19. Fabricius, Arensius, Falckner in New York.--In 1669, five years
after the fall of New Amsterdam, Magister Jacobus Fabricius was sent
over by the Lutheran Consistory of Amsterdam to minister to the
Lutherans in New York and Albany. Being of a churlish and quarrelsome
nature, he soon fell out with the authorities of Albany and was banished
from the town. The New York congregation was torn by factions, many
demanding the resignation of Fabricius on the ground of "deportment
unbecoming a pastor." The matter was even carried before the governor. A
solution of the problem was brought about through the arrival of a new
pastor from Holland in the person of Bernhardus Arensius (Arnzius).
Fabricius obtained permission to install Arensius as his successor, and
went to Delaware, where he labored among the Dutch and Swedish
Lutherans. Arensius continued to serve the Lutherans in New York and
Albany from 1671 to 1691. The mildness and firmness which he displayed
in trying circumstances repaired the harm done by Fabricius. Dr.
Graebner says: "In Pastor Arnzius the Dutch Lutheran congregations on
the Hudson had an excellent preacher and pastor, a man of whom they had
no cause whatever to be ashamed. Above all he was a sound Lutheran,
whose opposition to any and all church-fellowship with the Reformed was
so decided that he abstained even from cultivating social intercourse
with the pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church, although it would seem
that the existing conditions called for it." (70.) After the death of
Pastor Arensius, in 1691, a long vacancy ensued, lasting till 1702, when
Pastor Rudman, a Swede from Philadelphia, acceding to their repeated
requests, took charge of the congregation in New York. But finding
himself unequal to the task of regulating their deranged affairs, he
resigned in 1703. Rudman was succeeded by Justus Falckner, who was
ordained November 25, 1703, in the Swedish Gloria Dei Church of Wicaco,
by Rudman, Bjoerk, and Sandel, the first Lutheran ordination in America.
The new pastor, who arrived in New York on December 2, 1703, proved to
be a true Lutheran, a faithful shepherd of the flock committed to his
care, among which he labored with much blessing for a period of twenty
years. Graebner says: "It is a most pleasing, captivating figure that
we behold in Pastor Justus Falckner during the twenty years of his
activity, a man of excellent parts, of splendid knowledge, of a delicate
disposition, of a truly pious frame of mind, of a decidedly Lutheran
standpoint, of active and enduring diligence in his office, in short, an
all-round pastor. He had assumed the duties of his office with the
consciousness that he was able to accomplish nothing without the
gracious assistance of God; that God would grant him sufficiency was the
fervent prayer of his heart." (94.) Justus Falckner, born November 22,
1672, was the fourth son of Daniel Falckner, Lutheran pastor at
Langenreinsdorf, Crimmitschau, and Zwickau, Saxony. He entered the
University of Halle, January 20, 1693, and studied theology under A. H.
Francke. He completed his course, but shrank from assuming the
tremendous responsibility of the ministry. On April 23, 1700, he
acquired the power of attorney for the sale of William Penn's lands in
Pennsylvania, and left with his older brother, Daniel, for America. In
1701 ten thousand acres of Penn's lands were sold to Provost Rudman and
other Swedes. Probably this transaction brought Rudman into closer
contact with J. Falckner, who also had attended the Swedish church in
Philadelphia. The result was that Falckner was ordained and placed in
charge of the congregations in New York and Albany. While a student at
Halle, Falckner wrote the hymn: "Auf! ihr Christen, Christi Glieder--
Rise, Ye Children of Salvation." (_Dict. of Hymnology_, 363.)
20. Falckner's Spirituality.--Falckner was of a spiritual and truly
pastoral frame of mind. He was a faithful and humble shepherd, who loved
the flock entrusted to him with all his heart. "God, the Father of all
goodness and Lord of great majesty, who hast thrust me into this
harvest, be with me, Thy humble and very weak laborer, with Thy special
grace, without which I must needs perish under the burden of temptations
which frequently descend upon me with violence. In Thee, Lord, have I
put my trust, let me not be confounded! Render me sufficient for my
calling. I have not run, but Thou hast sent, hast thrust me into this
office. Meanwhile forgive whatever, without my knowledge, my evil nature
may add; pardon me, who am humbly crying unto Thee, through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen." Such was the prayer with which, in classic Latin,
Falckner prefaced his entries in the church register. Following are some
of the prayers which he appended to his entries of baptisms: "O Lord,
Lord, may this child, together with the three aforementioned Hackensack
children, be and remain recorded in the Book of Life, through Jesus
Christ. Amen." "God grant that also this child be and remain embraced in
Thy eternal grace and favor through Jesus Christ. Amen." "O Lord, may
this child be commended unto Thee for its temporal and eternal welfare,
through Jesus Christ. Amen." "May this child also, O Lord God, be and
remain an heiress of Thy Kingdom of Grace and of the glory which Christ
has obtained for us. Amen." "God grant that this child may overcome
Satan, the world, and its own corrupted nature, and with Christ reign
and triumph eternally for Christ's sake. Amen." "Lord Jesus, grant that
this child may taste and enjoy Thy sweet love and grace in time and
eternity." In 1704 Falckner baptized in his congregation at New York
"Maria, the daughter of Are of Guinea, a negro, and his wife Jora, both
Christians of our congregation." To the record of this baptism he added
the prayer: "Lord, merciful God, who regardest not the person of men,
but in every nation, he that feareth Thee and doeth right is accepted
before Thee: let this child be clothed with the white garment of
innocence and righteousness, and so remain, through Christ, the Redeemer
and Savior of all men. Amen." In later years, Falckner, after recording
the baptisms of an entire year, would add a prayer like the following:
"Lord, Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquities
and transgressions and sin: do not let one of the names above written be
blotted out of Thy Book, but let them be written and remain therein,
through Jesus Christ, Thy dear Son. Amen." One of the intercessions
recorded with the entries of confirmations reads as follows: "Lord Jesus
Christ, should Satan seek to sift as wheat one or the other of these
members of Thy congregation, then do Thou pray for them to Thy heavenly
Father that their faith may not cease, for the sake of Thy holy merit.
