John Newton's Letters
The propriety of a ministerial address to the unconverted
Sir,
In a late conversation, you desired my thoughts concerning a scriptural and
consistent manner of addressing the consciences of unawakened sinners in the
course of your ministry. It is a point on which many eminent ministers have
been, and are, not a little divided; and it therefore becomes me to propose
my sentiments with modesty and caution, so far as I am constrained to differ
from any from whom in general I would be glad to learn.
Some think, that it is sufficient to preach the great
truths of the word of God in their hearing; to set forth the utterly ruined
and helpless state of fallen man by nature, and the appointed method of
salvation by grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; and then to
leave the application entirely to the agency of the Holy Spirit, who alone
can enlighten the dark understandings of sinners, and enable them to
receive, in a due manner, the doctrines either of the Law or the Gospel. And
they apprehend, that all exhortations, arguments, and motives, addressed to
those who are supposed to be still under the influence of the carnal mind,
are inconsistent with the principles of free grace, and the acknowledged
inability of such people to perform any spiritual acts; and that, therefore,
the preachers, who, avowing the doctrines of free grace, do notwithstanding
plead and expostulate with sinners, usually contradict themselves, and
retract in their application, what they had labored to establish in the
course of their sermons.
There are others, who, though they would be extremely
unwilling to derogate from the free grace and sovereign power of God in the
great work of conversion, or in the least degree to encourage the mistaken
notion which every unconverted person has of his own power; yet think it
their duty to deal with sinners as rational and moral agents: and as such,
besides declaring the counsel of God in a doctrinal way, to warn them by the
terrors of the Lord, and to beseech them by his tender mercies, that they
receive not the grace of God, in a preached Gospel, in vain. Nor can it be
denied, but that some of them, when deeply, affected with the worth of
souls, and the solemn importance of eternal things, have sometimes, in the
warmth of their hearts, dropped unguarded expressions, and such as have been
justly liable to censure.
If we were to decide to which of these different methods
of preaching the preference is due, by the discernible effects of each, it
will perhaps appear in fact, without making any invidious comparisons, that
those ministers whom the Lord has honored with the greatest success in
awakening and converting sinners, have generally been led to adopt the more
popular way of exhortation and address; while they who have been studiously
careful to avoid any direct application to sinners, as unnecessary and
improper, if they have not been altogether without seals to their ministry,
yet their labors have been more owned in building up those who have already
received the knowledge of the truth, than in adding to their number.
Now, as "he who wins souls is wise," and as every
faithful laborer has a warm desire of being instrumental in raising the dead
in sin to a life of righteousness, this seems at least a presumptive
argument in favor of those, who, besides stating the doctrines of the
Gospel, endeavor, by earnest persuasions and expostulations, to impress them
upon the hearts of their hearers, and entreat and warn them to consider "how
they shall escape, if they neglect so great salvation." For it is not easy
to conceive, that the Lord should most signally bear testimony in favor of
that mode of preaching which is least consistent with the truth, and with
itself.
But, not to insist on this, nor to rest the cause on the
authority or examples of men, the best of whom are imperfect and fallible,
let us consult the Scriptures, which, as they furnish us with the whole
subject-matter of our ministry, so they afford us perfect precepts and
patterns for its due and orderly dispensation. With respect to the subject
of our inquiry, the examples of our Lord Christ, and of his authorized
ministers, the Apostles, are both our rule and our warrant. The Lord Jesus
was the great preacher of free grace, "who spoke as never any man spoke;"
and his ministry, while it provided relief for the weary and heavy laden,
was eminently designed to stain the pride of all human glory. He knew what
was in man, and declared, that "none could come unto him, unless drawn and
taught of God;" John 6:44-46. And yet he often speaks to sinners in terms
which, if they were not known to be his, might perhaps be censured as
inconsistent and legal; John 6:27; Luke 13:24-27; John 12:35. It appears,
both from the context and the tenor of these passages, that they were
immediately spoken, not to his disciples, but to the multitude.
The Apostles copied from their Lord: they taught that we
have no sufficiency of ourselves, even to think a good thought; and that "it
is not of him who wills, or of him who runs, but of God, who shows mercy,"
yet they plainly called upon sinners (and that before they had given evident
signs that they were pricked to the heart, as Act. 2:37), "to repent, and to
turn from their vanities to the living God;" Act. 3:19, and Acts 14:15, and
Acts 17:30. Peter's advice to Simon Magus is very full and express to this
point; for though he perceived him to be "in the very gall of bitterness,
and in the bond of iniquity," he exhorted him "to repent, and to pray, if
perhaps the thought of his heart might be forgiven." It may be presumed,
that we cannot have stronger evidence that any of our hearers are in a
carnal and unconverted state, than Peter had in the case of Simon Magus; and
therefore there seems no sufficient reason why we should hesitate to follow
the Apostle's example.
You have been told, that repentance and faith are
spiritual acts, for the performance of which a principle of spiritual life
is absolutely necessary; and that, therefore, to exhort an unregenerate
sinner to repent or believe, must be as vain and fruitless as to call a dead
person out of his grave. To this it may be answered, that we might
cheerfully and confidently undertake even to call the dead out of their
graves—if we had the command and promise of God to warrant the attempt; for
then we might expect his power would accompany our word.
