USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 3
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spiritual insight and remarkable intellectual abilities and attainments. To him more than any one else is due the revival of religion in New Jersey at the time of the "Great Awak- ening"; he was the first pastor of the Re- formed church to train up young men for the ministry, the first to favor and work for the independence of the church in this country. Although he did not live to take part in its as- semblies, he was one of the initiators of the movement for a Coetus in America, and it was largely owing to his zeal, his foresight and his prosecutions that the reorganization of the Dutch church was accomplished. He was probably also the first to suggest a college for the denomination in which to train young men for the ministry. When Dominie Freling- huysen entered upon his work there was almost everything to dishearten and almost nothing to encourage. Aside from sparse population, settlements far apart, bridle-path roads and unbridged rivers and streams, the religious condition of the Dutch church in the new world was most unsatisfactory. For nearly forty years they had been living in a new and uncultivated country, and hearing the Gospel only a few times in the year ; a whole genera- tion had been born and educated without pub- lic worship; while the schools were no better than the churches. The outward farms had been retained but the spirit of religion was largely wanting. The wear and tear on mind and body in the struggle for existence in, and the battle to overcome the wilderness, the un- settled state of political affairs, the ecclesiasti- cal subjection to a governing body whose de- cisions must necessarily be theoretical and based on hearsay evidence as well as delivered a long time after the need for them had risen, all this had resulted in a condition of chronic bickering and almost cantankerous faultfinding among the religiously zealous and in the fall -. ing away into carelessness of life and indif- ference to principle of the great majority. A generation had grown up jealous of their Protestant forms and ceremonies, but really caring very little about the inner life and spirit of religion.
Previous to 1720, Dominie Bertholf, when pastor of all northern New Jersey and a con- siderable portion of New York, visited the Raritan region about twice a year; and when Dominie Frelinghuysen arrived there were three churches more or less completely organ- ized, Raritan, now the First Church of Somer- ville, since 1699; Three Mile Run, now the First of New Brunswick, or Franklin Park, in
1703; and North Branch, now Readington, in 1719. What was then a missionary station at Six Mile Run became later the "Millstone church" and is now the church at Harlingen. January 31, 1720, the new pastor preached his first sermon at Raritan from 2 Corinthians, 5:20 ; and with the zeal and earnestness which has won him the title of "New Jersey's father of evangelical religion," he began laboring to instil into the hearts of his flock genuine piety and real practical religion. With all his great- ness, however, the good Dominie was not fault- less; and though strong in act, the records show that sometimes he was anything but per- suasive in manner; and in consequence he more than once gave his opponents handles on which they afterwards based some of their charges against him. This was also one of the main reasons the Classis finally decided against him, resenting his vigorous language and certain quite true but very emphatic scrip- tural epithets he employed; although they based their adverse judgment on what we must admit were mistakes on his part. He was in- accurate in the form of the Citations, and his exercise of the Ban, or excommunication, was not exactly regular ; but these were side issues. The principles he fought for were of vital im- portance to the life and wellbeing of the Re- formed religion in this country; the parties so bitterly complained of and warred against, Frelinghuysen, Schureman and Hendrick Fisher, have always been held in the highest esteem, both in church and state, and the ulti- mate moral result of Frelinghuysen's course, however criticized at the time, have been only beneficial. The locality where he officiated has been known ever since as the "Garden of the Dutch Church," and "the whole Raritan region has felt the benefit of his ministry down to the present day."
