USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > Warwick in Bucks County > History of Neshaminy Presbyterian Church of Warwick, Hartsville, Bucks County, Pa., 1726-1876 > Part 5
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Philadelphia. In the Life of Dr. Rodgers, it is stated, that in spite of the resolutions of Synod and Presbytery, Mr. William Tennent, the Elder, introduced Mr. Row- land into his pulpit at Neshaminy, and “ when some of his congregation complained of this act to the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Mr. Tennent justified his conduct, dis- claimed the authority of the Presbytery in the case, and ' contemptuously withdrew.' The Presbytery censured his conduct as 'irregular and disorderly.' This took place in September, 1739. In the month of October fol- lowing, the Presbytery of New Brunswick ordained Mr. Rowland, and he continued a member of that Presbytery until the month of November, 1742, when he was dis- missed to join the Presbytery of New Castle."
Soon after Mr. Rowland was ordained, he accompanied Mr. William Tennent, Jr., in a tour to Maryland, where they were engaged preaching in congregations that were blessed with the special presence of the Spirit of God. During this time a circumstance occurred, which can be introduced here in no better manner than in the words of Dr. Bowditch, as found in his sketch of Mr. Tennent's life .*
" The time of which we are now speaking, was remark- able for a great revival of religion, in which Mr. Tennent was considerably instrumental, and to which a Mr. John Rowland, brought up with Mr. Tennent at the Log Col- lege, was also very remarkable for his successful preach- ing among all ranks of people. Possessing a command- ing eloquence, as well as other estimable qualities, he be- came very popular, and was much celebrated throughout
* Hist. of Log College, p. 127.
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the country. His celebrity and success were subjects of very serious regret to many careless worldlings, who placed all their happiness in the enjoyment of temporal objects, and considered and represented Mr. Rowland and his brethren as fanatics and hypocrites. This was spe- cially applicable to many of the great men of the then Province of New Jersey, and particularly of the Chief Justice, who was well known for his disbelief in revela- tion. There was at this time, prowling through the country, a noted man by the name of Tom Bell, whose knowledge and understanding were very considerable, and who greatly excelled in low art and cunning. His mind was totally debased, and his whole conduct betrayed a soul capable of descending to every species of iniquity. In all the arts of theft, robbery, fraud, deception, and defamation, he was so deeply skilled, that it is believed he never had his equal in this country. He had been in- dicted in almost every one of the middle Colonies, but his ingenuity and cunning always enabled him to escape punishment. This man unhappily resembled Mr. Row- land in his external appearance, so as hardly to be known from him without the most careful examination.
" It so happened that Tom Bell arrived one evening at a tavern in Princeton, dressed in a dark, parson's gray frock. On his entering the tavern about dusk, the late John Stockton, Esq., of that town, a pious and respectable man, to whom Mr. Rowland was well known, went up to Bell, and addressed him as Mr. Rowland, and was invit- ing him to go home with him. Bell assured him of his mistake. It was with some difficulty that Mr. Stockton acknowledged his error, and then informed Bell that it
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had arisen from his great resemblance to Mr. Rowland. This hint was sufficient for the prolific genius of that notorious impostor. The next day Bell went into the County of Hunterdon, and stopped in a congregation where Mr. Rowland had formerly preached once or twice, but where he was not intimately known. Here he met with a member of the congregation, to whom he intro- duced himself as the Rev. Mr. Rowland, who had preached to them some time before. This gentleman im- mediately invited him to his house to spend the week ; and begged him, as the people were without a minister, to preach for them the next Sabbath, to which Bell agreed, and notice was accordingly given to the neigh- borhood. The impostor was treated with every mark of attention and respect ; and a private room was assigned to him as a study, to prepare for the Sabbath. The sacred day arrived, and he was invited to ride to church with the ladies in the family wagon, and the master of the house accompanied them on an elegant horse. When they had arrived near the church, Bell, on a sudden, dis- covered that he had left his notes in his study, and pro- posed to ride back for them on the fine horse, by which means he should be able to return in time for the service. This proposal was instantly agreed to, and Bell mounted the horse, returned to the house, rifled the desk of his host, and made off with the horse. Wherever he stopped he called himself the Rev. John Rowland.
