board till a short time before his decease.
Of the four Synods provided for in the formation of the new body, that which contained the Presbytery
people twice on the Sabbath, except in such congregations where it is most proper in the winter season that there should be but one service." "He shall visit the sick and afflicted when sent for." Respecting pastoral visitation, it is ordained, " that if his congregation consists of not more than fifty families, he shall visit them once every year; if more than fifty, and not more than one hundred, he shall visit the whole once in two years; if of more than one hundred, and not more than two hun- dred, he shall visit the whole in three years," &c., "in the proportion of fifty fam- ilies every year." Among the duties of the people, are those of "due attendance on public worship and the catechetical in- struction of their minister," causing "their families to attend on the ministerial visit- ation in an orderly manner," and "when they are sick sending for their minister."
* The Presbytery of Suffolk went so far as to address a letter to the Moderator of the Synod "praying that the union be- tween them and the Synod might be dis- solved." On hearing it, the Synod ap- pointed Dr. Macwhorter to draw up a prey of others?"
reply. It is replete with Christian wis- dom and fraternal affection, and deserves to be read with care, as a fine specimen of Christian expostulation. After answering their alleged objections to the continuance of their past connection, and begging the brethren of the Suffolk Presbytery to re- consider their resolution to withdraw, it proceeds as follows: "You well know that it is not a small thing to rend the seamless coat of Christ, or to be disjoined parts of that one body, His Church." We are all members one of another; there should be no schism in the body, but we should comfort, encourage and strengthen one another by the firmest union in our common Lord. We are Presbyterians, and we firmly believe the Presbyterian system of doctrine, discipline and Church government, to be nearer to the word of God than that of any other sect or denom- ination of Christians. Shall all other sects and parties be united among them- selves, for their support and increase, and Presbyterians be divided and subdivided, so as to be the scorn of some and the
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BAPTIST AND METHODIST DENOMINATIONS.
of New York was directed to hold its first meeting in the First Presbyterian Church in the city of New York, on the 29th of October, 1788, and was organ- ized accordingly under the name of the SYNOD OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY. With that body this Church remained connected till its division by act of the As- sembly in the year 1823, a period of 35 years.
During the latter part of Dr. Macwhorter's ministry, two new denominations of Christians became organ- ized in Newark. The origin of the First Baptist Church is thus described by its present pastor: "A few of the members of the Church at Lyons' Farms, who were living in the town of Newark, obtained permis- sion of the Church to which they belonged to hold- services in a school house in a part of the town now known as South Broad street-still holding the rela- tion of a branch of the Farms Church. They hired the school house for one year." On the 6th of June, 1801, a company consisting of nine persons " were con- stituted into a regular Baptist Church, and were soon incorporated, assuming the name of the First Baptist Church of Newark." Their first house of worship, erected in Academy street, was dedicated on the 16th of September, 1806 .*
" The Methodist Episcopal Church had no house of worship until the year 1808. Previously to that time, religious services were held under the direction of that denomination with more or less regularity, as far back, it is said, as 1799. Their places of assembling were
* See Semi-Centennial Sermon, by the Rev. Henry C. Fish, June, 1851.
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INFLUENCE OF DR. MACWHORTER.
first the old Court House, which stood opposite the site of the First Presbyterian Church, and the building in the southern part of the city, long known as the White School House. The Rev. David Bartine is spoken of as having preached the first sermon ever delivered in this place by a Methodist." In 1808, the number of persons had increased to fourteen, at which time "the design of building a Methodist church in the town of Newark was adopted," and the first Meth- odist house of worship, called Wesley Chapel, was dedicated the following summer .*
Dr. Macwhorter's influence on this community was distinguished for its strength and permanence. I have already referred to three remarkable seasons of awakening in the congregation during his ministry. A fourth occurred in the year 1796, in consequence of which thirty or forty persons were added to the Church; and still a fifth, in the year 1802, the particu- lars of which I omit to mention here, as it perhaps be- longs more properly to the ministry of his successor. He presided over the congregation during some of the most eventful periods, was associated in his work with some of the most eminent men that have belonged to it, and has done more perhaps than any one else to impress the features of his own character upon its his- tory. When he departed this life, most of the church whom he left were his spiritual children, and a large proportion of them had received baptism in their childhood at his hands. "He had lived," as he said, " to see two worlds die."
Communicated by the Rev. S. Y. Monroe, present pastor of the Clinton street Methodist Church.
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CHARACTER OF DR. MACWHORTER.
The character of Dr. Macwhorter, if not remarkably brilliant, was certainly distinguished for its strength. His aspect, says Dr. Griffin, " was grave and venerable, and strongly expressive of the properties of his mind. His deportment was affectionate, paternal and dignified ; calculated to inspire respect and depend- ence, and to repel the approach of presumptuous fa- miliarity ; yet in conversation he was pleasant, and often facetious." His judgment was ever sound, his penetration keen, his perseverance indomitable, his ac- tivity deliberate, but always well-directed, and there- fore generally successful. He is reported to have been an excellent classical scholar, with some knowledge of the Hebrew and Syriac languages. Well read in di- vinity, he understood the foundations on which his faith rested. With a firm adherence to the doctrines of his own Church, he was little disposed to contend with those who differed from him in their religious opinions. An aged man tells me, that when some preachers of another denomination began to hold meetings in his parish, and some of his elders came to him in alarm to consult what was to be done, he re- plied in terms often used by men of wise Christian moderation, "let them alone ; we must out-preach them, and out-pray them, and out-live them, and so they cannot do any harm."* As a preacher, he is said to have been "pungent and popular" in the early part of his ministry ; but in the latter part, when his ardor was abated, his preaching was instructive, “ solid, judi-
Mr. Isaac Nichols, now the oldest member of the Session.
