USA > New York > The earliest churches of New York and its vicinity > Part 9
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defending the standard of his country. From this last union were four sons and one daughter, Elizabeth Mason Perry. This lady married the Rev. Francis Vinton, D. D., and their children make the eighth generation from this reverend and early Huguenot.
The year 1686 was remarkable for adding a large Hu- guenot population to the society of New York. Many French refugees, for a time in the islands of St. Christo- pher and Martinique, at last found a safe home among the tolerant Dutch of New York. In 1695 their number had increased to two hundred families, distinguished for their social influence and religious fidelity. Many of them became prominent and valuable citizens. Johan- nes Delamontaigne was one of this number, and was honored by Governor Kieft with an appointment as a member of the council, the second office in the gift of the government. He purchased a farm of some two hundred acres, at Harlem. for seven hundred and twenty dollars, calling it the "Vredendal," or Valley of Peace. It was situated east of the Eighth Avenue. between Ninety-third street and Harlem River. A grandson of his, named Vincent, born April 22d, died May 26th, 1773, at the very advanced age of one hundred and six- teen years. Numerous descendants are now among our citizens from this early Huguenot emigrant, but some with abbreviated names.
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What New Yorker does not remember the name of the venerable John Pintard. LL. D .? He was a communicant of Saint Esprit, an honored citizen, a philanthropist, and lover of the Bible. In his " Recollections," he says that "the holy sacrament was administered to the Ilu-
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guenots at New Rochelle four times a year-viz., Christ- mas. Easter, Whitsunday, and the middle of September. During the intermission that occurred, the communicants walked to New York for that purpose. Prior to their departure on a Sunday, they always collected the young children and left them in the care of friends, while they set off early in the morning, barefooted, carrying their shoes and stockings in their hands. They were accus- tomed to stop at a rock about twelve miles from New York, to rest and take some refreshment, ... where they put on their shoes and stockings. They then walked to the French church, where they generally arrived by the time service began. The interval between the morning and afternoon services was shortened for their accommo- dation, as they had to walk home again the same evening to their families. They continued to worship after this manner till the American Revolution broke out, when this part of the country became harassed and overrun by the British troops. They commenced their march invariably, on Sunday morning, by singing one of the psalms of Clement Marot. The sixtieth psalm, so appro- priate to their situation, was, perhaps, their greatest favorite." What a striking example of Christian humil- ity, fidelity, zeal, and devotion! Mr. Pintard, after a long life of honorable usefulness, was gathered to his fathers, at the ripe age of eighty-five. in the year 1814.
In the early psalmody of the Huguenots, every psalm in French version and metre had its own particular tune. The words and music both were written on the stave. either in their devotional books, or appended to their printed Bible. Such Bibles, published at Amsterdam,
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have been found in our day. We quote, as a specimen, a part of the one hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm, as it stands in our English Bible, and then the corresponding French verses, as sung by the Huguenots. The music was as low, plaintive chant, in the minor key, but beau- tifully adapted to the subject. It is not the style of modern psalmody ; but those who have listened to the sacred music of the Protestant French Church, and the same as used centuries ago, will not forget how delight- fully it harmonizes with the solemnity of public Christian worship.
PSALM CXXXVII .-- " By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down; yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows, in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song ; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saving, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land ?"
Here is the old French translation, as sung by the Huguenots :
" Etans assis aux rives aquatiques de Babilon, Pleurions mélancoliques. Nous souvenans du pays de Sion, Et au milieu de l'habitation, Où de regrets tant de pleurs épandîmes Aux saules verts nos harpes nous pendimes.
Lors ceux qui là captifs nous emmenèrent, De les sonner fort nous importunaient,
Et de Sion les chansons reciter. Las! dîmes nous, qui pourroit inciter Nos tristes cours à chanter la lotango De nôtre Dieu en un terre etrange ?"
On this venerable spot of the Saint Esprit, in Pine street, the French Protestant congregations continued to assemble and worship for the long space of one hundred and thirty years. In 1834, they sold this property.