"At the time this event took place, Messrs. Tennent and Rowland had gone into Pennsylvania or Maryland, with Mr. Joshua Anderson and Mr. Benjamin Stevens, both members of a church contiguous to that where Bell had
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practised his fraud, on business of a religious nature. Soon after their return Mr. Rowland was charged with the above robbery ; he gave bonds to appear at the court at Trenton, and the affair made a great noise throughout the Colony. At the court of Oyer and Terminer the judge charged the grand jury with great severity. After long consideration the jury returned into court without finding a bill. The judge reproved them in an angry manner, and ordered them out again. They again re- turned without finding a bill, and were again sent out with threatening of severe punishment, if they persisted in their refusal. At last they agreed and brought in a bill for the alleged crime. On the trial, Messrs. Tennent, Anderson, and Stevens, appeared as witnesses, and fully proved an alibi in favor of Mr. Rowland, by swearing that on the very day on which the robbery was com- mitted they were with Mr. Rowland, and heard him preach in Pennsylvania or Maryland. The jury accord- ingly acquitted him without hesitation, to the great dis- appointment and mortification of his prosecutors, and of many other enemies to the great revival of religion that had recently taken place; but to the great joy of the serious and well disposed."
But the opposers of the truth were not prevented by this defeat from making efforts to bring discredit upon evangelical religion. They determined to prosecute Messrs. Tennent, Anderson, and Stevens, for wilful and base perjury, in testifying to Mr. Rowland's absence, when, as they affirmed, he must have committed the crime with which he was charged. The owner of the horse averred that Mr. Rowland stole the animal; and
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several others were willing to swear that they had seen 4 it in his possession. A mass of testimony was gathered, which made them believe, that those good men could be brought in guilty of the heinous offence of falsehood under oath. They were summoned before the court to answer to the charge, and the testimony was so positive against them, that Mr. Anderson, who was tried at his own request sooner than the others in the Oyer and Terminer, was found guilty, and condemned to stand one hour on the court-house steps, with a placard on his breast, on which was written in large letters, "This is for wilful and corrupt perjury." Mr. Tennent, conscious of his innocence, took no steps to escape trial, nor to avert condemnation. He knew not to whom to apply for evi- dence in his favor, and he was confident that the Lord, whom he endeavored to serve, would not allow him to suffer the penalty of a shameful crime which he had not committed, and which his soul abhorred. The morning on which the trial was to take place came. Still Mr. Tennent had no witnesses to appear in his behalf. When, as he was walking in the street, he was approached by a man and woman, who asked him if he was not Mr. Ten- nent. He said he was, and wished to know what their business with him might be. They replied, that he prob- ably would know better than themselves; that they lived in the Southern part of Pennsylvania or Maryland, and had heard him preach there at such a time ; and that a few nights before they left home, they had had a dream, each of them, more than once, to the effect, that he was in Trenton in great distress, and that it was in their power and their's only to relieve him. They had come
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therefore, and wished to know what they could do for him. He took them to his lawyer, who had volunteered - to act for his defence, and on examination it was found, that they could testify where Mr. Tennent was when the robbery took place. They went into court, and the evi- dence of these persons and of some others was so clear and positive as to the whereabouts of Mr. Tennent at the time referred to, that notwithstanding the powerful exer- tions of the prosecutors, the jury returned a verdict of ae- quittal. His deliverance seems to have been due to a special interposition of divine Providence, in making an impression in a dream upon the minds of two persons, who were able to say from their own knowledge, that he was on a particular Sabbath in a distant part of the country.
