Imagine you are a young theological student, not yet twenty, but with a call to the ministry and a great desire to study God's Word. The college is in a big and unfamiliar city to which you have travelled by water, commended to the tutors by your home church. No doubt with the expected apprehension, there would be great excitement as you began your studies. However, there is one snag. All the lectures are in a language that you are really not very familiar with. You do not know enough English, even to say grace at the meal table.
This was the situation that confronted the subject of our paper, Benjamin Francis, who grew up in a Wales that was then almost entirely Welsh speaking but who came to the academy in Bristol in 1753 intent on preparing himself for future ministry, chiefly by hearing lectures in English.
The Head of the institution at the time, Bernard Foskett (1685-1758), was not unfamiliar with this sort of situation. In the period 1720-1758, when he headed the work, half the Bristol students were Welshmen. In most cases Welsh would have been their first language and sometimes, initially, almost their only language. In Francis's case, Foskett was doubtful whether he was going to benefit from the course. Thankfully, from 1733, Foskett was assisted in his work by the man who would eventually succeed him, a Welshman called Hugh Evans (1712-1781). Evans pleaded Francis's case and soon the latter found himself not only able to express himself in English but able to do so with such great fluency that in a few years time the great John Gill (1697-1771) was recommending him as his successor.
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The eighteenth century was a period when God greatly blessed these islands with revival and when there were some great Christian leaders in the land, men such as Whitefield and the Wesleys; John Cennick and John Newton; Isaac Watts, Philip Doddridge, Matthew Henry.
In Wales, there were Daniel Rowland, Howell Harris and William Williams and in Scotland, Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine, not forgtting New England, where Jonathan Edwards was a great force for good, having an impact both there in the new world and, through his writings, back here in the old one.
Among the Particular Baptists in England, there were stalwarts such as John Gill and Benjamin Beddome and later, Andrew Fuller, John Sutcliff and William Carey. I want to focus in this paper on one of those stalwarts, a lesser known one perhaps, but one well worthy of our attention. Benjamin Francis was born in 1734 and died in 1799. He was a long serving pastor, a church planter, a hymn writer, a poet and a man of God.
Earliest days
Benjamin was born in midsummer 1734 in a place called Pen-y-gelli, near Newcastle Emlyn, (where Dr D Martyn Lloyd-Jones 1899-1980 is buried). Francis was the second son and youngest child of Enoch and Mary Francis. Enoch Francis (1689-1740), from a family of ministers, was a minister of the gospel and a very well known and godly man. By the time Benjamin was six, both parents had died so he was brought up in Swansea, where he and his older brother Jonathan Francis (1722-1801) were baptised in 1749 by Griffith Davies. At the time Benjamin was only 15.
We are told that even in childhood he had began to be deeply impressed with a conviction of the great worth of his soul and the need to turn to Christ. When he was only seven years old, they say, he felt a continual reverence for God's great majesty, had a dread of associating with wicked companions and was full of contempt if he heard any profane or impure conversation. If he should hear such a thing, he would call it out. He had, at this early period, such a flow of affection sometimes in prayer, which he had begun to engage in from a young age, that, it is said, "his whole heart was overwhelmed with rapture."
By the time he was 19, he, like his father and brother, had begun to preach the Word, which he would go on to do for the rest of his life. His brother Jonathan had planned to study in Bristol but that did not happen, although it did for Benjamin. From 1747 Jonathan was already ministering at Penyfai, near Bridgend.
Bristol
Benjamin moved first from Swansea to Pontypool, presumably intending to study at the Trosnant Academy, and then to Bristol, thanks to the efforts of his minister, Griffith Davies. He arrived in Bristol in 1753, commended 'by letter from Swansey'. There he studied for the next three years or so.
