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 under