Putnam was not yet willing to be ordained, but desired further considering time, between him and I and Brother Ingersoll, in private discourse the week before the ordination above said.”

“Brother Putnam” probably partook of the general wonder what all this appearance of difficulty and delay, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, meant; and being, as the record truly says, a modest and humble man, he naturally shrank from the formidable ceremoniousness and pretentious parade with which Mr. Parris surrounded the transaction.  At any rate, he hesitated long before he was willing to encounter it.  It is probable that he positively refused to have his induction to the office heralded with such solemn pomp.  There is no mention of his public ordination, which Mr. Parris would not have omitted to record, had any such scene occurred.  All we know is that he was recognized as deacon forthwith, and held the office for forty years.

The disposition of Mr. Parris to make use of his office, as the head of the church, to multiply occasions for the exercise of his influence, and to gain control over the minds of the brethren, is apparent throughout his records.  He raised objections in order to show how he could remove them, and started difficulties about matters which had not before been brought into question.  In the beginning of his ministry, he manifested this propensity.  At a church meeting at John Putnam’s house, Feb. 20, 1690, less than three months after his ordination, he threw open the whole question of baptism for discussion among the brethren.  There is no reason to suppose that their attention had been drawn to it before.  He propounded the question to the plain, practical husbandmen, “Who are the proper subjects of baptism?” He laid down the true doctrine, as he regarded it, in this answer, “Covenant-professing believers and their infant seed.”  He put the answer to vote, and none voted against it.  He then proceeded with another question, “How far may we account such seed infant seed, and so to be baptized?” Here he had got beyond their depth, and, as some of them thought, his own too; for there was only a “major vote” in favor of his answer:  “two or three, I think not four, dissented.”  There was some danger of getting into divisions by introducing such questions; but he managed to avoid it, so far as his church was concerned.  He worked them up to the highest confidence in his learning and wisdom, and gained complete ascendency over them.  He aggrandized their sense of importance, and accomplished his object in securing their support in his controversies with his congregation.  The brethren, after a while, became his devoted body-guard, and the church a fortress of defence and assault.  There is reason, however, to believe, that the points he raised on the subject of baptism led to perplexities, in some minds, which long continued to disturb them.  While showing off his learning, and displaying his capacity to dispose of the deep questions of theology,