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A HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS

By Thomas Armitage

1890

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[Table of Contents for "A History of the Baptists" by Thomas Armitage]

BAPTISTS OF GREAT BRITAIN

THE WELSH BAPTISTS

The works of Welsh bards form the best annals of Wales down to the fourteenth century, but as they trace no line of ‘heretics,’ it is difficult to tell what isolated lights shone there through the Dark Ages. Nowhere in Europe was the moral night darker than in Wales in those ages. The ignorance and depravity of the Welsh clergy were shocking. Even as late as 1560 Meyrick, Bishop of Bangor, said that in all his diocese there were but two clergymen who preached. At that time the clergy were allowed to marry, but by paying a pension they could keep concubines, and a large number of his clergy kept them. Strype, in his ‘Life of Archbishop Parker,’ says that in 1565 two Welsh Bishops were to be appointed for the sees of Bangor and Llandaff. The queen left the archbishop to name the men for these vacancies, but he found it difficult to secure honest clergymen to fill them, and he was earnestly pressed to appoint a man to Bangor who openly kept three concubines. The primate found it necessary to commission Dr. Yale to visit that bishopric before he ventured to appoint any one. Besides, there was no Bible there and the Reformation itself scarcely affected Wales for nearly a century. For thirty years after Elizabeth had established Protestantism by law there was no Bible in the Welsh tongue. Portions of the Scriptures were translated into manuscript before the Reformation, but some of them were lost. Taliesin, a bard of note in the sixth century, gave a paraphrase in verse of a few passages, and it is said that there was a manuscript translation of the Gospels in the library of St. Asaph’s Cathedral. In the latter part of the thirteenth century it was already looked upon as old, and the Archbishop of Canterbury allowed the priests to exhibit it as a sacred thing. Bishop Goldwell, of St. Asaph, was deprived of his see on the accession of Elizabeth, because he refused to become a Protestant and went to Rome, taking the manuscript with him. He died there, and possibly it is in the Vatican today. Dafydd Ddu, another bard, wrote a poetical paraphrase in the fourteenth century on a part of the Psalms, the song of Zacharias, the angel’s greeting to Mary and the song of Simeon, found in Luke’s Gospel. Some other fragments of Scripture were given by others. But Dr. Llewelyn says, in his ‘History of Welsh Versions,’ that ‘for upward of seventy years from the settlement of the Reformation by Queen Elizabeth, for near one hundred years from Britain’s separation from the Church of Rome, there were no Bibles in Wales, but only in the cathedrals or in the parish churches and chapels.’ The first Welsh New Testament, made chiefly by Salesbury, was printed in London in 1567, and dedicated to Elizabeth. It was published at the expense of Humphrey Toy. The whole Bible, translated by William Morgan, was first printed in Welsh in 1588.

Davis, Bishop of Monmonth, finds a wide difference between the Christianity of the ancient Britons and that of Austin in 596. The first followed the word of God, the other was mixed with human tradition. Dr. Fulk denied that Austin was the apostle of England, and charges him with corrupting the true Christianity which he found in Britain, by Romish admixture. Fabian, himself a Catholic, shows that he imposed sundry things upon the Britons, which were refused as contrary to the doctrine that they had at first received. Bede says that the Culdees followed the Bible only and opposed the superstitions of Rome. Culdee, from Culdu, is a compound Welsh word, cul, thin, du, black; and means a thin, dark man, as their mountaineers, who were noted for their godliness. The monks got possession of the Culdee colleges by degrees, and continued to preach without forming churches. Some claim that the Welsh Baptists sprang from this sturdy stock; for individuals are found in Glamorgan, the Black Mountains, Hereford and Brecon Counties, who walked apart from Rome before the Reformation. Stephens, the late antiquarian of Merthyr, thought that the bards of the Chavi of Glamorgan kept up a secret intercourse with the Albigenses. This is probable, as some of them were conversant with the Italian poets.