Amen." Marriages are recorded with prayers like the following: "Grant,
Lord God, that also this union may redound to the honor of Thy holy
name, to the promotion of Thy kingdom, and to the temporal and eternal
blessing of those united, through Jesus Christ. Amen." Graebner remarks:
"What a gifted and sincerely pious pastoral frame of mind appears in the
entries of the noble man, whom God, in wonderful ways, led from far-away
Saxony to New York and here made a shepherd and teacher of the Dutch
Lutherans!" (94 ff.)
21. Distinctive Doctrines Stressed.--Tender love for his flock did not
silence Falckner's confessional Lutheranism, nor did it induce him to
keep doctrinal differences in the background. He was no unionist. On the
contrary, in order to protect the souls committed to his care from the
Reformed errors with which they came into contact everywhere, and to
enable them to confess and defend the Lutheran truth efficiently, he
emphasized and preached also the distinctive doctrines of the Lutheran
Church. Naturally, his congregation was imbued with the same spirit of
sound and determined Lutheranism. "The straitened circumstances of our
Dutch Lutherans," says Graebner, "might have suggested to their flesh to
seek a better understanding with the Dutch and English Reformed of the
city, and to sacrifice some of their Lutheranism, in order to win the
friendship as well as the support of these people. Indeed, we hear that
these Lutherans manfully confessed their Lutheran faith whenever they
came in contact with their Reformed compatriots. And Pastor Falckner was
repeatedly urged by members of his congregation to compile a booklet for
his parishioners in which the chief doctrines, especially the
distinctive doctrines concerning which they were often called upon to
make confession, would be briefly set forth, together with the necessary
proof-passages. Falckner acceded to these requests. In 1708 he published
a book entitled 'Thorough Instruction (Grondlycke Onderricht) concerning
Certain Chief Articles of the True, Pure, Saving, Christian Doctrine,
Based upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, Jesus Christ
Himself Being the Chief Corner-stone.'" It was the first book to appear
from the pen of a Lutheran pastor in America, and till the awakening of
Confessional Lutheranism the only uncompromising presentation of
Lutheran doctrine. V. E. Loescher praised it as being an
"Anti-Calvinistic Compend of Doctrine, Compendium Doctrinae
Anti-Calvinianum." The chapter on the "Freedom of the Will," which is
embodied in Graebner's _History of the Lutheran Church in America_,
bespeaks theological acumen and clarity on the part of the author. In
simple catechetical form, together with most appropriate Bible-passages,
Falckner presents the following truths: Having lost the divine image,
man, by his own natural free will, can neither understand, will, nor do
that which is spiritually right, good, and pleasing to God. Man is
converted to God and to all that is "thoroughly good" only by the grace
and power of God. It is God's pleasure to work in every man in order
that he may will and do that which is good. The reason why this is not
accomplished in all men is, because many wilfully resist the work of
God's grace, despise the means of conversion, and thus, by their own
stubborn and evil wills, frustrate the good and gracious will of God.
Man has a _free_ will; for he does the evil and rejects the good freely
and without constraint, without any compulsion on the part of God.
Furthermore, in external matters, which reason comprehends, man also has
a free will, in a measure. The will of a regenerate Christian is set
free, inasmuch as he is able to will that which is pleasing to God, by
faith in Jesus Christ, although, in this world, he is not able perfectly
to do that which is good. Falckner says: "I conceive this doctrine of
free will as follows: All the good which I will and do I ascribe to the
grace of God in Christ and to the working of His good Spirit within me,
render thanks to Him for it, and watch that I may traffic with the pound
of grace, Luke 19, which I have received, in order that more may be
given unto me, and that I may receive grace for grace out of the fulness
of grace in Jesus Christ. John 1, 16. On the contrary, all the evil
which I will and do I ascribe to my own evil will alone, which
maliciously deviates from God and His gracious will, and becomes one
with the will of the devil, the world, and sinful flesh. And I am
persuaded that if only my own will does not dishonestly, wilfully, and
stubbornly resist the converting gracious will of God, He, by His
Spirit, will bend and turn it toward that which is good, and, for the
sake of Christ's perfect obedience, will not regard, nor impute unto me,
the obstinacy cleaving to me by nature." In the introduction of the
book, which was written in the Dutch language, Falckner unequivocally
professes adherence to the Symbols of the Lutheran Church, the
confession of his fathers, "which confession and faith," he says, "by
the grace of God and the convincing testimony of His Word and Spirit,
also dwell in me, and shall continue to dwell in me until my last,
blessed end." (91 ff.)