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age this were an agreed point among all people of discernment, and that nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject for mirth and ridicule, by way of reprisals for its having so long, as it were, interrupted the pleasures of the world."*

"There is every reason to believe that the Methodists were instrumental in stemming this torrent."+ No doubt they were.

The revival, under God's blessing, prospered and spread, like a mighty conflagration, far and wide, in spite of all the torrents of opposition in its way. They tended only to make it burn brighter and stronger. By the year 1742, ten ministers of the Church of England had become auxiliary to this revival; so that Harris, in a letter to Whitfield, dated October 15, 1742, observes, "I have heard most glorious news from Wales, of the success which attends brother Rowlands and many others. Sinners are pricked in the heart by scores, and thousands assemble to hear the word. There are ten clergymen now in Wales who are owned in a remarkable manner by the Lord Jesus."‡

Another individual, giving an account of religion in Wales at that period, and of the Rev. D. Rowlands, says, " he has for some time past had two thousand communicants in his church. Almost all the lower part of Cardiganshire is become religious."§

* Preface to the Analogy, in 1736.

+ Buck's Theological Dictionary, vol. ii. page 3. Gillies' Historical Recollections, vol. ii. pages 34, 135. § Glasgow Weekly History.

CHAP. III.

The nature of Rowlands' ministry, a change in it, attended with a revival.

Ir appears that the bearing, and even the substance, of Rowlands' ministry, as well as that of Harris, was of an alarming nature for years. The commission he received at first, to convince and to condemn, continued in its strength and vigour for a long time. It has been observed already, that five of the principal counties of Wales had heard him preaching the thunders of the law. It is affirmed that his ministry was in this awful strain no less than five years.

The Lord is sovereign in all his ways, and doth every thing as seems good in his sight, according to his infinite wisdom. He is not bound to any mode of proceeding, in performing his great and glorious work. We find that he brings his purposes to pass at other times and in other places by the influence and power of love, as was the case under the ministry of the Moravian Missionaries in Greenland. But we find that the Lord does generally commence his saving work by alarming and arousing sinners by such means as have been stated. There must be a conviction of sin, which is by the law some may have more of it, and for a longer period, than others.

The law is the grand means of enlightening, convincing, and subduing sinners.-The state of Wales, as has been already intimated, was then most awful, as to all manner of ungodliness and sin. And the religion of the country was of the most self-righteous, pharisaical, superstitious, souldestroying nature possible; possessing much of the leaven of Popery and Druidism. Some were trusting in their good works, as Paul did; others were depending upon their integrity

and superiority; and others were indulging a kind of careless and presumptuous reliance on the mercy of God, believing that they should be saved as well as others. They were full of false hope, carnal joy, and presumptuous trust. None among them had the least idea of their lost and ruined state. Indeed all men by nature are thus careless and secure. But no strong-hold can withstand the terrors of the law. When the commandment enters the soul, its work is most complete; for it comes in its spirituality, extensiveness, and minuteness, and is inflexible in its demands, reaching and claiming every imagination, thought, and purpose of the heart. It speaks in an authoritative manner, like a judge, and is inexorable in its curses, condemning all evil desires and bad intentions, as well as sinful words and actions. The effect of this is wonderful; the man dies, and every false confidence is destroyed, every carnal pleasure is quenched, every selfish hope expires, guilt appears as a most awful spectre, more dreadful than any spirit from hell. Then the man despairs of ever obtaining salvation in his own way, his mouth is stopped, he lies down in the dust in the utmost self-abhorrence, he becomes as nothing, yea less than nothing! Rom. vii. 7—14.

How well adapted was Rowlands to preach the law to the dark, benighted, and wretched inhabitants of Wales. It is worthy of observation, that Rowlands had been prepared and made by the Lord a suitable instrument for the execution of this great work. He had himself felt the guilt of sin as an intolerable burden, and had been made experimentally acquainted with repentance in all its important bearings, labouring under uncommon convictions of sin, and feeling very great compunction and sorrow for it. He well knew the terrors of an offended God, and his mind groaned and sunk under the maledictions of the broken law. How well-instructed must such a man have been to preach and to set forth the divine law in all its excellency. He aimed the pointed darts of conviction at the conscience of sinners,

but they were hurled by one who had himself been deeply wounded for sin. He represented the torments of hell, the just wages of sin, in a most awful, clear, and terrific manner, but it was with feelings of the greatest sympathy; yea, with the feelings of a very tender father, in the greatest anxiety for the welfare of his children: nothing, therefore, notwith standing the flaming pungency of his address, could be more uncongenial with his spirit than asperity and sharpness of language. Though he preached the law as to its minute and great demands, in the most convincing and alarming manner, carrying death and destruction with it, yet it was with the affection of the most tender-hearted brother beseeching men to escape the wrath to come. Though he exhibited the doleful state of the damned in such lively colours that one might have supposed he had seen hell itself, and had been an eye witness of all the dreadful consequences of sin in the future world, yet he enforced the truth with the most melting persuasions, and tenderly and passionately entreated his hearers to shun the awful abyss. His countenance was full of compassion, his address was most earnest, he was at the same time overwhelmed with a sense of his own unfitness and unworthiness.

The experienced preacher is the most successful; having a sense of the evil of sin, he is anxious to convey it to others, and he speaks correctly and feelingly of man's lost state: so did Rowlands. His ministry was attended by an amazing concourse of people; a great many of them were terrified above measure, and sometimes they could not avoid falling down, as in the churchyard of Llancwnlle already mentioned: tears were running down the faces of multitudes. Many of the most thoughtless and vain stood aghast, as on the brink of despair and hell; the most proud and giddy were distressed, as if they were in the greatest agony ; the most ungodly and profane groaned under the most painful convictions; yea, the most stout-hearted were broken down and wept bitterly. The people remained in this state

of humiliation for years; as long, at least, as his preaching was in this strain.

Though a great change took place in his views and feelings, after this long and gloomy winter, yet it was gradual. He attempted unfolding the gospel in some measure with the law the remedy might be made known as well as the disease, and the safety as well as the danger. However there is no doubt but that he was by this time well acquainted with the plan of salvation, though he did not experience it in its joy and freedom: for he was about this time forming the great Welch Methodist Association, and establishing their religious tenets; which work shall be noticed hereafter. This was in the year 1740, and the twenty-seventh of his age. He might be two years more in this uncomfortable state of mind, before he knew the great change in all its excellency and bliss.

We will hear introduce Rowlands' letter to H. Harris, as it shows that he had not yet arrived at the land of gospel freedom, which he afterwards became well acquainted with, as we shall presently see. It also manifests an uncommon devotedness to the cause of Christ, and extraordinary exertion and diligence in his service, though he was yet in this state of painful uncertainty as to his own salvation.-Now we shall proceed with the letter.

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I bless you for

your

October 20th, 1742.

letters, they were like showers of rain to a dry land. Indeed, the Lord gave you the tongue of the learned: but oh! oh what am I? A painted hypocrite, a miserable sinner! I know all the to's and fro's, and ups and downs, that are in religion; but the blessed liberty remaining for the children of God is still hidden from me. I believe you pray for me; God grant you may prevail. I wish I could skip and leap over all mountains of pleasures, laziness, hardheartedness, unbeliefand rest upon the breast of the beloved and never, never

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