AN ACCOUNT OF THE

CONVINCEMENT, EXERCISES, SERVICES, AND TRAVELS,

OF THAT ANCIENT SERVANT OF THE LORD,

RICHARD DAVIES:

COMPRISING SOME INFORMATION RELATIVE TO THE SPREADING OF THE TRUTH IN NORTH WALES.

I was born in the year 1635, in the town | of Welchpool, in Montgomeryshire, in North Wales, of honest parents, that had a small estate there. I was brought up in a little learn ing, and in the religion and discipline of the church of England. When I came to be about twelve or thirteen years of age, the Lord put his fear in my heart, that I came to a consideration, if I should die what would become of my soul, if I lived after the way that some of my companions did: and it came into my heart to leave them. I was inclined to go and hear sermons, and followed the best of those sort of people, that I did believe feared the Lord, which I then thought were the Independent people; especially one Vavasor Powell, who was a very zealous man in his day and time. He took much pains and labour to gather a people into that persuasion, and many were gathered in these parts to that way; and I followed them from one parish to another, and from one meeting to another, writing their sermons, and in time I came to repeat them to the people. And there, being exercised in the historical part of the scriptures, I could speak and talk of them, so that those people came to speak well of me, and this did not a little puff me up; so that I was not so serious, as I should have been, to get eternal life by Christ Jesus, who is the life himself, who said to the Jews, John v. 39, 40,"Search, or ye search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me: and ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.'

We were diligent in searching the scriptures, which was good in its place; but the main matter and substance of pure religion, is the enjoy ment of eternal life to the soul from Christ. VOL. XIII.-No. 1.

About the fourteenth year of my age, my father intended to put me apprentice to a shopkeeper, where I was for a trial: but I saw that the conversation of my intended master was not right, and that the fear of the Lord was not there. I was afraid, if I should continue there, that the little love and zeal I had to God and goodness, would be choked and quenched in me, and the love and pleasure of the world would get up again, so I should be in danger of growing worse than ever. Being under these serious considerations, I heartily prayed to God with tenderness and tears, what he put in my heart to pray for, viz. That I might be delivered from that place where I was intended to be bound an apprentice, and that I might spend my time with and amongst them that feared the Lord, and thought upon his name; and the Lord heard my prayers, and in a little time I was sent for away from that place.

After this I staid at home some time, and continued in that little well-doing I had known, keeping company with sober and honest people; I delighted to read the scriptures, and to go to the Independent meetings. And after some time, I heard of a man that professed the same religion, who was very zealous for a time in going to meeting, and performing that which we call family duties, and there, with the consent of my parents, I bound myself an apprentice to him. His name was Evan Jones, a feltmaker, in the parish of Llanfair, in Montgomeryshire; and we went together to meetings, I writing and repeating sermons, and performing that custom that was among us, in praying in our own will and time, till we were become so dead and formal, carnal and airy, many loose words and actions growing up amongst

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us, that I was gone out of conceit with myself, of the knowledge of the Son of God, which and our formal religion; there being something knowledge keeps a man meek and humble. in me that reproved me for my vanity. When I arose from my prayers, being sometimes in a weighty ponderous condition, I saw that there was something that gave me no true peace nor comfort inwardly to my soul, because there remained a secret pride and self-exaltation in most, if not all, of our formal performances.

In this state and condition I knew not what to do; when neither writing, repeating sermons, reading of the scriptures, and other good books, and sometimes expounding them to the best of my understanding, afforded me any comfort, I was at a loss, and knew not what way to take, that I might have peace and comfort in my performances. Hitherto I knew not the Holy Spirit of the Lord, as I ought to have done, to be my leader and guide into all things that were neces-Christs, and false prophets, and shall show sary to my eternal salvation.

thou hast heard of me." I asked him, Whether that was scripture; he asked me, whether I would deny it; I told him, he was to prove it. Then he took the bible out of my hand, and he turned to 2 Tim. i. 13, which he read, and told me, that Hold fast there, was a command; which I knew very well, both the scripture and the command: but to prove him further, I desired him to read a little more of that chapter, both backward and forward, which he freely did, and asked me, Why I did require that of him? I told him, that we heard the Quakers denied the scripture, and that they would not read them. He said there were many false reports of them. And truly when he read the scripture so readily, I concluded in myself, that what was reported of them was not true; and he saw that he had reached to the witness of God in me. Then he exhorted me to take heed to that light that shined in my heart, and did show me my vain thoughts, and reprove me in secret for every idle word and action; saying, That "that was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world ;" and in that light, I should see more light, and that would open the scriptures to me, and that I should receive a measure of the same spirit that gave them forth. Further he told me, It was "the more sure word of prophecy, unto which I did well if I took heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts," 2 Pet. i. 19. And he spoke much of the inward work, and the operation of God's Holy Spirit upon the soul; recommending me to the "Grace of God, that bringeth salvation,-teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world," Tit. ii. 11, 12. And so he departed from our house, and I set him a little along on

his way.

a sandy foundation. So I desired that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, would be my Teacher and Instructor; for I believed that the prophecy of the prophets would be fulfilled, and that the Lord would make a new covenant with his people now, as he did promise by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah, xxxi. 31—34, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them, unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

These and the like precious promises I was made willing to take hold of, and waited for the fulfilling of them in myself, and of that which Christ said to the Jews, John vi. 45: "It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." He that cometh unto Christ Jesus the Light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, though their sins and their iniquities be great, they shall in no wise be cast out. And it is said, "and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children," Isaiah liv. 13.