Shortly after assuming charge, Frelinghuy- sen preached three sermons: I. on Isaiah, 66:2, "The poor and contrite, God's temple"; 2. on 1 Corinthians, 11 :29, "The acceptable communicant"; and 3. on S. Mat., 16:19, "The Church's duty to her members." In these he laid great stress on the propositions that true piety will manifest itself in a godly life, that the real Christian will detach himself as much as may be from the things of this world and cultivate the spirit as well as the forms of prayer ; that only such as are striving to do this are worthy partakers of the Lord's Table ; and that it is the duty of the church to exclude from the Sacrament all that are unworthy. This teaching was perfectly orthodox, and
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agreed with that of the most eminent divines in Holland, and also with the great body of Presbyterian divinity in Europe and America both before and after his time; but, enforced as it was in his parochial ministrations and practice it gave great offense, a number with- drew from his ministry and defended their step by saying his teaching was heretical. As usual, all sorts of gossipy slanders arose, and while refusing to vindicate himself from these, Fre- linghuysen, at the urging of some of his friends, had his sermons "Printed at New York by Wm. Bradford, 1721." The preface is dated June 15, and the sermons are strongly endorsed by the Rev. William Bartholf, Frelinghuysen's predecessor, and the Rev. Bernard Freeman, of Long Island. Meanwhile the aggrieved persons had sought an alliance with the Rev. Henry Boel, who had taken umbrage at a let- ter which Frelinghuysen had written him, and Boel's colleague, the Rev. Walter Du Bois; and the same ship that bore the sermons to the mother country carried also to the Classis of Amsterdam those Dominies' testimony to a gossipy charge that in Holland, Frelinghuysen had insulted Mr. W. Bancker by disparaging his nephew; and that "while at sea, Rev. Fre- linghuysen had condemned most of the preach- ers in Holland; and he also declared that he thought but little of those at Amsterdam." These charges, apparently, were at first dis- missed; the sermons were approved by the university of Griningen, and later on, when the controversy assumed a more serious phase, one of its professors, the Rev. Johannes Ver- schuir, published his "Truth Triumphant" in Frelinghuysen's behalf.
For about two years, the disaffection stead- ily grew, intensified probably by the fact that Frelinghuysen's evangelical zeal and labors were being crowned with marked success, and gathering around him a strong body of ad- herents in whose conversion he had been in- strumental, and whose practical self-denying lives were a standing rebuke to the formal re- ligion and easy-going lives of their neighbors. Finally, March 12, 1723, Peter Du Mont, Symon Wyckoff and Hendrick Vroom tried to enlist on their side the Rev. Bernard Free -- man, who would have nothing to do with them, telling them very plainly, "Now do I perceive that you are all affected by the spirit of hatred and revenge. Because he sharply exposes sin. you try to help the devil, therefore I will have nothing to do with you except for the establish- ment of peace ; and that you follow the advice to appear with your complaints before your
Consistory; and that you receive a written answer by which it shall be shown whether your pastor teaches true or false doctrine."
By this time, matters had reached such a point that Frelinghuysen and his consistories, after obtaining a sworn statement from Do- minie Freeman in regard to the above men- tioned visit, took the matter formally up, and issued March 28, May 9, and May 22, 1723, three "Citations * *
* to the Heads and Leaders of the Separate and Seceded Congre- gation," "specifying Du Mont, Wyckoff and Vroom" as the persons they mean, and calling upon them to appear before the Consistory and prove their charges. On their ignoring these citations and continuing as before, Freling- huysen and his consistory disciplined four of them by excommunication "so that his sacred ministrations might not be hindered; and that his name and office might be freed from slan- der before the Governor." The opposition now determined to systematize their efforts, and to this end they appointed the four ex-communi- cates, Du Mont, Wyckoff, Vroom and Daniel Sebring a committee "to correspond with Revs. Du Bois, Antonides, Boel, and others, who might be pleased to help us according to the Rules of the Church * * to defend our- selves publicly in print, and choose our own time to do this." For two years, until February or March, 1725, nothing more seems to be heard from them, when they published their famous "Complaint," or "Reply," in which they scored not only Frelinghuysen and his Consistory but also those who were friendly to him, especially Dominies Freeman and Cornelius Van Sant- voordt. This document, "printed in New York by William Bradford and J. Peter Zenger," is a volume of 146 pages; an Eng- lish translation of it in the archives of the General Synod covers 323 pages of manu- script. A few advance copies of the "Cita- tions" and the "Reply" proper were first printed. One of these fell into Freeman's hands and he immediately answered it with his "Defense," a pamphlet of 125 pages, and despatched both together with a letter to the Classis of Amsterdam. The complainants met this by adding a sixteen page preface ; and then finding that their book was not hav- ing the effect they intended-Freeman says "It is scorned by all honest people. Mean- while God blesses the ministry of Rev. Freling- huysen with many exhibitions of genuine piety"-they procured from certain ministers a declaration "Justifying the complaints in publishing their volume." This is signed by
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Dominies Walter Du Bois of New York, Von- cent Antonides of Long Island, Petrus Vas of Kingston and Henry Boel; while Dominie Petrus Van Driessen of Albany "prays that a blessing may rest on the finished work," and Dominie Thomas Brouwer of Schenectady "gives assurance of his high regard," for the work. To all this, the complaints added a set of poems more or less ironical, ridiculing Fre- linghuysen's position for demanding his style of piety, commending those who are supposed to hold fast to the "established forms of doc- trine and discipline of the Dutch church, and bidding the "Complaint" forth on its mission. Then they despatched the completed work to the Classis at Amsterdam in such haste that they were obliged to follow it on the next ship with a letter of apology and explanation ; while Dominie Van Santvoordt publishes a second answer under the title of a "Dialogue between Considerans and Candidus," the first representing the Frelinghuysen side and the latter his opponents', and presenting another inside view of the whole controversy.
