Table Of Content"A MIRROUR THAT FLA TTERETH NOT"
A STUDY IN THE LIFE AND THEOLOGY OF
THEODORUS JACOBUS FRELINGHUYSEN
DUTCH CALVINISTIC PIETISM
IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES
A STUDY IN THE LIFE AND THEOLOGY OF
THEODORUS JACOBUS FRELINGHUYSEN
PROEFSCHRIFT
TER VERKRIJGING VAN DE GRAAD VAN DOCTOR
IN DE GODGELEERDHEID
AAN DE RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT TE UTRECHT,
OP GEZAG VAN DE RECTOR MAGNIFICUS, PROF. DR. A. R. HULST,
VOLGENS BESLUIT VAN DE SENAAT
IN HET OPENBAAR TE VERDEDIGEN
OP DONDERDAG 6 JULl 1967 DES NAMIDDAGS TE 4.15 UUR
DOOR
JAMES ROBERT TANIS
GEBOREN 28 JUNI 1928 TE PHILLIPSBURG, NEW JERSEY
MARTINUS NIJHOFF / 'S-GRAVENHAGE I 1967
PROMOTOR: PROF. DR. S. VAN DER LINDE
ISBN 978-94-015-0132-3 ISBN 978-94-015-0611-3 (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-94-015-0611-3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE ~I
ABBR£VIATIONS USED FOR THE FREQUENTLY CITED
BASIC WORKS XI
INTRODUCTION I
PART I. HIS LIFE AND WORK
CHAPTER I. ROOTS IN EUROPE II
His Family Background
His Father's Ministry.
His Student Years.
His First Pastorate
His Last Months in the Old World
CHAPTER 2. LIFE AND MINISTRY IN THE NEW WORLD 42
The Raritan Valley 43
His Colleagues. . . . . 47
Differences Develop into Conflicts 49
His Use of Excommunication 53
The "Complaint" against Frelinghuysen 57
His Further Writings . 64
His "helper", Visscher 66
His Broader Circle of Associates. 67
Matters of Education and Ordination 71
The Struggle for Local Authority 73
The Great Awakening. 78
His Last Eight Years . 86
His Sons 90
PART II. HIS THEOLOGY: EXPERIMENTAL DIVINITY
CHAPTER 3. OF GOD AND MAN 97
Doctrine of God 100
Experimental Godliness 105
Types of Men . 108
Rebirth. III
The Covenant of Grace 116
Election. . 119
Certainty of Faith.. . 122
Justification and Sanctification 124
Glorification 125
Holy Living 127
Heaven and Hell 132
VI TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 4. OF THE CHURCH
The Word of God.
The Sacraments
Church Membership
Worship
Preaching .
Forms and Creeds.
Church Discipline .
Conventicles .
Interconfessional Relationships
In Conclusion
APPENDICES 163
BIBLIOGRAPHY 186
INDEX 198
PREFACE
The word "pietism" usually conjures up a host of ambivalent im
pressions. It has seemed to me increasingly clear that many of the
strengths of pietism have been swept aside by reactions against the
excesses of the movement. To properly assess the structures of pietism,
it is important to comprehend its matrix and to understand its ex
ponents. In preparing this study, therefore, I have sought to recapture
something of the person of Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen as well as
the gist of his thought; something of his environment as well as the
institutions of his day. To achieve this I have traveled many by-paths
and knocked on many doors. But the past has not always yielded its
secrets; much is lost forever.
Hagen in Westphalia, Frelinghuysen's birthplace, is now a modern
city and only in a few isolated particulars is it reminiscent of Hagen in
1693. In the nearby village of Schwerte, however, the ancestral church
of his forebears remains as it was nearly three hundred years ago. The
gymnasium he attended in Hamm was destroyed in the bombings ofWo rld
War II, though the library he used during his study at Lingen is still
largely intact. In the tiny East-Frisian village of Loegumer Voorwerk,
Frelinghuysen's first parish, one can still stand in the pulpit where he
first preached his awakening gospel. Yet oddly enough, in America,
where his name is most remembered, most physical traces of his life
have disappeared. His homestead and the early churches where he
preached have all vanished. Even the exact location of his grave, long
unmarked, is unknown. The real testimony to his life and ministry is in
the continuing influence in American theology of the Dutch Reformed
pietism which was the strong mark of his preaching and teaching.
In tracking down archival sources in the Old World, and in seeking
out such manuscripts, books and legends as remain in the New World,
I have been aided by teachers, pastors, librarians, archivists, historians
VIII PREFACE
and descendants of Frelinghuysen. Among his descendants, Mrs Ross
A. (Frelinghuysen) McFarland, who eagerly avouched this enterprize
from the outset, has provided materials and enthusiasm which have
been invaluable. In Europe the most extensive help came from the
Royal Library in the Hague, and the libraries of the Universities of
Amsterdam and of Utrecht. Particularly, the continually patient and
cooperative help of the librarians in Utrecht made my time there
exciting and rewarding.
In the States, I relied most heavily on the Gardner A. Sage Library
of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. The extraordinary
generosity and hospitality of their librarian, Peter Vanden Berge,
coupled with the wealth of that library's manuscript and printed
sources, account for much of the information in the study which
follows. Also of basic importance were the privileges proffered by
Warren Mehl of the Eden Theological Seminary Library in allowing me
r.
extensive access to the rich treasures of the James Good collection.
My research base throughout this study has been the Andover
Harvard Theological Library at Harvard Divinity School. There,
through the good fortunes of time, has been gathered together a
library second to none for studying puritanism and pietism in one lo
cation. These holdings, together with the source materials in New
Brunswick, made it possible for me to pursue this venture back into the
18th century. The support and encouragement of the staff of the
Andover-Harvard Library and, during the past two years, of the Yale
University Library, have not only made possible a much-divided
sabbatical leave, but have also provided much of the stimulus for
proceeding.