‘Holy Rhys,’ famous in 1390, was learned, and his wife was of the ‘new faith’ (Lollard), for his son, Iueun, was expelled from Margam Monastery for holding their opinions, or ‘on account of his mother’s religion.’ His grandson also was imprisoned by Sir Matthew Cradoe for being of the ‘new faith.’ Another bard and ‘prophet,’ Thomas Llewelyn, was, according to an old manuscript, the first preacher to a congregation of dissenters in Wales, or, rather, he had three congregations. Sion Kent, otherwise Dr. John Gwent, a poet-priest of about that time, wrote a satirical poem, called ‘An Ode to Another Book,’ in which he charges said book with fifteen dangerous heresies, and warns it to remember the fall of Oldcastle. This seems to have been a highly-prized Lollard book, known as the ‘Lanthorn of Light,’ for possessing a copy of which Cleydon, of London, was burnt. The Lollards swarmed in Wales, where Oldcastle hid for four years after escaping from the Tower. He was a native of the Welsh Cottian Alps, the Black Mountains, having been born at Old Castle about 1360. It is in dispute as to when and where Baptists first appeared in Wales. There are presumptive evidences that individuals held their views from the opening of the seventeenth century, and some have thought that the first Baptist Church was formed at Olchon, 1633. Joshua Thomas, of Leominster, perhaps the most reliable authority on the subject, doubts this. He leans to the belief that there were Baptists there at that date, but says: ‘The first Baptist Church in Wales, after the Reformation, was formed at Ilsten, near Swansea, in Glamorganshire, in 1649.’ Howell Vaughan preached at Olchon, 1633, and it is a curious fact that the first Non-conformists of Wales sprang up in the little valley, near Old Castle, embosomed in these Black Mountains, where this noble old ‘heretic’ lived.

The vale of Olchon is difficult of access, and there the first Welsh dissidents found the most ready converts, who sheltered themselves in its rocks and dens. The Darren Ddu, or Black Rock, is a terribly steep and rough place, in which the Baptists took refuge, rich and poor, young and old, huddled together. It was under the Commonwealth that Vavasor Powell, Jenkin Jones and Hugh Evans formed the first Open Communion Baptist Churches in Wales, and that John Miles formed the first Strict Communion Baptist Churches there. The first Welsh Baptist Association was organized in 1651. John Miles is first mentioned February 23d, 1649, in an ‘Act of Parliament for the better propagation of the Gospel in Wales.’ He is named with Powell, Jones and twenty-two others, as ‘approvers,’ to superintend preaching in the principality. He left the clergy of the State Church and became a Baptist leader, marked for his learning and piety. He went to America and we shall meet him there.

VAVASOR POWELL was one of the strongest characters of his age. He was born of one of the best families in Wales, 1617; was graduated at Jesus College, Oxford, and entered the Established Church, as curate to his uncle, in Shropshire. One day a Puritan reproved him for breaking the Sabbath by taking part in the ‘Sports,’ and this led to his conversion after two years of mental agony for his sins. In 1641 he began to preach the Gospel in earnest, but, his life being threatened, he fled to London in 1642, and joined the Parliamentary army as chaplain. After preaching two years in Kent he returned to Wales, bearing a certificate from the Assembly of Divines as an accredited preacher. It bore date September 11th, 1646, and was signed by the proculator, the marshal and fifteen others, amongst whom were Christopher Love and Joseph Caryl. In Wales he preached as an itinerant, a prevailing system there, for the Churches were made up of many branches, far apart. The ‘Committee for Plundered Ministers’ paid him a salary of ,66 10.s. per annum. They supported many such itinerants, but for learning, energy and success he excelled them all. He was constantly in the pulpit and the saddle, preaching two or three times a day, in two or three places, riding more than a hundred miles a week. There was scarcely a place in Wales where he did not preach, in church, chapel, market-place or field, during the fourteen years of liberty, 1646 to 1660; yet at that time there was not a Dissenting place of worship in Wales. Some say that the first built by the Baptists was at Hay, near Olchon, 1649; but, according to Thomas, the first was at Llanwenarth, in 1695. Powell was immersed and became a Baptist in 1656. In his ‘Confession of Faith’ he teaches that baptism is immersion, and believers its only subjects; but he did not hold it as the boundary of Church communion, nor were his Churches in the Baptist Association. Notwithstanding this no man fired the hatred of the Church party as he did, and no man’s character was more aspersed than his, till death relieved him, October 27th, 1671. It is said that by 1660 he had formed twenty-two Churches in Wales, and had twenty thousand followers, most likely an exaggerated statement. Many of his troubles sprang from his resistance of Cromwell’s later assumptions. He had denounced him from the pulpit in Blackfriars, for which cause he was arrested, he suffered every kind of persecution for preaching, and spent eight years in thirteen prisons, dying in the Fleet. His ‘Confession’ of thirty articles is given in a treatise, entitled ‘The Bird in the Cage, Chirping.’ In this he gives the faith of the Welsh Churches which he founded.

