May, 1694.  It begins with his ordination sermon, which has this prefix:  “My poor and weak ordination sermon, at the embodying of a church at Salem Village on the 19th of the ninth month, 1689, the Rev. Mr. Nicholas Noyes embodying of us; who also ordained my most unworthy self pastor, and, together with the Rev. Mr. Samuel Phillips and the Rev. Mr. John Hale, imposed hands,—­the same Mr. Phillips giving me the right hand of fellowship with beautiful loveliness and humility.”  The text is from Josh. v. 9:  “And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.”

The first entry in the church-records, after the covenant and the names of the members, is the following:  “Nov. 24, 1689.—­Sab:  day.  Brother Nathaniel Ingersoll chosen, by a general vote of the brethren, to officiate in the place of a deacon for a time.”

Mr. Parris commenced his administration by showing that he meant to exercise the disciplinary powers intrusted to him, as pastor of a church, with a high hand, and without much regard to persons or circumstances.  Ezekiel Cheever had been a member of the mother-church in Salem twenty years before, was one of the founders of the parish church, and appears to have been a worthy and amiable person, occupying and owning the farm of his uncle, Captain Lothrop.  On the sudden illness of a member of his family, being “in distress for a horse,” none of his own being available at the time, he rushed, in his hurry and alarm, to the stable of a neighbor, took one of his horses, “without leave or asking of it,” and rode, post haste, for a doctor.  One would have thought that an affair of this sort, in such an exigency, might have been left to neighborly explanation or adjustment.  But Mr. Parris regarded it as giving a good opportunity for an exercise of power that would strike the terrors of discipline home upon the whole community.  About five or six weeks after the occurrence, Cheever was dealt with in the manner thus described by Mr. Parris, in his church-record, dated “Sab:  30 March, 1690.”  He was “called forth to give satisfaction to the offended church, as also the last sabbath he was called forth for the same purpose; but then he failed in giving satisfaction, by reason of somewhat mincing in the latter part of his confession, which, in the former, he had more ingenuously acknowledged:  but this day, the church received satisfaction, as was testified by their holding-up of their hands; and, after the whole, a word of caution by the pastor was dropped upon the offender in particular, and upon us all in general.”

Mr. Parris was evidently inclined to magnify the importance of the church, and to get it into such a state of subserviency to his authority, that he could wield it effectually as a weapon in his fight with the congregation.  With this view, he endeavored to render the action of the church as dignified and imposing as possible; to enlarge and expand its ceremonial proceedings, and make it the theatre for the exercise of his authority as its head and ruler.  This feature of his policy was so strikingly illustrated in the course he took in reference to the deacons, that I must present it as recorded by him in the church-book.  It is worth preserving as a curiosity in ecclesiastical administration.