1780 September 28

 

My dear Madam,
 
There was a time when I little thought a letter from you would have lain by me unanswered so long as your last has done. But then I little thought of living in London, nor indeed what living in London meant. My situation is the best apology I can make for my silence, and perhaps if you knew all the consequences it has involved me in, you would allow it to be sufficient. If I sometimes complained of want of leisure at Olney, surely I was unreasonable, I had usually more hours at my disposal then in one day, then I sometimes have now in two or three weeks.
 
Of late I have deferred writing in hopes of informing you that my letters were just coming abroad. One volume and about half the other is printed off, but what began rapidly goes on so slowly (I know not why) that instead of Michaelmas as I expected, it will possibly be near Christmas before they are published. You will see them one of these days I hope in the Newspapers under the title of Cardiphonia – by Omicron. [1] These letters I particularly address to my correspondents, they contain the substance I suppose of all I could write to them, and I must beg them to be accepted as a substitute for my future lack of service, as between increase of engagements, and increase of years, I believe I must in a great measure give up the pleasure of letter writing. A letter which I formally could dispatch in an hour or two, is now sometimes a fortnight in hand.
 
When I had the pleasure of seeing Mr Gardiner, I desired him to present our congratulations to you, on the happy events of another safe child-birth and another living child – it seems much out of time to repeat it now, yet I cannot but express my satisfaction in all that concerns your peace and welfare. [2] May all your children be children of the covenant, your comforts upon earth, and your companions in glory!
 
I thank you, Madam for your prayers for us. We need them, and I hope we have the benefit of them. The Lord has been gracious to us in our new situation. Mrs Newton, though not free from indisposition, has had much better health here, and for some years past in Olney. My reception as a Minister among my new people has been remarkably peaceable, and though I have not so many of my immediate parishioners to hear me as I could wish, they show no bitterness, and give me no trouble. The congregation is made up from all quarters, the auditory is attentive and (on a Sunday evening especially) large. I am favoured with liberty in preaching, I have many marks of acceptance, and I hope some tokens of usefulness. My persuasion that I followed the Lord’s call in my removal, has been abundantly confirmed by the event.
 
I thank you likewise for your kind sympathy with the people of Olney. Mr Browne the vicar, [3] thought proper to appoint for my successor, a person who though reputed a Gospel preacher, I well knew was not calculated to suit the place, and the only person whom I begged him not to send. [4] The consequence has been as I feared. They are not comfortable with him, and things are more likely to grow worse than better. The Lord has likewise visited them with the smallpox, and putrid disorders – which have been very fatal. The town has been filled with distress and confusion almost ever since I left it. But I hope all will work for good. Olney had been for some time to me a place of trial. Most of the old believers were removed, several who were deemed professors walked disorderly, and the bulk of the town was hardened under the long continuance, frequency and variety of Gospel preaching. I trust I never could have taken a step towards removing myself, but when the Lord opened this door, I saw it was both my duty and my mercy to accept it. I would hope there is yet a blessing for Olney. Mr Browne is far in years, and when he dies I have little doubt but Lord Dartmouth the Patron [5] will put in a suitable Minister, and by that time, I hope they will be humbled and disposed to receive him properly, and to prize him.
 
I was glad to find your letter written in a strain of liberty and peace. We have many enemies and fights, and some wounds, but there are likewise seasons of refreshment. Conflicts prepare for victory, and rest is sweet after a storm. You are still in the land of change, Satan though baffled is not slain. We have not yet attained, but we have been helped thus far, by one whose love is unchangeable, and his arm unwearied. He allows and teaches us to argue from the past and present to the future, and to say because he has delivered, and does deliver, therefore we trust that he will yet deliver us.
 
There is indeed some danger in speaking of ourselves, or of what the Lord has done for us; but they who are most aware of the danger are least liable to it. We are to show forth his praise, and not wholly to smother his mercies in silence. There are times when we may follow David’s pattern, Psalm 66:16, [6] and may be useful to others. Satan knows this and would stop our mouths if he can, sometimes by suggesting there is more humility in not speaking. But we are members one of another, and should mutually contribute to each other’s encouragement. I hope the next time Dr Ford sees you, your heart will be enlarged, and your tongue like the pen of a ready writer. If you choose not to say much of yourself, talk about Jesus – he is the dear uniting subject, which makes Many One – which is always the same, and always new.
 
May we not hope to see you in London this winter? I have some longing desire to see you in this world, but I cannot expect to wait on you at Leasingham. We join in affectionate respects to you and to Mr Gardiner.
I am my dear Madam,
Your very affectionate and obliged servant
John Newton
 
Charles Square Hoxton London
ye 28 September 80

[to]
Mrs Gardiner
Leasingham
near Sleaford
Lincolnshire
 

Endnotes:
 
 [1] Newton asked Cowper ‘to hammer me out a title and a motto—my name is not to be prefixed. Can you compound me a nice Greek word…?’ Cowper responded with Cardiphonia: or The Utterance of the Heart. It was published ‘By the author of Omicron's letters’ (London: 1781) in 2 vols, subsequently included in Newton’s Works. The letters were written privately to a wide range of Newton’s family and friends including a nobleman, Anglican, Baptist, Independent and Moravian ministers, a childhood friend, a servant and a politician’s aunty.
[2] Thomas Gardiner was baptised at St Andrew’s Leasingham on 4 November 1779.
[3] Moses Browne (1704-1787), vicar in absentia of St Peter & St Paul Olney, chaplain of Morden College, Blackheath.
[4] Benjamin Page first appears in Newton’s diary in October 1778, when it seems he was curate in the neighbouring village of Clifton Reynes. Newton commented on Page’s sermon that he ‘said nothing [subsequently inserted: ‘much’] amiss  – but I rather wondered if he was so highly set up, by those whom I thought judges’. A few days later when Page preached again at Olney Newton wrote: ‘He is a loud and earnest rather than a judicious preacher. But he has been much admired and followed by many since he came to Clifton … yet the sermon would not please hearers of a good judgement. … He aimed to deduce his subject from Genesis 35:8  in which according to him Deborah signified the Law, Rebecca the Church, and the oak denoted the Cross of Christ, under which the power of the law dies and is buried as to believers. Some admire the ingenuity of those who can find what they please in such quaint texts...’ To William Bull Newton added that he had made ‘wild work of it’.
[5] William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth ((1731-1801), then Lord Privy Seal, an evangelical who had offered Newton the living of Olney in 1764 (Browne had declared he was resigning for Blackheath, but decided at the last minute to retain his title, leaving Newton effectively curate-in-charge instead of vicar).
[6] Psalm 66:16 Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.

Acknowledgements:
Morgan Museum and Library MA 733.12

 

18/05/2026