After this, trials pressed heavily upon them, so that we are informed "the Church had but little communion for some months, till God put it into our hearts to humble ourselves, reform his house, and set upon his work, almost lost by five or six years' persecution, and the death of our pastor. We kept a solemn day of prayer, April 22nd, 1686, with good encouragement in it, by drawing out an account of God's dealings with the souls of those following." Then are given the names of seven persons admitted to the Church. Others were added in subsequent months of the same year; and admonitions were given to those who had fallen back for fear of persecution.
After an interval of four years, when a great and momentous change had taken place in the government and in the prospects of England, by the accomplishment of the glorious revolution by William, Prince of Orange; and when, by the passing of the "Act of Toleration," Nonconformists could no longer be persecuted according to law—a measure which our forefathers hailed with great joy, and which made a great change from their former condition—the Church at Rowell heard of the piety and talents of Mr. Richard Davis, who was a member of a Church in London of which Mr. Thomas Cole was pastor. Mr. Davis came to them on probation, and they highly approved of his services—desired him to obtain his dismission from the Church of which he was a member, that he might be received amongst them; and then they invited him to take the pastoral oversight of them, which invitation he willingly accepted. The account of his ordination is given in the following terms:—
On the seventh day, March 22nd, 1689, the said Richard Davis, by fasting and prayer of the Church, and imposition of the hands of the eldership in the name of the said Church, was set apart to and installed in the office of pastor or bishop of the said Church of Christ at Rowell; being the answer of many prayers of the said Church. The neighbouring Churches were made acquainted with their design, and sent to, that they might be present by their messengers to behold their faith and order; but when they saw how it was to proceed, several of the neighbouring ministers withdrew, saying, there was no business for them.
In this the Church at Rowell, with their pastor, proceeded according to what they considered to be the primitive model; but it was different to the practice of the Churches around them, and the pastors coming only to be spectators of their proceedings was by no means pleasing to them; hence they appear not to have looked with a very favourable eye on Mr. Davis, or on the subsequent proceedings of his Church.
Mr. Davis was born in Cardiganshire, in South Wales, in 1658; had a liberal education in his own country; and after some years removed to London, where he rose to such attainments in literature, that he was looked upon as well qualified to fill the office of master in a general school in the great city; and for several years he continued in a laborious and faithful discharge of its duties. He became a man of earnest, consistent piety.
In the first part of his acquaintance with divine things he sought an interview with Dr. Owen—with Christian kindness he was received. The Doctor inquired of him, "Young man, pray after what manner do you think to go to God?" Mr. Davis answered, "Sir, through the Mediator." To which the Doctor replied, "Young man, that is easily said; but I do assure you that it is another thing to go to God through the Mediator indeed than perhaps many men, who make use of the expression, are aware of. I myself preached Christ some years when I had but very little, if any, experimental acquaintance with access to God through Christ, until the Lord was pleased to visit me with sore affliction, whereby I was brought to the mouth of the grave, and under which my soul was oppressed with horror and darkness; but God graciously relieved my soul in the powerful application of Psalm cxxx. 4, "But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared;" from whence I received special instruction, peace, and comfort in drawing near to God through the Mediator, and preached thereupon immediately after my recovery." So free was this great man of God in communicating to others what he had felt, which, with other suitable remarks then made, was of great use to Mr. Davis, who, resolving to follow the Lord fully, made a profession of his faith in Christ, and became united to a Congregational Church. He was soon after urged to devote himself to Christ in the ministry of the Gospel. He began to preach, and "with that savour of spirit," it is said, "that warmth of soul, that zeal and judgment, that those who heard were amazed, and glorified God in him." Leaving the advantages of London, he came down to Rowell and became the pastor of this Church. He entered upon his work here with great earnestness of spirit, and pursued it with great and untiring energy. But the methods he adopted were very different to those which generally prevailed amongst the regular pastors of the day. Such was the ardour of his zeal that he could not confine himself within the bounds of the congregation that met at Rowell, or to the places immediately around them. His course of labour somewhat resembled that of Bunyan, of whom it is said, "that he took the whole circuit of Bedfordshire, and some neighbouring counties, for his diocese." But Mr. Davis did not confine these services for the diffusion of divine truth to his own personal ministry, but he called out and employed the brethren in the Church who were considered to be endowed with suitable gifts and attainments in the knowledge of the Gospel, to go and preach the word of the Lord in places that were destitute of a Gospel ministry. He employed what is denominated "a lay agency" to a considerable extent. There were many in those days who were strictly observant of ecclesiastical regularity, who thought none should preach but those who were educated for the work and ordained to the office. The proceedings of Mr. Davis gave great offence to such, and they severely censured this part of his procedure. The view which he took of the subject, and which he promoted among his people, is thus stated in the records of the Church:—
The Church unanimously agreed, that though human learning was good in its place, yet it was not essentially necessary in the qualifications of any to be sent forth to preach the Gospel; and the Church unanimously agreed, that a Church of Christ had power within itself to choose, approve of, ordain, or send forth any to preach the Gospel, either by virtue of office, or otherwise in a probationary way in order to office, without calling in the assistance of the officers or elders of other Churches to approve with them, unless at any time they thought it necessary to desire their assistance by way of advice.
