John Newton's Letters
Christian experience
Dear Sir,
I trust the difference of our sentiments, since we are agreed in the one
thing needful, will no more interrupt our union and fellowship, than the
difference of our features, or the tone of our voices. I wish you to believe
that I would be no advocate for carelessness or formality. I hope my
conscience bears me witness, that, besides trusting in the letter of the
Scripture, I likewise desire an increase of that inward and comfortable
sense of Divine things in which I believe you are happy; and that I wish not
only to be a subject of the kingdom of Jesus, but likewise to have that
kingdom powerfully set up in my heart—which consists of righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Indeed, I see not how these can be distinguished, or what
ground I could have to think myself a subject of his kingdom, unless I
earnestly desired to have that kingdom in all its branches and blessings
flourishing in my soul. I do not know that I live in the neglect of any
means appointed of God for my growth in these blessings, or willingly allow
myself in what is inconsistent with them; I think my heart is habitually in
the pursuit of them, and that there is seldom an hour in any day when lively
communion with my God, in Christ, is not present to my view as the chief
good. To this purpose, through grace, I can venture to express myself to
man, though still it is true, when I come before the Lord,
notwithstanding the diligence and circumspection I would aim at, I see
myself a poor inconsistent creature, that my strength is total weakness, and
all I have is sin.
I confess I am afraid of fixing the criterion of a work
of grace too high, lest the mourners in Zion should be discouraged; because
I find it is the will of God that such should not be discouraged, but
comforted; and because it appears to me, that the Scriptural marks have
respect rather to desires, if real, than to attainments, or at
least to those attainments which are often possessed by people who are kept
very short of sensible comforts: Mat. 5:3-9; Luke 18:12, Luke 18:13; 1Pe.
2:7.
The points between you and I seem chiefly the following:
1. When may a person be properly denominated a believer?
2. What are the proper evidences and necessary
concomitants of a lively thriving frame of spirit?
3. Whether such a degree of faithfulness to light
received, as is consistent with the remnant of a depraved nature in our
present state, will certainly and always preserve our souls from declensions
and winter seasons?
4. Whether that gracious humility, which arises from a
due sense of our own vileness, and of the riches of Divine grace, be
ordinarily attainable without some mortifying experience of the
deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of our own hearts?
A few lines upon each of these particulars, will, I
think, take in the chief parts of your letter.
1. We differ something with respect to what
constitutes a believer. I own nothing has surprised me more, in the
course of our friendly debate, than your supposing that a person should date
his conversion and his commencing a believer, from the time of his receiving
the Gospel truths with that clearness and power as to produce in him an
abiding assurance. The Apostle, in Eph. 1:13, makes a plain
distinction between believing and being sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise. By the experience and observation of many years, I have been more
and more persuaded, that to represent assurance as being of the essence of
faith, is not agreeable to the Scripture, which in many places either
expressly asserts, or strongly intimates, the contrary: John 1:50, and John
20:29; Rom. 10:9; 1Jo. 5:1. Whoever is not a believer, must be an
unbeliever; there can be no medium. Either there are many believers who have
not assurance, or else there are many unbelievers who love the Lord Jesus,
hate sin, are poor in spirit, and adorn the doctrine of the Gospel by their
temper and conversation: and I doubt not but those who now have assurance,
had, before they attained it, a something which wrought by love, and
overcame the world. I know no principle capable of these effects but true
faith, which, though at first it be like a grain of mustard-seed, is the
seed of God through it be faint, it is genuine, as the dawning light is of
the same nature with that which flows from the noonday sun. I allow that
while faith is weak, there may be little solid comfort, if by that
expression abiding comfort be meant. Faith gives safety and spiritual life:
abiding peace and establishment follow the sealing of the Spirit. But though
an infant has not the strength, activity, and understanding, which he will
attain when he arrives to the age of manhood, he is as fully possessed of a
principle of life, while he is an infant, as at any time afterwards.