As was stated, he had spoken only Welsh to this point and acquiring the English tongue did not come easy. There were plenty of Welshmen in Bristol, however. Fellow students include James Edwards of Llanwenarth, near Abergavenny; Thomas Lewis (1730-1774) of Penygarn, Pontypool, where his uncle ministered and Rees Jones (b c 1710) of Aberduar, Carmarthenshire. These three, like Francis, were supported by the trust set up by Robert Bodenham (d 1726) in 1716. Edwards, whose brother Morgan Edwards (1722-1792) went to Rhode Island, came to Bristol at the same time as Francis, while Lewis and Jones came the following year. Lewis went on to Tiverton, then Exeter; Jones, already 43 when he began, had probably ministered at home and in Bassaleg near Newport beforehand. There was also Morgan Jones (d c 1797) son of Griffith Jones of Penyfai, Hengoed and later America who came in 1755 and Charles Harris (c 1720-1779) Penygarn who arrived as Francis left. Jones became assistant in Pershore in 1756 and served in Hemel Hempstead, 1761-1778, later keeping an academy. Harris, previously at the Trosnant academy, was drawn to Arminianism and in 1757 followed a man of that persuasion in Bridgwater, Somerset.
There were also James Poulson (b c 1731) who started the year before Francis from Tewkesbury. They excommunicated him in 1757 "for lying and acts of great injustice" but, thankfully, he was restored in October 1769 and dismissed to the London church of Andrew Gifford (1700-1784). There were also two Devonians, Samuel Burford (c 1725-1768) of Upottery, near Honiton and James Larwill (c 1722-1786) of Bampton, near Tiverton. Burford was there about 1753-1755. Another Bodenham man, he went to Lyme Regis in 1749, then Little Prescott Street, Goodman Fields, London, also pastoring a Seventh Day Baptist Congregation. Larwill had two brothers in the ministry, He started around 1755 and, in 1759, went to Limehouse, London; Wantage in 1767 and was in Lyme Regis, 1780-1784.
Horsley
Formally called by the church in Swansea in 1755, at the end of his studies in Bristol, Francis preached for a while in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, but was then called to Horsley, still in Gloucestershire but further north near Nailsworth, in 1757. There he remained through a happy and very successful ministry of 42 years, until his death.
At his ordination on October 12, 1758, Hugh Evans preached to the church, from 1 Thessalonians 2:19 and John Tommas (1723-1800), also of Bristol, gave the charge, from Colossians 4:17. Also present were fellow Welshman Thomas Davis of Fairford (c 1724-1784) and previous pastor Samuel Bowen (c 1727-1764), who had gone on to Wantage.
At the time when Francis arrived, the church had only 66 members, and such was their poverty, that they could only pay him £20 per annum (under £4000 in today's terms). Though the stipend was smaller than at Chipping Sodbury, he felt God's call to Horsley and it was there that he went to pastor a poor congregation in a remote place. However discouraging the prospect as to externals, young Francis prepared himself for action and, putting his trust in the Lord, laboured indefatigably in his Master's work. By God's blessing, he saw 13 people added to the church in his first year and numbers continued to grow so that by 1760 it was necessary to enlarge the place of worship - not the last time that this would happen. The Horsley congregation continued to grow and in 1764 they added a vestry to the meeting house.
Invitations to London
In this early period, and again at later points, there were pressing invitations to settle in London, first from the church in Devonshire Square, then from the church in Carter Lane, Southwark, both before and after the death of their pastor John Gill. Many respected ministers united in urging Francis to comply with the request from Gill's church. However, his attachment to the friends at Horsley was so great that the please from London left him unmoved. The Horsley folk were full of affection for him and were so glad that he stayed. His continued success and the many open doors of usefulness that existed in Gloucestershire further combined to strengthen his resolve to stay.
Within two years, there was a further addition of 31 members, and 40 more in the next two years.
Minchin Hampton
Meanwhile, in 1765, Francis had a building erected in Minchin Hampton, about three miles from Horsley, where some of his members lived, and where there was a genuine need for a work. He kept up a lecture there once a fortnight for the next 35 years. He persisted unwearily for the good of the people of the place, despite an apparent lack of success. Indeed, it appears to have been one of his most unsuccessful endeavours in terms of numbers.
It was a notorious place. When George Whitefield (1714-1770) preached there, they had been violent towards him and nothing had much changed when Francis began preaching there 21 years later. In Whitefield's time they had attacked his fellow preacher, Thomas Adams (d 1770)m a gentleman, dragging him through the town and throwing him into the brook.
