USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > Raritan > Forty years at Raritan : eight memorial sermons with notes for a history of the Reformed Dutch churches in Somerset County, N.J. > Part 15
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From 1681 to 1699, a period of eighteen years, the families
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which had made this portion of the State, or colony, as it then was, their home had had few or no religious privileges. It is probable that occasionally, at least, some clergyman from New- York or Long Island visited them and preached the Gospel to them ; at least this may have been done during the latter years of this period ; but we have no documentary evidence to that effect. And again, from 1699 to 1717 or 1718 there were evidently only occasional services in any of the churches then existing. The re- cords of baptisms at Raritan are September 19th, 1699, April 30th, 1700, September 26th, 1700, March 11th, 1701, November 18th, 1701, April 21st, 1702, October 27th, 1702, March 23d, 1703, January 30th, 1703 ; and so on uniformly twice in each year, through the whole period. There is one entrance which is pecu- liar : Cornelius Powelson and his wife had eight children, namely, Maritie, Lisabel, Maria, Cornelis, Benjamin, Josias, William, and John, baptized as sponsors. These were probably their grand- children, as the names of the parents are omitted in the record- they may have been deceased. In 1704, there are three days noted on which children were admitted to the ordinance of bap- tism, namely, April 20th, August 1st, and January 17th. These records until April, 1717, are all evidently made by the same hand, and if the notice of the first ordination of consistory on March 9th, 1699, was made by the Rev. G. Bartholff himself, then he seems to have preached at Raritan ordinarily twice during the year, in the spring and in the autumn, when he also administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to the church.
The call from Raritan, Three Mile Run, Six-Mile Run, and" North-Branch must have been prepared and sent forward to the classis of Amsterdam as early as 1717 or 1718 ; for it is stated that when Theodorus J. Frelinghuysen accepted it, it had been waiting two years. This is evidence that there must have been churches already regarded as having been regularly constituted in all these three districts, but we have no other evidence of this important fact. Of any church edifices we only know that the Three-Mile Run church was built on the main road about the miles west from New-Brunswick, and the burying-ground around it is still preserved, and marks the spot where it stood. The North-Branch church was constructed of logs, and stood on the Second river-bank, directly west of the Two Bridges, ou the north side of the road to Readington. As early as 1703, the people of Three-Mile Run had moved in the matter of a preacher of the
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Gospel, and raised a sum of money amounting to £10 1us. 61. to pay the expense of procuring one from Holland. There may have been a church edifice in that vicinity as early as this time, but it is hardly probable. There was none at Raritan, certainly, earlier than 1721. This edifice was erected on land donated by Michael Van Vechten, and it stood on the knoll on the north side of the river, one fourth of a mile below the present bridge across the Raritan, known as " the old bridge." The road from Bound Brook to Somerville ran, at that time, a few yards north of it. It re- mained standing fifty-eight years, until it was burned by the Bri- tish dragoons, known as the Queen's Rangers, commanded by Colonel Symes, on the 27th of October, 1779.
If we consider the circumstances by which the people in Som- erset County had been surrounded, we shall easily form a proper conception of their spiritual condition. They had been living nearly forty years in a new and uncultivated country. Hearing the Gospel only a few times in the year, a whole generation had been born and educated without public worship. The schools were no better than the churches. A state of manners and of morals must have been gendered under such circumstances which was any thing but favorable to religion. The country in which they lived was rude, and it could hardly be expected that the people would be otherwise. The outward forms had in some measure been maintained, but the spirit of religion must have „been largely wanting.
