John Newton's Politics

In Newton’s December 13, 1793 letter to John Ryland, Jr., commenting on the French Revolution and Christian speculation as to why it was occurring, he writes:

“…Great things are upon the wheel. But though the Lord’s path is in the great waters, my path of duty seems plain enough. I am to preach the gospel, mourn over my own sins, and the sins of professors [Christians] and of the nation, and to stir up as many as I can to stand in the breach by prayer. I hope many are thus employed. For the rest, I know the Lord reigns, that the wrath of man, so far as permitted to act, shall praise him, shall be overruled to the accomplishment of his wise purposes, and that the remainder thereof he will restrain. All the designs of men, which do not coincide with his, shall be frustrated. In the meantime, he will be a sanctuary to them that fear him.

“He bids his people not [to] be terrified. They are warranted to trust in him, though the earth should tremble, and the mountains be cast into the midst of the sea. Public measures, whether right or wrong, are under his direction. If sword, famine, pestilence, or discord, go through the land, he sends them. If he take wisdom from the wise, or courage from the bold, I cannot wonder that they do not prosper, when the Lord has forsaken them. Sennacherib and Cyrus were God’s servants; no less so, though in a different way, than Moses or Joshua. They performed his commission, and they could do no more.

“If I were lawfully called to a civil office, I would endeavor to acquire proper knowledge, and to use every means in my power to serve my country. At present, I wish to serve it by prayer, and by employing my influence to soothe angry spirits, and to cultivate peace on all sides. Let the dead bury the dead, and the potsherds of the earth strive with each other, I am a stranger and a pilgrim among them. My conversation/citizenship is in a different kingdom, a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Such are the outlines of my politics.”

(Note, the words in italics are supplied by me, in the original letter Newton uses a Greek word, found in Philippians 3:20, that can be translated – citizenship, commonwealth, conversation [way of life] ).

Wise Counsel, John Newton’s Letters to John Ryland, Jr., Ed. Grant Gordon, Banner of Truth, 2009.