Francis persisted there with next to no success. However, subsequent to his death, things changed and a church was finally formed.
Besides the church in Minchinhampton, where he preached over 800 times, he also planted churches in the Gloucestershire villages of Avening, Nympsfield and Uley, although these latter ones did not long survive.
Horsley growth
Meanwhile, at Horsley, and in the immediate neighbourhood, there was success. Between 1771 and 1773 God added to the church 54 more members so that in 1774, the meeting-house required a second enlargement, which was accomplished at the expense of £500 (c £80,000 today).
During his ministry, it seems he baptised 450 people altogether. Some 42 of these came under church discipline and were removed but by the time of his death church membership stood at 262.
And so in what had at first seemed an unpromising situation, Francis was able, by God's blessing, to gather a very large congregation. It is said that people flocked in from more than 15 different parishes. As one writer describes it, on the Lord's Day one would see, "on the rising ground above the meeting-house, one group after another ... emerging from the woods; some of them having come from the distance of 10 miles, and upwards".
Endeavours elsewhere
One of the features of Francis's long ministry was his heroic endeavours away from Horsley. His efforts were quite remarkable. He was often the first one to introduce evangelical religion to the many spiritually benighted towns and villages of Gloucestershire and beyond. For many years he made excursions every month into the neglected parts of Gloucestershire and neighbouring Worcestershire and Wiltshire. He not only visited believers and strengthened their hands but sought to sow the gospel seed in pastures new.
In the course of his journeys through Worcestershire, which he regularly made from about 1772 until 1784, it appears that he preached in many places, including Pershore, 137 times and Upton-upon-Severn, 180 times. His son-in-law provides many specific numbers of that sort, including, in Gloucestershire - Cheltenham, 130 sermons; Tewkesbury, 136; Uley, five miles from Horsley, 350 and Meysey Hampton, near Cirencester, 803 sermons.
His pattern was to set out from home on a Monday morning and return on a Friday evening, after having taken a circuit of 90 miles or more, preaching somewhere every evening.
At Malmesbury, Wiltshire, he also established a monthly lecture, where, from 1771-1799, he preached 282 sermons. He also preached, in Wiltshire, in Christian Malford, near Chippenham, 84 times; Devizes, 56 times and 90 times each in Melksham, Trowbridge and Bradford on Avon.
On his visits to Bristol, he preached 101 times at Broadmead and 28 times at the Pithay. He preached too in Portsmouth 22 times and an equal number at Plymouth and Plymouth Dock. He preached in Frome, Somersetshire, 90 times.
He went down to Cornwall at least twenty times and saw many converted there. He was often involved in baptising converts. On one occasion when he was baptising people at Penzance on his first journey into Cornwall, he was interrupted by some scoundrels, to whom he addressed himself so affectionately and impressively that they were struck with deep conviction of sin, and on his next visit he had the pleasure of baptising them in the name of the Lord Jesus, on a profession of their faith in him.
He frequently visited Wales, and was often at annual associations, preaching at least 14 times. Altogether he preached in Wales, both in Welsh and English, about 150 sermons. In 1791, he visited Ireland, and preached, chiefly in Dublin, 30 times. Whenever he visited London, there were plenty of opportunities to preach. He preached too in various other places.
Whenever he preached, it is said, he was evidently concerned to declare the whole counsel of God and to be pure from the blood of all men. At home, or away, he was careful not to handle God's Word deceitfully but sought always to display the truth, commending himself to everyone's conscience in God's sight. No matter where he preached he always preached the same gospel, never seeking to disguise his sentiments or to soft pedal certain fashionable sins in order to win favour.
In Horsley, church discipline was exercised firmly but tenderly. His compassion for sinners could sometimes provoke him to tears, when he was preaching. The proof that this was not for mere show was in the way at times he helped those in need from his own pocket. He was also able at times to prompt his wealthier acquaintance to do something for his poor neighbours, especially believers. More than £300 (something like £35,000 in today's terms) was passed on by him to the poor in his congregation in this way.
