1785 February 25 It is true, My dear Madam, you have every claim to my attention, and the difficulty and solitariness of your situation plead for a double share of it. I shall make no merit of writing when I can, it is doing myself pleasure; nor trouble you with much apology when I have been tardy, because I shall only be so when I cannot help it.   I have to thank you for two letters. In the former you ask my advice where you do not seem to want it. Indeed it has happened in many particulars that we have thought alike, which by no means gives me a worse opinion of my own judgement. I hope you may both do good and get good by occasionally attending the preaching at Sleaford, but I cannot wish you so far to give your public sanction to the late novel ordinations, [1] as to receive the Lord’s supper from the hands of the preachers, nor indeed anywhere out of the Established church, as you are situated. I am not very High Church. As to the young men of the New Establishment, if they preach the Gospel in a right spirit I wish them good success and much acceptance, but I do not consider them as having acquired any new powers or authority by the imposition of hands they have received. I do not doubt but good has been and will be done among them and by them, but I do not think their scheme a good one, but rather rash, inconsiderate, and likely to produce some unpleasant consequences. As I claim the privilege of judging and acting for myself, I ought to allow it to others. We are not bound, nay perhaps we have no right to censure everything which we do not approve, but neither are we bound to act as if we did approve, what in our hearts we do not.   Your second letter is in a more plaintive strain than the former. Your spirits were weaker when you wrote it. I recollect in what circumstances you have been formally once and again, when your letters have been in this strain, perhaps it may be so now. However the truths of God have always the same place in your heart; though your perceptions of them are not always equally comfortable. You are in safe hands, and if your path is sometimes rather dark, he whom you love and serve in his own good time brings you into the light again. The foundation you build upon, is sure, you may be shaken but you cannot be overthrown, for the Lord is your refuge. The difficulties and exercises you meet with, are designed to manifest as well as to strengthen your graces. When the Mariner puts to sea, he would be glad of a pleasant passage, and would proceed to his port by the shortest line. But he knows beforehand, that neither the wind nor the weather are at his command, and therefore he prepares himself to make the best of them as they may offer. His skill as a Mariner teaches him to proportion his canvas to the gale, and when the wind will not permit him to sail directly to his designed harbour, to aim as near it as he can, to trim his sails and manage his tacks to the best advantage, and thus by managing his opportunities, he arrives at last, though perhaps he has been forced to make many a circuit in his passage. For want of this skill a parcel of unexperienced landsmen in the same circumstances would be in danger of oversetting their vessel, or losing their masts, or would certainly involve themselves in great difficulties. But were the winds and weather always fair then anybody might go to sea. The skill of the Mariner is displayed by the turns and varieties he is exposed to. Something of this seamanship if I may so say, this manoeuvring art, belongs to the spiritual life. We are liable to storms and changes, and they who have not a measure of what the Apostle beautifully styles the meekness of wisdom, [2] make bad worse, by their want of management. Too many professors in their family and social church relations, are often in jeopardy and bring trouble upon themselves and others, because the power of self-will prevails, and they cannot accommodate themselves to the force and direction of the winds. They want to carry their point just now, when it is indeed impracticable, which might perhaps be easily attained if they had patience to wait the Lord’s time. They whom he teaches and forms, must not therefore expect that all will go to their wish, but they know how to suit themselves to the occasions of every day – when to speak and when to be silent, when to make a push as it were, and when it is best to sit still and wait for a more favourable hour. I believe the Lord has given you a measure of this dexterity, and therefore he gives you occasions of displaying it. You have need of patience, and you have the throne of grace always near from whence to obtain fresh supplies; in the meantime your pilot is infallible, and though you have not the direction of the wind and weather, he has, which is much better for you. And you have often found, that when the storm is at its height, a word from him can hush it into a calm.   I think I told you that though I signed the testimonial for the Curate of Bloxham, I am not sufficiently acquainted with him to recommend him, or to be any way responsible for him. I know nothing against him, and from his having been so long with Dr Conyers, [3] I hope well of him, but can say nothing from my own personal knowledge.   I think myself happy in your confidence, and hope I shall never deserve to forfeit it. I have some idea of your path, but however slippery and difficult it may be, the Lord when he weigheth the path of the just, Isaiah 26, [4] the expression may signify He pondereth it, considers it with the closest attention, not with the indifference of a mere spectator, but his wisdom is engaged in disposing it, and his compassionate eye fixed upon them, as they walk in it. Or he weigheth it (as he weigheth the mountains and hills) in a balance. [5] The physician does not determine his prescriptions by scruples and grains, according to the strength of the patient, and the nature of the disease, with greater exactness – than he proportions the dispensations he allots to his people, to the strength he gives them, and to what their case requires. Oh were we able always to look upon him, as thus always looking upon us, how would it compose our minds, and silence are fears!   Wait patiently Madam, and hope comfortably – nothing is too hard for the Lord. What we cannot do by many arguments, he can effect in the twinkling of an eye, by a single glance of thought. Your many prayers, though yet unanswered, are not unnoticed. But submission to his holy will becomes us, and this is seldom learnt by a few short and hasty lessons. It usually requires years of study and conflict to attain it. When we are brought to lie low at his footstool, and to give up all into his hands, we are in the best posture to receive the desire of our hearts.   We are much as we were when I wrote last. My dear and I join in affectionate respects to you and Mr Gardiner.   I am Your affectionate and obliged servant John Newton   Hoxton 25 February 85   Just as I was about sealing my letter, a barrel of eggs arrived! I take it for granted from you, and I am glad they came in time, for me to transmit you our thanks, by this conveyance.   I have not answered your complaints in detail, because I know that one comfortable hour of sunshine will dispel them all. A godly person may say, The thought of death has no terror but to the guilty. But I do not think it a judicious saying nor indeed a true one, unless taken with large explanations. We have all guilt, but if believers in Jesus, we are not properly guilty. To say no true believer is terrified at any time by the thought of death, is rash and false. If I heard a person say so, I should think that however godly, he knew but little of his own heart, of the nature of the human frame, or of the power of Satan in temptation. I should take it for granted – he was not one of those who are accustomed to do their business in great waters. The Lord will be with his people in the hour of death, and it is well for us he has promised it, or it would make the stoutest tremble. To talk of death by the fireside is one thing, actually to look at in the face is quite another thing. I remember an eminently godly person who being asked, what he thought of dying – said, “If the Lord be pleased to smile upon me, then I will smile upon death.” I may venture to say this, and you need say no more – For he will not leave you to die all alone by yourself. Remember Madam, godly people are often [ ] by the touch and tone of the word.   [to] Mrs Gardiner Westfield near Sleaford Lincolnshire   Endnotes:    [1] Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon (1707-1791) established many proprietary chapels under the Church of England. In 1782 legislation required them to be registered as dissenting chapels if they could not fully subscribe to the Church. The ‘Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion’ began ordaining their own dissenting ministers in 1783. [2] James 3:13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. [3] Richard Conyers (1725-1786), formerly rector of Helmsley, was offered the living of Deptford in 1775, following the death of his wife Jane (1718-1774), by her brother John Thornton (1720-1790). [4] Isaiah 26:7 The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just. [5] Isaiah 40:12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Acknowledgements: Morgan Museum and Library MA 733.26

26/05/2026