Biography
Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen was born in 1691, in Lingen, in Westphalia, Germany, the son of a Reformed pastor. His father was a pious man, and his mother was a woman of devotion. He grew up in a Pietist atmosphere and was educated at the Reformed Gymnasium. He studied theology at the University of Lingen and then at Duisburg. He was drawn to the Pietist movement, which stressed the new birth and a personal faith. He was ordained as a minister in 1717. He served for a short time as a pastor in Ostfriesland.
In 1719, he accepted a call to the Dutch Reformed churches in the Raritan Valley of New Jersey, in the American colonies. He arrived in January 1720. The churches were composed of Dutch farmers who had settled in the area. They were a plain and conservative people, who held to the old ways. The faith of many was formal, and the life of the church was dull. Frelinghuysen was a young man of ardent spirit, who was shocked at what he found. He saw that many of the members were unconverted and that they came to the Lord's Supper without repentance. He took a stand.
He began to preach about the new birth and the need for a living faith. He called for repentance and for a holy life. He refused to give communion to those who were living in open sin. He took a stern line on discipline. He preached against worldliness and drunkenness. His preaching was marked by an urgent tone. He was a man of great passion and strong will. The response was divided. Some were deeply moved, and a number were converted. A revival began among the people. But many were angry. They accused him of being a troublemaker. They charged him with a lack of respect for the tradition. A party of opponents was formed, led by some of the leading men of the congregation.
The dispute lasted for years. He was attacked by his opponents, who brought charges against him before the church assemblies in Amsterdam. He was defended by his friends. The quarrel split the Dutch Reformed Church in America into two parties, the conferentie, who held to the strict order and the old forms, and the coetus, who supported the revival and the independence of the American church. It was a long and bitter struggle. In time, the revival party won, and the church became more evangelical.
He was among the first of the revival preachers of the Great Awakening in the Middle Colonies. His preaching was a source of inspiration to Gilbert Tennent, a Presbyterian minister in New Brunswick, who learned from him the call to the new birth. Tennent said that Frelinghuysen was a man of God and that his influence on him was great. He also made an impression on George Whitefield, who visited him in 1739 and was moved by the revival in the valley. Whitefield called him the beginner of the great work in these parts.
He was a man with faults. He was harsh and imperious. He was inclined to judge those who were not converted. He was criticized for his severity in the matter of discipline. He also had a hot temper. Yet he was a man of sincerity. He worked at his labors with a deep sense of duty. He died around 1747, at the age of about fifty-five. The record of his death is not certain. His life shows the effect of a stern pastor who kindled a revival. The Great Awakening in America owes a debt to him.