Method of self-examination
It appears that Francis adopted a method, which he probably took from the New England Puritan Cotton Mather (1663-1728), of proposing questions to himself every morning of the week, to assist him in the best method of doing good in all his connections. These were the questions
Lord's Day morning. What can I do more for God, in the promotion of religion, in the church over which I am pastor?
Monday. What can I do for my family, as a husband, a father, or a master?
Tuesday. What good can I do for my relations abroad?
Wednesday. What good can I do in the societies of which I am a member?
Thursday. What good shall I do for the churches of Christ at large?
Friday. What special subjects of affliction, and objects of pity, may I take under my particular care? and what shall I do for them?
Saturday. What more have I to do for the interest of God in my own heart and life?
Family life
Francis was twice married. His first wife, whom he married in 1757 around the time of his call to Horsley, was born with the surname Harris, and like him was a native of Wales. By her he had several children but all of them were soon taken by death, except the second, a daughter named Mary, who lived to be 31. She died nearly ten years before her father, leaving a motherless family of five children behind. His first-born, named Enoch, died when just 18 months old.
This was a painful stroke but in 1765, he met with a series of bereavements unusual even for those times and rarely the lot of anyone. Under these trials he would have sunk, no doubt, had he not known what it is to be in the hands of the one whose strength is made perfect in weakness and had he not realised that underneath are the everlasting arms. The wife of his youth was removed first, on April 26; then on June 18, his son Benjamin, 4; next his youngest daughter, Sarah, died, July 4, and his daughter Elizabeth, 3, July 10. These distressing events made him leave his former home for a period, such a reminder was it of sadness. He published a plaintive elegy at this time that movingly describes the anguish of his wounded spirit and the relief he found in God's compassion and the prospect of future bliss.
On July 27, 1766, he married again, this time to a Miss Wallis, who would outlive him. By her he had another ten children, but only three survived him. The first, by this second marriage, was again called Enoch but the child did not live long enough to emulate his grandfather. Born profoundly deaf and so unable to speak, he was very much loved by his parents but died when he was only 15. Prior to that he had shown himself to be very intelligent and able to gather knowledge despite his handicap. He also professed faith, rigidly shunning the company of bad companions and delighting to be in church. During his final short illness, he seems to have been strangely aware of his approaching death.
A daughter, Esther, and two sons, died young. An account of a second Esther appeared in the Baptist Register (Vol I p 159). She died August 25, 1790, aged 11. She gave good evidence of being saved. It was similar with the death of her older sister, who died in the same year, at the age of 16, after a lingering illness, marked by unusual marks of grace. A son, named Benjamin, was spared for 27 years. He went to America, where his temporal prospects looked good. He was on the point of marrying when, in 1795, he was cut off in his prime by yellow fever. This was in Petersburgh, Norfolk, South Carolina. What a terrible blow. A touching letter from Francis to his son's intended has been preserved and is worth quoting. In the letter he says
Though overwhelmed with grief at the loss of a dear and affectionate son, whom 1 tenderly loved, yet I dare not repine at the disposal of unerring Providence, but am enabled to say, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Christ is altogether worthy of your entire confidence, chief esteem and everlasting adoration. May this bitter cup be abundantly mixed with divine consolations; and while you lament the loss of the uncertain stream of temporal felicity, may you drink eternal happiness at the fountain head."
Elegies and other poetical works
Francis composed and printed several elegies. These include elegies for well known figures such as Whitefield and the Baptists John Gill, Caleb Evans (1737-1791), son of Hugh, and Samuel Pearce (1766-1799). The one for Pearce, remarkably, was composed on his own death bed. Others were for lesser known figures including Robert Day (1721-1791), Williams of Cardigan (1732-1799), &c. Some of the elegies were in Welsh. He wrote many other poems too. The most famous The Conflagration, a Poem in Four Parts was published in 1770. He also wrote in 1790 The Association, celebrating the association meetings that were so much part of Baptist life at this time. Another interesting work was A Poetical Address to the Stockbridge Indians among whom Jonathan Edwards worked.
In his later years, he would often weep when remembering friends such as Joshua Thomas (1719-1787) of Leominster, for whom he also wrote an elegy and with whom he corresponded for many years, sending questions to each other, and Daniel Turner (1710-1798) of Abingdon and others. Looking up to heaven, Francis would refer to it as the residence of his most numerous friends, containing far more of them than death had left him to enjoy on earth.