Hence the Gospel was preached, to a large extent, by the pastor and some of the members of the Church at Rowell. Considerable numbers were brought from different places to become united to that Church. Those who were too distant to attend regularly the Sabbath services at Rowell, held meetings for prayer and religious intercourse where they resided; sometimes having the Lord's Supper administered to them, and sometimes attending with the united Church at Rowell. In some places this gave rise to another Church being formed, when the numbers were sufficient to sustain an interest, and to have a pastor of their own; this was the case at Wellingborough, Ringstead, Kimbolton, &c. It is said that the members of the Church have come to Rowell a distance of 20 miles and more, travelling with lighted lanterns part of the way on the winter mornings, and in the same manner on their return in the evening.
An interesting account is preserved of the method adopted, when the members that resided in Wellingborough and its vicinity were dismissed from the Church at Rowell, to be formed into another Church of the same order meeting at Wellingborough.
There were dismissed from us these following, to build a Church for Christ at Wellingborough, which dismission ran in these words:—
"Whereas it is the appointed way of the Lord Jesus (as it may be evidently manifest and deduced from the primitive practice), when Churches are growing too big and unwieldy to answer the ends of communion comfortably, and suitable to the design of Congregational societies, that they then divide and multiply into more Churches, whereby the Gospel as to its faith, order, and worship, may come to be spread, propagated, and commended to many dark places and corners, by multiplying the golden candlesticks that are properly to hold forth the light thereof; the work of conversion, and the great method divinely appointed for gathering in the flock of God, may be most ably managed; the comfort and establishment of the saints by instruction and exhortation, with the due exercise of authority, and mutual holy watch and care, may be more effectually carried on; the conveniences of believers, their families and neighbours, most charitably consulted and provided for; and antichrist working in its various invented forms of Churches, as diocesan, provincial, national, patriarchal, and catholic, as under one universal pastor and pope, fully prevented: this Church therefore of the living God, that chiefly assembles at Rowell, has declared over and again this to be their judgment, that when any of those dear brethren and sisters that live remotely from Rowell increase into a complete number, so as to be able to answer the ends of their dividing and inchurching, and to bear the weight of those duties incumbent on a particular independent Church of Christ (in all which there must be high living by faith in the Lord Jesus), that this Church of Christ will not only consent to their dividing for to inchurch apart, but have declared it is their duty so to do. Hereupon, after the Lord Jesus having increased this Church of Christ into a great number through his mighty blessing, and especially that branch of them that lives in and near Wellingborough, our dearly beloved brethren and sisters there and thereabouts have requested us to dismiss them from us for this end, that they might incorporate into a Church distinctly and apart from us, and independent of us; we, therefore, by virtue of power and authority leagued by the Lord Jesus amongst us, with our officers, by the present do (they having first acknowledged their faith and oneness with us in the faith and order of the Gospel) dismiss our dearly beloved brethren (then follow the names of the brethren), and also with the like proviso dismiss our dearly beloved sisters (then follow the names of the female members), for that aforementioned end of incorporating together as an Independent Church; declaring that these, or any of these, as then actually dismissed from us, that same moment they actually incorporate by actually covenanting with the Lord and one another in the presence of messengers delegated and appointed by us for that affair, and not another—and those of them that do not at first covenant, shall be deemed still members of us till they actually covenant with that body; but do then declare them dismissed from us, and give our consent for them so to do, when they shall so covenant. Now, committing them to the Lord Jesus, to be blessed with the blessings of the upper and nether springs, and with all manner of spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord, that they may multiply and increase accordingly to many hundreds, and be fed and watered every moment by the Lamb in the midst of the throne, we do in testimony of this our letter of dismission put our names."
(There were included in this dismission 27 brethren, 45 sisters.)