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erecting the elegant white marble edifice on Franklin, corner of Church street. It cost sixty thousand dol- lars .*
Fourteen ministers have officiated in this congrega- tion since its establishment, and most only for a short time. During the year 1828, the Rev. Antoine Verren became pastor, succeeding the Rev. Mr. Penneveyre. The old Church was organized according to the doctrine and discipline of the Reformed Churches of France and Geneva, and continued so until the year 1804, when pas- tor and people resolved to conform to the Episcopal Church. The Rev. Mr. Verren has now faithfully occu- pied this field of Christian labor for nearly forty years, and still conducts the services of the sanctuary in the same language so eloquently used by Claude, Saurin, and other Huguenot evangelical preachers, two centu- ries ago !
' What brilliant sacred orators must such men have been ! At one period, many of their descendants filled the pulpits of Amsterdam, the Hague, Rotterdam, Ley- den, and Harlaem, greatly contributing to preserve the renown of these well-known Reformed Churches. Their French style produced a real revolution in Dutch preaching, which then became entirely remodelled after the French Protestant manner, ever since maintaining an elevated rank. James Saurin was born at Nismes, in the year 1677, and soon, with his pions father, fled to Geneva, for religion's sake. Here, finishing his studies, he began to preach, and became minister to the French
* This sacred edifice has been sold, and a new, beautiful ono erected on Twenty-second street.
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Protestant Church in London, where he took for his model the celebrated Tillotson. When the well-known Abbadie here heard the young Huguenot for the first time, he exclaimed : "Is this a man or an angel who is speaking to us ?"
In 1705, we find Saurin at the Hague, preaching with the most astonishing success. The elevation of his thoughts, brilliancy of imagination, with a luminous exposition of the Scriptures, produced the liveliest impression on the crowds thronging the sacred temple to hear him. It is not hard to judge what must have been the effects produced by that noble and melodious voice, which resounded for five and twenty years under the vaulted aisles of this tabernacle at the Hague. Nothing can convey a clearer idea of his influence than the diligence with which his sermons continue to be read in our day. They contain passages, in our opinion and to our taste, deserving to be ranked among the master- pieces of human or sacred eloquence.
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CHAPTER XII.
WALL STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH -ITS ORIGIN AND EARLIEST PREACHERS-CHURCH ERECTED ON WALL STREET - WHITEFIELD LABORS- DIFFERENCE OF OPINION IN THE CONGREGATION -FIRST ASSOCIATE REFORMED CHURCH, BUILT ON CEDAR STREET-REV. JOIIN MURRAY-NOTICE OF HIS LIFE AND LABORS.
MORE than one hundred and fifty years ago (1707) the first steps were taken to commence a Presbyte- rian church in our city. The Dutch Calvinists among the Hollanders, the French Protestants or refugees of the Geneva school. with the Episcopalians, then formed principally the religious community. A few Presbyte- rians, assembling on the Sabbath, worshipped in a pri- vate house. During the year 1707. the Reys. Francis McKemie and John Hampton, two Presbyterian minis- ters, visited New York, from Maryland and Virginia, on their way to Boston.
Mr. William Jackson invited Mr. MeKemie to preach at his house, in the lower part of Pearl street, where he met a small audience, and baptized a child .* He then visited Newtown. Long Island. But a higher authority now interfered with his movements. A bigot, Lord Cornbury, governor of the New York Province, ordered Mr. MeKemie's arrest, by the sheriff of Queen's county, and his imprisonment. for discharging his ministerial duties without a license. After two months' confine-
* Miller's Life of Rodgers.
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ment, he was discharged by habeas corpus, before the chief-justice. Thank God for this glorious, venerable, and righteous, privilege of Christian civilization ! Mr. Hampton. not having preached in the city, was entirely discharged, and MeKemie admitted to bail. In a few months he returned to New York from Virginia for trial. and, although acquitted by the civil court, was compelled to pay the costs of suit, amounting to eighty-three pounds seven shillings and sixpence. He published his trial in a pamphlet .*
Notwithstanding this persecution, the little band of Presbyterians did not disperse for the next ten years, but continued public worship occasionally in the Garden Street Dutch Church. In 1717, John Nicholl, Patrick McKnight, Gilbert Livingston, Thomas Smith, with a few others, organized a congregation according to the disci- pline of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. They called the Rev. James Anderson, an ordained Scotch- man, but at the time a member of the Philadelphia Pres- bytery. The new church was connected with this body, so that the old Wall street congregation was never Con- gregational, as has been asserted.