Hymns
Francis also wrote hymns, five of which appeared in Rippon's Selection of 1787. These include
Before Thy throne, eternal King - for meetings of ministers or church conferences
Glory to the eternal King - on the majesty of God
In sweet [or loud] exalted strains for the opening of a place of worship
This last one was first sung at the opening of the meeting house at Horsley, September 18, 1774 and at the opening of a new meeting house at Downend, near Bristol, in 1786. It was later altered to begin Come, King of glory, come. Spurgeon then altered it again to begin Great King of Zion, now.
There was also Praise the Saviour, all ye nations for taking up the offering. With my substance I will honour is a cento from this hymn. On death he wrote Ye objects of sense and enjoyments of time. It originally had 16 stanzas.
He was in particular a writer of Welsh hymns. In 1774 he published Alleluia, neu Hymnau perthynol i Addoliad Cyhoeddus (Hallelujah or Hymns pertaining to Public Worship). To this he contributed 103 hymns. A second volume appeared in 1786, to which he contributed 91 hymns, being a total of 194 in all. Of these many appear still to be in use.
As a hymn writer, he is criticised for over use of alliteration and internal rhyme.
Preaching
John Ryland (1753-1825) reckoned that Francis and the silver tongued Samuel Pearce were the best preachers he knew. He once wrote, beginning with Pearce, that
Much as that seraphic young man was esteemed by many, I know not that anyone thought more highly of him than myself. I was used to think that Benjamin Francis, as an aged man, and Samuel Pearce, as a young man, were the two most popular preachers I had personally known, who, without rising to sublime eloquence, owed no part of their popularity to eccentricity. A peculiar fluency of delivery, and a most serious and affectionate address, would have made them acceptable to all classes of hearers, in any part of the kingdom.
For some reason, none of Francis's sermons were preserved. We can get an idea of his preaching perhaps, Michael Haykin suggests, through his association letters. He was author of the letters for the Western Association five times - 1765, 1772, 1778, 1782 and 1796. Haykin says that in these letters Francis touches on a number of themes including the challenges of poverty and affluence, the danger of dead orthodoxy and the nature of genuine faith. He presses home the need for a Christianity in which the heart is vitally engaged and treats of the various disciplines of the Christian life. He seeks to nurture a concern for unity in the churches. However, says Haykin,
... there is one theme that comes up again and again: the beauty of Christ and the passion that should be ours in serving him. In the final analysis, it was this passion for Christ and his glory that underlay all the evangelistic and pastoral labours of Benjamin Francis ...
The circular letter of 1772, for example, addresses those ‘who are sickly and feeble in the spiritual life’ and who have become ‘almost strangers to closet devotion, deep contrition for sin, earnest wrestling with the Lord in prayer, heavenly affections, and sensible communion with God’.
He encourages them to ask themselves these sobering questions: ‘Will you call this the religion of Jesus? Is this the fruit of his love and crucifixion?’ Without a ‘living faith in Jesus Christ’, Francis reminds his readers, ‘our orthodox notions’, church attendance and outward morality will ultimately avail for nothing.
And so he urges the need for ‘a spiritual sight of the awful perfections of God, of the adorable glories of Christ, and of the ineffable excellency of divine and eternal things’.
They also need to beware of resting their salvation on their performance as Christians and their faithful attendance on ordinances. ‘Constantly rest in Christ alone’, says Francis.
He encourages his readers to ‘look for every blessing … in and through [Christ,] the infinitely prevalent Mediator’. Building on this, he urges his readers to ‘live daily on Christ as your spiritual food, and seek hourly communion with him as the beloved of your souls’.
In 1778 he is mainly concerned with the nature of genuine faith and has a similar emphasis. In a section that deals with the difference between assurance and faith, he exhorts
Place then your entire confidence in Christ for the whole of salvation: let the declarations and promises of the gospel be your only warrant for believing in him: and consider your purest principles, happiest frames, and holiest duties, not as the foundation, but the superstructure of faith.
