Background
Joshua was born on August 1, 1781 at Bristol, Maine, the fifth son of Joshua and Mary (Cushman) Soule and was a a lineal descendant of George Soule who came to America on the Mayflower.
(Excerpt from Sermon on the Death of the Rev. William M'ke...)
Excerpt from Sermon on the Death of the Rev. William M'kendree, Senior Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church: Delivered at the Request of the General Conference, in the City of Cincinnati, May 11, 1836 In 1799 he was appointed to a district in the Baltimore con ference, contiguous to that on which he had travelled the three preceding years. This district was little less in its extent of ter ritory than the former. It extended from the Chesapeake Bay over the Blue Ridge, and terminated at the foot of the Alleghany Mountain. This was to him a year of labour and trials; but he says they were forgotten in overwhelming communion with God, and reviving and encouraging interviews with his follow ers. Here, he adds, I found fathers and mothers in Israel, by whose example I was edified and comforted. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(Excerpt from Infant Baptism Isaac, and confirmed the sam...)
Excerpt from Infant Baptism Isaac, and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Is rael for an everlasting covenant. Now surely no covenant but that which was confirmed of God in Christ, and consequently the covenant of grace, can be said to be everlasting. We have been the more particular in show ing from the Holy Scriptures, that the seed of Abraham, the whole house of Israel, were constituded the Church or peculiar people of God on the ground of the Gospel covenant, because it is a very prevalent Opinion that the Jewish Church was constitu ted and perpetuated through a succession of ages, on the ground of a legal and ceremonial economy, which was to be abrogated when Christ should come into the world, and the Christian Church be constituted on principles essentially different. This opinion; pregnant with untold evils, stands opposed to the united authority of. The Old and New Testaments. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Joshua was born on August 1, 1781 at Bristol, Maine, the fifth son of Joshua and Mary (Cushman) Soule and was a a lineal descendant of George Soule who came to America on the Mayflower.
In 1802 Soule was ordained deacon and the following year, elder. He served as a pioneer itinerant and presiding elder in New England until 1816. In that year he was made book agent of the church and in 1818 became the first editor of the Methodist Magazine.
From 1820 to 1824 he held pastorates in the New York and Baltimore conferences. He was elected bishop in 1824 and was assigned to the western and southern conferences, making his home in Lebanon, Ohio. In 1842 he was fraternal messenger to the British and Irish Wesleyan Conferences.
Until 1820 the presiding elders had been appointed by the bishops, but objections had arisen on the ground that this practice was undemocratic, and that it made the presiding elders amenable to the bishops and not to the preachers. Therefore, at the General Conference of 1820 it was decided that the annual conference should elect the presiding elders.
At this same Conference Soule had been elected bishop, but when the vote on the sub-episcopate was announced he refused to be consecrated. He insisted that an elective presiding eldership was unconstitutional, since the fundamental law of the church instructed the bishops to oversee the business of the church. This function Soule asserted would be impossible if the presiding elders were not directly responsible to the bishops.
His arguments were so pertinent that the delegates resolved to suspend the enforcement of the resolution for four years. By the time of the next General Conference (1824) the church had approved Soule's constitutional position, and he was again elected bishop.
In 1844, when the General Conference sought to depose Bishop James O. Andrew for his connection with slavery, Soule held that it had violated the constitution which he himself had written. Therefore, when, at the Louisville Convention in 1845, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was organized, Soule was present and gave his approval to its work. At the first General Conference of that body in 1846 he formally adhered thereto, and thereby a man born in Maine became the senior bishop of the Southern branch of Episcopal Methodism. He now removed to Nashville, Tennessee, later establishing his home on a farm outside the city. Soule was an active bishop until 1855.
He died in Nashville and was buried in the old City Cemetery, but in October 1876 his remains were reinterred on the campus of Vanderbilt University.
(Excerpt from Infant Baptism Isaac, and confirmed the sam...)
(Excerpt from Sermon on the Death of the Rev. William M'ke...)
Although his parents were Presbyterians, Joshua in 1797 joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1799, at the age of seventeen, was admitted on trial to the New England Conference. He became known as a "Boy Preacher, " and an opponent of Calvinism, Unitarianism and Universalism.
Soule was six feet tall and muscular, had wide cheek bones, a high forehead, and a head so large that it was necessary to have extra-size hats manufactured for him.
He was married in Providence, Rhod Island, September 18, 1803, to Sarah Allen, by whom he had eleven children.