Fine day. I passed an hour upon the coins which go on slowly, then to attend divine Service. Heard Dr. Frothingham who preached from 131. Corinthians 15. 26. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Some fine reflections upon the moral preparation necessary to render death less painful ending with an eloquent application to the late instance of Dr. Bowditch.1

Walk with my daughter and call afterwards upon Dwight for the fifth or sixth time without success. Then met Davis and short walk with him. Abby came down to dinner today for the first time.

Afternoon, John 3.6.7.8. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the spirit.” I confess I did not pay the attention to this discourse which I ought to have done.

Afterwards, one of Buckminster’s Sermons upon the reasonableness of Faith in continuation of last Sunday’s discourse. The text the same. He considers faith to be nothing more than belief in evidence of testimony. This does not quite satisfy me. Nobody has seen God at any time. Nobody knows the sun will rise tomorrow. The idea of a future state of rewards and punishments rests in most minds not altogether upon testimony. Yet faith attaches to each from reasoning independently of testimony. A strong argument in favor of Christianity from the spread of the gospel as a matter of faith at the close. In the evening my Wife sat down stairs. Conversation after which I wrote a letter to my Mother.2