Mr. Rowland continued to labor in the congregations of Maidenhead and Hopewell, N. J., until 1742, a period of about four years, when he removed into Pennsylvania, and by the appointment of the Presbytery of New Castle, to which he was dismissed, he went to Charlestown and Now-Providence, not far from Norristown, in Montgomery County. In the church of New-Providence, now Provi- dence, he was much blessed by the outpouring of the Spirit of God accompanying his preaching. In a letter to the Rev. Mr. Prince, of Boston, he gives an account of the great reformation which was wrought in the habits and conduct of many who had been irreligious and im- moral previously, and of their conviction and conversion unto God. The power of the divine Spirit was seen in a remarkable manner; many were led to cry out aloud together in view of their sin and danger, and some were
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caused to fall upon the ground fainting. These manifesta- tions of divine grace were witnessed first, when he was laboring there temporarily, as a missionary, and after- wards, when he was the stated minister of the congrega- tion. Those who were hopefully converted, manifested the genuineness of their experience by a correct, humble, and pious life, and he took much pains to increase their knowledge and to establish them in the faith and order of the Gospel. How long he remained in Providence is not known, probably but a year or two, as his name is not found in the roll of the New Castle Presbytery in 1745, when the Synod of New York was constituted. His death had doubtless taken place previously to that year, but precisely when, or where he was buried, we have no information. He travelled extensively, preaching in various churches during the great awakening with which the land was then blessed ; was owned of God as the instrument in the conversion of many souls; and went to his reward when he was yet young.
Besides those, some account of whom has just been given, others were educated wholly or in part at Log College, who filled positions of usefulness and honor in the church and society. That institution was commenced about the year 1726, soon after Mr. William Tennent, the elder, came to Neshaminy, and it probably continued in existence and sent forth streams of blessing to the cause of Christ and to the world fifteen or twenty years. Exactly at what date it was given up is not known. But after Mr. Tennent's sons were all settled in the ministry, and he himself had grown old, it is probable the number of students in attendance within its walls gradually
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diminished, and when the College of New Jersey was established (at Elizabethtown originally, in 1746), the necessity for the school at Neshaminy was no longer appa- rent. That College, commenced the same year in which Mr. Tennent died, was removed from Elizabethtown to Newark in 1748, and was permanently located at Prince- ton in 1756. The germ of this distinguished seat of learning, which has been honored by a long list of emi- nent men in the office of President, and which has trained many of the first men of the country, is to be found in Mr. Tennent's Seminary. One of the principal objects of them both was to fit pious young men for the sacred min- istry by imparting a sound and thorough education. There was but a slight interval of time between the close of the one and the commencement of the other, and they were both conducted by men of a similar spirit and kindred principles.
CHAPTER VI.
CLOSE OF THE LIFE OF REV. WILLIAM TENNENT, SR.
Rev. William Tennent, Sr., Pastor at Neshaminy, con- tinued to be a member of the Presbytery of Philadelphia until the year 1741, when the disruption of the Synod took place, and he, in company with many ministers, who
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sympathized with him in his views upon vital religion and the means proper to promote it, withdrew. He joined the Presbytery of New Brunswick, to which his sons, Gilbert and William, belonged, and remained associ- ated with it until his death.
In the year 1735 or 1736, some of the congregation at Neshaminy appear to have become dissatisfied with Mr. Tennent for some reasons, among which probably was his difference in doctrinal sentiment from the extreme Cal- vinists of that day, and his sympathy with the efforts made to promote revivals of religion and the salvation of the unconverted. They also complained that he had never been installed over them as Pastor, and went so far as to bring their opposition to him before the Presbytery of Philadelphia, which judicatory refused to sustain their complaint. They then appealed to the Synod. In this ecclesiastical body, after all parties, the' appellants, Mr. Tennent, and the members of the Presbytery of Phila- delphia, had been heard at length, and the matter had been freely discussed, the following resolution was adopted September 17, 1736.
" That it appears evident to this Synod, that Mr. Ten- nent having in all respects acted and been esteemed and looked upon, not only by this Synod, but also by the con- gregation of Neshaminy, and particularly by the appel- lants themselves, as the minister and pastor of the people of Neshaminy, that he is still to be esteemed as the pastor of that people, notwithstanding the want of a formal in- stallment among them, (which omission, though the Synod doth not justify, yet it is far from nullifying the pastoral relation between Mr. Tennent and said people)
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and consequently that the Synod doth justify the judg- ment of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, in reference to that matter, and that said appellants had no just cause of complaining against or appealing from said judgment of the Presbytery."
