[288] Belcher's "Biography of Whitefield," p. 117.
[289] Hodge's "History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States."
[290] Hodge's "History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States."
[291] Philip's "Life and Times of Whitefield" and Hodge's "History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States."
[292] It was in compliance with Mr. Noble's request that Whitefield visited New York.
[293] The Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton, who, in 1727, became minister of the Presbyterian Church in New York. In 1754, he was installed minister of the New Brick Church, in Boston. To the end of life, he was one of Whitefield's faithful friends. He died in 1777, aged 72.
[294] Dr. Colman, in a letter to Dr. Watts, dated "Boston, January 16, 1740," says, "Mr. Whitefield arrived some months ago at Philadelphia, where, and through the Jerseys and at New York, he preached daily to incredible multitudes with great eloquence and zeal. America is like to do him much honour. He proposes to see Boston, in his return to Europe, about June next; and our town and country stand ready to receive him as an angel of God. Ministers and people, all but his own Church, speak of him with great esteem and love. He seems spirited from on high, in an extraordinary manner, assisted and prospered." (Milner's "Life and Times of Dr. Isaac Watts," p. 652.)
[295] The Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, for thirty-nine years minister of the first Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth Town, New Jersey, and also first president of New Jersey College. He likewise was a practising physician of considerable reputation. He was much celebrated as a preacher; and his publications were creditable to his head and heart. He died, universally lamented, in 1747, aged 59.
[296] One of these was the Rev. Theodore James Frelinghuysen, minister of the Reformed Dutch Church at Raritan, New Jersey. He was an able, evangelical, and eminently successful preacher. He died in 1754.
[297] Mr. Rowland was a remarkable man. He was a Presbyterian in doctrine and practice, but, on account of some irregularity in his being called to the ministry, the Presbytery refused to recognise him. He, accordingly, began to preach in barns and other unconsecrated places. In the spring of 1739, numbers of persons, in Lawrence, Hopewell, and Amwell, three contiguous towns in New Jersey, were powerfully affected by his preaching, and their convictions of sin were attended with great horror, trembling, and weeping. John Rowland was an irregular revivalist, exceedingly effective and useful. (Hodge's "History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.")