1747 April 13 (Monday). Very rainy. A.M. Mr. James Eager here to inform me of the Death of his Brother, Aaron Wheeler, who expir’d last night about Sunsetting. A Sore Bereavement to his Father and Mother, who, he being their only Son set their Hearts much upon him. May God Sanctifie this heavy Affliction to their highest Good. I had rather they would have sent to Mr. Martyn, but Mr. Eager said that they had determin’d to send to Mr. Jenison if I could not go. He informs me likewise that Asa Rice lyes at the point of Death if he be living. O that all young persons, and mine in Particular might take warning! renounce their Vanitys and prepare for Death and Judgment! P.M. I was at Neighbour Garfields, whose wife was just before brought to Bed of a Daughter. Finish’d Mr. Stoddards and Mathers Controversy about Right to the Lords Supper.[1]
[1]The controversy between Solomon Stoddard and Increase Mather began in 1700. Mather’s Order of the Gospel (Boston, 1700) was followed by Stoddard’s Doctrine of Instituted Churches (London, 1700). Mather published an “Advertisement, Directed to the Communicants in the Churches of New England” in Thomas Doolittle, A Treatise Concerning the Lords Supper, The Twentieth Edition (Boston, 1708). This was an answer to Stoddard’s The Inexcusableness of Neglecting the Worship of God (Boston, 1708). Mather responded with A Dissertation wherein the Strange Doctrine Lately Published in a Sermon… is Examined and Confuted (Boston,1708). Then came Stoddard’s An Appeal to the Learned. Being a Vindication of the Right of the Visible Saints to the Lord’s Supper (Boston, 1709). Later Mather wrote an epistle which was prefixed to Stoddard’s A Guide to Christ (Boston, 1714).