The Works of John Newton, vol. 6
Overview
The final volume of Newton’s Works includes 236 letters and writings from Newton to his fellow preachers, to members of his congregation and community, and to unnamed individuals dealing with personal matters and in need of spiritual counsel. This collection also contains memoirs, commentary on social topics, political reflections, and Newton’s own thoughts on the slave trade. The volume concludes with an index to the entire six-volume set of Newton’s works.
- Text from the 1820 Hamilton, Adams & Co. edition—which also underlies the 1985 Banner of Truth reprint
- All Scripture references linked to the Bibles in your library
Top Highlights
“Every year, and indeed every day, affords me new proofs of the evil and deceitfulness of my heart, and of my utter insufficiency to think even a good thought of myself. But I trust, in the course of various exercises, I have been taught more of the power, grace, and all-sufficiency of Jesus. I can commend him to others, not from hearsay, but from my own experience. His name is precious; his love is wonderful; his compassions are boundless. I trust I am enabled to choose him as my all, my Lord, my Strength, my Saviour, my Portion. I long for more grace to love him better; for, alas! I have reason to number myself among the least of saints and the chief of sinners.” (Page 58)
“Every plan, which aims at the welfare of a nation, in defiance of his authority and laws, however apparently wise, will prove to be essentially defective, and, if persisted in, ruinous. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and he has engaged to plead the cause and vindicate the wrongs of the oppressed. It is righteousness that exalteth a nation; and wickedness is the present reproach, and will, sooner or later, unless repentance intervene, prove the ruin of any people.” (Pages 524–525)
“In a time of sickness we may see in the strongest light the privilege of being a believer, to have a right to cast ourselves and our all upon the covenant mercies of a God in Christ. Sickness is a bitter evil indeed to those who have no God to go to; who can have no relief from their earthly friends, and yet know not where else to apply either for patience or deliverance.” (Page 72)
In few writers are Christian doctrine, experience, and practice more happily balanced than in the author of these letters, and few write with more simplicity, piety, and force.
—Charles Spurgeon
Grace, like water, always flows downward, to the lowest place. I know no one who embodies this principle better than John Newton . . .
—Philip Yancey, author, Grace Notes
I keep John Newton on my selectest shelf of spiritual books . . .
—Alexander Whyte, Professor of New Testament, New College, 1909
He moved in the lowest and vilest circles and sank to the depths of vice, and yet there emerges from this stormy story a man who not only commands the affection of any humane soul, but who showed himself then and afterwards capable of the highest Christian graces.
—Erik Routley, pastor and hymn writer
- Title: The Works of John Newton, vol. 6
- Author: John Newton
- Publisher: Hamilton, Adams & Co.
- Publication Date: 1820
- Pages: 648
John Newton was born on July 24, 1725, and attended a boarding school in Stratford in Essex, during his childhood years. In 1736, Newton joined the merchant marine, and in March 1744, he set out on the HMS Harwich. His attempted desertion from the royal navy in 1745 led to a severe punishment. Newton was stripped of his rank, and transferred to a slave trading ship in 1748. In 1748, Newton was nearly shipwrecked. The storm initiated a crisis of faith in Newton’s life, and marked the first point of Newton’s conversion. He continued in the slave trade, however, until 1754.
In 1755, Newton returned to England permanently, and began studying the Bible and learning the ancient languages. He became a lay preacher, and was eventually ordained in the Church of England in 1764. He served for many years at the church in Olney in Buckinghamshire, where he became a well-known and much-respected preacher. In 1779, Newton became the rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, and in the 1780s and 1790s, a prominent leader in the evangelical movement in England. He was also influential in the lives of William Wilberforce and other leaders of the abolitionist movement. Newton died in 1807.