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John Newton
John Newton (1725–1807) was an English preacher, hymn-writer, and former slave trader whose dramatic conversion and ministry profoundly influenced evangelical Christianity. Born in Wapping, London, to John Newton, a merchant ship captain, and Elizabeth Scatliff, a devout Nonconformist who died when he was seven, Newton was raised by his stepmother after his father remarried. Pressed into the Royal Navy at 19, he later joined the slave trade, captaining ships like the Duke of Argyle by 1750, a life marked by cruelty and debauchery until a violent storm off Ireland in 1748 sparked his spiritual awakening at age 22. Self-educated in theology, he left the trade in 1755, becoming a surveyor of tides in Liverpool while pursuing ministry. In 1757, he married Mary Catlett, his childhood sweetheart, with whom he had no surviving children, though they adopted two orphaned nieces. Newton’s preaching career began after his ordination in the Church of England in 1764, when he was appointed curate of Olney, Buckinghamshire, serving there until 1780. His sermons, rich with personal testimony, drew large crowds and fostered a collaboration with poet William Cowper, producing the Olney Hymns (1779), including Newton’s famous “Amazing Grace.” In 1780, he became rector of St. Mary Woolnoth in London, where he preached until nearly blind and deaf, mentoring younger evangelicals like William Wilberforce in the abolitionist cause he embraced late in life, detailed in his 1788 pamphlet Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade. Newton died on December 21, 1807, in London, leaving a legacy as a preacher whose journey from sin to grace inspired hymns, sermons, and a movement against slavery that echoed beyond his time.
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John Newton emphasizes the importance of a sound and faithful Gospel ministry, urging the congregation to value their privileges and truly desire to grow in their faith. He highlights that the kingdom of God is not just in words but in power, calling for a genuine transformation in the lives of believers. Newton encourages the people to pray for grace to walk worthy of the Gospel, living out their faith in all aspects of life with humility, love, and integrity. He expresses the joy of a minister whose congregation reflects the teachings of godliness in their daily actions, contrasting it with the challenges faced when believers fall into formality, worldliness, or discord.
Godly Church Members
July 7, 1777 Sir, I have had a letter from your minister since his arrival at--. I hope he will be restored to you again before long, and that he and many of your place will rejoice long in each other. Those are favoured places which are blessed with a sound and faithful Gospel ministry, if the people know and consider the value of their privileges, and are really desirous of profiting by them: but the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. I hope those who profess the Gospel with you will wrestle in prayer for grace to walk worthy of it. A minister's hands are strengthened, when he can point to his people as so many living proofs that the doctrines he preaches are doctrines according to godliness; when they walk in mutual love; when each one, in their several places, manifests a humble, spiritual, upright conduct; when they are Christians, not only at church, but in the family, the shop, and the field; when they fill up their relations in life, as husbands or wives, masters or servants, parents or children, according to the rule of the word; when they are evidently a people separated from the world while conversant in it, and are careful to let their light shine before men, not only by talking, but by acting as the disciples of Christ: when they go on steadily, not by fits and starts, prizing the means of grace without resting in them: when it is thus, we can say, Now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord. Then we come forth with pleasure, and our service is our delight, and we are encouraged to hope for an increasing blessing. But if the people in whom we have rejoiced sink into formality or a worldly spirit; if they have dissensions and jealousies among themselves; if they act improperly, and give the enemies occasion to say, There, there, so would we have it; then our hearts are wounded and our zeal damped, and we know not how to speak with liberty. It is my heart's desire and prayer for you, that whether I see you, or else be absent from you, I may know that you stand fast in one spirit and one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel. I am, &c,
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John Newton (1725–1807) was an English preacher, hymn-writer, and former slave trader whose dramatic conversion and ministry profoundly influenced evangelical Christianity. Born in Wapping, London, to John Newton, a merchant ship captain, and Elizabeth Scatliff, a devout Nonconformist who died when he was seven, Newton was raised by his stepmother after his father remarried. Pressed into the Royal Navy at 19, he later joined the slave trade, captaining ships like the Duke of Argyle by 1750, a life marked by cruelty and debauchery until a violent storm off Ireland in 1748 sparked his spiritual awakening at age 22. Self-educated in theology, he left the trade in 1755, becoming a surveyor of tides in Liverpool while pursuing ministry. In 1757, he married Mary Catlett, his childhood sweetheart, with whom he had no surviving children, though they adopted two orphaned nieces. Newton’s preaching career began after his ordination in the Church of England in 1764, when he was appointed curate of Olney, Buckinghamshire, serving there until 1780. His sermons, rich with personal testimony, drew large crowds and fostered a collaboration with poet William Cowper, producing the Olney Hymns (1779), including Newton’s famous “Amazing Grace.” In 1780, he became rector of St. Mary Woolnoth in London, where he preached until nearly blind and deaf, mentoring younger evangelicals like William Wilberforce in the abolitionist cause he embraced late in life, detailed in his 1788 pamphlet Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade. Newton died on December 21, 1807, in London, leaving a legacy as a preacher whose journey from sin to grace inspired hymns, sermons, and a movement against slavery that echoed beyond his time.