JENKIN JONES, commonly called ‘captain,’ was another grand sample of this early Welsh independence and suffering for Christ. He was a gentleman of property and education, who had been in the army of the Commonwealth. He raised a troop of a hundred and twenty horse for Cromwell, arming and equipping them himself. With these he kept the king’s friends in Breckonshire under subjection, often appearing with the sword in one hand and the Bible in the other. Walker says that he was incumbent in his native parish, and Calamy, that he was rejected from his living, so the Church party berated him as a ‘violent Anabaptist.’ His presence and address were majestic; and once when going to preach in Monmouthshire, a soldier of the royal army waylaid him to kill him, but was so struck with his comeliness and bearing, that his heart failed; he heard him preach and was converted. After the Restoration his estates were confiscated, and he was imprisoned at Caermarthen. We have no account of his death.

These sketches of the real founders of the Baptist denomination in Wales will help us the better to understand the following facts. Before the death of Powell the Open Communion Baptists were much the most numerous in Wales, but after that they gradually declined. The Ilsten Church records give the following account of the organization of that Church. A Baptist Church was meeting in the Glasshouse; Broad Street, London, of which William Consett and Edward Draper were members. Miles and Thomas Proud visited this Church just when they were praying God to send more laborers into the vineyard, and these two were sent back to Wales as missionaries. On the 1st of October, 1649, they formed a regular Baptist Church at Ilsten as the result. This book claims that this was the first Church of baptized believers in the principality. It says: ‘When there had been no company or society of people holding forth and professing the doctrine, worship, order, and discipline of the Gospel, according to the primitive institution, that ever we heard of in all Wales, since the apostasy, it pleased the Lord to choose this dark corner to place his name in, and honor us, undeserving creatures, with the happiness of being the first in all these parts, among whom was practiced the glorious ordinance of baptism, and here to gather the first Church of baptized believers.’ Jane Lloyd and Elizabeth Proud were the first converts baptized here, but in eleven years the Church grew to two hundred and sixty members under the ministry of Miles. He also preached with great success in all the region round about, and various Churches were formed in that part of Wales. A very bitter controversy sprang up between the Strict Communion and Open Churches, and Thomas Proud was expelled for laxity on that subject by the strict brethren. After a time the Open Churches dwindled away, or fell into Pedobaptist bodies, a natural tendency. Some Baptist ministers even went so far as to accept State payment by church tithes, under the act of 1649, for the propagation of the Gospel in Wales. These were itinerants who traveled at large, and were paid by the ‘Committee of the Sequestered Livings.’ It may be interesting to give a copy of the certificate issued to Thomas Evans, great-grandfather of Dr. Caleb Evans:

‘By the Commission for the Propagation of the Gospel in Wales. Whereas, five of the ministers, in the Act of Parliament named, bearing date the 25th of February, 1649, and entitled "An Act for the better Propagation of the Gospel in Wales," have, according to the tenors of the said act, approved of Mr. Thomas Evans the younger, to be a person qualified for the work of the ministry, and recommended him with their advice to us, that he be encouraged in the work of the ministry; we do, according to an order to us directed by the committee of five at Neath, therefore order that Mr. John Pryce, Treasurer, shall forthwith pay unto the said Thomas Evans the sum of £30, which we have thought fit to allow him towards his salary and encouragement in the work of the ministry. And this our order, together with his acquittance, shall be a sufficient discharge for the said Treasurer. Dated under our hands, the 16th of May, in the year of our Lord 1653. John Williams, Secretary.’