The decision of the Synod, as well as that of the Presbytery, was to the effect, that those who had been displeased with Mr. Tennent, should abandon their oppo- sition, and cordially co-operate with him in the work of the Lord, and kindly listen to his instructions and coun- sels. But they were not ready to yield to this salutary recommendation, and the next year, 1737, they presented a petition to the Synod again in opposition to him. In the printed Minutes of the Synod, p. 133, the following entry is found.
" A supplication from part of the congregation of Neshaminy, containing matters of complaint against Mr. William Tennent, and also an answer to the several arti- cles of said supplication from another part of the said congregation being brought in, and both of them read, article by article, and both parties heard at length what they had to say, all parties were ordered to remove, and some time being taken upon the merits of that cause, Mr. Thomson was ordered to draw up an overture on that affair, and bring it in, in the afternoon."
In the afternoon of the same day, it was resolved,
" That the reasons advanced by the disaffected party of the congregation of Neshaminy, in their supplication, in justification of their non-compliance with the Synod's judg- ment in relation to them last year, and their desire to be freed from Mr. Tennent as their Pastor, are utterly insuffi-
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cient, being founded (as appears to us), partly upon igno- rance and mistake, and partly (as we fear) upon prejudice. It is therefore ordered, that the Moderator recommend it to said people to lay aside such groundless dissatisfac- tions, and return to their duty, which they have too long strayed from, otherwise the Synod will be bound in duty to treat them as disorderly." " Approved, nemine contra- dicente."
Mr. Tennent continued to be Pastor at Neshaminy for about five years after this decision of the Synod was made, until he was nearly seventy years of age, and en- joyed the confidence and affection of the great majority of his people, though some did not agree with him in all his theological views, nor in his ideas in respect to the proper measures for promoting the cause of religion.
He occupied a high place in the regard of the Synod, as he was chosen Moderator of that body in 1730, and the . following year opened its sessions with a sermon on the text, I Peter 1: 21, " Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory ; that your faith and hope might be in God."
Four years before his death Mr. Tennent felt unable, in consequence of physical infirmity, properly to meet all the requirements of the pastoral office, and presented, in 1742, to the Presbytery of New Brunswick, of which he had then been a member but one year, a paper referred to thus in the records of the Presbytery.
" Mr. William Tennent, Sen., gave in to Presbytery a. paper, setting forth his inability, by reason of advanced. age, to discharge the work of the ministry unto the con- gregation of Neshaminy, over which, for divers years.
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past, he has been overseer,-desiring the Presbytery to grant to said congregation of Neshaminy such supplies as they can."
Who were sent as supplies in accordance with this re- quest, we do not know, but probably Rev. William Rob- inson was one. Mr. Tennent at this time no doubt re- signed his charge altogether, though no particular action by the Presbytery in dissolving the pastoral relation was necessary, as he had never been formally installed, and his successor is not spoken of in the records, as being a colleague. The congregation invited Mr. Robinson to accept the pastorate, but he declined the invitation, being engaged in travelling extensively and preaching as an evangelist, where revivals of religion demanded his assist- ance.
In the Minutes of the New Brunswick Presbytery for the year 1746, it is stated : " It is reported to the Presby- tery that Mr. William Tennent, Sen., deceased since our last."
His tomb-stone, in the grave-yard of Neshaminy Church, incorrectly gives the date of his death as May 6, 1746. It should be 1745.
In an old deed, now in possession of Mr. Cornelius Carroll, it is stated, that Rev. Gilbert Tennent, the oldest son of Rev. William Tennent, was his Executor in respect to his real estate, and that Catharine, his widow, was the Executrix in regard to his personal property. It also states that his will was dated February 16, 1745, and that he died shortly after. This deed, by which Rev. Gilbert Tennent conveys the farm to John Baldwin for £361, was dated February 28, 1746, and it states, that Mr. Wm.
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Tennent had "lately deceased." The venerable man therefore undoubtedly died in 1745, aged 73 years.
Dr. Alexander, in "Log College," says of him, " He died at his own house in Neshaminy, and came to the grave in a good old age, like a shock of corn fully ripe. As far as we know, he never published anything. We have, therefore, no means of ascertaining his abilities as a writer ; but the benefit he conferred on the Church by his school can never be forgotten. The Presbyterian Church is probably not more indebted for her prosperity and for the evangelical spirit, which has generally per- vaded her body, to any individual than to the elder Tennent."
