12           25 January 1797

 
[Mrs(sic) Ring, Surgeon, Reading, Berks] [marked Janry 25 97]
 
Come, My dear Madam, I think you have wept enough. [1] I now invite and entreat you to wipe away your tears. You have had a great wound, and you cannot but feel it; but it was not the wound of an enemy. I hope you are now aiming to say, The will of the Lord be done. [2] For this afflictive dispensation did not spring out of the ground, nor happen by chance. It was the appointment of Him, whose wisdom and love are infinite. He could easily have prevented it, and undoubtedly would, if it was not his purpose to overrule it eventually for good.  The removal of Mr Benamor, [3] was not so public and general a loss as yours; but it touched me very sensibly. But I was soon brought to acquiesce, and to adopt the Psalmist’s words, I was dumb and opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it. [4]
 
Your beloved Pastor is gone a little before you. We expect and hope to follow him soon. It will be a joyful meeting where we shall part no more. In the meantime, you will do well to consider that he neither did nor could do you any good, but as an instrument. And that his Lord and Master who honoured him with acceptance and usefulness still lives, and the supply of the Spirit is still with him. What did the first disciples feel, when their Master was not only taken from them, but crucified before their eyes? Yet He had said unto them, a little before, It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not the Comforter will not come to you. [5] Surely that Comforter whose influence was more than a compensation for the want of our Saviour’s visible presence, can fully repair our losses, and heal our wounds. And He [is] as near to his people now, and as willing and able to help them, as he was then. The fountain from which dear Mr Cadogan obtained the water of life which he communicated to his people, is still full and still flowing, and you are still welcome to come to Him and drink. But we are prone to lean too hard upon the Ministers by whom the Lord conveys his blessings to us, as if they were necessary. Perhaps to cure us of this mistake, is one reason why he often unexpectedly takes them from us.
 
I have been at Reading in spirit almost continually since I first heard the news. I was with you particularly so on Sunday last. [6] Methought I saw many tears shed, and heard many sighs, at St Giles! I did not blame you; your loss is great. The first emotions of grief are unavoidable, and He who knows our frame, allows to us, that these things for the present are not joyous but grievous. [7] But neither shall I commend you, if you indulge a continuance and excess of grief. Now the Lord has made known his will by the event, our part is submission. I pray that you may be willing to be helped, and then I am sure He will help you. Say not, What shall we do? The Lord has many resources when ours seem wholly to fail. I remember when my friend Mr Talbot was removed; they who loved him, too hastily thought the glory was departed from Reading. [8] They knew not that his successor, whom they first disliked, was appointed and sent to show them still greater things.
 
In answer to your kind invitation, I say, I cannot conveniently come before March. And even then, unless I see a real necessity I shall choose to defer my visit a little farther in the summer, that I may take Reading in my way to Southampton, where if I live and am able to travel, I shall probably spend a few weeks. But I feel I grow older apace, I hardly know how to think of going abroad. And I have likewise abundance of business at home. However, I dare not look so far forward. I trust I shall surely come to you, and at the fittest time if such be the Lord’s pleasure. My own good will is not wanting. I have reason to love Reading. The pleasant days I passed there in August, are fresh and often upon my mind.
 
Give my love and Miss Catlett’s to all our kind friends – to Lady Marsh and her son. [9] I mention no other names for fear I should omit some. Yet I must mention Mr and Mrs Robinson. I hope he received my letter. I trust the Lord will provide both for him and for you. I think if the Living was in my gift, he should have it. It is in the Lord’s gift. I doubt not but every proper step will be taken to obtain a Gospel Minister. It is possible, the Lord may send one who as yet knows not the Gospel, to learn it from its gracious effects on Mr Cadogan’s people, and the same work may be still carried on by another hand. If He is pleased to keep them close together in a spirit of union, love and prayer, I shall entertain great hopes. A patient waiting upon the Lord in prayer, has often done wonders, for he is able to do more than we can ask or think.
 
We join in best love to you and Mr Ring. Remember us to your and our friends at Basingstoke. May the Lord bless you indeed!
 
I am Your affectionate and obliged John Newton
 
No. 6                     25 January [17]97
 

Endnotes:
 
 [1] William Bromley Cadogan (1751-1797), vicar of St Giles, Reading, and through whom the Rings had been converted, died suddenly on 18 January 1797. His curate being away, Cadogan had preached three times on Sunday 8 January (Cecil, in his biography of Cadogan, mistakenly put ‘Sunday 7 January’) then went out in the evening, in severe weather, to baptize a child. These exertions took their toll. By Thursday evening after his usual lecture he had an inflammation of the bowels, which was temporarily relieved by medication but which worsened the following Tuesday. He asked his wife to read to him from the Bible. As she progressed through Proverbs 8, when she reached verse 35, Whoso findeth me, findeth life, he said ‘Stop, stop, that is enough for me!’ About midnight he said to his medical attendant (Thomas Ring?), ‘pressing his hand very affectionately, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.’ (Proverbs 3:5,6) Cadogan died on Wednesday 18 January 1797. Charles Simeon (1759-1836) in his Funeral Sermon for Cadogan, preached in Reading, based on Cadogan’s recommended text for 1797, Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, forever, said: ‘Almost the last words he uttered were these, “Weep not for me; I am very happy, I die in the faith of the Lord Jesus”’.
[2] Acts 21:13,14 Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.
[3] James Haym Benamor (1768-1796), cf 15 August 1796 and 31 August 1796.
[4] Psalm 39:9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
[5] John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
[6] Sunday 24 January 1796 was the first Sunday the church met for a service without Cadogan. Charles Simeon, a native of Reading, preached a Funeral Sermon for him on Friday 29 January from Hebrews 13:8.
[7] Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
[8] William Talbot (1717 – 1774), vicar of St Giles immediately before Cadogan. The Talbots had been a great source of strength to Newton in his early days of ministry in Warwick, when they lived at Kineton. He stayed with them in their vicarage. Talbot was appointed vicar of St Gilles, Reading in 1768. Some 200-300 people were converted through his ministry there. His death was also sudden. Talbot was just setting out to visit Lord Dartmouth (1731-1801) in London when he was asked to pray with a sick parishioner. By the time he arrived in London at the home of William Wilberforce (17721-1777) uncle to the future MP), he was suffering from a ‘putrid fever’ and died within days. Newton felt the church nationwide ‘could hardly have sustained a heavier loss in the removal of a minister’. Talbot’s widow Sarah (1708-1785) stayed on in Reading to pray for the new vicar Cadogan, who was eventually converted through her prayers and patient kindness. Newton published four of his letters to Mrs Talbot in Cardiphonia.
[9] Lady Marsh and her son – Catherine née Case (c.1743-1824), wife of Colonel Sir Charles Marsh (c.1735 – 1805), and William (1775-1864), their 3rd son. William was converted through Cadogan’s ministry and became a much-valued minister himself. cf 31 August 1796

Acknowledgements:
Descendants of Sophia Ring
British Library