As soon as the Baptists saw that they had compromised their principles by this blunder, they retreated from their false position, and Powell says that he and many of his brethren ‘did not take any salary at all, nor any other maintenance whatever since the year 1653.’ Powell published a severe attack upon Cromwell’s policy in 1655, under the title ‘Word for God,’ signed by three hundred and twenty-one Welshmen, most of whom were Baptists. This was a solemn protest against the ‘new modeling of ministers’ as ‘antichristian,’ and against the ‘keeping up of parishes and tithes, as a popish invention.’ The Llanwenarth Church felt so deeply on this matter that they entered the following on their church book: ‘Whether Gospel ministers may receive payment from the magistrates.’ Mr. William Pritchard (their minister) was advised to reject the offer of State money, and this record was agreed to on ‘the 11th day of the 5th month, 1655, and also, that they (the Church) do withdraw from all such ministers that do receive maintenance from the magistrates, and from all such as consent not to wholesome doctrine, or teach otherwise.’ As this was a branch of the Abergavenny Church and a member of the Association, it is fair to suppose that this was the general sentiment on the subject of State ministers and their reception of State money for ministerial services.

The distinctive tenets of the Baptists, their zeal and rapid progress in the principality, stirred up a formidable opposition, which took the honorable form of public debate. One such discussion took place in St. Mary’s Parish Church, Abergavenny, September 5th, 1653. The subject was ‘Believer’s Baptism,’ and John Tombes disputed first with Henry Vaughan, then with John Cragge. Their arguments were afterward published. Wood says of Tombes: ‘He showed himself a most excellent disputant, a person of incomparable parts, well versed in the Hebrew and Greek languages.’ He also speaks of a similar debate with Baxter, thus: ‘All scholars there and then present, who knew the way of disputing and managing arguments, did conclude that Tombes got the better of Baxter by far.’ Probably this was the first debate on baptism in Wales, and Joshua Thomas says that more than forty persons were immersed into the Church in Abergavenny that year. But in proportion as the Baptists grew, they were assailed by pen and tongue from all quarters, and in 1656 the elders and messengers of eight Churches met at Brecon and published ‘An Antidote against the Times,’ in self-defense. This was probably the first Welsh Baptist book. They speak with the greatest gratitude ‘of thousands of poor, ignorant, straying people’ brought to Christ, and of three editions of the New Testament, and ‘six thousand copies of the whole Bible,’ circulated in fourteen years, since some religious liberty was enjoyed in Wales. At this time, eight Churches belonged to the Association, besides the ‘Powell Baptists,’ and the ‘Evans’ people who did not belong to it; and Thomas mentions the names of thirty Baptist ministers in Wales under the Commonwealth. But from the ascent of Charles II, May 29th, 1660, we hear no more of the Association for eight and twenty years. Persecution raged furiously against all Nonconformists in Wales, and the Baptists became, as usual, the special subjects of hate, storm and chains; prisons and doom became their gloomy fate. Before the end of June, the king’s wrath burst upon the Non-conformists of Wales, followed by a series of the most iniquitous ordinances that despotism could desire. The year 1662 brought the Act of Uniformity; 1664, the Conventicle Act; 1665, the Five Mile Act; and 1673, the Test Act. Under one pretense or another, butchery held high carnival for these years. Yet, thousands would not bow the knee, and amongst them, some of the noblest Baptists that ever Wales produced. During this hot persecution the Welsh Baptists sent a petition to the king, which was presented to him personally by a member of Parliament from Caermarthen. They say: ‘We dare not walk the streets, and are abused even in our own houses. If we pray to God with our families, we are threatened to be hung. Some of us are stoned almost to death, and others imprisoned for worshiping God according to the dictates of our consciences and the rule of his word.’ The king, with characteristic heartlessness, sent them a polite answer, full of fair promises, but paid no more attention to the matter, and their sufferings increased day by day.

Excommunication carried with it the denial of burial in the parish church-yards, so that the Baptists were obliged to bury their dead in their own gardens, or where they could, generally in secret and at night. A godly woman in Radnorshire had been excommunicated for not attending that parish church, but had been secretly buried in its burying-ground. The enraged parson, however, had her body taken from its grave and dragged to the cross-roads, to be buried as a malefactor. There her friends erected a stone to mark the spot, but it was demolished.

