Note 305:1 — Chapter XVII
Reading edition
The intense antagonism of the New England Congregationalists to Jefferson and his party as representing French infidelity and Jacobinism admits of many striking illustrations. The sermon of Nathanael Emmons on "Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin" is characterized by Professor Park as "a curiosity in politico-homiletical literature." At this distance it is not difficult to see that the course of this clergy was far more honorable to its boldness and independence than to its discretion and sense of fitness. Both its virtues and its faults had a tendency to strengthen an opposing party.