There was at one time a small division of the congre- gation in favor of New England usages, and the tempo- rary secessionists obtained the services of the Rev. Mr. Edwards, but only for one winter, when most of them returned to the old fold. Mr. Edwards became after- wards the celebrated minister of Northampton ; but at this time he was a candidate, and only nineteen years of age. After preaching to this separate organ- * Smith's History of New York.
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ization for eight months, he declined to remain perma- nently.
Mr. Anderson, with his people, first met in the old City Hall, at the corner of Wall and Nassau streets, the place being granted by the corporation of the city, and here they worshipped about three years.
The following year, 1718, they purchased lots on Wall street, near Broadway, and in 1719 erected their first church. Towards its building aid was obtained abroad : "Cor." sent a donation, with a considerable sumn from Scotland. A charter was obtained in 1720 from the "Council," but it was defeated by the interference and opposition of the Vestry of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Old Trinity had great influence at court in that early and illiberal day, and for more than half a century the authorities obstinately refused a charter of incorpo- ration to the Presbyterian Church in New York. This is history, and is mentioned without unkindness to the living or the dead. This hardship was more severe from the fact that legacies left to the Presbyterians could not be legally received. although that denomination was paying its full proportion of expense to support the Established religion. To meet this serious difficulty, it was resolved to vest the fee of their church and ground in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. This body temporarily hold the important trust, and. after the American Revolution. roconveyed the property to the trustees of the Wall Street Church.
In 1726, Mr. Anderson was called to a church in New Donegal, Pennsylvania, when the Rev. Ebenezer Pem- berton became the second pastor of the Wall Street
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Church the next year, and was ordained for the purpose, in Boston, August 4th. During his ministry the cele- brated George Whitefield visited America, in 1740, and Mr. Pemberton was the only minister of our city who opened his pulpit to his use. For this kindness God recompensed him, as a number of individuals and fami- lies were brought into the church during Mr. White- field's labors. So great was the increase that it became necessary to enlarge the Wall Street Church in 1748. On this occasion the tablet of the new edifice was obtained from Boston, with a Latin inscription, of which this is the translation :
"Under favor of God, this edifice, sacred to the per- petual celebration of divine worship, first erected in 1719-again thoroughly repaired and built larger and more beautiful in 1748-the Presbyterians of New York founding, for their own and children's use, have given, presented, and dedicated, and more illustriously adorned by religious concord, love, and the purity of faith, worship, and discipline. May it, by favor of Christ, endure to many generations." It has endured and will endure !
On the wall, over the " magistrate's pew." was placed this inscription, in Latin : " Under the auspices of George II., King of Great Britain, Patron of the Church, and Defender of the Faith."
Whitefield's zealous ministry was also eminently sue- cessful in Philadelphia. On one occasion, whilst preach- ing in the open air, a young lad of twelve years was among his hearers. For the accommodation of the preacher he held a lantern, but was so deeply impressed
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by the discourse that he could scarcely stand, and un- consciously the light fell, and it was broken and extin- guished. But these gracious impressions resulted in his conversion to the Saviour. This youth was John Rodgers, afterwards Doctor, who subsequently served as pastor of the Wall Street Church with such great fidelity and success for over half a century. What a wonderful man was George Whitefield ! He remarked to Mr. Rodgers, on one occasion, that he was the four- teenth person he had met in the ministry whose conver- sion had followed his first visit to America.
In 1750, the congregation continuing to increase, Alex- ander Cummings was called to be the colleague of Mr. Pemberton, and ordained as such in 1750. Both soon after resigned. Shortly after this, a call was presented to the Rev. Joseph Bellamy, of Bethlehem, Connecticut, which he declined. It was repeated and urged, but he still refused. Then the Rev. John Rodgers, of St. George's, Delaware, was invited to be pastor, and he also, with the Rev. David MeGregor, of Londonderry, New Hampshire, declined. After two years, in July, 1755, the Rev. David Bostwick, pastor of the Presbyte- rian Church, Jamaica, Long Island, was called, and he accepted in 1756. The settlement of Mr. Bostwick does not appear to have entirely healed the division in the Wall Street Church. In our day of universal music. it seems strange that the subject of " Psalmody" should create serious differences among church members. But so it did then, and a few, dissatisfied with the Wall Street Church on this subject, ultimately withdrew in 1756, forming the First Associate Reformed Church in
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Cedar street, now the "Scotch Presbyterian Church," or Seceders.
