Bebbington on Micah Thomas and the end of the Academy

David Bebbington gave a paper on Edwards and his legacy in Britian, in Australia in 2015. See here.
In it he says

The transition from a high Calvinism to the moderate version represented by Edwards was sharply contested in Wales. The first Baptist academy to be set up in Wales, at Abergavenny in 1807, had another Bristol graduate trained by John Ryland, Micah Thomas, as its president. Thomas was a keen advocate of the Edwardsean approach to theology as embodied in Fuller’s writings. As a result he was charged by the high Calvinists of south Wales as veering towards Arminianism. In 1811 he published a sermon called Salvation of Sovereign Grace in order, as he put it, to ‘refute groundless insinuations’.(D. Mervyn Himbury, The South Wales Baptist College (1807-1957) [Cardiff: South Wales Baptist College, 1957], p. 22.) The rumours of his defection from sound doctrine, however, continued to circulate and in 1834 critics were given ammunition by five disaffected students. They complained that at worship he used John Wesley’s notes on scripture, claiming that they were superior to the comments of John Gill, the doughty eighteenth-century champion of high Calvinist orthodoxy among the Baptists. The affair was complicated by petty attacks on Thomas for refusing permission for students to attend the local Welsh society and requiring residents to be in their rooms by 8 p.m. The resulting controversy brought down the academy. The local Baptist association refused further financial support, a rival institution was planned, Thomas resigned, the academy closed and a new institution had to be created elsewhere, at Pontypool. There, under a president trained at Stepney and a tutor from Bristol Academy, the position of Edwards, Fuller and the newer Calvinism was reinstated. (Himbury, South Wales Baptist College, pp. 31-43.) This episode reveals clearly that contemporaries recognised the sharp difference between the model of theology of Gill and the type associated with Edwards. Micah Thomas contrasted the two. The point of view embodied in Gill’s thought was ‘that stringent and exclusive system’ which was designed ‘to guarantee the orthodoxy of the preacher’, differing from ‘the universally benign atmosphere of that blessed economy, which is… “good tidings of great joy to all people”’.(Himbury, South Wales Baptist College, p. 36.) In the end this warm-hearted Edwardseanism triumphed.  

Bassett on Micah Thomas

In his 1977 book The Welsh Baptists T M Bassett, having looked at the trinitarian controversy goes on to say on page 124ff

The nature of the atonement caused more contention. (He mentions John Jenkins of Hengoed, Francis Hiley, Christmas Evans and John James of Brigend as defenders of limited atonement). ... When these points of view came under attack later on, it was not the all embracing grace of Christ which was offered as an alternative but the teaching of Andrew Fuller which was just fractionally more liberal. Micah Thomas was one of the first in Wales to come under the influence of Fuller but, although he invited him to Wales, in 1812, he also saw well to anticipate criticism by publishing his Salvation of Sovereign Grace. But he did not save himself from persecution. The main exponent of the views of Andrew Fuller was however J. P. Davies, minister of Tredegar. The debate spread to the pages of Seren Gomer in the twenties until Gomer himself saw well to put an end to it. J. P. Davies was refused the freedom of the pulpit in Hermon, Fishguard and Benjamin Price (Cymro Bach) complained that he too had chapel doors closed against him and speaks of orthodoxy eating up some of the ministers like leprosy. As Daniel Davies (Swansea) noticed, there was often more prejudice than understanding in people's attitudes. He preached a sermon in Tredegar, the stronghold of the Fullerites, where it was acclaimed for its liberal sentiments, and the identical sermon in Hengoed, the rallying place of the opposition, where it was acclaimed for its orthodoxy. Some churches were again split. The Calvinists left Frogmore St., Abergavenny where Micah Thomas combined his ministry with his post as head of the college. In Horeb, Blaenafon it was the Fullerites who left to form the new church of Ebenezer. Their application to join the Association was discussed in Caerphilly in 1828 and was supported among others by J. P. Davies and Micah Thomas and opposed by John Jenkins and Francis Riley, leading the Calvinists. The two parties according to Daniel Davies sat "like the ministerial and opposition parties in Parliament" and it took all the good sense and pleading of John Jones of New-town to prevent a split like the Meidrum split.

The denominational college at Abergavenny did not escape. John Jenkins was refused permission to speak at the annual meeting of 1827 on the grounds that Hengoed had not contributed to the college that year - that, at least, was the ostensible reason. He struck back and there would be considerable sympathy for some of his remarks; that the Welsh language was not given its proper place in the college, that the governing committee of the college should be broader based, etc. More savage was his charge that Micah Thomas profiteered on the £24 per head which he received for lodging the students and his final statement, "I have no idea what Mr. Thomas's views on religious matters may be" was a piece of blatant hypocrisy. He was supported by Francis Hiley and the bickering reached as far afield as Pwllheli in Caernarvonshire where William Jones threatened to withold his contributions to the college unless the Welsh language received its proper due. But before rushing to acclaim him for his loyalty to the language, it would be well to remember the extreme Calvinist tone of his articles in Seren Gamer and that his unbending orthodoxy had forced John Jones, a promising young minister who had been a student at Abergavenny, to leave Pwllheli for Nefyn in 1826. Micah Thomas in turn was defended by D. Phillips, secretary of the college.