2. We seem to differ likewise as to the marks of a
lively thriving spirit; at least if any are supposed to be better or
surer than those to which our Lord has promised blessedness, Mat. 5:3-9. He
has said, "Blessed are those who mourn;" but he has not said, More blessed
are those who are comforted. They are, to be sure, more happy at present;
but their blessedness consists not in their present comforts, but in those
perceptions of Gospel truths which form them to that contrite spirit in
which God delights (Isa. 57:18), and which make them capable of Divine
comforts, and spiritual hungering and thirstings after them. I would not
represent myself as a stranger to peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. In the
midst of all my conflicts, I have a heartfelt satisfaction from the Gospel,
which nothing else could give. But I mean, though this be with me as an
abiding principle, it rarely affords me what I think you intend when you
speak of sensible comforts. I cannot feel that warmth of heart, that glowing
of love, which the knowledge of such a Savior should inspire. I account it
my sin, and I feel it my burden, that I cannot. And when I truly do this,
when I can abhor myself for my stupidity, mourn over it, and humbly look up
to the Lord for relief against it, I judge my soul to be at such times as
much alive to God, as it would be if he saw fit to increase my comfort.
Let me always either rejoice in him, or mourn after him:
I would leave the alternative to him, who knows best how to suit his
dispensations to my state; and I trust he knows that I do not say this
because I set a small value upon his presence. As to the experience of the
Apostles, I believe they were patterns to all succeeding believers; but with
some regard to the several trials and services to which we may be called in
this world, He distributes severally to all his people according to his own
will, yet with a wise and gracious accommodation to the circumstances and
situations of each. The Apostle Paul connects the aboundings of his
consolations with the aboundings of his afflictions, and with the state of
the people to whom he preached; 2Co. 1:4-7. And if, instead of preaching the
Gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum in the face of persecution, he had lived
in a land of liberty, and been confined to a single church, for anything I
know his cup might not have run over so often. Succeeding ministers of the
Gospel, when called to very laborious and painful services, have, for the
like reasons, been often favored with a double portion of that joy which
makes hard things easy and bitter things sweet.
And, in general, those who walk humbly before Him, may
expect trials; and in proportion, He will favor them with peculiar comforts.
It is in this way he in a great measure fulfills his promise of making their
strength equal to their day. And I am enabled to trust him in this matter,
that if he should at any time see fit to call me to a more difficult and
dangerous sphere of service, or lead me into the furnace of affliction, he
would, if he saw it needful, support and refresh me by such manifestations
of his glory and love, as I know but little of at present. In a word, a
humble, dependent frame of spirit, perseverance in the use of appointed
means, care to avoid all occasions of sin, an endeavor to glorify God in our
callings, and an eye to Jesus as our all in all—these things are to me sure
indications that the soul is right, that the Lord is present, and that grace
is thriving and in exercise, whether sensible consolations abound or not.
3. I propose the third question, concerning such a
degree of faithfulness to light received, as is consistent with the remnants
of a depraved nature, because I apprehend one effect of indwelling sin
is, to render it morally impossible for us to be entirely faithful to that
light and power which God has given us. It may sound like a contradiction to
say, we cannot do what we desire: but there are many enigmas in a believer's
experience, at least in mine; and I never expect to meet the man that knows
his own heart, who will say he is always faithful, diligent, and obedient,
to the full extent of his ability: I rather expect he would confess, with
me, that he feels a need of more ability, and fresh supplies of grace, to
enable him to make a better improvement of what he has already received. If
some, as you suppose, in their dullest frames can read the Bible, go to the
Throne of Grace, and mourn (as they ought) over what is amiss, I must say
for myself, I can, and I cannot. Without doubt I can take the Bible in my
hand, and force myself to read it; I can kneel down, and I can see I ought
to mourn: but to understand and attend to what I read, to engage my heart in
prayer, or to be duly humbled under the sense of so dark and dissipated a
state of mind; these things, at some seasons, I can no more do than I can
raise the dead; and yet I cannot plead positive inability: I am satisfied
that what prevents me is my sin, but it is the sin of my nature, the sin
that dwells in me. And I expect it will be thus with me at times, in a
greater or less degree, until this body of sin shall be wholly destroyed.
