Morning clear and warm though with a fine Air. I did not rise very early and had therefore less time than usual to devote to my studies. I read a little of Aristotle during the morning and attended Divine Service. Mr. Frothingham preached all day, from 1. Corinthians. Chapt. 12. verses 4. 5 and 6. “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit, and there are differences of Administrations but the same Lord, and there are diversities of Operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.” He drew from this text an illustration of our dependence upon the Deity, who communicates to us all our blessings through means as various as can be imagined. All of which means work to the same general end, the happiness of man. And from 1 John. C4. v. 16. “God is love.” Again urging the beneficent character of the Deity, and exhorting to the cultivation of the kind affections—Which perhaps I hardly do enough. I cannot help objecting to Mr. Frothingham the very indefinite tendency of his Sermons. There is rarely a leading idea to grasp by which you can continue your attention. The reflections are distinct, and finished in themselves but not so closely connected with a leading thread as to keep the mind from wandering into fields of its own. The afternoon service was performed in a violent Thunder Storm. The first severe one we have had this Season.

Returning home, I read a Sermon of Massillon. The second in the set of the Petit Careme. The Text from Matthew 4. 1. “Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil.” The subject, the temptations of the great. He makes three leading divisions. The attractions of pleasure, the exposure to adulation, and the influence of ambition. The first leads astray, the second precludes a return to right, and the third is the consequence of the error. Some passages are very fine. Now here are distinct ideas, a child can manage them, and these are after all the great means to produce effect. Evening quiet at home. I conversed with my Mother about John, and the Mills. After which read Mr. Pye and the Spectator.