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 16
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Northampton also blustered and became angry along the Raritan, when it was pressed by the Go-pel; but here it was completely conquered and driven from the field. His language, in one of his sermons in reference to the obloquy which he met, is, " I may not here speak of what I suffer personally ; so I have made no inquiry of what the opposition of natural men has led them to say behind my back, who speak not according to the truth of God's word, but according to their own crooked conceptions. They deceive themselves greatly in attempting in this way to silence me, for I would rather suffer a thousand deaths than not preach the truth."
As a specimen of the way in which, at other times, he saw fit to meet the obloquy of his enemies, I may mention that he printed on the back of his sleigh the following doggerel :
Niemands tong, nog niemands pen, Maakt my amders dan ik ben ; Spreek quaad-spreekers, spreek vonder end, Niemands en word van n. geschend.
No one's tongne, nor no one's pen, Makes me other than I am ; Speak evil speakers, speak without end, No one heeds a word you pretend.
But perhaps you will think that in this last proceeding there was a spice of human nature. Be it so; I do not suppose the good man to have been faultless, or. incapable of provocation. I paint no perfect character.
In process of time, what at first was mere dissatisfaction with the doctrines of Mr. Frelinghuysen became organized and powerful opposition, and embraced some of the most wealthy and respect- able families in his pastoral charge. It was, no doubt, fostered by several clergymen of eminence in his own denomination, who professed great attachment to the ancient forms and customs of the fatherland. They eventually allied themselves closely to- gether, forming a distinct party in the Dutch church ; and finally it resolved itself into the division of Coetus and Conferentie, and only died out after the Revolution, when the churches broke off all connection with the Classis of Amsterdam, adopted a consti- tution of their own, and began to move forward in the very course which Mi. Frelinghuysen had pointed out.
The publications of which I have spoken are all in the Dutch language. Copies of them exist in the collections of the Histori- cal Society in New-York. The sermons are of a high order of
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excellence. Direct, pungent, and practical, they aim at the heart, and seem calculated effectually to reach it. It is questionable . whether they are surpassed in this peculiar characteristic by any sermons of their day. In my judgment, at least, they have not been superseded, or rendered useless, by any thing which has since proceeded from the press.
As a scholar, Mr. Frelinghuysen was more than respectable, if not absolutely eminent. The fact of his having been called in his youth to such a position as the rectorship of the Academy of Embden is sufficient proof of this. But we have that which is more direct : a small volume containing the Heidelberg Cate- chism in Latin, with blank leaves intervening, for the purpose of notes and observations, exists, in which the preparations to preach on the different Lord's days are made in that language ; manifesting as great a familiarity with it as if it had been his vernacular; ail constantly and habitually quoting also the Greek, and writing its characters quite caligraphically. Besides these evidences of scholarship, there are so many classic allusions found in all his discourses, as to prove conclusively his intimate fami- liarity with classic literature. I conclude, therefore, that he was unquestionably a ripe scholar in both the Latin and Greek languages. I am disposed to rank Theodorus Jacobus Freling- huysen among the eminent men of his age, a compeer with the Blairs and the Tennents, with Stoddard and the Mathers. I think it questionable whether any one of all these exerted a wider influence, or benefited the cause of practical religion more largely. Living for forty years amid the very scenes where this influence was felt, ministering in the very church the infancy of which it fostered, and having had every opportunity to observe the deep reverence with which his memory is even yet cherished, I may speak earnestly but not too partially. He was a great and good man. The cause of practical religion owes him much.
The exact date of Mr. Frelinghuysen's death has not been ascertained. It must have been previous to April 26th, 1718, since the Elder Hendrick Fisher reported to the Coctus in New- . York at that date the vacancy of the church at New-Brunswick. Ilis remains were laid in the old churchyard at Three-Mile Run, under an apple-tree on the north side. Some remains of the stump of this tree are said still to be visible. No monument has ever been created to his memory ; but his well-spent life, in buikdl- ing up churches in a territory embracing over two han lred
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square miles, and embracing at the present time more than fifty congregations, is his most fitting memorial ; he needs no other.
Ilis wife, named Eva, was a daughter of Albert Terhune, of Flatbush, Long Island, a farmer of wealth and respectability. Her excellence and piety as a mother are attested abundantly by the fruits of her care; all her children devoted themselves early to God. Whether she survived him, or when and where she died, is not known. All his children were Levites. Ilis five sons de- voted themselves to the ministry, and his two daughters united themselves with ministers.