A far more serious quarrel broke out in 1834 when five students left the college; Joseph Davies and John Williams of Castleton, Theophilus Jones of Caerphilly, Enoch Price, a brother of Benjamin Price from Blaenafon and William Graven, the man who later brought a charge of libel against the secretary of the Glamorgan Association. Their complaints reflected some of the strict rules of the academies of the period; they had to show themselves to the monitor in the morning, they had to be in by eight at night so that they could not attend the meetings of the local Cymreigyddion who met in the Sun Inn whose landlord was a member in Llanwenarth. We come near to the true cause of the contention in the charge that Micah Thomas showed particular favour to one of the students, Thomas Morgan, who was adjudged by the five to be an Arminian. He was to become a missionary in India. And if the charge of nurturing an Arminian was not enough, Micah Thomas was also accused of reading portions from the works of John Wesley at the breakfast table. A meeting was held in Pontypool on January 1, 1835, with Francis Hiley's son, Isaac, in the chair. The father was also present together with John Jenkins, David Jones of Cardiff and some of the ministers of the students who had withdrawn - Evan Jones (Gwrwst) and John Jones of Blaenafon. Behind them stood Thomas Kenvyn and Thomas Morris (Tom of the ten chapels) who was accused of fanning the embers of controversy. A committee was formed to support the five students with Isaac Hiley as treasurer, and John Jones of Blaenafon as secretary and they were sent for instruction to William Jones of Cardiff. The college committee stood behind Micah Thomas, drawing its strength from the strong body of middle class laymen which the Baptists then possessed in Monmouthshire, men such as W. W. Phillips of Pontymoel, George Brewer of Nantyglo, Charles Conway, etc. D. R. Stephens maintained their point of view in the periodi-cals. He had baptised Thomas Morgan in Swansea and now did his best to defend Micah Thomas in a series of open letters to Christmas Evans. He was attacked in turn by Evan Jones (Gwrwst) who taunted him with being a supporter of open communion. The old arguments came to the surface once more, that there was too little Welsh in the college, that the institution should be more firmly under denominational control, etc. One of the committee members was said to be an Independent while another was not a member of any church at all. Echoes of contemporary political battles are heard in the accusation that the college was a 'rotten borough'. The editor of Y Greal was wise enough to put a quick end to the charge and counter charge but not before the debate had reached the Associations. The Northern Association decided to continue with its contributions to the college but only on the understanding that it should become the property of the denomination. In the Glamorgan Association there was some talk of setting up another college in Cardiff and the suggestion made at the time that a college be opened at Haverfordwest received some support from the Monmouthshire Association. Nothing came of the threats at the time and Micah Thomas soon resigned to be followed as head of the college by Thomas Thomas. The college also moved to Pontypool but it remained under the control of the same- committee and there was no reference to Particular Baptists in the new trust deed.

This unpleasant bickering went on for years. On the one hand there was the so-called Cardiff club with a caucus drawn from among the old opponents of Micah Thomas and including David and William Jones of Cardiff, John Jenkins, Thomas Morris and others. On the other side was the cyfarfod gweinidogaethol or ministers meeting founded in the summer of 1840 by D. Rhys Stephens, Thomas Davies of High Street, Merthyr and D. Llwyd Isaac … men such as … D. D. Evans of Pontrhyd-yr-ynn and Nefydd took part from time to time, as well as Evan Jones although he had been at one time an opponent of Micah Thomas. These meetings were furiously condemned by the deacons of Hengoed and Penygarn.

Tea and a lack of sympathy

These remarks on Micah Thomas are found in an article on Thomas Thomas, his successor. They are from an article in the Baptist Quarterly, by D Mervyn Himbury, which you can find here