CHAPTER VII.
REV. FRANCIS MCHENRY.
For a considerable part of the time Mr. Tennent was at Neshaminy he preached frequently at Deep Run, where was a settlement of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, about twelve miles north of his home, and six miles north of the present Borough of Doylestown .* The Church there was organized in 1732, probably through his instrumentality, and was called "Mr. Tennent's Upper Congregation," in the Records
* Manual of Presbyterian Church of Doylestown, by S. M. An- drews, D. D.
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of the Presbytery of Philadelphia until 1738, when the name of " Deep Run " appears. At this period, in consequence of advancing age and arduous labors, he consented to have an assistant. He was still engaged in Log College to some extent at least during the week, and supplied the pulpit at Neshaminy, and more or less regularly at Deep Run, on the Sabbath. These labors at the age of nearly threescore and ten years were more severe than he could well endure, and Presbytery deemed it advisable that some provision should be made for his relief. They accordingly sent Rev. Francis McHenry to preach every third Sabbath at Neshaminy, and the rest of his time was to be devoted to Deep Run. Mr. McHenry was born in Ireland, A. D., 1710. * In the Spring of 1739 Neshaminy asked for his services half his time, and that arrangement was no doubt made; his Sabbaths being equally divided between Deep Run and Neshaminy, a considerable share of toil and responsibility being thus taken from the senior Pastor. As he was yet only licensed to preach, it was im- portant that he should be ordained, and the Presbytery met and ordained him to the full work of the Gospel Ministry, September 13, 1739, at the meeting-house, which then stood in the midst of the present grave-yard, forty rods from the modern church. This was about two months before the visit of § Rev. George Whitefield to that spot, already referred to, and there can scarcely be a doubt that Mr. McHenry was one of the auditors of the celebrated Evangelist, and one of the participants in the exercises of the occasion.
* Webster's History of the Presbyterian Church.
¿ Page 15.
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In the month of May, 1740, the congregation at Deep Run asked leave of the Presbytery to call Mr. McHenry to be their Pastor, and devote his whole time to them. But the Presbytery decided that it was best he should remain at Neshaminy. At this period he was not the regular pastor of either of the two congregations, but only an assistant of Mr. Tennent. When the division in the Synod took place between the "Old Lights " and the " New Lights," and Mr. Tennent joined the Presbytery of New Brunswick, in 1741; or in 1742, when he gave up the charge of the church at Neshaminy, a division also occurred in the church there. Mr. Tennent and that por- tion of the congregation who sympathized with him, associated themselves with the "New Lights," who were constituted "the Synod of New York," in 1745, consist- ing of three Presbyteries, namely, the Presbytery of New Brunswick, of New York, and New Castle. Mr. McHenry and the part of the congregation whose senti- ments were similar to his, remained with the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and worshipped in the original meeting- house, and Mr. Tennent's party built the new Church, which was erected in 1743. As Mr. McHenry had never been installed over the undivided Church, it was deemed proper by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, that he be in- stalled over that portion which remained with them, and also over Deep Run Church, which he still continued to serve as minister. Accordingly. the installation took place, March 16, 1743, and his labors thenceforth appear to have been divided between the " Old Light " congre- gation at Neshaminy and Deep Run.
Mr. McHenry was chosen Moderator of the Synod of
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Philadelphia twice, in the years 1744 and 1754, and preached at the opening of Synod, in 1745, on the text, Proverbs 11: 30: " The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life ; and he that winneth souls is wise;" and in 1755 on Hebrews 10: 24; " And let us consider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works."
He was frequently a member of the commission of the Synod, which was appointed yearly to have charge of the funds for assisting feeble churches, and to examine young men who had not passed through a regular course of study at any College or University, with a view to their licensure by some Presbytery. The Synod also chose him several times as a member of committees appointed to confer with similar committees from the Synod of New York, in regard to a re-union of the two divided Synods. He was regularly in attendance upon Synodical meetings, and appears to have taken a prominent part in their transactions.
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