Dutch Reformed Church Letter (August 11, 1628) addressed to Rev. Adrianus Smoutius, Member of the Consistory of the Dutch Reformed Church, Amsterdam:
<At the first administration of the Lord's Supper which was observed, not without great joy and comfort to many, we had fully fifty communicants-
Walloons and Dutch; of whom, a portion made their first confession of faith before us, and others exhibted their church certificates.
Others had forgotten to bring their certificates with them not thinking that a church would be formed and established here; and some who brought them, had lost them unfortunately in a general conflagration, but they were admitted upon the satisfactory testimony of others to whom they were known, and also upon their daily good deportment, since we can not observe strictly all the usual formalities in making a beginning under such circumstances…
We administered the Holy Sacrament of the Lord once in four months, provisionally, until a larger number of people shall otherwise require. The Walloons and French have no service on Sundays, otherwise than in the Dutch language, for those who understand no Dutch are very few.
A portion of the Walloons are going back to the Fatherland…Some of them live far away and could not well come in time of heavy rain and storm, so that it is not advisable to appoint any special service in French for so small a number, and that upon an uncertainty.
Nevertheless, the Lord’s Supper was administered to them in the French language, and according to the French mode, with a discourse preceding, which I had before me in writing, as I could not trust myself extemporaneously.> 1628DR001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1628DR001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Dutch Reformed Church Letter, August 11, 1628), addressed to Rev. Adrianus Smoutius, Member of the Consistory of the Dutch Reformed Church, Amsterdam.
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