The vision of Ezekiel, chapter thirty seven, may be fitly
accommodated to illustrate both the difficulties and the encouragement of a
Gospel minister. The deplorable state of many of our hearers may often
remind us of the Lord's question to the Prophet, "Can these dry bones live?"
Our resource, like that of the Prophet, is entirely in the sovereignty,
grace, and power of the Lord: "O Lord, you know: impossible as it is to us,
it is easy for you to raise them unto life: therefore we renounce our own
reasoning; and though we see that they are dead, we call upon them at your
bidding, as if they were alive, and say, O you dry bones, hear the word
of the Lord! The means is our part, the power is yours, and to you be
all the praise." The dry bones could not hear the Prophet; but while he
spoke, the Lord caused breath to enter into them, and they lived; but the
word was spoken to them, considered as dry and dead.
It is true, the Lord can, and I hope he often does, make
that preaching effectual to the conversion of sinners, wherein little is
said expressly to them, only the truths of the Gospel are declared in their
hearing. But he, who knows the frame of the human heart, has provided us
with a variety of topics which have a moral suitableness to engage the
faculties, affections, and consciences of sinners—so far at least as to
leave themselves condemned if they persist in their sins, and by which he
often effects the purposes of his grace; though none of the means of grace
by which he ordinarily works, can produce a real change in the heart, unless
they are accompanied with the efficacious power of his Spirit. Should we
admit, that an unconverted person is not a proper subject of ministerial
exhortation, because he has no power in himself to comply, the just
consequence of this position would perhaps extend too far, even to prove the
impropriety of all exhortation universally: for when we invite the weary and
heavy laden to come to Jesus, that they may find rest; when we call upon
backsliders to remember from whence they are fallen, to "repent, and to do
their first works;" yes, when we exhort believers to "walk worthy of God,
who has called them to his kingdom and glory:" in each of these cases, we
press them to acts for which they have no inherent power of their own; and,
unless the Lord the Spirit is pleased to apply the word to their hearts, we
do but speak into the air; and our endeavors can have no more effect in
these instances, than if we were to say to a dead body, "Arise, and walk!"
For an exertion of Divine power is no less necessary to the healing of a
wounded conscience, than to the breaking of a hard heart; and
only he who has begun the good work of grace, is able either to
revive or to maintain it.
Though sinners are destitute of spiritual life, they are
not therefore mere machines. They have a power to do many things, which they
may be called upon to exert. They are capable of considering their ways:
they know they are mortal; and the bulk of them are persuaded in their
consciences, that after death there is an appointed judgment. They are not
under an inevitable necessity of living in known and gross sins; that they
do so, is not for lack of power, but for lack of will. The most profane
swearer can refrain from his oaths, while in the presence of a person whom
he fears, and to whom he knows it would be displeasing. Let a drunkard see
poison put into his liquor, and it may stand by him untasted from morning to
night. And many would be deterred from sins to which they are greatly
addicted, by the presence of a child, though they have no fear of God before
their eyes.
They have a power likewise of attending upon the means of
grace; and though the Lord alone can give them true faith and evangelical
repentance, there seems no impropriety to invite them, upon the ground of
the Gospel promises, to seek to him who is exalted to bestow these
blessings, and who is able to do that for them, which they cannot do for
themselves; and who has said, "Him who comes unto me, I will in never cast
out." Perhaps it will not be easily proved, that entreaties, arguments,
warnings, formed upon these general principles, which are in the main
agreeable and adequate to the remaining light of natural conscience, are at
all inconsistent with those doctrines which ascribe the whole of a sinner's
salvation, from first to last, to the free sovereign grace of God.
We should undoubtedly endeavor to maintain a consistency
in our preaching; but unless we keep the plan and manner of the Scripture
constantly in view, and attend to every part of it, a design of
consistency may fetter our sentiments, and greatly preclude our
usefulness. We need not wish to be more consistent than the inspired
writers, nor be afraid of speaking as they have spoken before us. We may
easily perplex ourselves and our hearers, by acute reasoning on the nature
of human liberty, and the Divine agency on the hearts of men; but such
disquisition's are better avoided. We shall, perhaps, never have full
satisfaction on these subjects, until we arrive in the world of light. In
the mean time, the path of duty, the good old way, lies plainly before us.
If, when you are in the pulpit, the Lord favors you with
a lively sense of the greatness of the trust, and the worth of the souls
committed to your charge, and fills your heart with his constraining love,
many little curious distinctions, which amused you at other times, will be
forgotten. Your soul will go forth with your words; and while your
affections yearn over poor sinners, you will not hesitate a moment, whether
you ought to warn them of their danger or not. That great champion of free
grace, Dr. Owen, has a very solemn address to sinners; the running title to
which is, "Exhortations unto believing." It is in his Exposition of the
130th Psalm, from p. 242 to p. 247, which I recommend to your attentive
consideration.