January 27, 1727

1727 January 27 (Friday).  Mr. Samuel Willard[1] of Boston Merchant was brought here by his Kinsman Mr. Simon Willard[2] of Hassinamisco.  I noted well his excessive antipathy against Mr. Thomas Smith[3] (a Preacher) with whom he was formerly exceeding intimate.  There is Sad work when Such sort of Companions fall out and rake into the Dirt and Dung hills of their Conversations to blaze the Mystery of iniquity about the world when it is Shamefull so much as to think of what is done of them in secret.  But I hope God has given his grace to Mr. Smith and that he has truly repented of all his Youthfull Sins.  God Grant Mr. Willard the Same, and I would not forget my Self.  But I am Oblig’d to acknowledge the Goodness of God in the Restraints granted to Me, So that I never was carried to the prodigious Enormitys of Such Men.  Yet God forbid I should Pharisaically Say I am not as other Men.

[1](Harvard 1723). Later minister at Biddeford, Maine (1730-1741).  Sibley, VII, 281-287.

[2]Son of Benjamin Willard, one of the original proprietors of Grafton, Mass.

[3](Harvard 1720).  Son of a Boston merchant and later minister of Falmouth, now Portland, Maine, 1726-1795.  Sibley, VI, 400-410.