digging in the past

It has been a while – but I haven’t heard any complaints. For the last couple of weeks I have been focusing on chapter 4 of my dissertation – the social-historical chapter. For this chapter I have been looking at the history of the pastors of First Baptist, Swansea MA from 1720 to the present (give or take a few). It has been interesting. I have found one issue with Samuel Maxwell, pastor from 1734-1739. All of the history books, and the church records from that time claim that Maxwell was or became a Seventh Day Christian – i.e. he advocated worship on Saturday. Gasp. In the short work, “The Case and Complaint of Mr. Samuel Maxwell” written by the good Rev. Maxwell, he claims that the issue was over his acceptance of infant baptism. Hmmm….. Either one is going to be a problem for a Baptist church in the 18th century, but why the difference in stories? Is it worse to be a Seventh Day Christian than an infant baptizing Christian? Either way, the congregation decided that Maxwell’s change in beliefs was not acceptable and looked to have him removed. Guess I should stay quiet about my beliefs.