In October, 1762, the Rev. Joseph Treat, of New' Brunswick, became the colleague of Mr. Bostwick, and the following year he was removed by death, but be- loved by all. During the spring of 1764, the Wall Street Church invited the Rev. John Murray, recently from Ireland, to become Mr. Treat's colleague, but he declined, and afterwards settled in Newburyport, Mas- sachusetts. The congregation now renewed the invita- tion which they had presented ten years before to the Rev. John Rodgers. He accepted, and was installed September 4, 1765. The church revived and was greatly increased, so that a second place for divine worship soon became necessary. Ground was accordingly ob- tained by a perpetual lease from the Corporation, for forty pounds a year, at the corner of Nassau and Beek- man streets. This section was then called "in the fields," and the lot known as the "Vineyard." Here the "Brick Meeting," the second Presbyterian house of the Lord, was erected, and dedicated January 1, 1768.
Many members of the Wall Street Church were among our most influential families, and a number of them came from Scotland and the north of Ireland. Here worship- ped Judge Brockholst Livingston, David Gelston, Wil- liam Edgar, Robert Lenox, Jacob Morton. Sylvanus Miller, George Douglas, Dr. John R. B. Rogers, Thomas Renwick, James Manning, Edward H. Nicoll. Robert Speir, Samuel Campbell, Dr. John S. MeKnight, Joseph Greenleaf, the Lowries, John Greenfield, John Graham,
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William Maitland, D. T. Kennedy, Mr. Irwin, De Witt Clinton, &c .- a long, useful, and pious list. To one original family of this congregation Princeton College and its useful seminaries are indebted for munificent benefactions.
The Rev. John Murray, who declined a call to the Wall Street Church, was an extraordinary and noted man, and his name well deserves a notice in our histor- ical record. Born in Antrim, Ireland, in 1742, he early entered the University of Edinburgh, and, graduating with high honor, he commenced his ministerial life when only eighteen. When scarcely twenty-one he reached this country, and in May, 1765, was ordained and settled as the Rev. Gilbert Tennent's successor in the Second Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. Here his labors were very successful. but in the year 1766, he became the pastor of Boothbay.
It was an unpromising field when he entered upon his work, but his congregation soon became the largest in the State. People would travel seven and even ten miles to hear him preach. He was an eloquent preacher and a most faithful pastor, his piety like incense, both at the fireside and altar. Going from house to house, ho exhorted all to the duties of piety. In the year 1767. Mr. Murray organized a Presbyterian church in Booth- bay, where he administered for the first time the Sacra- ment of the Lord's Supper. After his visit to Bristol, the town appointed a committee "to take measures to have a church organized on the Westminster Confession and Presbyterian rules" and which he accomplished during the year. As a pulpit orator, many, who had
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heard both, ranked him not inferior to the great White- field. In his manner, he was somewhat pompous, but in matter solid, solemn, and pathetic. His popularity became very great, and he possessed one peculiarity which would not answer at all in our "fast"' day-his sermons often continued two or three hours long. Great, indeed, must have been his gifts, to have kept the attention of his audiences such a length of time.
Mr. Murray always had an answer on any emergency. Judge Kinkley, a "pilgrim" descendant, and a dispu- tatious man, opposed the Scotch-Irish in Brunswick, Maine, and hearing him on a Sabbath morning, the preacher said something which he did not relish, when, stepping into the aisle, he asked Mr. Murray if he "knew in whose presence he stood." "Yes," he replied, "in the presence of a judge of the inferior court of common pleas." "Then," said the judge, "I will say unto you as the Lord said unto Elijah, 'What dost thou here,' John Murray ?" The preacher immediately replied, in Elijah's answer, "I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Hosts," &c. (1 Kings xix. 10); and taking this for a text, he continued his discourse an hour longer. One of his early opposers, it is related. at Newburyport, where he afterwards settled, to try his qualifications, gave him a text at the church door. Laying aside his prepared sermon, he discoursed with such ability and readiness as disarmed prejudice, and called forth at the moment the extravagant encomium, that the preacher had not been surpassed since the Apostles' days.
