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Another Look at Frelinghuysen and His “Awakening”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Herman Harmelink III
Herman Harmelink III
Affiliation:
Chairman, Committee on Inter Church Relations, Reformed Church in America
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Extract

The extremely favourable assessment by historians of the life and career of Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691-c. 1748) as a forerunner of the Great Awakening is a puzzling one to those familiar with the Ecclesiastical Records of the State of New York. Three works are mostly frequently quoted in making this favourable assessment: Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen by Peter H. B. Frelinghuysen (1938); The Great Awakening in the Middle Colonies, by C. H. Maxson (1920); and Eight Memorial Sermons and Historical Notes, by Abraham Messier (1873). Peter Frelinghuysen quotes Maxson and Messier extensively. Maxson quotes Messier extensively.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , December 1968 , pp. 423 - 438
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1968

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References

1. Hastings, Hugh, Ecclesiastica Records ef the State of New York (Albany: James B. Lyon, State Printer, 1901), 7 voleGoogle Scholar. Hereafter referred to as ER. Certain scholars have questioned the accuracy of Corwin's translation of the Classis of Amsterdam materials. None of those writing favourably about Frelinghuysen has questioned the accuracy of those materials pertaining to him, and Corwin makes evident his sympathies for Frelinghuysen, so it is unlikely that his translation would err on the side of injustice to Frelinghuysen.

2. Messler, Abraham, Eight Memorial Sermons & Historical Discourses. (New York: A Lloyd, 1873)Google Scholar.

3. Ibid., p. 165.

4. Ibid., p. 168.

5. Whitefield, George, George Whitefield's Journals (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1960), pp. 351–2Google Scholar.

6. Messler, op. cit., pp. 167–8; also Sprague, W. B., Annals of the American Pnlpit, Vol. IX (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1869), p. 9Google Scholar.

7. Gullies, John, Memaws of the Life and Character of the late Rev. George Whitefield, A. M. (Philadelphia: Simon Probasco, 1820), p. 47Google Scholar.

8. Messler, op. cit., pp. 167–8.

9. Edwards, Jonathan, A Narrative of Many Surprising Conversions in Northhampton and Vicinity. Written in 1736 (Worcester: Moses W. Grout, 1832), p. 18Google Scholar.

10. Prince, Thomas Jr, Ed., The Christian History (Boston, N. E.: T. Prince, junior, 1745), pp. 292–3Google Scholar.

11. Tracey, Joseph, The Great Awakening (Boston: Tappan & Dennet, 1842), p. ivGoogle Scholar.

12. Frelinghuysen, Peter H. B., Theodoras Jacobus Frelinghuysen (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1938), pp. 42, 52Google Scholar.

13. Sprague, op. cit., p. 8.

14. Frelinghuysen, T. J., Sermons (New York: Board of Education, Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, 1856), p. iv., pp. 9–10Google Scholar.

15. Ibid., p. 15.

16. KR, p. 2121.

17. Ibid., pp. 2197–2200.

18. Ibid., Vol. VII, 174–6.

19. Ibid., pp. 2351–6.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid., p. 2365.

22. Ibid., pp. 2362–3.

23. Ibid., pp. 2382–3.

24. Ibid., p. 2384.

25. Ibid., pp. 2384–5.

26. Ibid.

27. Ibid., p. 2388.

28. Ibid., p. 2402.

29. Ibid., p. 2431.

30. Ibid., pp. 2413–4. Although the Classis could bring only spiritual power to bear upon the contestants, because of the geographical separation, both parties had much to gain in winning the Classis' approval: a victorious Frelinghuysen would have succeeded in making the pietist approach the orthodox position and his hand would be strengthened against his opponents; his opponents, if successful, would ensure continued place in the church for both positions.

31. Ibid., p. 2416.

32. Ibid., p. 2418.

33. Ibid., p. 2422.

34. Ibid., pp. 2420, 2424.

35. Ibid., p. 2446.

36. Ibid., p. 2447.

37. Ibid., p. 2455.

38. Ibid., pp. 2459–60.

39. Ibid., p. 2461.

40. Ibid., p. 2463.

41. Ibid., p. 2520.

42. Ibid.

43. Ibid., p. 2536.

44. Ibid., pp. 2558–9.

45. Ibid., p. 2609.

46. Ibid., p. 2655.

47. Ibid., p. 2638.

48. Ibid., p. 2708.

49. Ibid., pp. 2425–6. These petitioners were among the German Reformed immigrants to Pennsylvania whose churches were long supported and governed by the Reformed Church in the Netherlands (1709–1793).

50. Church History, 12 1963, p. 382Google Scholar.

51. Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), p. 1028Google Scholar.

52. Ibid., p. 1030.

53. An excellent study of the pietist background out of which Frelinghuysen sprang is furnished in the doctoral dissertation (soon to be published) of Dr. James Tanis (Yale) at the University of Utrecht.

54. Edwards, Jonathan, Religious Affections (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959), pp. 181–2Google Scholar. Edwards' view shifted somewhat in later life.

55. Frelinghuysen, Sermons, pp. 67–69.

56. Ibid. p. 353.

57. Ibid. p. 354.

58. Harmelink, Herman III, Ecumenism and The Reformed Church (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1968), pp. 12–13Google Scholar.

59. See p. 425 above.