We have then, at the time Mr. Frelinghuysen took charge of the religious interests in this vicinity, three churches, more or less completely organized. Raritan in 1699, Three-Mile Run in 1703, and Northi-Branch in 1719. In process of time the Three- Mile Run church was divided, one portion going to New-Bruns- wick, and the other to Six-Mile Run. This took place early, as it appears a church. was organized there in 1710. The division proba- bly was gradual, and resulted from the preponderance of interest in the Three-Mile Run church, centering in New-Brunswick. There is a list of members of " the Church of the River and Lawrence Brook " dated 1717, and including seventy-three individuals, name- ly, Adrien Bennet and wife, Aart Artsen and wife, Isaac Van Dyke and wife, Roelef Sebring and wife, Johannes Folkersen and wife, Hendrick Bries and wife, Roelef Van Voorhees and wife, Laurens Willimse and wife, Roelef Nevius and wife, Jan Van Voorhees and wife, Minne Van Voorhees and wife, Jacobus Oukee and wife,
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Johannes Stoothoffand wife, Abraham Bennet and wife, Jakis Fon- teyn and wife, Siarles Fonteyn and wife, Jakobus Buys and wife, Thomas Auten and wife, Thomas Davilts and wife, William Klaasen and wife, Thomas Bouwman and wife, Andries Wortman and wife, Johannes Koevert and wife, Hendrick Meech and wife, Bernardus Kuclor and wife, Christofel Van Arsdalen and wife, Jakop Corse and wife, Cornelius Suydam and wife, Joris Anderse and wife, Marten Van der Hoeve, Johannes Metselaer, Samuel Montfort, Jan Aten, William Moore, Niceklas Bason, Maria Fre- lanth, Elizabet Bries, Annatie Folkerson, Heelena Hoglandt, Mare- geretie Reynierse, Barbara Janse, Geartic Smock, Elizabet Smock, and Katrina Boyd. These were the original members of the New-Brunswick church. This list adds to the names already given only twelve, namely, Trelanth, Bries, Buys, Van der Hoeve, Bason, Meech, Knetor, Metselaer, Smock, Van Arsdalen, Boyd, Suydam. At North-Branch, we have Andries Ten Eyck, Abraham Dubois, John Pursell, Josua Chrison, Jan Hendricksen, Daniel Sebring, Coenrad Ten Eyek, Derick and Michael Van Veghten, Alexander McDowall, Jan' Van Sieklen, Benjamin Bart, Jacob Stoll, Teunis Van Middleswaert, George Hall, Albert Lou, Wil- liam Rosa, Paulus Bulner, Lucas Schermerhorn, Pieter Van Neste, William Krom, John Cock, Joris Van Neste, Emanuel Van Etten, Johannes Grau, John Emmens, Coert Jansen, George Dildein, Jolin Reading, Gerret Van Vliet, Hendrick Rosenboom, Frans Wal- dron, Godfried and Philip Peters, Davil Cussart, David Subair, Isaac Bodine, Abraham Broca, all before 1723.
The following notice of Theodorus Jacobns Frelinghuysen, the first minister of these churches, was prepared some years since and recently published in Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit." It embraces all that has been collected concerning his person, life, and' ministry. It is not as much as ought to have been preserved, but it is all that we have been able to collect from all known sources of reliable informatien; a large portion is tradition, but we believe it is reliable.
Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen was born at Lingen, in East- Frieslang, now the northwest part of the kingdom of Hanover, about the year 1691. He was the son of Johannes Henricus Fre- linghuysen, pastor of the Reformed Dutch church in that place, and a brother of Matthias David Frelinghuysen, who settled in Hortigen, Holland. He seems to have received his education chiefly in his
# Sce Steele's Hist. Discourse, Lage 200.
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native place, under the instruction of the Rev. Otto Verbrugge, who afterward became a professor at Groningen. He was or- dained to the pastoral office at Embden in his native country by Johannes Brunius, in the year 1717. He came from Holland to America in the ship King George, Captain Goelet, in 1720, or per- haps the end of 1719, as he preached in New-York Jannary 17th, 1720, and settled immediately as the pastor of the Reformed Dutch church at Raritan, Somerset County, N. J. He preached his first sermon at Raritan, January 31st, 1720, from 2 Cor. 5 : 20 : " Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us : we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." A call from this church had been sent some two years previous to the classis of Amsterdam for their approval, which, according to the usages of their church in this country, they were expected to fill up with the name of a suitable person, and, after ordaining him, send him out to fulfill its duties. In this way all vacancies were supplied, and a Christian ministry furnished to the congregations which had been collected in their colonies in America. The Rev. Mr. Sieco Tjady, a godly minister belong- ing to that elassis, it is said, interested himself, through the influ- ence of the Rev. Bernardus Freeman, of Long Island, in proenring an evangelical and pions man to fill this station. While the call from Raritan was waiting and inquiries were being made for some one willing to accept it, young Frelinghuysen passed through the place of his residence, from East-Friesland, on his way to Emb- den, having been invited to the rectorship of the academy in that city. Ile put up for the night at the house of one of the elders of the church of which Rev. Siceo Tjady was pastor. The eve- ning was spent in religious conversation, and when the time for family worship arrived, the young stranger was invited to con- duet it. He readily consented, and after reading a chapter of the Word of God, gave a short and familiar exposition of its promi- nent truths, and concluded with prayer. The elder was much gratified with his remarks, the fervor of his prayer, and his pre- vious conversation, and so entirely convinced of his piety and spiritual-mindedness, that in the morning, when he was about to proceed on his journey, he exacted from him a promise on his re- turn to call upon him again, and then hastening immediately to his pastor, exclaimed, " I have found a man to accept the call from America." Frelinghuysen, after visiting Embden, returned, according to his promise, to the house of the elder, was introduced
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to Siceo Tjady, consulted in reference to the call, and finally agreed to accept it. The circumstances appeared providential, and, it is said, were always regarded by himself as having been a divine intimation, pointing out to him the path of duty. He felt as if, when leaving the land of his birth and the house of his fathers, he was, like the patriarch, following the direction of the Al- mighty.
