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and camp * meetings of the Methodists and Calvinists , had rarely attended before , any regular place of worship . Their minds were free from prejudice and open to conviction , and might with truth be called inquirers . The
Calvinists and Methodists , who were numerous , soon discovered that Mr . Toulmin had not their shibboleth , and evinced a persecuting spirit ; when he was persuaded by his friends to apply for a licence af the Quarter
Sessions to solemnize marriages . To the surprise of the bar , a fanatic justice , of the name of Patterson , asked if he had been regularly ordained and appointed the minister of a congregation , which was required by the statute book . It was observed in
answer , that ordination amongst a certain class of Dissenters to which Mr . Toulmin belonged , had become nearly obsolete , but , that he had been regularly appointed by and officiated for a congregation during some years , there was a person in court to prove .
The justice insisted that the statute required ordination , and the licence must be refused , his brethren concurring with him . The Attorney-General for Kentucky , Mr . Murray , an acute lawyer , observed that the word ordain , had not in the statute
book a scriptural meaning , but was merely an expletive of the word appoint ; for if it hacj a scriptural meaning , there was an end of that toleration towards all religious professions , which was granted by the laws of the commonwealth . Bv those laws no
person was disqualified by his religious tenets from tilling any civil office , and marriage being recognized by the same laws as a civil contract , which a minister or a magistrate might solemnize , it was evident that the licence must be granted , or the bench would violate the laws of the state .
The infuriate Patterson returned to the charge , but finding his brother justices convinced by the exposition of the Attorney-General , he then required that Mr . Toulmin should produce a certificate , purporting that he
was the regularly-appointed and ordained minister of a congregation , designating itself / by some name . Mr . Murray , the expositor , immediately drew up a paper , stating that " the undersigned had regularly appointed
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and ordained the Rev . H . Toulmiri to be their minister , and were Independents by name . " This instrument , novel in the history of ordination , was instantly signed by all the bar , and the licence was granted . The Attorney-General then observed , that he was ashamed of the intolerant spirit
that day shewn by the bench to an emigrant stranger , and that , if the licence had not been granted , he should have forthwith visited them with an ex-ofiicio information . P . VALENTINE . P . S . I can vouch for the authenticity of the above particulars .
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8 & . On Final Restitution .
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Lambeth , Sir , January , 1 SI 9-SOME of your learned and ingenious Correspondents , though in common with many other good people agreed in the main as to the doctrine of Final Restitution , on the footing of reason and the ground of inference , are under much difficulty as to the positive proof or evidence of this doctrine to be derived from
the Holy Scriptures . It is said , that it is not there " expressly or designedly inculcated ; " and it is asked , why , if the doctrine be so great and glorious , our Lord and hfcs apostles were not more explicit on the subject ,
or treated of it " in general terms , from which only the sagacious reader might infer it ? " Now , these queries appear to be rather out of place , and to partake something of what logicians call reasoning from speculation to fact ; or . from what is revealed to what we
think ought to have been revealed . I am not in the least disposed to call in question the intellectual capacities of the Sacred writers , or whether they ** were aware or not of the consequences of their own statements ;" they were chiefly men of strong
minds , and , as all Christians believe , inspired or peculiarly assisted , quoad hoc , i . e . toa certain extent , or , as to the grand outlines and leading principles of the religion which they were to promulgate . In this view , therefore , we must be content with what
we possess , be very thankful for it , and endeavour to understand and improve it ; and , if any particular and supposed important doctrine can only be discovered by u the saga-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1819, page 82, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1769/page/14/
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