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LAST DAYS OF DR. MACWHORTER.
cious, and often moving." "In the services of the sanctuary, and in all his parochial labors, he added to faithfulness great method and punctuality ; and with a uniformity peculiar to himself, was always the same." He was a good pastor, loved his people, and delighted to make their interests his own.
During the latter part of his life, his growing infirm- ities required the aid of a colleague in the pastoral office. In the month of October, 1800, "a call from the First Presbyterian congregation in Newark for Mr. Henry Kollock to undertake the pastoral office in the said congregation as a colleague and assistant minister with Dr. Macwhorter was laid before the Presbytery by Judge Boudinot, a delegate from said congregation." This call Mr. Kollock declined, and was afterwards settled at Elizabethtown. During the year following, the want was supplied, as we shall hereafter notice more particularly, by the installation of the Rev. Ed- ward D. Griffin.
As his life drew towards the close, Dr. M. had a strong desire to revisit the scene of his nativity; and, in the Spring of 1806, made an excursion to Delaware for that purpose. All was changed. He was dependent on the information of strangers, in learning where was the spot in which his infancy was nurtured. An old half-filled cellar was the only trace of it. None knew him, none remembered him, and only one aged person had retained any recollection of the family. "He re- quested only to be supplied," says Dr. Griffin, "with a glass of water from the spring that used to slake his boyish thirst, that he might say, 'I have tasted that
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LAST DAYS OF DR. MACWHORTER.
spring again ;' and this desire fulfilled, he hastily turned and left the scene forever." About seven months before his death, he received a severe injury from a fall, from which he never recovered. He took leave of the Presbytery, in a letter excusing his ab- sence, in the month of April, 1807 .* The short inter- val which remained was one of severe affliction. Shut out from the sanctuary, and disabled for the duties it had long been his delight to perform, he saw his youngest son suddenly removed, by a disease so rapid in its course that ere the news of his illness could reach the aged and enfeebled parents, he was numbered with the dead. Then the companion of his life, with whom he had shared all its vicissitudes for nearly fifty years, closed the scene of her sufferings, and stepped into the grave before him. Mrs. Macwhorter died on the second day of April, 1807.
But the faith which this venerable patriarch had so long professed and preached, showed its power to sus- tain his own soul amidst all his complicated afflictions. When his son was smitten to the grave, like Aaron, the good old man held his peace ; and when the mother followed, her death served but to sever the last tie that bound him to earth, and make him also ready to be gone. His last words breathed an entire confidence in God's faithfulness. He said, "I die slow." " I have no
* See minutes of the Presbytery of New York, under date of April, 1807. " A message was received from Dr. Macwhor- ter by Mr. Griffin, informing the Pres- bytery that he was prevented by indispo- sition from attending their present ses-
sions, expressing an apprehension that on account of his declining health, he might not be able to meet with them more, and communicating to them his paternal and affectionate salutations."
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DEATH AND FUNERAL.
despondency ; death and I have long been intimates." " Blessed be God, I have a steady hope." After join- ing in prayer with his young colleague, on whom the duties of his sacred office were now exclusively to de- volve, and on whom he had already bestowed his pa- ternal blessing, he extended both his arms at full length towards heaven, and then suffering them to fall quietly, expired without a struggle, on the 20th day of July, 1807, at the age of seventy-three years and five days.
" Thus lived and thus died," adds his eulogist, "Dr. Alexander Macwhorter, after having served this peo- ple in the gospel ministry forty-eight years." Who will not join in the review, his fervent ejaculation, " Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."
The death of Dr. Macwhorter created a profound sensation in the community of which he had so long been an honored member. The next day the Trustees of the Church met at the house of their President, Hon. Elisha Boudinot, and passed resolutions as follows :
" It having pleased the all-wise Head of the Church to remove from earth, and take to Himself, our late worthy and respected pastor, the Rev. Doctor Alexan- der Macwhorter, this board, in order to manifest the gratitude they feel for his long, faithful services amongst us, and the high respect they entertain for his memory, do unanimously resolve-
"That they will take the charge of his funeral on themselves, and that the same shall be conducted in
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FUNERAL SOLEMNITY.
such a manner as to reflect credit on the Church, as well as to express the feelings which they are certain the whole congregation entertain, on this melancholy occasion."*
They also resolved, that the pulpit and other parts of the church be hung with black, and the Session and Trustees wear crape on their left arm during three months. A committee being appointed to carry these resolutions into effect, expresses were sent to invite every member of the Presbytery, in New York and this State, with other clergymen and the inhabitants of the neighboring towns; and the procession for the funeral was ordered as follows:
"1. Rev. Mr. Griffin and two clergymen. 2. Corpse and pall-bearers. 3. Physicians. 4. Members of the family. 5. Session of the Church as mourners. 6. Trustees as mourners. 7. Clergy. 8. Inhabitants."