Let not your sweetest experiences, which are at best but shallow cisterns, but Christ alone, be the source of your comfort, and constantly live upon that inexhaustible fountain.
Christ alone is the source of salvation and he alone gives the strength to live the Christian life. The final sentence alludes to Jeremiah 2:13. There, the Lord rebukes his people for forsaking him, ‘the fountain of living waters’, and living instead on the water drawn from ‘broken cisterns’ of their own devising.
Inspired, no doubt, by such New Testament passages as John 4:10-13 and 7:37, where Christ states that he is the source of ‘living water’ that quenches spiritual thirst, Francis identifies the ‘fountain’ of Jeremiah 2 as Christ.
Latter years
God made his final years God honouring and useful to a high degree. Large numbers continued to join the church. He had the pleasure of baptising, along with others, his own daughters. The congregation so multiplied that near the end of his life a third enlargement of the place of worship was necessary. In the end he did not live to see the day appointed for its opening. The day Dr John Ryland was due to preach for the opening, he was called away to preach at the funeral of Samuel Pearce, at Birmingham. By the time he was able to come back to Horsely, Francis was dead and so he preached the good man's funeral sermon.
Last illness
In Francis's time, Christians often liked to make a great deal of the way their heroes died. Francis's biographers did not find his mindset during his last illness particularly remarkable. However, he seems to have had an even spirit and some strong consolations. One morning, it is said, his Welsh Bible was put into his hand and he read Psalm 23. When he came to the last verse Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, he was full of thanksgiving for God's grace towards him. Fondly embracing his Bible, he laid it by his side, as if he did not want to let it out of his sight as he contemplated facing the final enemy, death, and his passage to another world.
On the evening of the Lord's Day, December 1, 1799, growing worse and aware that this might be his last Lord's Day on earth, he expressed his wish to see his church officers one last time. When they arrived, he felt such strong emotions that he could not speak for a while. Recovering himself a little, he urged them to watch over the welfare of the church with the tenderest sympathy and to promote its welfare as best they could. He warned against worldliness and urged them not to lose their zeal but to lay themselves out for the benefit of the whole community, making love to Zion their chief aim. He spoke many other words of an evangelical flavour, including these words
O! cling to the cross, to the cross, to the cross! Here learn all you want to know; hence derive all you wish to possess; and by this, accomplish all you can desire to perform.
He then took each man by the hand, summing up his prayer in Paul's words from Acts 10:32, And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
By December 12 he did not have long. He held out a hand to each of his family and said
Come, as we must part, we had better now take our mutual farewell, and then you shall withdraw, that I may languish softly into life.
At this time, he would frequently repeat these lines, "Sweet truth to me, I shall arise, And with these eyes my Saviour see."
Death finally came on Saturday, December 14. At about 2 pm he quietly spoke of his inward peace. A relative whispered in his ear Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. He replied, "No, no," adding, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Despite lingering pain, he seemed to die happily, retaining the smile that through his life had made his face shine. At 8.15 pm he finally fell asleep in Jesus.
On Friday, December 20, 1799. his remains were interred in the meeting burying ground in a place he had chosen beforehand. He was 66. Ryland preached at the graveside and on the following Lord's day preached a funeral discourse from 1 Thessalonians 4:17, 18, So shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. The sermon was printed and includes these words
The church of Christ, which worships statedly in this place, has been blessed, for above forty years, with one of the best pastors that could preside over a Christian society. Alas! that very day two months, that I, and many now present, attended your venerable pastor to his grave, I was preaching the funeral sermon for brother Pearce, of Birmingham, cut off in the midst of his years at 33. Now they are both gone! We have lost the most active, diligent, humble, spiritual, zealous, successful ministers, within about eight weeks of each other. You cannot but mourn, and all our churches mourn with you. This neighbourhood, especially, for a wide extent, has suffered a great loss. No more shall that man of God, whose soul glowed with such tender concern for the salvation of souls, take his circuit round the country, to publish the glad tidings to perishing sinners. I hope God has not said of all who stopped their ears to his charming voice, 'They are joined to idols, let them alone. He that continued impenitent under the awakening ministry of my servant FRANCIS, let him be given up to hardness of heart for ever!