When he arrived and entered upon the duties of his ministry, he found immediately a wide field of usefulness opening before him. The church at, Raritan had been organized since 1696, but was still feeble and scattered. It had enjoyed previously to this time only occasional religious services, perhaps not oftener than three or four times a year. In such a condition piety could not be expected to flourish, nor the Gospel to produce much fruit ; and the state of things which Mr. Frelinghuysen found existing on his arrival, did not prove the contrary. The form of religion was retained, but there were only a few in the church who mani- fested any effect of its power.
The territory embraced in his charge was great for one indivi- dual to supervise. It extended from New-Brunswick to the north and south branches of the Raritan River, in length from fifteen to twenty miles, and in breadth from ten to twelve, com- preliending nearly the whole of the present county of Somerset, cast of the mountain, and at this time occupied by sixteen con- gregations of the Reformed Dutch church. The place of his residence was about three miles west of New-Brunswick; and thence he visited and preached at all the different points where his services were required. Near his residence was a small church, known at that time as the church at Three-Mile Run, since removed to New-Brunswick, and now divided into two sepa- rate charges. The other points where places for public worship had been provided, besides Raritan, were Six-Mile Run, and North- Branch, in all four churches. But his heart was not appalled by the extent and weight of his responsibilities, nor his zeal abated by the difficulties and discouragements which it encountered. For twenty-seven years, at least, he labored in this extensive field with unceasing diligence and most remarkable success. "The wilderness was converted into a fruitful field," flourishing like "the garden of the Lord," and multitudes rejoiced in the hope of salvation. Here Whitefield found him in 1739, and made the following record in his journal :
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" At New-Brunswick some thousands gathered from various parts of the country, among whom there hal been considerable awakening by the instrumentalities of Mr. Frelinghuysen, a Dutch minister, and the Messrs. Tennent, Blair, and Rowland." Jona- than Edwards refers to this awakening in his narrative of several revivals of religion in New-England in 1740, in the following words : " And also at another place, under the ministry of a very pions young gentleman, a Reformed Dutch minister, whose name, I remember, was Frelinghuysen." Gilbert Tennent also, in 1744, writing to the Rev. Mr. Prince, of Boston, notices the same revival of religion as the effects of his preaching. "The labors of the Rev. Mr. Frelinghuysen, a Dutch Calvinistic minister, were much blessed to the people of New-Brunswick and places adjacent, especially about the time of his coming among them, which was about twenty-four years ago. When I came there, which was about seven years after, I had the pleasure of seeing much of the fruits of his ministry. Divers of his hearers, with whom I had an opportunity of conversing, appeared to be converted people by their soundness in principle, Christian experience, and pious prae- tice, and these persons declared that the ministrations of this aforesaid gentleman were the means thereof. This, together with a kind letter which he sent me respecting the necessity of dividing the Word aright and giving to every man his portion in due season, through the divine blessing, excited me to greater earnestness in ministerial labors."