This "Complaint," which is evidently the work of a shrewd lawyer, and is almost cer- tainly the composition of Lawyer Boel, the Dominie's brother, whose handiwork is also clearly marked in the complainants' letters to Holland, puts an entirely new phase upon the dispute. At this date there were in New York and New Jersey but seven Dutch ministers: besides Frelinghuysen, Bertholf, now enfee- bled and soon to be superseded at Acquack- ononck, Du Bois and Boel in New York, Free- man and Antonides on Long Island, and Van Santvoordt on Staten Island. These few men could not possibly meet the needs of the con- stantly increasing population of the territory under their charge; and Frelinghuysen, Free- man and Van Santvoordt clearly foresaw that radical changes must be brought about to make the church's work effective. More ministers than could be obtained from Europe were a necessity ; and a more complete organization with large powers of self-government to con- trol the unruly and meet the exigencies of the times was imperative. These changes could not be wrought at once, and meanwhile some- thing must be done even if the letter of the canons was infringed or broken. On the other hand, the remaining ministers repre- sented the ultra-conservative element, which was afraid of innovation and believed that exact order, forms and rules must be main- tained at any expense of convenience or pro- gress. The "Complaint," while it professes
to be simply an appeal for justice against the highhanded and unprincipled acts of a teacher of false doctrines, skill fully insinuates throughout that Frelinghuysen and his adher- ents are dangerous innovators and destroyers of established forms and as holding the Classis and the Reformed religion in great contempt; and in their letter of explanation to the Classis the complainants urge this even more explicitly. It is a masterly retreat from an absolutely indefensible position to a battle- ground of politics and society as well as re- ligion which has in all ages been fought over with varying success; it is no longer a con- flict between a parish and certain of her dis- ciplined members ; it has become the old strug- gle between conservatism and radicalism in the church; from now on it is really a question of home rule versus imperial control.
The Classis reduced the "Complaint" to sev- enteen specific accusations and, having asked for and received Frelinghuysen's answer thereto, twenty folio pages, they decided that "the difficulty seems chiefly to have been op- position to Rev. Frelinghuysen, and his man- ner of saying and doing things"; that he had no right to excommunicate "without the pre- vious knowledge of the Classis"; that the ac- cusation of heterodoxy was "flippant"; and that the complainants had been guilty of "mis- representations of even the most important words and deeds." They, however, reserved any final decision in the interests of peace and justice, and "because both sides seem to desire to debate concerning our Tribunal and our ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; and under a foreign power our ecclesiastical decision could not be carried out by any effectual instrumentality." They then wrote to both parties to come to terms of peace, adding at the end of each letter this postscript: "P. S. If any amicable recon- ciliation cannot be effected, Classis retains the liberty either to pronounce judgment thereon herself ; or if it seems necessary, to refer the whole subject to the decision of the Christian Synod of North Holland."
