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spirits to great distress after preaching. Oh, if I have done or spoken any thing
inadvisably and unbecoming the Holy Ordinance, may the Lord pardon and not
charge His servant with the guilt thereof. I have, by prayer, endeavored to flee to
the Lord Jesus, and to receive His righteousness against all the sins of my Holy
Duties and Services, and would be found only and always in Him. I desire to
remember His sufferings and to die unto sin and unto the world. I desire to live in
His services and to preach Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I humbly devote my
all and all mine unto the Lord of life and glory, and do renounce in His strength all
the sinful lusts, pleasures, amusements, and even the recreations of a sinful world.
May I so walk and exercise my body, that my soul be not polluted, 627 but my
whole spirit be revived and more and more strengthened to glorify God in Christ
with body and soul, and oh, may my wife and children be pitied and quickened
unto newness of life! The Lord sanctify even the abstaining from the Table, and
make it a means to discover unto some their real condition, and, if alienated from
the life of God, oh, may they begin earnestly and seriously to seek the Lord, and
live. Amen.
15. Last Monday I went with Mr. Bassett to preach in a little church lately built
under the Helbergh, 628 and though distressed by pains, especially at night and by
the rainy weather yesterday, which also prevented the people to meet in larger
number, I have great reason to thank the Lord for His strength out of weakness to
me, enabling me to preach from John 10.16 629 with plainness, and to a very
attentive audience. But my colleague fell sick after sermon, so much that he was
actually unfit to preach! What a mercy that we were not both so much indisposed,
and I, poor weakling, helped to perform at least some part of the duty of the day.
May our shortcomings be graciously pardoned, and our poor endeavors be owned
for the establishing of that congregation also, and the name of the Lord be
recorded there. Amen.
20. Yesterday, through mercy, I was helped to preach twice, my colleague being
gone to Lansingburgh, but last night and this morning I am full of pains again in
my poor bowels. I would humbly pray for relief, both for myself and my dear
wife, who is also indisposed of a severe cold with hoarseness. Oh, may I be
enabled to suffer and to do the will of the Lord, and to be patient in every
627
Ezekiel 4:14.
628
Possibly in Currytown, NY: “As early as 1790 a church was built at Westerlo, as Sprakers or
Spraker's Basin was at first called” [montgomery.nygenweb.net/root/curchurch.html]. It is not known
why and how this site was first named “Westerlo,” but “Helbergh” may be the Dutch equivalent of
“Helderberg” as in the “Helderberg Escarpment,” the name for the area below the four Hilltowns of
Berne, Knox, Westerlo, and Rensselaersville in western Albany County. The escarpment is a
limestone outcropping or cliff, running north-south, dividing Albany County into the Hudson River
Valley below and to the east, and the land in the Helderbergs above and to the west, the forbidden area
farmers, tenants on the manor of Rensselaerswijck, fled to in 1776 to sort out whether to support the
Revolution or not [Countryman 2003:117]. The Dutch name “Helleberg” or “Hellebergh” means
“bright (clear) mountain.” If this is true, then Westerlo may have been in or close to the town that
would later bear his name. The minutes of the General Synod of October 1786 report under
Outstanding Congregations: “From the Acts of the Rev. Classis of Albany, it appears that the
congregation of Niskayuna, and that upon the Halleberg, have subscribed the Articles of Union, which
is an occasion of joy to this Rev. Body” [Demarest 1859:150].
629
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my
voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
230