CHAPTER VIII

THE  SEPARATION:   1809

" And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of
us in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord be between me and thee, and between
my seed and thy seed for ever.   And he arose and departed."—1 Samuel 20 : 42.

"No man, unquestionably, who witnessed the scene, would ever again lift his
hand in favor of associating several congregations under the same pastors."—
Samuel Miller, "Memoirs of John Rodgers," p. 274.

IT will be remembered that in 1784, when the
Presbyterian Church in New York was first
incorporated, the official title selected was "The
Corporation of the First Presbyterian Church in the
City of New York."    This choice was an indication,
we are told,* that a second corporation, "of the New
Church," was then thought to be a possibility.    The
law under which the papers were taken out provided
that the estate held by each incorporated religious
body  must  not  exceed  <£1,200  per  annum,  gross
revenue.    It was in order to secure the larger liberty
which in equity belonged to them as two congrega¬
tions that the Presbyterians at that time contemplated
the future possibility of a separation of the financial
affairs of their two churches.    It will be remembered
that ecclesiastically they were still one body, bound
together in   a so-called   "collegiate   arrangement,"
and so they continued for many a year.    But with
the practical financial difficulty, which, as just stated,

♦ "Manuscript Hist.," p. 20.

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