These are the only records remaining of a most extensive and powerful revival of religion, the history of which has never been written, and now it can not properly be done, for the materials have nearly all perished. In attempting, at this late day, to do the subject some justice, we necessarily depend almost wholly upon tradition. This agrees in representing the work to have been general, powerful, and evangelical, resulting in the saving conversion to Christ of many precious souls. It characterizes the piety of those who experienced its power as being warm, practi- cal, and self-denying. Among its subjects the young were the most numerous, and through a long life they continued to manifest the genuineness of the change wrought in all their views and affections, being most of them eminent as examples of faith, of piety, and of prayer. What Tennent saw and admired in those with whom he conversed, was, to a greater or less extent, common to all. No one who had known in himself the power of the grace of God, could
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fail to recognize in them " the image of the heavenly," or refuse to acknowledge the agency of the Holy Spirit, by which they had been renewed and sanctified. Years have rolled away, and the last of them has long since been translated to the joys of immor- tal life; but neither the sense of the value of their influence for good, nor the conviction of the depth and reality of their piety, has ceased to be felt in this part of the Church. After careful researches in every place where there was any prospect of obtain- ing information as to the precise number who embraced religion, as the fruits of this gracious work, I have been obliged to aban- don the hope of succeeding. No documents remain throwing any light upon the subject, except at Raritan, and those are brief and imperfect. The greatest number received at any one communion or confession of faith was seventy; the average aggregate, forty- four. This was certainly greater than the whole number of fami- lies included in the congregation at that time. If we suppose the work to have been equally extensive in the others, and there is nothing to forbid it, the aggregate would amount to two hun- dred and twenty. This is probably too large, yet all the tra- ditionary recollections show the influence to have been very general. No one points to any particular place as having been more especially favored than the others ; and thus the above con- elusion is left quite unimpaired.
The most prominent peculiarity of the preaching of Mr. Freling- huysen, and which in his day, and among those who were capable of understanding the Dutch language, was a subject of extensive remark, and finally of protracted controversy, consisted in those clear and discriminating views of the nature and necessity of the religion of the heart, which it conveyed to his hearers in pointed language and almost conversational familiarity. A very cursory reading of his printed discourses will show an unusual frequency of the use of interrogation, which is succeeded immediately by pointed, pithy answer. In this way he seems to have taxed the attention of his hearers to the utmost, and rendered his whole discourse almost like a personal conversation between himself and each one individually. The doctrines of regeneration, repentance, faith, holiness, are nowhere more strikingly illustrated, or more earnestly advocated. Ile had evidently, in his own heart, a deep experience of their power. . From an allusion to his personal ex- perience, found in the preface to one of his volumes, it seems as if he had, like Bunyan, been brought through deep waters and
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dark temptations before he embraced the hope of life through Christ. "I am the man," says he, " who has seen trouble." 1Ie uniformly insisted, firmly and earnestly, on the necessity of re- generation, to a profitable participation of the Lord's Supper. On one occasion it is said that, when administering the communion in the church at Six-Mile Run, he eried out, as he saw the com- municants approaching the table, "See! see! even the people of the world and the impenitent are coming, that they may eat and drink judgment to themselves." Several individuals, feeling them- selves pointed at, pansed after having left their seats, and re- turned to them, not daring to commune ! In every instance, be- fore acknowledging any one to be a Christian, he required a con- sistent account of his religious experience. In his view, conviction of sin, and a sense of guilt, always preceded faith and comfort in Christ. He may, in some instances, have erred in adhering too tenaciously to his theory. It was, in fact, one of the charges of his' opposers, that in visiting the sick and dying, he began by preaching " the terrors of the law," and sometimes left them even without a word of comfort, though he could not know that he would ever see them again, and in some cases did not.
Now, all this was in striking contrast to what the people had been accustomed to. Evangelical sentiments were by no means common even among the ministry of the church in that day. They adhered to the doctrines of the Reformation ; but the power and spirituality of that great religious movement, and that most copious effusion of the Holy Ghost, had in a great measure ceased to exist. All were not in such a lifeless state, indeed, but many were, and the course of Mr. Frelinghuysen was spoken against in high places. Ile was called an enthusiast, because he insisted upon the necessity of a change of heart. But he heeded not the clamors. Pursuing a uniform and energetic course, and waxing stronger and stronger as he gathered around him those in whose conversion he had been instrumental, and securing the confidence of that part of the ministry of the church who were men of spiritual-mindedness, he waited patiently for the great triumph · of his principles.
