- Bigelow D
rJacob - Harriet Welsh
I awoke and rose this morning with a head ache, and sore throat; doubting
if it would be possible for me to deliver my lecture on Monday, and
hating to think of it— My head ache afterwards passed away—the
sore-throat was less troublesome, and Doctor Bigelow, who visited me after the morning service
dismissed one of the bandages on my head— Heard Dr
Frothingham from Isaiah 5.20. “Wo unto them that call evil
good and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness:
that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. 21. Wo unto them that
are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.” This
perversion of principle the Doctor remarked was applicable to three
different classes of men— 1. To those who have been educated under
vicious or imperfect systems of morals—false religions, or inveterate
national usages and prejudices. 2. To wicked and perverse individuals
and 3. To speculative visionary enthusiasts who promulgate their own
fancies for new discoveries in religion and morality. Of this class
there is at this time a school very busy and mischievous in this region.
German mystification, French Atheism, and English Pyrrhonism are all
combined in producing this half religious half infidel vagary, which has
penetrated deeply into the theological school at Cambridge, and even
into that of Andover. It is called transcendentalism, and the main
object of it is to undermine the Christian religion by discrediting the
scriptures both of the old and new Testament. This new sect has taken
the place of a school of avowed atheism, broken up a few years since by
the conviction of its high priest, Abner
Kneeland upon an indictment for blasphemy.— The present
heresies are of a more dangerous character because the propagators of
them are ministers of the gospel of good reputation and blameless
lives.— Dr Frothingham remarked that such
had been the founders of the greatest and most pernicious errors which
have afflicted mankind; as an instance of which he mentioned Peter the hermit the first preacher
of the Crusades. After the morning service, and before dinner we had a
visit from Harriet Welsh. After
dinner at the first Church, Mr Alexander Young, Minister of
the new South Church preached from Luke 8.25. “And he said unto them,
where is your faith?”— Without further allusion to the occasion upon
which these words were spoken by Jesus, the argument of the discourse
was to shew that there was great reason for us all to address this
enquiry to ourselves; and he complained of a great decay of faith in our
country at this time—glancing at the same heresies against which Dr Frothingham had remonstrated this morning—
I spent the latter part of this Evening, with Charles at Mr P. C.
Brooks’s, en famille—