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Court wotild soon be up , and he would go immediately to Hicks * s Hal ) and see what was to be done ,. He came like a lion soon 9 ' desired to see the entry that had been given into the court , to license a place of
worship for a society of Dissenters ; was sorry such unusual obstructions had been put to so legal a demand ; that he understood it was said by some , that the Justices had a discretionary power in such cases ; that they were mistaken ; that , on the
contrary , they were merely official ; and if they refused , a mandamus from the King ' s Bench would compel them ; that he hoped the great Magna Charta of the religious liberty of Englishmen was not now going to be attacked . ' Upon this , one or two of the Justices said it was
their opinion , and always had been , as Mr . Lee ' s , that they had no discretionary powers . On something being said concerning the doctrine to be preached , and the officiating minister , that some enquiry was to
Jbe made about them , he told them that * those were subsequent facts and matters of enquiry ; that the bouse of worship was the object before them , and they were bound to make record of it as desired . ' After
this , on a pause being made , he desired to know c whether the court would give him the trouble to come again the next day and move the matter and argue it before them , or
would now grant it . * The latter was conceded , and our certificate it was said should be ready next court day . We begin , however , without it on the authority of our counsel . " * pp . 108—11 O . Essex Chapel was opened on Sunday , April 17 , 1774 ; an era ' —¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ , ?
" * The fact however was , thai the certificate was never granted , nor was t , he chanel registered or licensed as a
Place of worship till after the deftct bad been noticed by Dr . Horslcy , in his Letters to Dr . Priestley ; after which the neglect was immediately and with-? ut any difficulty rectified .
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in the history of Unitarian ism in this country ; for though there had been long before this period Dis - senting congregations , of the Presbyterian denomination chiefly ,
which might be called Unitarian , * there had been no public instance of a place of worship being opened for the avowed purpose of worshiping God the Father only . At
the present day , such an event excites comparatively little notice ; we fearlessly emblazon our Unitarianism on our portals , and take our rank amidst the well-known
and legally-recognized sects of the nation ; but very different was the case forty years ago , and we think Mr . Belsham has judiciously set before the reader , at full length ,
the proceedings relative to the procurement and opening of the chapel , which his unwearied labours still entitle to Bishop Hors ~ lev ' s sarcastic appellation — the oracle of Unitarianism .
The following account of the opening , was sent the next day by Mr . Lee , in a letter to his friend Mr . Cappe : — ** After a little difficulty in getting his chapel registered at the Quarter Sessions , which I had the good luck
to remove , he entered upon his ministry yesterday . His chapel is a large upper room in Essex House , Essex-street , in a very central part of London , and in my neighbourhood . The place is convenient for the purpose of containing about 3 OO persons ; a greater number would
* Of these deserves to be singled out Dr C . Fleming ' s congregation at Pinner ' s Hall , which had also enjoyed the eminent and rational services of Dr . James Foster * Dr . Fleming was an able ,
determined and pla . n-spoken Unitarian advocate . He died in 1779 when several members of his congrega ion united themselves , we believe , with Mi . Lind * scy » flock *
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Review *—Belsham s Memoirs of Lindsey . 33 * 9
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1813, page 339, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2428/page/55/
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