John Newton [at Liverpool], to Rev. Mr. Caleb Warhurst at Arthur Clegg’s, Manchester, undated [late September 1762].

Dear Brother

         Thos Rothwell called at my house yesterday but I was from home—I have long been endebted a visit to Bolton—& likewise desirous of the sight of Mr Warhurst (since I cannot get a letter from him)—I now propose to spend this next Sabbath at Bolton if the Lord please, & to call on you at Manchester on Monday—unless I should (which I question) find it convenient to stretch forward into Yorkshire, in which case I shall not be with you till the end of the week.

         But as Mr Burgess informed me in his last that Mr Waldegraves Ordination is to be sometime in this month, I wish this to beg, that if it should be fixed for next week, you would inform me by tomorrow or Thursdays post, that when I am at Bolton I may turn my horses head to Tockholes at once—& perhaps Mr Burgess’ notice might come on Saturday when I am not in Liverpool to receive it.

         I should be glad of an opportunity to see Mr Scott either at Tockholes or at his own house to let him know that I am disposed to accept a call with in his connection, & under the sanction of his judgment & recommendation, if any favourable opportunity should offer, & he thinks proper to encourage me. I begin to be weary of standing all the day idle & there seems not the least probability of beginning any thing at Liverpool. The Lord has made me willing nay desirous to set about it. I would prefer it to any thing else. I have made all the overtures towards it that the situation of things will bear—but it will not do there is not a person (one woman excepted) who is willing to concur in the necessary preliminaries.

         If I should not have opportunity of meeting wth Mr Scott, I take the liberty to desire you to acquaint him with my case. And to tell him that so far as I know my own heart, I have quite done with the established Church so called—not out of anger or despair, but from a conviction that the Lord has been wise & good in disappointing my views in that quarter   And I believe if the admission I once so earnestly sought was now freely offered, I could hardly if at all accept it. 

         If I come to Manchester on Monday I hope to stay two days—but I am deeply engaged to lodge with Mr Philips—as they were so kind as to abide with us, I make the first advances towards an acquaintance.

         I hope your soul prospers—that the Lord comforts refreshes & strengthens you in your inner man & your outward labours. I hope the house which you have built to his name, is plied with his glory—Happy they that know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ—but happy above all others are those who receive appointment & power to proclaim this grace to poor sinners, & who find the Lord confirming their word with signs following—To be thus engaged—among a few faithful lively people, to dispose all my faculties studies & time to this service, is the one thing that I continually desire after the Lord, & which I think I could without hesitation prefer to the honours & possessions of a Lord or a prince.

         I believe you pray for me Dear Sir continue so to do—entreat the Lord to empty me of self, to fill me with grace—to make me humble obedient watchful & spiritual in all things—to nourish me daily with the bread & water of life to favour me with these transferring manifestations of his love, which the world knows nothing of, & then let him do with me as seemeth good in his sight. And to this purpose my poor petitions shall not be wanting for you My love to Mr & Mrs Clegg & all their family   May the love of God our Saviour be with you & with yr affectie

                                                                                 J Newton

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer UP, 2009), pp. 8-10 (annotated version); also Eng. MS. 347, fol. 240, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. The postmark appears to bear a Liverpool stamp; internal evidence suggests that Newton was in Liverpool when he wrote the letter. A version of this letter was published in the Congregational Magazine 8 (1825): 132. Newton was making frequent visits to Manchester at this time as he was considering becoming a Dissenting minister. John Byrom recorded in his diary (20 April 1762) that Newton had “come to Manchester upon account of the opening of the new meeting (house) at the upper end of this Croft to-morow, and to see some ministers and friends,” among whom, as this letters suggests, were Warhurst and Clegg. See William Urwick, Historical Sketches of Nonconformity in the County Palatine of Chester (London: S. Fletcher, 1864), 293.