Yet, even in this period of fiery persecution, we have the history of a new Baptist Church, formed under singular circumstances of persecution and hatred. WILLIAM JONES, a Presbyterian, was ejected from his parish in 1660, and imprisoned for three years in Caermarthen Castle. During that time he became a Baptist, and when liberated he went to Olchon to be immersed. On returning home he preached his new faith and, on the 4th of August, 1661, baptized Griffith Howells and five others. Howells was wealthy and educated, and on the 25th, five more persons were immersed. By July 12th, 1668, the number had increased to thirty-one, who were organized into a Church, of which Jones and Howells were elected joint elders. In 1777, one century afterward, this Church had so branched out into the counties of Pembroke, Caermarthen and Cardigan that it numbered 1767 members. Interesting accounts might be given of the local Churches of the several counties, but they are all much the same: a history of oppression, decadence, division and providential intervention. Sometimes cases of excessive barbarity are put on record, and others of wonderful deliverance.

The Welsh Baptists found relief in the TOLERATION ACT OF 1689, which protects them in their worship to this day, and under its provisions they left the rocks and other hiding places. Their brethren in London invited them to a conference in October of that year, where about a hundred Churches were represented; seven ministers went up from Wales and the Assembly set forth a Confession of Faith. The Welsh Association, consisting of ten Churches, reassembled at Llanwenarth, May 6th, 1700, and continued to grow, so that almost every county has now an Association of its own. At first, the official language of these bodies was English, but since 1708, the vernacular has been used. The annual meeting of the first Association was held in Whitsun-week, the first day being spent in prayer and fasting. The ‘Associational Sermon’ was introduced in 1703, and in time, preaching became the chief feature of the meetings, until now, from ten to fifteen sermons are preached at such gatherings. Our brethren resorted much to fasting and prayer at their associational meetings, especially when heresy and contention crept in, or where two Churches were at variance. In such cases, all the Churches were called upon to hold a day of prayer and fasting; and in 1723, when two Churches were in a fight, ‘the first Wednesday in each month, for half a year, was appointed for fasting and prayer, on account of this distressing affair.’ Then when the contest ended, ‘the Churches were desired to observe days of thanks-giving for what was done.’ Prayer and fasting form an excellent remedy for that ‘demon;’ would that all church fighters would take a vow neither to eat nor drink till their fight was ended; this would happily rid us of most of them within forty days.

The death of Queen Anne and the accession of George I, 1714, prevented the passage of the ‘Schism Bill,’ and the Welsh Baptists kept the anniversary of that day with thanksgiving for many years. At the time of the Revolution, so-called (1688), there were eleven Baptist Churches in Wales, ten of which are named by Joshua Thomas, the eleventh being a very strong Church, under the pastoral care of William Jones, in the counties of Pembroke and Caermarthen, formed in that year. By the year 1735 these had increased to sixteen. But this statement is misleading, unless we bear in mind that each Church, so-called, was made up of many congregations, all under one pastor, who had many assistants, in. some cases six or eight, and in one case eleven. The Churches did not report the number of members to the Association, but the separate Church records, which have been preserved, show, that there were several hundred communicants in a number of these Churches, and the names of forty-two ministers are given who labored in them between 1700 and 1736; all Strict Communionists, many of them men of might. Besides those who remained in Wales, large numbers of Baptists migrated to America, and took a leading part in establishing the denomination here, as we shall find.