The war of the American Revolution severely affected Boothbay, with other seaboard towns. Mr. Murray, zeal-
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ously espousing the cause of freedom, entered into the sentiments of his parishioners, and adopted country. In the year 1775, he was a delegate from Boothbay or Townshend to the Provincial Congress at Watertown. At one time he acted as president pro tem. of that body, as well as its secretary.
When Sir George Collier, commodore of the British squadron, visited this harbor, in 1777, to complain against the inhabitants, he invited Mr. Murray on board his ship. He went, and soon settled the difficulty. A writer on board describes him as "a cunning, sensi- ble man, who had acquired a wonderful ascendency over, and had the entire guidance of, all the people in the country around Townshend." Early in the war, the British cruisers would often land at this harbor and steal from the Whigs, or Patriots. The people vainly remon- strated with the officers, when they obtained Mr. Mur- ray's services. The minister, donning his canonicals- wig, gown, and bands-visited the enemy's vessel, and talked with such power and eloquence, that the inhabi- tants had no more trouble. One writer says that "the dignity of his appearance was such, that all the minis- ters in Maine put together would not equal him ; that he was superior in personal appearance to any other man that over walked God's footstool ; that if he had not said a word, such was the grandeur of his looks that he would have carried his point ; and that the officers were greatly surprised to see such a specimen of dignity coming from the State of Maine." In such an extravagant praise. much allowance must certainly be made for the warmth of personal friendship.
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But British civilities did not long last towards the Presbyterian preacher. In 1779, so active had he be- come for the defence of the castward, that a reward of five hundred pounds was offered for his apprehension,. and he was obliged to leave home for a more safe shel- ter. When Newburyport was called on to furnish a company for actual service, during three days no re- sponse was made. On the fourth, however, Mr. Mur- ray addressed the regiment then under arms with great animation and success, after which a member of his church stepped forward to take the command, and in two hours the ranks of the new company were filled.
Mr. Murray's residence at Boothbay was quite remote and retired ; and he received several invitations to be- come pastor at Newburyport, but declined them. He was even invited to the pulpit of Queen's Chapel, Ports- mouth, New Hampshire, by the Episcopal church-war- dens and parish, with a high salary, 1773. This must have been a "very low" Church, and no great advo- cates of what some Churchmen insist upon-"the true apostolic succession." He replied, however, that he was conscientiously a Presbyterian, and declined their gen- erous offer. Newburyport still urging their claims on him, in 1781 he became pastor of that congregation. His salary was one hundred and fifty pounds -- and one hun- dred pounds additional being voted to him from year to year. Here he preached nearly twelve years, to an im- mense congregation, numbering two thousand. He had a number of theological students. Mr. Murray died at Newburyport. in 1793, aged fifty-one, in great patience. resignation, and piety. He evidently had to encounter
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strong prejudices through life, which greatly circum- scribed his usefulness. Some pulpits were even closed against him ; and on one occasion, we read that the Rev. Dr. Samuel Spring, a man of strong passions, at a funeral where both officiated, refused to shake hands with Mr. Murray. Some rhymester then wrote these lines :
"Parson Spring began to fling, And seemed to be in a hurry; He couldn't stay to hear him prav, Because 'twas Parson Murray."
Dr. Spring was a Hopkinsian, and preached against original sin, when Mr. Murray delivered some sermons in reply, and, possessing wit, he wrote on the title-page of a book which Dr. Spring had published :
" What mortal power, from things unclean, Can pure productions bring ? Who can command a vital stream From an infected Spring?"
Although Mr. Murray did not accept the call to the Wall Street Presbyterian Church in 1764, still he occu- pied a very important charge in the very place where Whitefield's ashes slumber, and where he often rekin- dled his burning fires.
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