The most extensive inquiry into the character of the revival under his ministry which has yet been made, has uniformly resulted in a conviction of its purity-the deeply experimental character of the work, and the scriptural piety which it produced. My own convictions in this respect harmonize with those of all
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the others with whom I have conversed. It is believed that even at this day we are enjoying some of the fruits of that blessed work, in that general attention to gospel ordinances and the wide diffusion of the spirit of piety which characterize the churches now existing in the sphere of its influence.
The change effected was a great one. The whole spiritual life of the churches was affected by it. It went to uproot ancient customs; it attacked cherished hopes and convictions, made those last who had been first, and showed the confident and the secure that, while " having a name to live, they were dead in trespasses and sin>." It required all his energy to meet the crisis-all his love of truth to prevent him from sacrificing it for the sake of avoiding difficulties. But he never paused for a moment. IIe had known the love of God in himself ; how could he refrain from re- commending its peace to his dying fellow-men ? He believed that the blood of Christ alone cleanses from sin; how could he fail to direct the inquirer to the life-giving fountain ? In a charge so extensive, and under circumstances requiring so much labor and attention to the spiritual interests of individuals, Mr. Frelinghuy- sen found himself straitened beyond measure. The expedient which he adopted as a relief was as novel as it proved to be ju- dicions and successful. At the present day it would be regarded as a very new measure. He could not depend upon, or to any extent secure, the assistance of his brethren in the ministry, for there were none nearer than Hackensack and New-York. Perhaps he had confidence in only a few of them, and the anxious could not be left without instruction and prayer ; he therefore appointed two of his most intelligent and pious elders in each of his congre- gations, and termed them helpers. In his absence they conducted the meetings for prayer, conversed with the anxious and awa- kened, and instructed the youths by catechetical recitations. The effect of this expedient was happy at the time. The selection, too, seems to have been eminently judicious; and the individuals con- tinned to be regarded and to act as leaders in the religious ser- vices, and guides to the people, as long as they lived. They were viewed as a kind of under-shepherds, and several of them are still remembered as being particularly eminent in their piety, gifted in prayer, and happy in the influence which they exerted. It has been noticed too, in more than one instance, that very special blessings seemed to rest on their descendants, as if their piety had been transmitted as an inheritance from their ancestors.
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But it must not be supposed that such a course did not ineur een- sure, or that a ministry so efficient and discriminating in holding up to view the difference between formalism and true piety-the religion of the heart as distinguished from that which is satisfied with a fruitless faith-could be exercised without opposition. Some of those who had been most prominent as the friends of the church; felt themselves condemned by many of the doctrines which Mr. Frelinghuysen preached. Ilis views of regeneration, and especially his insisting so earnestly upon evidence of a new heart as a preparation for the communion of the Lord's Supper, were at onee resisted. "How can he know if the heart is changed?" said they. "IIe sets himself to be the judge of men's hearts;" and consequently his whole course was condemned, and his preaching treated with ridicule, as visionary and enthusiastic. Several of his sermons were specified, and particular passages and expressions seriously censured. This led him, as early as 1721, to publish a small volume containing these same discourses, in order to show what doctrines he really preached, and against what sen- timents his opponents objected. The subject of the first is, "The Broken Heart and Contrite Spirit," Isa. 66 : 2; of the second, " The Lord's Supper," 1 Cor. 11 : 29; of the third, "Christian Discipline, or the Power of the Keys," Matthew 16 : 19.
That I have formed a correct judgment in reference to the cause of the opposition to the ministry of Mr. Frelinghuysen, and that I am not unjust in attributing it to the doctrines which he preached, and especially to the fact that he insisted so strongly upon the necessity of spiritual influence and a change of heart, and hell up prominently the difference between vital godliness and a mere belief of doctrines without practice, will be abun- dantly evident from the very 'vindication itself, which his_ oppo- nents thought it necessary for them to prepare and publish. It is contained in a pamphlet of one hundred and forty-six pages ; and is an able and most ingenious defense of its own principles, but only on that account the more clearly justifying, to an enlight- ened Christian understanding, the whole- course of Mr. Freling- huysen ; and proving the evangelical nature of his preaching and his principles. This pamphlet Mr. Frelinghuysen answered, fully vindieating his whole course, and explaining and proving his doc- trines to be those of the Reformation, and especially of the church of the Netherlands. This refutation, unfortunately, is lost. Thus, it seems that the same spirit which drove Jonathan Edwards from
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