The funeral took place on the 22d of June, 1807, and the sermon, afterwards published by request of the trustees, was preached by the Rev. Dr. Griffin, col- league and successor of the deceased, from PSALM 112 : 6-"The righteous shall be in everlasting remem- brance." A marble tablet was afterwards inserted in the wall, on the inside of the church, near the pulpit, where we now find it, bearing a tribute to the memory of the deceased, written, it is said, by the same hand, in the following terms :
"Sacred to the memory of the Rev. ALEXANDER MACWHORTER, D. D. In him a venerable aspect and
See Record.
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EPITAPH.
dignified manners were united with a strong and saga- cious mind, richly stored with the treasures of ancient and modern learning. For a long course of years, he was among the most distinguished supporters of liter- ature and religion in the American church. He was a zealous asserter of his country's rights, a wise counsel- lor, a pious and skillful divine, a laborious, prudent and faithful minister, and a great benefactor of the congregation over which he presided forty-eight years. To his influence and zeal the congregation is greatly indebted for this house of God, the foundation-stone of which he laid, Sept., 1787. In gratitude for his distinguished services, and from an affectionate respect to his memory, the bereaved Church have erected this monument. He was born 15th July, 1734. He de- parted this life 20th July, 1807, aged 73 years. The memory of the just is blessed."
DISCOURSE NUMBER IV.
ECCLESIASTES i: 4. One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh.
As I annnounce this passage for the fourth time, as the theme of my discourse, and remember, that I have already during these few weeks, passed over in review, and endeavored to live for the moment in the lives of eight successive generations of ministers who have oc- cupied the pulpit here, and ministered to the congre- gation in which I now stand, an indescribable awe takes possession of me. I seem to see sweeping on before me, "the innumerable caravan" of which the poet speaks, " that moves"
" To that mysterious realm where each shall take Their stations in the silent halls of death."
and I cannot forget that I, and you too, my beloved hearers, are treading with them in the same long pro- cession. As we are now full of life and activity, look- ing back with eager interest to learn the history of the past, and forward with hope and enthusiasm to anticipate the better days that may be coming, or re- coil before the prospect of evils, the signs of which we think we already discern in the horizon, so were they, each in his own period; and each in turn filled the
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Leney .
Wood Pinxt
Ex Griffin
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REV. EDWARD DORR GRIFFIN.
world and time with his own consciousness. And as they have passed, one after another into the land of silence, I seem to hear a still voice gently breaking that silence, and saying to you and me " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest."
We pass now to the tenth in order in the succession of pastors, namely the Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin, a name associated with some of the most thrilling events in American ecclesiastical history, and destined to be remembered with honor and affection as long as dis- tinguished talents well directed are accounted valuable, or ardent zeal and warm-hearted piety held in admira- tion in the Church.
Mr. Griffin was born in East Haddam, Connecticut, Jan. 6, 1770. His father, Mr. George Griffin, was a wealthy farmer, of a strong mind and good education ; and his mother, whose maiden name was Eve Dorr, was a sister of Rev. Edward Dorr, of Hartford, Con- necticut, whose name she gave to her son.
From a very early age, Mr. Griffin's parents des- tined him to the ministry; and while yet a child of only four or five years, he was the subject of deep religious impressions. But though once and again strongly exercised on the subject of religion, and once to such an extent, as to venture for a time to hope he was a true Christian, his conversion does not appear to have taken place till after the close of his course in college, when he had abandoned the purpose with which his early training and his parents' wishes had
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EARLY LIFE OF MR. GRIFFIN.
inspired him, and, according to his own account "de- voted himself to the law, and made up his mind to be a man of the world."
The means of awakening him to a just sense of his spiritual need, was a severe illness with which he was overtaken in the gayest period of his life. Having given his heart to God, he now resolved to resume his original purpose, and devote himself to the service of Christ in the work of the ministry.
Mr. Griffin graduated with the first honors of his class at Yale College, in 1790, became a member of the Church in Derby in the Spring of 1792, and having pursued his theological studies under the di- rection of Dr. Jonathan Edwards, son of the first Pres- ident Edwards, at New Haven, was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Association of New Haven West, on the 31st of October, 1792. On the 10th of No- vember following, he preached his first sermon, and having supplied several pulpits for a larger or shorter period, in New Salem, Farmington, Middlebury, and other places, in one of which he received and accepted a call, but did not actually settle, he was ordained as pastor of the Church in New Hartford, June 4, 1795. On the 17th of May, 1796, he was married to Frances Huntington, daughter of Rev. Joshua Huntington, D. D., of Coventry, and adopted daughter of her uncle, Gover- nor Samuel Huntington, of Norwich, Connecticut. He remained in New Hartford, carrying on the work of the ministry with great success, till some time in the year 1800, when he took a journey on account of his wife's health, and spent the winter following in the
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