1784 April 22



My dear Madam,
 
The kind manner in which you have accepted my excuses in time past, for not writing so soon as I ought, almost embolden me to hope that you will excuse me, without my making any apology, so long as I can assure you that my delays are not owing to the want either of affection or gratitude. And this assurance I can give you very sincerely.
 
Your mention of Molly’s mother was sufficient to engage my attention, and to make me wish I could do any service, but I could not. A recommendation to a hospital for her husband I could easily have procured, but it was not wanted. I gave half a guinea towards their relief – but as for the rest – I am sorry to inform you that Molly turned out very poorly – her mother showed me a letter from her written with seeming seriousness but I have reason to believe it was a language very foreign to her heart. Her conduct and her character have been bad. I would have visited her if I could have seen a probability of its answering a good end, or if I had been pressed to it; but I have not seen her mother since the week after she came to town, when I gave her the money. But enough of an unpleasing subject.
 
Mr Brodbelt unexpectedly came up for a Living. [1] He has since been ill, and I understand Mr Peckwell permits Morse to supply his place till Midsummer. As Mr B_ was acceptable to you and Mr Gardiner I am almost sorry for his removal, but I hope the Lord will provide. [2]
 
I have lately published a book, and want to know how I can send it to you. It is not a large one. The title, is Apologia: Four letters to a Minister of an Independent Church, by a Minister of the Church of England. [3] By the title perhaps you can guess the subject. It is an apology to my Dissenting friends, for my being and continuing in the Establishment, and will serve in a good measure as an apology for my brethren likewise. I hope it is written with temper, yet it gives no small offence to some of the staunch Dissenters – and no wonder, for I have endeavoured to show the absurdity of some of their high claims, as well as the injustice of their severe censures against us. Answers are preparing I am told, more than one or two, but I have informed them in the book that I do not intend to reply. I have no time for dry controversy and disputation. I hope the book may be serviceable, at least to show, that though we have been hitherto silent, it was not for want of something to say for ourselves. I think it will not do some of your friends about Sleaford harm, if they will take the trouble to read it.
 
I was favoured with perfect health, and we were all preserved going and returning to St Mary Woolnoth during the severest part of the frost – but since that first broke, the weather has been still sufficiently severe, and I got a cold, with a sore throat and a little fever, which detained me at home last Sunday – the first Sunday I have been kept from public service since I entered the Ministry in the year 64. [4] Through mercy I am now pretty well again, and was unable to preach yesterday without inconvenience. The prayer of David, often suits my feelings – Take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth. [5] The Lord might justly silence me and forbid me taking his name upon my lips any more. He has many ways of doing this. He might confine me by illness, take away my voice, or my faculties – he might even suffer my judgement to be poisoned by error, or leave me to myself and then I should grow cold or careless, or perhaps dishonour my profession by misconduct, and be ashamed to look his children in the face. This last would be the most terrible way of being silenced. I hope my heart can truly say, Preserve me from error and from sin, in other things thy will be done. Every conceivable trial appears light compared with that of being suffered to grieve the godly, and gladden the hearts of the wicked. A poor friend of ours in Leicestershire, has been sadly entangled in the snares of the enemy. He was one from whom I expected better things – having had a pleasing intercourse with him for many years, but now Alas! He will not answer my letters! [6]
 
I am unwilling to make you wait longer, and therefore I shall perhaps subject you to pay postage for this letter, the franks I have by me for you being no longer current. Against next time I shall be provided. If I can without much delay, I will get it franked now. Perhaps my next may be more at large, just at present I am not in a writing cue. Sometimes my thoughts seem like a ruffled skein of worsted, and I cannot find an end that will wind readily off. It might perhaps seem more pleasant to be always alike, always in tune; but perhaps the variations we feel in ourselves, may be more salutary, and upon the whole more satisfactory. A conviction that we can do nothing of ourselves at one time, may confirm our hope that what we do at another time, is by a gracious influence, and that consequently the Lord is with us.
 
I must not pass this side of the paper, for fear I should not get it franked. We unite in hearty love to you and Mr Gardiner – wishing you the abundance of grace and peace in all your concerns and connections. Mrs Newton and Eliza are much as usual.
 
Believe me to be always
Dear Madam,

Your affectionate and obliged servant
John Newton


Endnotes:
 
 [1] George Campbell Brodbelt was ordained priest on 7 March 1784 and inducted to the Rectory of Aston Sandford a few days later.
[2] It appears from this that Brodbelt may have been preaching at St Andrews, Leasingham.
[3] Apologia was published in London in 1784
[4] It was so cold that winter and early spring that the River Thames had frozen solid, allowing traffic to cross over on the ice. Polly also struggled walking across Moorfields in harsh weather – see letter dated 5 April 1786.
[5] Psalm 119:43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judgments.
[6] This would likely be William Ludlam (1717-1788), ordained mathematician and theologian, whom Newton described as ‘a clergyman of candour’ when they first met in Leicester in March 1775 at the home of Thomas Robinson (1749-1813). Ludlam had admired Newton’s writings, ‘but though he seems to approve, I know not that he is truly enlightened’ Newton added in his diary. However, by April 1777 Newton reported to John Thornton that Ludlam ‘has been brought to the knowledge of the truth by Mr Robinson’s preaching’. William’s brother Thomas Ludlam (1727-1811), former naval chaplain, confrater of Wigston's Hospital, Leicester was initially very supportive of Robinson but his obituary in the Gentleman’s Magazine of 1811 described him as ‘one of the most formidable opponents of the Calvinistic writers’.

Acknowledgements:
Morgan Museum and Library MA 733.22
 

26/05/2026