Yet I believe the Lord is with me, even when he seems to
be absent, otherwise my corruptions, at such seasons, might easily prevail
to betray me into open or allowed sin, which, blessed be the grace and care
of my good Shepherd, is not the case. I know not if I rightly understand the
expression, "We may humbly hope, that those things we fall into, which are
not in our power to prevent, will not be set to our account." The least of
the evils I feel, and which seem most involuntary, if set to my account,
would ruin me; and I trust, that even my worst deviations shall not appear
against me, because I am a believer in Jesus: and I know, and am sure, that
I do not wish to continue in sin that grace may abound. My conscience bears
me witness, that I would not desire the rule of duty to be narrowed, or
accommodated to my imperfections in a single instance. If the expression
only means, that these unavoidable effects of our evil nature should not
break our peace of conscience, or discourage us in our approaches to God, I
am of the same mind; through mercy I have seldom any more doubt of my
acceptance in the Beloved, when in a dark frame, than when I am most favored
with liberty.
4. Whether true evangelical humility, and an enlarged
view of the grace of God in Christ triumphing over all obstacles, be
ordinarily attainable without an experience of declensions, backslidings,
and repeated forgiveness? is the last question I shall consider. I dare
say you will do me the justice to believe, that I would not advise anyone to
run into sin in order to get a knowledge of his own heart: David broke his
bones thereby; he obtained an affecting proof of his inability of standing
in his own strength, and of the skill and goodness of his Physician who
healed him: yet no man in his wits would break his bones for the sake of
making experiments, if he were ever so sure they would be well set again.
You think that a believer is never more humble in his own eyes, or admires
Jesus more, than when he is filled with joy and peace: I readily allow, that
the present impressions of Divine love are humbling; however, the direct
tendency of gracious consolations in themselves, is one thing; what evils
they may afterwards occasion through the desperate depravity of our hearts,
is another. We have a memorable case in point to explain my meaning. The
Apostle Paul's recollection of his course while in a natural state, and the
singular manner of his conversion, were evidently suited to make him a
humble Christian, and he was so. By an especial favor of the Lord, he was
afterwards taken up into the third heaven; what he saw or heard there he has
not told us, but surely he met with nothing that could have a tendency to
make him proud; doubtless he saw Jesus in his glory, and the humble
spiritual worship of heaven; a sight which we might deem sufficient to make
him walk in self-abasement all the days of his life: but Paul, though an
eminent saint, was still liable to the effects of indwelling sin; he was in
danger of being exalted through the abundance of revelations, and the Lord.
his wise and gracious keeper, saw fit, in order to prevent it, that a
messenger from Satan should be given him to buffet him.
Pride is so subtle, that it can gather strength even from
those gracious manifestations which seem directly calculated lo mortify it;
so dangerous, that a messenger from Satan himself may be esteemed a mercy,
if overruled and sanctified by the Lord to make or keep us more humble:
therefore, though we can never be too earnest in striving against sin,
too watchful in abstaining from all appearance of evil, and though those
who wait upon the Lord may comfortably hope that he will preserve them from
such things as would dishonor their profession in the sight of men; yet I
apprehend those who appear most to adorn the Gospel in their outward
conversation, are conscious of many things between the Lord and their own
souls which covers them with shame, and that his tenderness and mercy to
them, notwithstanding their perverseness, constrains them with admiration to
adopt the language of Micah, "Who is a God like unto you, who pardons
iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?"
And I believe likewise, that, without such striking and
repeated proofs of what is in their hearts, they would not so feelingly
enter into the spirit of Job's confession, "Behold, I am vile!" nor would
they have such a lively sense of their obligations to the merciful care and
faithfulness of their great Shepherd, or of their entire and absolute
dependence upon him, for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and
redemption. I find these considerations useful and necessary to reconcile me
to my lot. The Lord knows what I need, and what I can bear: gladly would I
receive, earnestly would I desire, more of his comforts while here; but if I
mourn now, I hope to be comforted in heaven; in the mean time it is more
immediately necessary for me, both as a Christian and as a minister, that I
should be humbled; the Lord's will be done. I cannot pretend to determine
what ministers, or what body of people, come nearest the character of the
primitive time; but in my judgment they are the happiest Christians, who
have the lowest thoughts of themselves, and in whose eyes Jesus is most
glorious and precious.