It may be a matter of interest and importance to enter some- what more minutely into the character and the motives of the opposition which Mr. Frelinghuysen encountered at Raritan. It is not only common for a revival of religion to stir up the enmity of the human heart, even among professing Christians; but, in this instance, the character and motives of the opponents give an insight Into the real nature of the dispute. It was in existence before he came, and finally merged itself into the division of the whole church into what is known as the Coetus and Conferentie parties. We have as our guide a document which the opponents of Mr. Frelinghuysen themselves put forth, and which, therefore, they can not gainsay. It is a pamphlet of 150 pages, drawn up with lawyerlike skill and talent-apparently by Mr. Boel, a bro- ther of one of the collegiate pastors in New-York, who is called "the advocate." The following is a fair summary of the argu- ments employed to condemn Mr. Frelinghuysen. It is put forth in the name of three prominent elders in the churches which he was serving-Simon Wyckoff, Peter Dumont, and Hendrick Vroom. They accuse their pastor of preaching false doctrine, and depart- ing from the order and usages of the church. In proof of the charge, they specify that when he first came, he declined to admit to the Lord's Supper any except those who could give a satisfac- tory account of their Christian experience, even though they had been regular members of the church; that he insisted strenuously on the necessity of a change of heart; that he said on a sacra- mental occasion at Six-Mile Run, that he knew there were indi- viduals who had " eaten and drunken judgment to themselves;" that he allowed persons to be put into church office against whom there were unfavorable reports ; and when told what these reports were, he characterized them as " old wives' fables." The indi- viduals referred to in this last charge seem to have been Hendrick
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Fisher, and his friend and brother-in-law, Sehureman, the teacher. Against both these men a violent popular elamor had been exeit- ed, mostly, it seems, because they sympathized with the dominic, and supported him. Sehureman came with him from Holland, and acted as a school-master; and they accused him of being unwilling to teach the children the Lord's Prayer, because it was a " form," and the use of it encouraged " formalism." They also pretend that the results of his preaching produced dissension and divisions, even in private families, and bring forward a letter of young Peter Wortman to his parents, as an instance in point. The letter is most unfortunate for the cause which it is given to strengthen. Reading it dispassionately, it seems to us strange that so much could have been attempted to be made of it. It is simply a fer- vent and affectionate appeal from a pious young man to his father and mother, to pause and consider and turn to the Lord. Just such a letter as we have no doubt has often been written to other parents when all the joy and peace of a recent conversion were present to an ingenuous mind. We think better of the heart of that young man, and worse of the spirit of the cause attempted to be advanced by quoting it.
Besides these main facts, a great variety of other circumstances are enumerated; for instance, that at North-Branch, at the first communion, he partook first of the elements himself, and then winked and beckoned to certain women to come forward, and gave next to them ; that at Six-Mile Run he gave it to Schureman alone, and made an address, and then afterward to others who are named; that he refused to baptize certain children, because be said their parents belonged to Claas Hayman's people; that in his family visitations he was very severe, and, as they expressed it, " knocked down" the hopes and confidence, even of those who had long belonged to the church; that he expressed a want of confidence in the religious character of persons who were unim- peached ; that he would not comfort the sick, but alarmed theni by preaching the necessity of conversion, especially when they did not belong to his party. But the burden of the whole is, " valse leer" and " wedergeborte," that is, false doctrine and regenera- tion ; and the fact that after he had cited them and they refused to appear, he had suspended them from the communion of the church.