Owing to the unavoidable delays accom- panying transatlantic correspondence, this de- cision of the Classis was not reached until May 3, 1728, and the letters to Frelinghuysen and the complainants were not finished until June 27 and 28, 1728. These last reached Raritan about the end of January, 1729; and on April 19, 1729, after several interviews with his op- ponents, Frelinghuysen offered to remove the ban and receive the complaints as mem- bers of the church provided that they are
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willing over their own signatures "to make confession of guilt (for their improper con- duct regarding his teaching), and to recognize me as an orthodox minister." The com- plaints rejected these overtures and wrote to the Classis, November 20, 1729, for a new minister at Three Mile Run-they had for some time previously, contrary to the canons, and using their barns for churches, been em- ploying the services of Dominie Henry Coens of Acquackononck (i. e., Passaic)-and April 6, 1730, assuring the Classis that they had done all they could to seek peace but that they could not join themselves with Frelinghuysen and his Consistory "because they disregarded the Discipline, Lithurgy and pure Administra- tion of the Sacraments of the Dutch Church; and have allowed an English dissenter to offici- ate in the services." This dissenter was the Rev. Gilbert Tennant, who was regularly min- istering to the English population there, and whom Frelinghuysen had occasionally per- mitted to use one of his churches for that purpose.
Meanwhile, Frelinghuysen, who in 1729 had published his two sermons on I Peter 4:18, "The righteous scarcely saved," and "The mis- erable end of the ungodly," was taken seriously ill, at one time his life being despaired of, and for nearly a year was unable to attend to any duties whatever. The sickness seems to have been a form of neurasthenia resulting from the persecution to which he had been sub- jected ; but his enemies gleefully hailed it as "insanity," and made the most of their op- portunity to stir up the Classis against him. So great was their success, that the Classis, September 1, 1732, records the following min- ute : "On accordance with a resolution of the Classis (July 21, 1732), a minister was granted to the people of Millstone (now Harlingen). and they were notified to that effect (July 25, 1732). In regard to the people of Raritan, it was resolved to write to Rev. Frelinghuysen that he must make his peace with the dis- affected ones, and that within the space of three months; otherwise the disaffected ones shall have liberty to join the people of Mill- stone, and together they may choose a minis- ter ; also that Rev. Frelinghuysen must keep himself to the Church Order and Formula of the Netherlands" (Acts xi. 82). The Classis had previously, April 2, 1731, arbitrarily re- moved the ban. October 25, 1732, they com- municated this decision to Frelinghuysen and November 18, 1733, after much written dis- cussion between the parties concerned, "Peace
Articles" were accepted and read by Freling- huysen from the pulpit, at New Brunswick, January I, at Raritan, January 8, and so on successively in all the churches. (Acts xxii. 333-334). Nine of the eleven articles refer to matters of detail such as the release from the ban and the privileges to be accorded to the disaffected ones, etc., and here Freling- huysen shows his greatness by giving his op- ponents the victory, and as reward gains the points for which he had contended ever since the publishing of the "Complaint": that the church order, etc., were to be adhered to only at least in so far as this is practicable and pos- sible in these regions"; (Article 3) ; and that all differences were to be decided by "the im- partial judgment of the two nearest churches or ministers, but only in the neighborhood" (Article II).
This was the practical ending of the quarrel. although the results were not so satisfactory as might be expected. Only a few of the dis- contented ones returned to their allegiance : the remainder drifted off to other consistories or remained to cause more trouble. Through- out the remaining years of his life, he died in 1747 or 1748, Dominie Frelinghuysen contin- ued to suffer annoyance and vexation and his son, John, who succeeded him, waged the same battle until the September session of the Coe- tus in New York, 1751, which decided that a pastor's decision must stand, or be submitted to a court of arbitration chosen by both sides, whose decision should be final.
One result of the Raritan dispute was to awaken the Classis to the need of a better or- ganization of the church in this country ; and accordingly, January II, 1735, they wrote to the ministers at New York, detailing their "embarassment in expressing a final decision upon the case of Rev. Frelinghuysen," and adding "we should be especially pleased if we could receive from you some Plan, which might tend to promote the union of the Dutch churches in your portion of the world. * * * either by holding a yearly Conven- tion, or in such other way as you think best." Consequently April 27, 1738, a committee rep- resenting nearly all the consistories in New York and New Jersey, the first three members of which were Freeman, Van Santvoordt and Frelinghuysen, sent to Holland for approval the "Draft-Constitution for a Coetus." Nine years later this was granted by the Classis, and the Coetus organized and proceeded to busi- ness September 8 and 9, 1747. Dominie. Fre- linghuysen was not present, but sent a letter
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excusing his absence, which was probably caused by ill health as the following April, Hendrick Fisher notified the Coetus that their congregation needed a pastor.
