John Newton’s autobiography written in the form of letters to a friend.

 

Service to Liberty (1892)

 

An account of the Life of John Newton until 1757 when he was beginning to prepare for the ministry

 

 

Introduction 

Letter I         The Lord’s providential care

Letter II       Early Life (1725 -1742)

Letter III      December 1742 – January 1745

Letter IV          

Letter V

Letter VI

Letter VII

Letter VIII  

Letter IX

Letter X

Letter XI

Letter XII

Letter XIII

Letter XIV

 

 

From Letter XIII

John Newton writes:

‘During the time I was engaged in the slave trade I never had the least scruple as to its lawfulness. I was upon the whole satisfied with it as the appointment Providence had marked out for me. Yet it was in many respects far from suitable. It is indeed accounted a genteel em­ployment, and is usually very profitable, though to me it did not prove so, the Lord seeing that a large increase of wealth would no be good for me. However, I considered myself as a sort of jailer or turnkey, and I was sometimes shocked with an employment that was perpetually conversant with chains, bolts, and shackles.’