As the result, then, of the whole complaint, as stated by their own advocate, we arrive at the following conclusion : The oppo-
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sition at first had its origin in a disrelish of plain, practical, and earnest preaching on the part of men who were really more for- malists than any thing else ; that it was fostered by a partisan view of the question, what were the rights and what the interests of the churches in America, and how far they ought to remain sub- ordinate to the ecclesiastical anthority in Holland ; that the ques- tion in the church at large was embittered by conflicts of feeling -perhaps ambition and influence ; that it continued, because there could be no compromise, since principle, faith, and Christian expe- rience were involved in it ; while, on the other hand, at Raritan there was no abatement of the first disrelish of evangelical preach- ing, but rather an increase of dislike, as the work of grace went on, and the power of the truth became more and more manifest in the numerous conversions in all the churches to which Mr. Fre- linghuysen ministered. Thus is our judgment formed from read- ing their complaint. 'The fact is, that in Somerset County, and more so 'elsewhere, the Coetus men were the men of evangelical life and sentiment-the men of progress, of practical piety, prayer, and godliness; that the others were the men of exact order, forms, . rules ; and they felt it to be necessary to maintain all this, at any expense of convenience or of progress. It was the Fatherland, the churches in the Fatherland, their authority and ecclesiastical supremacy ; and not what the circumstances and exigencies of the churches here demanded. Time has justified the liberality and advancement contended for by the one, and condemned the con- tracted and illiberal spirit manifested by the others. Our college, our seminary, our advancement in every necessary enterprise are all results of what was then contended for. The success of Con- ferentie would have been ultimately. destructive to every church which had been planted in New-Amsterdam and her dependencies. They may have been good men, and honest and sincere in their views and in their course ; but we can not commend either their spirit or their plans of action. There was no adaptation to cir- cumstances, and no provision for progress and enlargement. The war of words was long and bitter, but it ended where such conten- tions always end-in a victory for liberty, advancement, and action.
We have also obtained from this old pamphlet some interesting historical facts. Frelinghuysen was a minister in East-Friesland before he came over to America, and a member of the Synod of Emberlandt. The call which he accepted was sent to Holland by
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the Rev. Bernardus Freeman, of Flatbush, Long Island, and was approved by the above synod. He came to the Classis of Am- sterdam on recommendation and dismission, and having been re- ceived by them, was commended earnestly to the ministers and churches in New-Netherland. He arrived in New-York in the winter of 1719 and 1720, and preached for Dominie Boel in one of the collegiate churches on the 17th of January, 1720. This was his first public service, and properly his recognition by the church. Ile can have been here but a few days previous to this date. On this occasion he omitted the use of the Lord's Prayer, both on the opening and conclusion of the service. This led to a conversation between himself and Boel, which seems to have resulted in a loss of confidence on. the part of both. They ascertained that there was between them a wide difference and diversity of view and spirit ; and Frelinghuysen afterwardl termed such men as Boel "formalisten.", Schureman is reported to have said that the church at New-York was "een heydense kerk"-a heathenish church.
In May, 1720, the widow Cocvers testifies that he had not then yet been four months in his pastoral charge. This is a confirma- tion of the date of his arrival being about January Ist, and of his having taken his charge about the 1st of February. When he came, it is said the people were generous to him, and instead of the five aeres promised in the call, provided fifty acres for him, and built him a large house.
On the 3d of March, 1720, a month after his settlement, he wrote from New-Brunswick, by Schureman, to Dominie Bock, re- questing him to purchase for him "een sulver sak horologe"-a silver watch; and in a concluding paragraph of his letter append- ed a warm practical exhortation to the practice of true piety, which was afterward quoted against him as presuming, in so young a man ; and another instance to the same effect is given of the same thing in a letter to Dominie Duboise.
The complaint, besides the names of Simon Wyckoff, Peter Dumont, and Ilendrick Vroom, is signed. by sixty-four heads of families, of which fourteen had been either elders or deacons, five ' church masters, and two justices of the peace. These names are evidently gathered from all the congregations, and formed the strength of the opposition. It is certainly not a formidable force ; but it contained enough to make-as it did -- a lasting trouble. Frelinghuysen never saw the end of it. We give these names to
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indicate the weight of the opposition, in other words, the Confe - rentie men at this time, namely, Cornelis Tunisen, Jan Tuniser, Jan Hendricksen, Jan Broca, Pieter Kinne, Jeronimus Van Nest, Aart Aarsen, Albert Low, Adrian Lane, Esq., Lucas Schermer- hoorn, Coert Jansen, Adrian Hegeman, Jan Vhet, Hendrick Jan- sen, Ary Molenaar, Ary Boerem, Jacob Buys, Jan Woertman, Adrian Ten Eyck, Hendrik Emmans, Nicolas Heyl, Jan Van Siekelen, Fredrick Van Leewen, Jacobus Bennet, Sen., Jacobus Bennet, Jun., Pieter Hoff, Jacob Probasco, widow Johannes Coe- vers, Christofel Hooglandt, Wilem Van Duyn, Gysbert Krom, Wilem Krom, Abram Le Foy, Hannes Speeter, Frans Waldron, Nicolas Hayman, Coos Vroom, Joost Schamp, Jacobus Stryker, Sarah Brinkerhoff, widow of Jacob Rapelje, Leendert Smak, George Anderson, Thomas Bort, Abraham Gray, John Piffenger, Andries Andriesen, Michel Moor, Adolf Hardenbrook, Pieter Bo- dyn, Tunis Van Middleswaert Cornelisen, Cornelis Teunissen, Jan Middleswaert, Jun., Gideon Mertel, Burgon Coevers, Gysbert Lane, Abraham Selover, Denys Van Duyn, Hendrik Smak, Cor- nelis De Hart, Isaak Bennet, Adrian Bennet-and of the dead Hendrik Traphagen for his widow, Danielm de Voor, David Marines, Cristofel Beekman for his widow.