In 1730 the five sermons of Dominie Fre- linghuysen already referred to were translated into English. In 1733 he published in New York ten more sermons, written after his ill- ness of 1732, and containing as the concluding words of the preface, his now famous motto : "Laudem non quaero, culpam non timeo"; "I seek not praise, of blame I am not afraid." A second edition of these sermons appeared in Holland under approval and with the commen- dation of the university of Groningen who called them "The noble fruit brought from the new world to our doors." Two sermons, on the earthquake of December 7, 1737, were pub- lished in Utrecht, in 1738; and about 1749, four of his last sermons were printed by Will- iam Bradford in Philadelphia, with a preface written by himself, and two commendary notes following it, one signed by his son John, the other by his pupil, David Marinus. In 1856 all of these were translated into English by the Rev. William Demarest and published by the board of publication of the Dutch Reformed church, with an introduction by Dr. Thomas De Witt and a biographical sketch by the translator.
Dominie Frelinghuysen received the degree of A. M. (honorary) from Princeton Univer- sity in 1749, and was buried in the old church- yard at Three Mile Run, "under an old apple tree on the north side." Until a few years ago the spot was practically unmarked and almost unknown ; but in 1884 some of his de- scendants erected a plain but stately granite stone at the head of the narrow mound, bear- ing this inscription : "Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen. Born at Lingen, East Fries- land, in 1691. In 1719, he was sent to take charge of the Reformed Churches here by the Classis of Amsterdam. He was a learned man, and a successful preacher. The field of his labors still bears fruit. He contended for a spiritual religion. His motto was "Laudem non quaero, Culpam non timeo." " He died in 1747, and his descendents humbly sharing in his faith, have erected to his memory this monument."
By his wife, Eva, daughter of Albert Ter- hune of Flatbush, Long Island, Dominie Fre- linghuysen had five sons and two daughters. The sons were all ordained, and the daughters both married ministers.
Theodore, the eldest son, was born at Three
Mile Run in 1722 or 1723, studied Latin under Dominie Van Santvoordt and Theology under Dorius of Pennsylvania, his father's intimate friend, became a candidate of the Classis of Utrecht, was transferred to and ordained Oc- tober 4, 1745, by the Classis of Amsterdam, upon a call to Albany to succeed Dominie Cor- nelius Van Shie. He was an earnest advocate of the Coetus against the strong opposition of his consistory, was the originator and most active worker for a Dutch college in New York, and the first to propose an American Classis independent of the mother country. October 10, 1759, he sailed for Europe in the interests of these last two projects, and was lost at sea on his return voyage, and some time after May 14, 1760, when he wrote to the Classis of Amsterdam from Rotterdam. His wife Elizabeth, bore him no children but married again.
Ferdinand and Jacobus Frelinghuysen, the latter graduating from Princeton University in 1730, and the other studying under Doraius and Goetchius, were called the one to Kinder- hook and the other to Marbletown, Rochester ( Ulster county ) and Wawarsing, were ordain- ed together by the Classis of Amsterdam, July 17, 1752, and sailed for home. "They died" on the voyage says their brother, John, in a letter to the Classis, "the one seven days after the other, each stricken down with the small- pox," Ferdinand, June II, and Jacobus, June 18, 1753.
Hendrick, the youngest son of Dominie Fre- linghuysen, was educated in theology by Pro- fessors Irehovev and Risuerus and was to have gone to Holland to complete his studies and be ordained when the news was received of the deaths of Ferdinand and Jacobus. Marble- town and the other churches which had previ- ously called Ferdinand, immediately asked that they might have Hendrick in his place, and his brother, John, at once wrote to the Classis and requested permission for Hendrick to be or- dained by the Coetus. Three months later, November 3, 1753, Marbletown, Rochester and Wawarsing sent a formal request to the same effect ; and on December 3, 1753, gave Hend- rick a call in regular form. The Coetus, May 30, 1755, added its plea, and October 22, 1755, Theodore Frelinghuysen his. The Coetus and the calling churches repeated their requests again and again but the Classis steadily refused to grant their desires ; and this fact formed one of the strongest arguments which resulted in the assertion of the independence of the Coetus. Meanwhile Hendrick started to work among
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