No service at our church in the morning, Mr Porter being ill. In the forenoon Thomas Durrant and I walked down to Mrs Browne’s, but did not stay. I dined on a piece of beef roasted. My-self and servants at church in the afternoon, where we had a sermon preached by the Rev Mr Jones, curate of Waldron, from Ecclesiastes 12:13: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
After churchtime Thomas Durrant and myself walked down to Whyly, where we stayed and spent the evening, and, to my eternal shame be it spoken, came home not thoroughly sober. Oh, my imprudence: what frailty and perverseness is there in human nature! If I could have the resolution to drink only water, as my brains are so weak, happy would it be for me, for I think the very smell of liquor intoxicates my brain and when reason is lulled to sleep, then, then, undoubtedly appetite reigns triumphant, and we no longer can be said (with any propriety of reason) to be rational creatures, but rather brutes. Oh, how derogatory are such actions from the Christian religion… [20 words omitted]. My desire is to be guilty of no one action that may justly be called vicious, but who can be said never to offend? What poor creatures we are without divine grace… [352 words omitted].