The perceptive guidance and the provocative lectures of Professor
S. van der Linde during my study in Utrecht provided an under
standing of the context of Frelinghuysen's times that opened a new
world to my provincial American eyes. The questions which he posed
as he read and re-read each part of my work induced such structural
balance as exists, and often pointed to important details which would
otherwise have been overlooked. In addition, the unreserved reception
and the lively interchange which I repeatedly enjoyed with still other
members of the Utrecht faculty afforded a warm relationship which I
gratefully avow. Nor can the imaginative responsiveness of Utrecht's
van Brakelstraaters go unmentioned.
The stimulation of my former Harvard colleagues, Professor and
Mrs. Heiko Oberman and Doctors Walter and Maria Grossmann, first
PREFACE IX
prompted me to undertake this study. I have continued to profit from
their aid and wise counsel. To my wife, who has edited and re-edited my
manuscript, goes all credit for such brevity and readability as has been
achieved.
In view of the fact that I have translated into 20th-century English
most quotations included in the text, it seemed only consistent to mo
dernize also the spelling, capitalization and punctuation of most r8th
century English quotations. An exception has been made for the
appendices, all of which are intended to follow the originals exactly.
In the text itself, I have sought to make only such references to the
original languages as seemed necessary. Responsibility in these matters
I share only with my dictionaries. Though I have translated from
Frelinghuysen's original Dutch texts when these were available, I have
placed in parentheses after the citation of the original the citation for
the mid-r9th-century translation of William Demarest. Unfortunately,
all of Frelinghuysen's works are exceedingly rare; even Demarest's
translation is a very scarce volume. Two of his booklets have dis
appeared completely and a third is known only in two imperfect copies.
Therefore, to provide the interested reader with a sample of his thought
and style, I have appended one of his typical sermons. It is my hope
that the title of that sermon will also be a fair judgement of this study
"A mirrour that flattereth not".
ABBREVIATIONS USED FOR THE
FREQUENTLY CITED BASIC WORKS
BL Frelinghuysen, T. ]., Een bundelken leer-redenen,
Amsterdam, 1736.
CD - A clear demonstration ot a righteous and ungodly man,
New York, 1731.
DP - Drie predicatien, New York, 1721. The note [2J
following the letters DP indicates the second
series of paging, which begins with the second
sermon.
TV - Een trouwhertig vertoog, New York, 1729.
VK - Versamelinge van eenige keur-texten, Philadelphia,
[circa 1748J.
S - Sermons ... translated trom the Dutch, New York,
1856.
EcR Ecclesiastical records [ot the J state ot New York, Albany,
19°1-1916. Volumes I through 6 are continuously
paged so that volume numbers are not given in the
citations. Volume 7 is the index volume.
Klagte [Boel, TobiasJ, Klagte van eenige leeden der Nederduyste
H ervormde Kerk, woonende op Raretans in de provincie
van Nieu-Jersey, New York, 1725.
Ned. A. K. N ederlandsch archiet voor kerkgeschiedenis, 's-Graven
hage, 1902-
B.W.P.G. Biographisch woordenboek van protestantsche god
geleerden in Nederland, onder redactie van J. P. deBie
J.
en Loosjes, 's-Gravenhage, 1907-
N.N.B.W. Nieuw nederlandsch biogratisch woordenboek, Leiden,
19II- 1937·
R.E. Realencyklopiidie tur protestantische Theologie und
Kirche, 3. Autlage, Leipzig, 1896-1913.
INTRODUCTION
In the writings of most American church historians, Theodorus
Jacobus Frelinghuysen is accorded a prominent place in colonial
religious history. One writer 1 refers to him as "the father of American
Pietism," though, in fact, he "fathered" but one school of American
pietism. Unfortunately, the structure of his pietism has never been
extensively assessed, so that the nature of his role, as well as its place
and importance, could never be adequately understood.2 Oddly
enough, neither he nor his tradition has been much appreciated by
Dutch historians. Frelinghuysen has been a virtually unknown name
in the Netherlands. One church historian typifies the situation in
commenting that, "for the development of American theology, [the
Reformed churches] had little importance." 3 The purpose of this
present study is, therefore, twofold: first, to detail the course of
Frelinghuysen's life and ministry, particularly in the context of those
factors which shaped his mind and heart; and, second, to analyze
his theology and its influence, as nearly as this can be done from the
sermons, letters and other sources which remain.
The most misleading error, and the one which has been perpetuated in
most accounts of Frelinghuysen, is the assumption that his pietism
1 Schrag, F. L., "Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, the father of American pietism" in
Church history, v. 14 (1945), pp. 201-216.
2 The best analysis is in C. H. Maxson's The Great Awakening in the Middle Colonies,
Chicago, 1920. Though Maxson does not stress Frelinghuysen's dependence upon Lutheran
pietism as does Schrag, neither does he attempt to analyze the sources of Frelinghuysen's
thought.
The best biographical study is that by the Domine's descendant, Peter H. B. Frelinghuysen,
jr., Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, Princeton, 1938. Unfortunately this biography depends
solely upon English-language sources.
3 Ridderbos, J., De theologie van Jonathan Edwards, 's-Gravenhage, [1907], p. 4. There
was a brief appreciative article on Frelinghuysen by Derk Buddingh, which appeared in
1853 in the Dordsche stemmen; but, since that time, there have only been short biographical
notices, prepared for reference purposes.
