able wisdom, who discerneth the states and conditions of the sons and daughters of men, maketh choice of some, and calleth them from among their neighbours and relations, to be serviceable unto him; amongst whom, our dear friend Richard Davies, was called early, in the day of God's visitation, to serve him, and he gave up in obedience to the Lord, and took up the cross in a time of great persecution, &c.

The Lord made him willing and obedient, in those days, to go abroad with a public testimony for the Truth, and moved him to come to our country of Merionethshire, when some of us were very young in years, and it pleased the Lord to make him instrumental in his hand to bring glad tidings to our ears, and his testimony was sweet and comfortable, to the edifying and tendering of our hearts and souls; many of us loved him exceedingly, and that love remained between him and us till the end of his days. He was tender and careful to us, and a nourisher and strengthener of some of us in our spiritual exercises, and was ready to assist the weak and feeble, and willing to give a helping hand, counsel and admonition to Friends and others, that had any desires to serve the Lord.

O the wonderful wisdom and love of God! who called him, and many others in those days, and prepared and qualified them for the great work he had to do, and strengthened them to tread the way before us, that were weak and feeble. O how strong, bold, and valiant instruments did the Lord God prepare to begin to strike at the great image of pride, haughtiness, &c., that was then, and yet is in the world! Indeed their memorial is worthy to be recorded, that ages yet to come might see what the Lord hath done for his faithful ones, who gave up their lives, and all they had, on Truth's account.

I was acquainted with our said friend for about forty years, and I can say of a truth, that his service was great in the Church of Christ, especially in times of persecution,

he having much interest with the magistrates, and them in authority in those days. And his house was very open to entertain Friends, to the utmost of his ability; and the Lord blessed him.

The Lord, out of his treasure of grace, eminently endued him to bear a sound and seasonable testimony, when great assemblies and multitudes of people were gathered together; and he had a skilful hand to administer unto them the way of Truth, and to open it to their understandings; which many times gave them great satisfaction, and they were made to speak well of Truth and its followers. O the deep sense that remains upon me, of the great want we have of the service of such as he was! The Lord, who in his mercy qualified and fitted him, is able to prepare and raise up other faithful labourers.

It affects me, when I remember his gravity and grey hairs, his manly presence, and lovely countenance, especially when he stood up in a meeting. Now he hath finished his course, and, I believe, hath done his day's work, and is gone to his eternal rest.

Much more might be said on his behalf, but I desire that none may mistake me, I am not giving honour to man, that is but dust and ashes; but that all might see how Almighty God doth bestow his spiritual gifts upon those that he requireth service at their hands. And it is our duty, as our Saviour Jesus Christ advised his beloved disciples, "to pray to the Lord of the harvest (which harvest is great), that he would send forth more faithful labourers into his harvest," that mankind might be gathered into the inward possession and substance of Christianity, which many outwardly profess; that the God of all our mercies, and his beloved Son Jesus Christ, may have all the glory and thanksgiving, to whom it belongs, not only now, but henceforth, for ever and for evermore.

Amen. ROWLAND OWEN.

AN ACCOUNT

OF THE

CONVINCEMENT, EXERCISES, &c.,

OF

RICHARD DAVIES.

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 learning, 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; and 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

B

Jews, John v. 39, 40,"Search," or "ye search the scriptures, for in them ye think to 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 enjoyment of eternal life to the soul from Christ.

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; and 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 stayed 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, whose name was Evan Jones, a felt-maker, 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 us, that I was gone out of conceit with myself, and our formal religion; there being something in me that reproved me for my vanity. And when I arose from my prayers, being some time 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 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 of 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 necessary to my eternal salvation.

Upon a certain time, we had a meeting at Hugh David's, a tenant of Charles Lloyd's of Dolobran, where one of our Independent teachers, who was a great scripturian, was preaching, and I wrote after him; and in his sermon he said, The time would come that there would be no need of the scriptures, any more than another book; at which I very much stumbled: and after the meeting I asked him, When would that time be? He said, "When the Lord would make a new covenant with his people, as is said in Jeremiah, xxxi. 33, 34. 'I will make a new covenant 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 tell 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 to the greatest of