About 1692, Baptist sentiments had taken such a strong hold in the western part of the principality, that warm controversies arose with the Pedobaptists, especially the Independents. Several debates were had; then both sides agreed to preach on baptism at Penlan. John Thomas, an Independent, preached on infant baptism, and John Jenkins, a Baptist, on believer’s baptism. The result was, that so many Independents were immersed as rendered it desirable for them to ask Samuel Jones, a Presbyterian, and a fine scholar, to write in defense of infant baptism; but, as he declined, James Owen, of Oswestry, undertook that work. In 1693 he published ‘Infant Baptism from Heaven,’ perhaps the first book in the Welsh tongue on that subject. In answer, Benjamin Keach published ‘Light broke forth in Wales.’ Another controversy of the same sort took place about 1726, between Miles Harris for the Baptists and Edmund Jones for the Pedobaptists. These combatants belabored each other full soundly and kept the country in a turmoil until a convention was called of leaders from both sides, in which they agreed to respect each other for the future, and try to behave decently. This agreement was duly signed by three Baptists and six Pedobaptists, properly attested by five other ministers and printed in 1728. But, alas for the weakness of Welsh Pedobaptist nature! Fowler Walker, the Independent minister of Abergavenny; the first attestor to this awful document, could not keep his pen still, but in 1732 published a tract on ‘Infant Baptism;’ and then, alas for the Baptist Association! in response it published ‘Doe’s Tract of Forty Texts from the New Testament on Believer’s Baptism.’ And, as if this were not enough, Brother David Rees, of London, sent a letter to Brother Walker, promising that his book should be further considered at leisure. Accordingly, in 1734, he published his ‘Infant Baptism no Institution of Christ’s; and the Rejection of it Justified by Scripture and Antiquity.’ Whereupon, thereafter, Brother Walker found it comfortable to keep still.

After this the Welsh Baptists, who were principally firm, hyper-Calvinists holding the quinquarticular points, had a warm controversy amongst themselves on Arminianism. The ‘Arminian Heresy,’ as it was called, was creeping in, however, and at least three ministers were affected thereby. The chief point in dispute was whether it was the duty of sinners to turn to God, because of their obligations to the moral law. But in 1733 Enoch Francis had the good sense to publish his ‘Word in Season,’ in which he took the moderate Calvinistic ground, so ably presented afterward by Andrew Fuller, namely: That the atonement of Christ is sufficient for all mankind, but that its efficacy is confined to the elect only, and that the offer of salvation is, therefore, to be made to all who hear the Gospel. This position softened the controversy, but it continued down to the present century, and made great trouble in Churches which had more than one minister, who disagreed on the subject. At Hengoed, Morgan Griffith was a stanch Calvinist, but Charles Winter, his co-pastor, was a thorough Arminian, and they debated the matter warmly. It was arranged that Winter should not preach anything contrary, to Griffith, which arrangement held good till Griffith’s death in 1738, when the Church expelled Winter and twenty-four others with him, who formed an Arminian Baptist Church, near Merthyr Tydvil, which, however, soon became extinct. Other Churches had similar troubles.

It is interesting to trace the history of ministerial education amongst the Welsh Baptists. The Pembrokeshire Church at a very early date was called ‘The College,’ because of the many ministers whom it sent forth; and probably it had some system of training peculiar to itself. Young Baptist ministers were trained at Samuel Jones’s private Presbyterian Seminary for a while, but about 1732 the Baptists established one of their own near Pontypool. This school was founded chiefly by Morgan Griffith and Miles Harris, two most enterprising and liberal spirits, and was of immense service to the Baptist ministry until 1770, when the Bristol College was established and this Seminary was given up. One of its best-known students out of a list of forty powerful names was DR. THOS. LLEWELYN, a descendant of the Welsh Bible translator. He finished his studies in London and became president of a Baptist Academy there, which prepared men for the ministry. In 1696 he raised subscriptions for and induced the ‘Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge’ to issue twenty thousand Welsh Bibles. He also wrote a ‘History of Welsh Versions,’ and a work on ‘The British Tongue’ in its relation to other languages, and to the ‘Welsh Bible.’ Dr. Rippon says that Gibbon remarked to him, when speaking of linguists: ‘I think, my young friend, that Dr. Llewelyn is the first scholar we have among the Protestant Dissenters.’

