25. Berkenmeyer's Sturdy Lutheranism.--Though not clear in some points and, at times, rigorous in discipline, Berkenmeyer stood for a sound and decided Lutheranism. His orthodoxy appears from the very library which he selected and brought with him for the congregation in New York, consisting of twenty folios, fifty-two quartos, twenty-three octavos, and six duodecimos, among them Calovius's _Biblia Illustrata_, Balduinus's _Commentarius in Epistolas S. Pauli_, Dedekennus's _Consilia_, Huelsemann's _De Auxiliis Gratiae_, Brochmand's _Systema, etc_. Owing to his staunch orthodoxy, Berkenmeyer also had an aversion to the Pietists, and refused to cooperate with Muhlenberg and his colaborers from Halle. He disapproved of, and opposed, the unionistic practises of the Swedish and Halle pastors. Speaking of Berkenmeyer's pastorate in New York, Dr. Graebner remarks: "In a firm and faithful manner he had preserved for himself and his congregation, both in doctrine and practise, a staunch Lutheran character, which banished the very thought of fraternizing with the heterodox. At the same time, though a German theologian and commanding an easy, flexible, and forceful Latin, he was a genial Dutchman among his Dutch parishioners, perfectly adapting himself to their manners." (186.) He was firm and consistent, but not fanatical, bigoted, or narrow. "In 1746, when the Reformed pastor Freylinghausen lay ill with the smallpox at Albany, Berkenmeyer visited him. But never did he establish an intimately friendly intercourse with the Reformed pastors, and in church-matters he was determined to keep himself and his people separate from the Reformed. In the German congregations, such as those in and about Newton, where Lutherans lived among the Reformed, with whom, after suffering together with them, they had emigrated, warnings against apostasy and unionistic practises were even more necessary than in the Dutch congregations, especially, as the Reformed made concessions to Lutherans uniting with them, _e.g._, by having the Lutheran children recite the Lutheran Catechism in the catechetical instructions of children (Christenlehren). Berkenmeyer, however, knew how to keep awake the Lutheran conscience. When, in 1736, the Calvinists on the Katsbaan, several miles from Newton, forbade their lector henceforth to have the children recite the Lutheran Catechism, this led to a declaration on the part of the Lutherans to the effect that they would no longer attend services at their church. At Schoharie, Berkenmeyer had to preach in the Reformed church; but that did not prevent him from testifying against joint services. He declared that in such union, without unity in the faith, the pastor was required to become 'either a dumb dog or a mameluke'; the theme of his sermon here was: 'Our Duty to Defend the Truth against the Gainsayers.'" (207.) The same earnestness characterized Berkenmeyer's dealings with pastors, whom he recognized