Now when I came back from him, the con- When I came to know a little of the teachsideration of his words took fast hold on me, ings of the Lord, I took my leave of all my that I could not go from under them; and the former formal teachers, and many times went more I waited in that light that he recommend- to the woods and other by-places, where none ed me to, the more my former peace, and that might see me, to wait upon the Lord, where I in which I formerly took comfort, was broken; was much broken, and tendered by the power and herein I came to see, that our former build- of God. And though I did begin to see a little ing could not stand, for we built upon that which of myself, and something of the goodness of the apostle called "wood, hay, and stubble." God, yet still I was afraid of being deceived, Here I came to a loss of all my former know- for I had read and heard that Satan himself is ledge; and my former performances proved but a sandy foundation. Then I did, with much humility and poverty of spirit, beg of Almighty God, that I might build upon that rock, that the true church of Christ was built upon, that the gates of hell might not prevail against me.

But for all this, I was yet afraid of being deceived by the Quakers; yet where to go outwardly for advice and counsel I knew not; for I saw that my former teachers were upon

"transformed into an angel of light," 2 Cor. xi. 14. And lest this man should be as the same apostle said, in verse 13, "For such are false. apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ," I desired of the Lord that I might see this poor man once again, for I knew not where to see the face of any called a Friend; and it pleased God that he came again that way, and I desired of my master and mistress to give him lodging, and

that he might be with me, to which they consented. Then I queried of him their way of worship, and concerning those two great ordinances, so called, that we so much relied upon, viz. the Bread and Wine, and Baptism, and the Scriptures, to know what was their judgment of them; to which he gave me some satisfaction. In the morning I parted with him, and to the best of my knowledge, I saw him no more for several years after.

able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus," 2 Tim. iii. 15. This main thing was wanting, the true and saving faith, which is the gift of God. "It is by grace we are saved through faith, not of ourselves, it is the gift of God," Eph. ii. 8. So it is the grace of God that brings salvation, and not the bare historical knowledge of the scriptures. Too many take a great deal of pride in a literal knowledge of them; some for their In all this time I still kept my retirement in gain and profit; others take pleasure in them, the wood, or some other private place; and by wresting them to vindicate their false and there in my waiting, I desired of the Lord, that erroneous opinions, that gender strife and conI might be further satisfied by himself, as to tention, and take little or no notice of that meek, those things; first, Whether the scriptures were holy, and lovely spirit of life that gave them the word of God, as it was said and preached forth, for they are of no private interpretation; unto us they were, and the way to life and sal-" but holy men of God spake them as they vation? Then the first chapter of John came were moved by the Holy Ghost, 2 Pet. i. 20, under my serious consideration in my medita-21. tion, which said, "In the beginning was the Men may have a great literal knowledge of Word, and the Word was with God, and the the scriptures, and yet remain in error, because Word was God: the same was in the beginning they know them not, as they ought to do, nor with God. All things were made by him, and the power that was in the holy men that gave without him was not any thing made that was them forth; so I may say, as Christ said to the made. In him was life, and the life was the Jews, "Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, light of men; and the light shineth in darkness, nor the power of God," Mat. xxii. 29. So that and the darkness comprehended it not." I con- which gives the true knowledge of God, and a sidered that the Word was in the beginning right understanding of the scriptures, is the with God the Father, and that no part of the power of God; and I may say with the apostle, scriptures were written until Moses, who we "For God, who commanded the light to shine understand was the first writer of those scrip- out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to tures we have; the apostle tells us here, that give the light of the knowledge of the glory of "the law was given by Moses, but grace and God, in the face of Jesus Christ," 2 Cor. iv. 6. truth came by Jesus Christ:" in this Word there | And as men and women come to mind this was life; Paul tells us, that "the letter killeth, light, that is, the Spirit of God, and to obey it, but the Spirit giveth life;" now this life is the they shall come to the comfort of the scriptures, light of men, and the Word was before the scriptures were written. By this we may see the Word of God is Christ Jesus, that was with the Father before the world began; "without him there was not anything made that was made." The history that Moses gives us, is said to be written about 3000 years after the creation of the world, therefore the scriptures cannot properly be the Word of God.

as the same apostle says, "For whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning; that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope," Rom. xv. 4.

And being under a serious consideration of what I read in the scripture, believing the Spirit of the Lord to be the interpreter thereof; those great mysteries that were hid from ages and I, with many more, was under that mistake generations, and are hid now in this our age that the Jews were in, who thought they might from many, are come to be revealed by the have eternal life in the scriptures; Christ saith, Spirit of God, and if they would have comfort John v. 39, "Search (or ye search) the scrip-in reading the scriptures, they must wait in that tures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, measure of the spirit, which God hath given and they are they which testify of me; and ye them, which is the only key that opens them to will not come to me that ye might have life." the understanding of those who are truly conAs he is the life, so he is the way to the Fa-scientious in the reading of them. Though I ther; "I am the way, and the truth, and the read them formerly, as many do now, without life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me," John xiv. 6. As for the scriptures, I was a great lover, and a great reader of them, and took great pleasure in searching of them, thinking that would make me wise unto salvation, as Paul said to Timothy; "And that from a child thou hast known the scriptures, which are

true sense and a due consideration, yet now I can bless God for them, and have a great comfort in the reading of them; they being no more as a sealed book unto me, and many more, who wait for the assistance of God's holy Spirit, in all their duties and performances that the Lord requires of them, for without him we