The church officers, on March 28th, 1723, were Joses Van Neste, Johannes Sebring, of the consistory of Raritan, Barent De Witt, Direk Van Arsdalen, Six-Mile. Run; Roelif Nevius, Minne Voor- hees, Three-Mile Run ; Cornelius Bogaardt, Andries Ten Eyek, North-Branch, and Elbert Stoothoff, clerk. These names are ap- pended to a citation to the opponents to appear before consistory.
May 9th, 1723, a second citation is signed by Joses Van Nest, Hendrik Bries, Barent De Witt, Jan Stryker, Thomas Boerum, Emanuel Van Netten, Andries Ten Eyck, Elbert Stoothoff, clerk.
The dissatisfaction, it seems, began as soon as Mr. Frelinghuy- sen settled. As early as 1721, the Messrs. Boel, the Dominie and Advocate, had written a letter of encouragement to the disaffect- ed, which led Mr. Frelinghuysen to stigmatize them as "advisers to evil, and mischief-makers;" and it is sufficiently evident that throughout the whole course of the dispute, these men, with others, by countenance and advice, strengthened and embittered the opposition. When a difficulty arose about salary, they were at once consulted ; but after Coers Vroom had been sued before justices Hendrik Roseboom and Jacob Sebring, and had been muleted in expense, there was no more refusal to pay subscriptions.
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On December 11th, 1721, a letter was obtained from Michael Van Veghten, upon whose land the "new church " was built, and which was now nearly completed, (this fixes the date of the first church edifice at Raritan,) to the effect that Sehureman should clear himself from the scandal attached to him, before the consis- tory, and in this way peace be restored, or Frelinghuysen should not go in the pulpit. A compromise was effected, and it was agreed that he might preach, provided he would publish a meet- ing of the four United Consistories from the pulpit, in reference to this matter; but it is added, that it all eventuated in nothing. The Consistory of Raritan at this time were Joses Van Nest, Jan Bogaardt, elders; Jan Sebring, Teunis Van Middleswaert, deacons.
As early as 1721, Mr. Frelinghuysen published his sentiments in regard to spiritual or experimental Christianity and church dis- cipline, and gave offense; and in July, 1723, lie printed a refuta- tion of what iscalled " a letter without a name, or a warning to all the lovers of the truth." This pamphlet seems to be lost ; a small fragment is all that we have ever seen.
In 1722, about the time of Easter, Hendrik Fisher was appoint- ed a deacon in the church at Six-Mile Run, and Johannes Tol- kertsz and Charles Fonteyn, elders; Fisher being at that time a young man. This appointment was objected to by Simon Wyck- off, on the ground of unfavorable reports against his character. Witnesses were examined in the presence of David Marines, Esq., namely, Adrian Bennet, Willem Van Gelder, and Paul Auten ; but Frelinghuysen, convinced there was no ground for the reports, proceeded to ordain him. This created also a great clamor. .
In the midst of all, however, the friends of practical piety re- mained firm in their attachment to their pastor, falling baek always upon the manifest power of his preaching, and the con- stant witness and presence of the Holy Spirit in the conversion of sinners ; and results have justified them fully.
