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John Newton — quotes

The slave-ship captain who wrote “Amazing Grace” left three kinds of words behind: his hymns, his own testimony (An Authentic Narrative, 1764), and sayings his friends recorded. Each quote below says exactly which it is — and the testimony behind them all is one click away.

On grace

“Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound) That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.”

— John Newton, Olney Hymns (1779)

“John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy.”

— John Newton, the epitaph he composed for himself

On growth

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be, I am not what I hope to be; but, by the grace of God, I am not what I was.”

— John Newton, a saying recorded by his contemporaries — not from his Narrative, and honestly labeled as such; versions of the wording vary in the early records

Every quote above is from An Authentic Narrative — read it in context.

Read the full testimony · clean edition $1.99 → · free source

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T.S. Baker — testimonies in their own words, free sources linked.