If space permitted, it would be a pleasant task to give the narrative of large numbers of the Welsh Baptist fathers, with their notable sayings and doings, many of them being amongst the most eminent of their day; learned, zealous for the truth and its able defenders, whose Gospel ministry was marked by great power from above in the salvation of men. In this list would stand prominent the names of Lewis Thomas, William Pritchard, Enoch Francis, Morgan Griffith, Caleb Evans of Pentre and his ten illustrious descendants in the ministry, with John Harris. These and many others fought the good fight for toleration and conquered; for by 1715 one eighth of the Welsh were Non-conformists, and a much larger proportion by 1736. In 1794 the number of Baptist Churches in Wales was fifty-six, with 7,050 members; but in 1798, the churches numbered eighty-four, with 9,000 members, divided for convenience into the Northern, Eastern and Western Associations. They had passed through many contentions,. on the Sandemanian, Socinian and Arian questions, as well as on the subject of Communion. For a time Sandemanianism wrought great mischief amongst the Welsh Churches, many of the pastors, amongst them Christmas Evans, being almost blinded by its pretensions. In the opening of the nineteenth century, the leading men of the denomination became involved in a warm controversy concerning the Atonement and Redemption; and Christmas Evans published a book in 1811, in which he gave what was called ‘a commercial aspect’ to the Atonement. He set forth that the atoning death of Christ is of equal weight with the sins of the elect; while others took the ground that its effects were twofold, bearing on the sins of the world in general, and on those of the elect in particular. At that point in the controversy Richard Foulkes, the Baptist pastor at Newbridge, and John Phillips Davies, the pastor at Tredegar, who had embraced the doctrines of Andrew Fuller, came to their defense, many others joined them. and the debate ran high. The result was that the Welsh Baptists became more distinguished from that period for biblical teaching than for systematic theology; and today no Churches hail truth in its simplicity, freedom, amplitude and warmth, in the form given to it by the divine Oracles, more heartily than do the Baptists of Wales. They hold the doctrines of grace and the responsibility of man by a strong and clear grasp which honors them amongst the Churches of Christ, and they unhesitatingly maintain every other principle which is vital to Bible Baptists. The number of public debates held on Baptism, and the works published on that subject by our Welsh brethren, has been endless. But the most able production of all is ‘The Act of Baptism,’ from the pen of the late Dr. Hugh Jones, published in 1882. It will long remain a standard work. We have already seen that the Baptists of Wales became interested early in educational plans, and we find Morgan Griffith, of Hengoed, establishing the Trosnant Academy as early as 1732-34. Joshua Thomas kept a school also at Leominster for many years, and prepared students for the Bristol Academy ; but his successor, Samuel Kilpin, opened a regular academy there in 1805, from which sprang some of the first men in the denomination. The Abergavenny College was founded in the year 1807, with Micah Thomas for its president, who sent forth six hundred and six ministers of such character that he won for the institution the confidence and support of all the Churches. Thomas was a noble and indefatigable worker and a fine scholar, he baptized over 400 persons, and preached about 5,500 sermons, besides doing his pastoral work at Abergavenny and his presidential duties. He died in 1853, aged seventy-five.

Pontypool College is a continuation of this. Its buildings were erected in 1836, and have since been enlarged, making them very inviting. Dr. Thomas was president for forty-one years, then was succeeded by William Lewis, A.M., who died in 1880, the chair being filled at present by William Edwards, B.A., assisted by David Thomas, B.A., as classical tutor. Haverfordwest College was established in 1839, David Davis being its first president, who filled the place till his death, in 1856. Thos. Davis succeeded him and still retains his place, with T.W. Davis, B.A., as classical tutor. Llangollen College dates from 1862, Drs. John Fritchard and Hugh Jones having served it as presidents, but since the death of the latter, G. Davis is the sole tutor. In order that the Churches may secure all possible advantages from the Universities of the principality, the managers of the above-named three colleges have affiliated them more closely with those institutions; the students of Pontypool now obtain their classical training at Cardiff, those of Havorfordwest at Aberystwyth, and those of Llangollen at Bangor.

The Baptist Building Fund for Wales, organized in 1862, with a capital of ,6,932 11s., for the purpose of making free loans to the Churches, payable in annual installments of ten per cent, is doing a grand work. The Welsh Baptist Union, formed in 1866, now representing the whole of the Welsh Churches, is a useful body. It meets annually in August or September, publishes a quarterly magazine, and an Annual Hand-Book for the denomination. Besides these, the Baptists publish three monthlies and two weeklies. According to the returns for the year 1886, their numerical strength in Wales is: Churches, 590; members, 73,828; attendance on Sunday-schools, 74,830. The denomination is thoroughly united, marches boldly forward upholding God’s word as the only rule of faith, against all human ritual and tradition; with a very bright future in view.

This chapter cannot be completed without a few sketches of some of the fathers and leaders in Welsh Baptist history, but these must be limited to a few representative men of their several classes.