In the beginning of his ministry, Frelinghuysen and Schureman boarded together at the house of Hendrik Reynierez; but where exactly he lived is not ascertained. It was somewhere in the vicinity of the Three-Mile Run church. Even this intimacy be- tween the dominie and his school-master occasioned unfavorable remarks. Afterward they married sisters, daughters of Albert Terhune, on Long Island. Mrs. Frelinghuysen's name was Eva ; and the early piety of her five sons and two daughters shows fairly what a woman she must have been-a helper of her husband
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in all his work, and most in his own house ! Schureman, in some way, did not succeed in securing the confidence of the community, and may have increased the difficulties of Mr. Frelinghuysen's situation. Even his friend Dominie Freeman, of Long Island, is reported to have said, " Had Frelinghuysen dat esel Schureman niet mede gebraghte, soude nooyt so ver gekomen zyn, nog so een trouble of sporting gehadt." The candor of this opinion remains unimpeached so far as facts testify.
Previous to his accepting the call and coming to America, Fre- linghuysen had published a catechism, in the preface to which he complimented Jacobus Koelman, a Holland divine, as " a bright star in the firmament." This led Boel, of New-York, to stigmatize him as "a Koelmanist and Labbadist;" but in what these divines were heterodox we are not able to say. In a word, results have proved that in the spirit of his course, if not in every detail, he was in the right, and his enemies in the wrong. Charity leads us to add, that much of their wrong was due to the opinions and the spirit of their associates.
We proceed to some account of Dominie Frelinghuysen's chil- dren. His eldest son was named Theodore, and was born at Three- Mile Run in 1724 or 1725. He graduated at Princeton College in 1749-it would seem while his father was pastor at Albany, as he was settled there in 1745, immediately after his return from Hol- land, where he had been licensed, after studying theology with Goetchius. This was during his father's lifetime. He was the suc- cessor of Rev. Cornelius Van Shie, who had died August 15th, 1744. IIe remained at Albany for fifteen years, and was becoming a man of influence and power in the churches, earnest in his advocacy of the independence of the church from. the Classis of Amsterdam, and one of the most strenuous advocates of an institution in which a ministry could be properly taught and trained. He was so pro- minent in this matter that the contemplated seminary and college was commonly called by the Conferentie party, "Frelinghuysen's academy." He was its most earnest and constant advocate, and drew upon himself the reproach of its opponents. At last he felt impelled to preach a very pointed sermon against fashionable amusements, and especially theatrical representations. He was induced to do this by the circumstance of a regiment of royal troops being stationed in the city at that time, the officers of which had encouraged and promoted these things. On Monday morning he found at his door an image with a staff, a silver coin, a pair of
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shoes, and a loaf of bread. He construed this as au intimation for him to leave, and at once determined to do so. A mission had been assigned him some time previous, by the Coetus, to collect funds in Holland for the purpose of founding a literary and theo- logical institution in which he had taken a very deep interest, as we have seen. Such an institution was demanded by the wants of the church, and the founding of it urged as necessary in order to free the churches from dependence upon the Classis of Amster- dam, and secure to them a cultivated native ministry and the right of ordination. . There was, moreover, special encouragement for such an effort at that time. Michael Schlatter, of Pennsylvania, had just returned from Holland with more than £30,000 for the support of schools and the ministry, among the German Reformed in that State. Mr. Frelinghuysen sailed from New-York October 10th, 1759, and never returned. His memory was long precious among the godly people in his pastoral charge at Albany, and they spoke of him as " the apostolic and much beloved." He was a man of more than ordinary abilities and culture, and published a catechism in 1748, which received the approbation and indorse- ment of the Coetus. He left a young widow, but no children. She married again, and recently a will has been discovered which, it is said, promises to become the occasion of legal proceedings, on account of its devises never having been executed.
John Frelinghuysen, second son of T. J. Frelinghuysen, was born at Three-Mile Run in 1727. He seems to have studied principally with his father, then went to Holland, and was absent when his father died. He was licensed by the Classis of Amsterdam in 1750, and received an invitation from the churches in Somerset County to return and occupy his father's .place. A copy of this call is found in the minutes of Raritan, dated May 18th, 1747. This call was approved by the classis in 1749, and he arrived at Raritan, after a long and tedious passage, in midsummer, 1750, and preached at Raritan. He preached his introductory sermons at Raritan, Au- gust 3d, from the words of the Psalm, " Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children," and at North-Branch on the succeeding Sabbath (the 10th) from Zech. 4 : 6, " Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts;" and again in the afternoon from Zech. 6 : 12, " Behold the man whose name is the Branch ;". and at Millstone on the succeeding Sabbath, the 17th, from the 133d Psalm, " Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." He commenced his ministry in the three
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