In 1836, to his great astonishment, he received an invitation from the officers and committee of the Abergavenny Academy to become the successor of Micah Thomas and the first President of the College which it was now proposed to establish at Pontypool. He must have realised the difficulties he was called upon to face. Micah Thomas had discovered how hard the path of the pioneer could be, for throughout his years at the Academy he had faced considerable opposition from many of the leading Baptist ministers of South Wales, chief of whom was Dr. John Jenkins of Hengoed, whose writings and publications were considered as a standard of hyper-Calvinist orthodoxy at that time. He, in 1827, had written a letter to the Welsh Baptist periodical, Cyfrinach y Bedyddwyr, in which he accused Micah Thomas of charging the students exorbitant fees, and of failing to supply them with the reasonable luxuries of life, particularly tea, of which Jenkins seems to have been extremely fond, sugar, candles and soap. This attack, which hid a theological antagonism, created much feeling in South Wales and though the committee vindicated its President, it is clear that the charges were not forgotten for in 1837, after retiring, Micah Thomas finds it necessary to write to The Baptist Magazine a letter in which he sets out his income during his last years as tutor and contrasts this with what the committee promised to pay his successor. In 1834 the uneasy relationship between the Academy and the leading ministers became obvious over a dispute occasioned by a letter sent by five students, W. Gravel, E. Price, J. Davies, T. Jones and J. Williams to the Greal, in which they accused their tutor of partiality, tyranny and heterodoxy. This letter is dated November 11th. These students withdrew from the Academy and on December 10th a special meeting of the committee passed a resolution regretting that so much money had been already spent on training men so unworthy of the Christian ministry. The matter, however, was not at an end, and on January 1st, 1835 a number of Baptist ministers, led by Jenkins, Hengoed and Hiley, Llanwenarth, met and agreed upon a statement which deplored the action of the College committee in attacking the moral character of these students and seeking help so that they could complete their education under the supervision of William Jones, Bethany, Cardiff. The whole affair caused an uproar in Baptist circles in South Wales and letter after letter appeared in the Greal during subsequent months. The controversy came to an end only with the resignation of Micah Thomas. Undoubtedly, some of this antipathy towards the founder of the Academy was due to the deep-rooted suspicion felt by many in regard to ministerial education itself.

John Jenkins' sons, in their life of their father, felt it necessary to insist that, though without college training himself, Jenkins was never opposed to the Academy at Abergavenny, but only to the inefficiency of its administration. Yet their dislike of the College was, in the main, due to their opposition to the more liberal Calvinism which Micah Thomas professed. The charge of the five students which received greatest prominence in the controversy that followed was that of heterodoxy, for they claimed that their tutor always advised them to read Wesley's Notes rather than Gill's Commentary. The seriousness of the controversy is seen in that the Glamorgan Association, meeting at Ystrad-dafodwg in June decided to discontinue their support of the Abergavenny institution and to make collections in aid of the "new academy" in Cardiff. These troubles were the background to the resignation of Micah Thomas and it is remarkable that his successor was able to command such wide support for the College from the very beginning of his Presidency. It was to secure this support that Thomas Thomas left London in May, 1836 and spent the Summer visiting ,the Welsh Association meetings. The impression he created was extremely favourable. He was never made the subject of attack for his heterodoxy in regard to Calvinistic dogma. Micah Thomas had, in fact, won his battle, and the difficulties he overcame made the contribution of his successor possible. 

When he resigned from the Presidency of the Academy Micah Thomas did not relinquish the pastorate of the church he had been instrumental in founding. The committee, therefore, were forced to consider changing 'the location of the College, for its funds were insufficient to meet the salary of a full-time tutor. I t was for this reason that Pontypool was chosen as the future home of the institution for it had been felt, for some time, that an English church should be set up here.

Ministerial Training

In an article in the Bapotist Quarterly in 1966 we read these words:

In Wales some attempts had been made to provide an educated ministry in the first half of the eighteenth century. Towards the end of the fourth decade John Griffiths of Hengoed gathered a few students for training, at Trosnant near Pontypool, a work which lasted about until 1770. These were the years of Awakening in the Principality. In 1741 the Association at Blaenau Gwent had discussed the possibility of a denominational college but the resources of Baptists at that time were considered inadequate. It was in 1806, under the inspiration of Micah Thomas, that a work was begun at Abergavenny which has continued ever since and is now comprehended in the South Wales Baptist College. It is noteworthy that Thomas was largely under the influence of Andrew Fuller and the academy he led was modelled on his old college at Bristol. It was the evangelical spirit of the second half of the eighteenth century which convinced Baptists to the need of ministerial education and they sought to produce a preaching ministry able to capture the imagination of the age.

Salvation of Sovereign Grace Review

This review appeared in the 1818 volume of the Baptist Magazine.

Salvation of Sovereign Grace; a Sermon preached at the Baptist Meeting-house, Abergavenny, September 22, 1811. By Micah Thomas, of Abergavenny. Button, Paternoster-row. Is.

Though it is several years since this sermon was published, yet the importance of the subject, and the respectability of the preacher, claim for it a brief notice in the Review Department of our Work. Preached for the purpose of correcting misrepresentations, which had been "diligently and widely circulated" respecting the author's sentiments on the doctrines of grace, it may be viewed as a detailed confession of faith; and we may venture to add, a luminous statement of the Calvinistic system. We blush for the understanding (or rather the want of it) of such persons who could hear such a minister, and yet question whether he was of orthodox sentiments! In showing the operation of grace in the salvation of all true believers, the author considers it as it appears - "In the eternal purposes of God respecting them - in their redemption by Christ - in the operation of the Spirit upon their hearts - in the ultimate glorification of their souls and bodies in heaven." Considering Mr Thomas as placed at the head of an Academical Institution, we see abundant cause for thankfulness, that the young ministers committed to his care, will enjoy the instructions of such an evangelical tutor; and that our churches in the Principality are likely to be supplied with men of correct theological sentiments; so important to the conversion of sinners, the edification of believers, and the perpetuity of "the faith once delivered to the saints."